Yesterday, I received a tweet from Lydia, a fellow Texas educator, about Scott Amdahl’s presentation on Moodle. As I reviewed his PPT online, I was struck by how similar our implementations are. Lydia described his workshop in this way:

This is the link to Scott Amdahl’s (Weslaco ISD) preso. They are using LOTI and PBS Teacherline courses, but they’re hosted on their own server, which allows them more flexibility with administration. He claims they are saving money (fewer subs and less expense in the time involved to create courses in-house) and getting a higher level of true integration. Classes are not considered complete until a product is submitted.

http://podcasts.wisd.us/groups/tcea2009/

So, in the interests of adding one more log on the fire of online professional learning for schools, here is what one urban school district is doing. The items in bold are the main agenda items for my Monday meeting with Professional Learning Office. As you read this, what would you add or consider implementing for the future?

1. Development tools the District has in place
   • Course Management System – Moodle
     • Embed video using Captivate, Camtasia, Jing
   • Blogs and Podcast Server
   • A pending initiative to provide every principal with an iPod Touch (find out more here)
2. Discuss ways to provide online training for a variety of discreet tasks that really don’t require face-to-face training.
   • What about using Captivate and/or Jing Pro to record content and put it online via a Moodle to track attendance? Here are some examples:
     • Special Education is using a Moodle to deliver a FERPA video with a quiz for 2009–2010.
     • Dyslexia Office is considering doing the same as Special Education with an RTI video.
     • Get a Blog Initiative – Involves providing every teacher with a blog. A print tutorial is available but so are short video tutorials (less than 5 mins each) and a online learning course is under development.
     • Blood-borne Pathogens – This is a course that is available for free from another District
     • Northside ISD’s Amanda Heffner has lots of experience and it would definitely be worth visiting her and her team to find out how they’re conducting online professional learning. They’re actually implementing TEA-mandated Health courses for every high school student! Wow!
3. Get up to date on what the district has done in the area of online professional learning.
   • Built capacity in terms of certifying staff as online facilitators, including the following folks in PBS TeacherLine Online Facilitator Training and/or Levels of Teaching Innovation (LOTI) Mentor Certification (list of staff omitted from this blog post)
   • TILT Program – The Technology Integration Lead Teacher (TILT) Program is in full swing with Cohort 3 in process. Cohort 3 has 20 teachers. Cohorts 4–6 are already scheduled and classes are full with a waiting list.
   • Find out more about TILT online
4. Online learning procedures
   • GT Credit is granted in collaboration with Advanced Academic Services
   • Courses currently offered online now are based on PBS TeacherLine courses, including:
     • Introduction to Online Learning (IOL) (6 hrs)
     • Tech310: The Classroom Computer as a Learning Station (30 hrs)
     • Tech340: Evaluating & Organizing Internet Resources and Content (30 hrs)
     • One more PBS TeacherLine course
   • Plans to add Atomic Learning content pending funding for 2009–2010
   • All courses are tracked via ePath to ensure adult learners add successful completion of an online course to their electronic transcript.
5. Prioritizing topics for possible online development
   • District needs assessment
   • Task analysis
   • Who can do what and when
6. What does the District need to do next?
   • For K-12 learners:
     • Certify teachers for the Texas Virtual Schools Network (TxVSN)
     • Seek to become a provider district and develop a plan for becoming a receiving district
   • For Adult Learners:
     • Attend and/or Present at iNACOL Conference in November, 2009 taking place in Austin, Texas
     • Investigate what other districts are doing to facilitate adult learning
     • Learn course design and develop plan for district-wide deployment of specific topics. Imagine using this in specific content areas to maximize the reach of content area teacher specialists or Human Resources to address compliance.

Some of the things that I would add would include:

• Video distribution – record best practices and share them online as part of an “edublogs.tv” or YouTube video site.

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