The intent of the conferences is to support teachers with educational technology integration in a timely fashion. Our first June conference, in June of 2015, provided training for Dedham Middle School teachers to support the 1:1 Chromebook implementation starting fall of 2015. The next conference, held in June of 2016, provided continued support for the Dedham Middle School 1:1 initiative as well as for the introduction of Chromebooks to the 9th grade at Dedham High School in the fall of 2016. The latest conference, held June 2017, expanded to all teachers in the district because in the fall of 2017, we provided Chromebooks to all staff members and to all students grades 3-12.

Rationale: Using survey feedback as a guide, we wanted to deliver a conference where people had choice, time to learn, and time to create. This particular conference was the best combination, produced the best outcomes, had the most positive impact, and received the most positive feedback.

Characteristics: This conference had prework, conference work, and post work. The participants could attend for one or two days and could choose the workshop they wanted to attend.

Pros: The instructors were teachers, librarians, and instructional coaches, including some who were Google certified educators. The the instructors brought both unique perspective and experience to the table. The instructors were from all levels in the district, so there was a broad spectrum of experience shared.

Cons: There weren't any cons to this conference structure.

Struggles: The struggles revolved around ensuring that the communication about expectations before, during and after the conference was clear. Since so much was being done virtually, including the planning, having clear instructions and communication was critical to success. A particular challenge was monitoring the completion of post-conference work in a timely manner. This required that I follow up with the instructors and that the work was received promptly to complete the conference cycle.

Rewards: Staff members still acknowledge the benefit they received from this conference saying, "I created this lesson during the conference" or "I learned how to do this during the conference." In addition, because the conference was attended by staff from the entire district, new relationships were formed, and information and experience was shared.

Rationale: The Superintendent asked us to create a professional development conference for middle school and high school teachers with the intention of providing sustained training and growth with the current 1:1 initiatives. Chromebook training needed to expand to the high school since the incoming 9th grade class would be transitioning from iPads to Chromebooks during the 2016-2017 school year.

Characteristics: This conference had prework using Google Classroom so that the teachers had a baseline foundation of knowledge. In addition, we wanted to have the teachers experience Google Classroom from a student's perspective, so they had a better understanding of the interface.

Pros: The teachers all gained specific knowledge in areas that we determined were essential. Teachers had the opportunity to experience exemplar sessions created by Dedham teachers. Teachers had time to work on curriculum in their content area.

Cons: Redundancy of knowledge. Some teachers may have had previous knowledge of some content.

Struggles: Creating clear directions and expectations with instructors and participants.

Rewards: Increased capacity for District employees. Empowered educators through sharing their experiences in their own content area.

SAMR Exemplars

Conference Product Samples

In the fall of 2014, Middle School Principal, Debbie Gately and Technology Director, Don Langenhorst established a Middle School 1:1 Study Group. The intent of the group was to formalize the ongoing discussion of the expansion of the successful 1:1 improvement initiative at the high school and to examine the various components of this possible culture change and improvement initiative at the middle school.

The overriding issue of this initiative was improving student learning including setting learning goals and success measures. Tentative proposed goals included equity in technology use in school and at home, support for writing and peer editing, creating productive digital citizens, managing distractions, students taking responsibility for their own learning, and engaging students with real world content.

The study group conducted three school visits to schools which had implemented 1:1 initiatives including Curtis Middle School in Sudbury and Westwood High School. As a result, in the fall of 2015, Dedham Middle School implemented the 1:1 Chromebook initiative.

Rationale: To better serve the staff, we arranged for educators from the Sudbury school district to spend the first day of the two day conference sharing their resources and best practices with our staff. The second day was spent learning about two new products, Hapara and the Epson interactive whiteboards, that were onboarded as part of the 1:1 Chromebook implementation along with group work focused on key topics and curriculum development using educational technology.

Characteristics: We brought in teachers from Sudbury Public Schools to train our teachers during the first day of training. Teachers were able to gain resources and information from the Sudbury teachers who had recently implemented a 1:1 in their middle school.

Pros: It was great to have information shared from an experienced school.

Cons: We could have used more time since we had covered so many topics in a two day period.

Struggles: Given this was our first technology conference, t was a struggle to determine the schedule and pack so much information into two days.

Rewards: It was a pleasure working with the Sudbury teachers. This PD really got the middle school off to a great start with the 1:1 Chromebook initiative starting in the fall. The conference gave the teachers some time to prepare themselves for the transition to Chromebooks so they felt more comfortable and ready as they moved into the next school year.