Achieve your professional goals with customized professional learning.

Transcription

1 Professional Learning Services Achieve your professional goals with customized professional learning CATALOG

2 Overview Our services support both instructional and technical personnel and are designed based on the needs and delivery preferences unique to each district. We believe strongly in a partnership model that empowers the district to build internal competencies and capacity in both areas for our product. Our professional services are based on the following guiding principles: Participants must understand the rationale behind the use of the technology. Instructional model must drive the use of the platform not vice versa. Professional development must be ongoing and continuous, customized and personalized based on needs of the user. Leadership supports professional development through goal-setting and follow-up, helping to provide observations and feedback. As educators, we know that technology integration is not enough to transform schools. Instead, an entire learning environment is needed in which students, teachers, administrators and parents can easily communicate and collaborate with each other, share secure information around the clock, and ultimately, lead their own learning beyond classroom walls. What does it take to implement itslearning successfully? 1. Unified Experience All staff, parents, students, and administrators understand how to login and utilize the platform to maximize instructional benefits. 2. Support Building a team of experts who help teachers so that the focus remains on instruction and not managing the technology. 3. Commitment to Continuous Improvement Administration and staff must understand and be committed to the vision, as well as be willing to participant in ongoing professional development and collaboration efforts.

3 Competencies Level 1: Course Basics To master the basic functions of the itslearning platform, users will: Navigate the interface Customize personal settings Create and customize a course Add standards to a course Setup and utilize the planner Utilize the rich text editor and embed media Add participants to a course Level 2: Beyond the Basics Once users have successfully mastered the basic functions of the platform, they will begin to add content to their course. In Level 2, users will: Add resources effectively to a course, including files, links, pages, notes Add tasks effectively to a course, including tests, assignments, custom activities and surveys Add activities effectively to a course, including conferences, discussions, registrations, LTI links Customize the course dashboard Edit and activate/deactivate content P R I C I N G Our services are competencybased; therefore, a model is customized for each customer based on need and delivery preference. Onsite support is priced per day and may include consulting or training sessions. Remote support is priced per hour and may include the development and facilitation of training modules, webinars, virtual consulting and troubleshooting. Contact an itslearning representative for pricing. Level 3: Advanced Features The first two competency levels cover basic course creation and usage. It is in the advanced features that users will: Understand the flow between teacher, student and parent Learn how to grade and assess assignments Setup and utilize the grade book Explore and track standards mastery Setup and share criteria based assessments (rubrics) Use the library to search for and add content to a course Share content to a library Utilize the calendar 3

4 Competencies, Cont. Level 4: Personalization and Differentiation Once users have mastered the advanced features of the platform, they will explore how to use the platform for personalization and differentiation. Users will: Learn how to group participants for differentiation Explore permissions Investigate blogs, eportfolios and individual learning plans Incorporate strategies to maximize student engagement, collaboration, and creativity Level 5: Train the Trainer When users have successfully mastered the first four competency levels, they may take part in a train the trainer module. It is in this session that users will: Learn how to create master courses based on a template Train users within the itslearning platform Utilize itslearning resources for redelivery Explore administrative functions as it relates to mentoring and training new users Explore solutions and build capacity for successful user adoption and implementation Develop resources for successful use by students and parents Technical Administration Technical administrators are responsible for managing the back-end administrative aspects of the platform. There are two categories: 1. System Administrators: The system administrator(s) will determine global settings for the entire school or district. We will work with your system administrators to investigate back-end administrative aspects of the platform. Global settings such as assessment settings, profiles, hierarchies, permissions, etc. will also established for the site. 2. School Administrators: Local support personnel will learn how to manage assigned functions such as course and community administration, policy administration and updating school dashboards. This role is determined by functionalities granted by the system administrator. School administrators may include trainers, media specialists, instructional technology specialists, etc.

5 Media Rich and Interactive Our services blend online and face-t0-face instruction to optimize each participant s experience in a blended learning environment. We build media rich and interactive courses in your site, allowing your staff to easily access and reuse training materials. In addition, our online support portal contains free resources including user guides, video-based tutorials, release notes, best practices, ideas and a user forum.

6 Onsite Consulting As part of your implementation, a minimum of one day of onsite consulting is also recommended. An itslearning professional development specialist will be onsite to meet with various departments depending on the scope of the district s focus for the itslearning implementation. Departments may include curriculum, assessment and instructional technology, and the agenda is based on what the district feels are the most necessary topics for a successful implementation. Sample Agenda 8:00 am - 10:00 am Meet with itslearning project team for planning and a formal question and answer session. 10:00 am - 12:00 pm 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Strategic planning with the content supervisors and representative from curriculum department. Informal discussion during lunch with the instructional technology team and technical administrators. Visit classrooms and observe itslearning at work. Interview teachers and students to gather feedback and answer questions. 6

7 Specialty Packages In addition to competency-based modules, we also offer specialty services to meet the specific needs of your school or district. School Leadership Package This one-day session is for school and district administrators (principals, vice-principals, curriculum coaches, etc.) We recognize that it is important for leadership to develop and reinforce structures that identify, protect and celebrate instructional practices that are conducive to powerful personalized and blended learning. In this training, we look at how to utilize the platform for district and school productivity and accountability. Leaders will learn how to recognize the effective application of technology and utilize the platform to boost teacher and student achievement. Participants will: Build professional learning communities Create online/blended professional development modules Share resources and communicate with staff and parents Mentor teachers and create online professional learning plans Use eportfolios and blogs as a means of teacher assessment Access user reports and assess teacher effectiveness and platform usage Instructional Design and Delivery In this one-day session, participants will identify best practices for instructional design and delivery in personalized and blended learning environments. This session is designed for users who will be developing course content and instructional materials (instructional designers, curriculum coaches, and/or teachers.) Participants will: Identify pedagogical considerations for today s learning environments Apply course design principles to maximize higher-order thinking skills Tackle technical features specific to course design and template sharing from a district or school level Incorporate strategies that maximize student engagement, collaboration, and creativity Utilize the platform to create personal learning pathways and differentiate instruction Coaching and Mentoring Following initial training on the platform, our professional consultants will provide ongoing coaching, mentoring and support to assist teachers as they move from traditional teaching methods toward a personalized instructional approach. Our team will work with school level staff to guide them through the process of creating engaging learning experiences and personalized instruction for students via the itslearning platform.