Professional Development Plan
I am currently working on a second masters degree in an MSED Information Technology Program. I also teach adult English language learners full time, so everything I learn in this program I have an opportunity to try out in the classroom. The successes and failures will be recorded in the pages of this website.
After finishing the masters program, I intend to start work in a doctoral program. The evolution of my professional life will be mirrored in the development of this website.
My professional development plan is tied in closely with ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS: http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS). These standards have been carefully developed by leaders in Education since 1996 and are the definitive standards in the field.
Over the next few years I will be working toward learning about, becoming technically proficient at, developing, and implementing a greater variety of choices for my students in learning through technology. This will be especially difficult to make specific plans concerning because technology is constantly developing and changing in unexpected ways.
The key to staying on top of technological advances and innovative uses thereof is to aggregate and read RSS feeds of technology news stories (Google News - Technology section is a good starting point) and blogs by educators such as Kathy Schrock (http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/) who are known for their innovative use of technology in education. I use Google Reader to aggregate my RSS feeds (A sampling of articles in my RSS feed can be found at the bottom of this page). I will continue to read items in my feed at least once a week. When I come across new innovations in the application of new technologies in education I will test them out in my classes. Results will often appear in these pages.
Another key is to assign projects and homework in such a way as to encourage students to bring their own experiences and knowledge of emerging technologies into their studies. One way of encouraging this is to give students a menu of choices for all projects and homework assignments. The wider the range of choices, the wider the possibilities for innovation. When students are encouraged to make innovative use of emerging technologies, it not only provides them with new means of approaching their learning, but also helps teachers find out about technologies they would otherwise have been unaware of. Many of the technologies I use today were brought to my attention by students using them in their projects and presentations. I know that this aspect of my professional development plan is working if every term I introduce at least one new emerging technology into my lesson plans.