Because technology is dynamic, our understanding of the most effective and responsive means to connect with students must be as dynamic. Ongoing professional development, then, is a central component to effective online teaching.
Learning: My @ONE skills have made me an asset to my department and my college. As our college moves into remote learning, I have been training colleagues on Canvas and sharing the most useful online tools. In 2020 I launched our department's first-ever fully online editing course. I have also become an active participant in social media conversations with other educators from across the country.
In 2018 I decided to continue the studies I started with @ONE in a doctorate program at San Francisco State University, 30 years after I started my MA program there. I also regularly attend OTC and SxSwEDU and have presented at both. In addition, I participate in online webinars, such as the January 2020 Equity Summit.
In March 2020 I was featured in Michelle Pacansky-Brock's webinar on Humanizing Online Learning and in April 2020 was interviewed for Sheldon Eakin's Leading Equity podcast.More than ever, I see myself as a lifelong learner.
Reflection: I found @ONE in a period of transition in my teaching career, denied a full-time position after 3 attempts. To my delight, what I found in the @ONE community of learners was not only an opportunity to update my skills and expand into online teaching, but also to meet some of the kindest, most creative, most encouraging colleagues ever. Their training and the support has given me a fresh perspective on my teaching.
After taking a series of @ONE classes, I became more engaged with professional development opportunities, attending and presenting at local workshops and at state-wide, national, and international conferences. As my confidence in my own teaching expanded, I became bolder, more innovative, more empathetic and more responsive to my students.
Into the Future: With our current pandemic and the abrupt switch to remote learning, it is clear that there is a need for the training, support, and ongoing professional development of our colleagues as they learn online tools as well as the best online pedagogy to promote excellence in our students. There is an enormous need, in particular, for ESL Online training, and I am eager to share what I know, supporting teachers as they make this transition.
Examples: Below are other examples of how I am committing to lifelong learning.
Here are 2 video proposals my colleague/friend Denise Maduli-Williams and I submitted to SxSw EDU in Austin. We used many of the tools we had learned in our @ONE training to design these video and connect with our SxSwEDU colleagues.
I have used many of the digital tools I learned in my @ONE classes to make presentations in my EDD classes, including Adobe Spark, Haiku Deck, Google Slides, youtube captioning, and Screen Cast-o-matic.
Just hover on each Adobe Spark page and scroll on it to see its contents.
I have used clips to create daily videos to communicate with my students from conferences. I then assembled all of these video messages plus my sketch notes, photos, and other conference links on Adobe Spark pages as a record of what I learned. I have shared these pages with colleagues who were unable to attend the conferences.
I have been involved with organizing @ONE's Digital Learning Day and CanInnovate on my campus. I have presented at Digital Learning Day and at the annual Online Teaching Conference. On campus I shared with my colleagues how I use Adobe Spark and also presented @ONE's offerings.