Training for 21st Century Teaching in Higher Ed

Introduction

The beginning of the Professional English course coincided with the start of new curriculum development in my department. I was able to approach this change from an administrative as well as a teaching perspective. The course focused on developing first-year university students’ professional English. I was able to integrate some of the techniques and tools I learned about in the MIT program at FHSU to make the students’ learning experience more student-centered and active. I was apprehensive but excited to act as a guide to staff throughout this process. As both an educator and administrator I looked to the ISTE Standards as a means to describe and measure the integration of technology throughout this process.

ISTE Standards

One of my goals was to integrate technology and support faculty throughout the process. To this end, the ISTE standard that is the most applicable currently was (ISTE.C.2.b., 2017). The integrations that I planned, relied heavily on Google applications, and happened at the classroom level. I created video tutorials hosted in a Youtube channel that teachers can access as need arises. I also led several face-to-face training sessions to encourage teachers to share in my vision, as well as troubleshoot any issues they were having implementing these tools. These methods allowed me to model “learner-centered instructional strategies” that were based on the research completed in the MIT program and met the “diverse needs of the students”. This standard also helped me support faculty, encouraging those more reluctant staff members that integrating these tools has real merit for English language learners and are not beyond their ability to master.

Needs

Currently, I serve as the credit coordinator and an assistant professor in the English language department. First year university students are taught two semesters of academic English classes. Recently, the department steering committee rebranded these English classes to professional English, with an emphasis on the English language skills needed to succeed in the workplace. The responsibility to plan a curriculum that met the expectations of the steering committee, the needs of the students, and the professional standards of the teaching staff fell to me. Due to my recent studies in the MIT program at Fort Hays and my belief in the importance of technology integration to make learning active and engaging for both learner and teacher, I proposed a blended learning approach utilizing Google apps. I outlined a task-based approach incorporating digital student portfolios that encourages students’ language acquisition as well as the development of 21st century skills needed to succeed in the workplace. Therefore, there is a need to present this curriculum with prototypes, maps, tutorials and syllabi to support teaching staff and students to ensure a smooth start to the semester.

Goals and objectives

The learners in this project are both the professors teaching the new curriculum as well as the students progressing through it, so there was a need to prepare multimedia materials to support both groups who may have been unfamiliar with the relevant technology. The professors needed to understand the objectives of the course, how the online and face-to-face components of the course were related, and how to setup and manage the online portion of the course. The students needed to know how to participate in the online portion of the course and the teachers need to feel confident helping them.

Resources Needed

The online portion of this course utilized Google communities and students worked in groups to build mock companies using Google sites. They also created videos advertising products, and making personal statements. All these were shared on the Google community using links to Youtube or their Google drive. I created a prototype of this Google community and invited professors in order for them to familiarize themselves with the curriculum and how the technology supports it. Within the community professors could find curriculum maps using Google sheets, sample syllabi as Google docs, and tutorial videos created with Camtasia 8 and hosted on Youtube. Finally, I opened new channels on the department's Slack account for discussion and immediate support.

Sustainability in the project

To ensure that the video tutorials will be focused and meet the needs of both faculty and students I created scripts, recorded and edited the audio using Audacity, and then made the screencast while listening to the audio. All of these files were saved and can be edited at a later date if more information is needed in the video or if the process changes and needs to be described in a different way. Finally these files were uploaded to departmental Youtube playlists and shared in the Google community described above.

Outcomes

I was able to get a sense of whether the goals I had laid out were met at the face-to-face training session that was held for staff prior to the start of the semester as well as the survey given at the end of the semester. I was also able to determine the success of the training program by the response of students and staff throughout the semester and the need for subsequent training sessions with staff. Although, some staff members balked at the level of technology integration I suggested and the shift to active learning it entailed, the majority of professors were open minded and enjoyed the new program. There were legitimate criticisms of the course layout and course objectives that informed the second iteration of the course, but the staff felt supported by the face-to-face sessions and online training materials.

References

ISTE Standards for Coaches, (2017). Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-coaches

ISTE Standards for Educators, (2017). Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators