To continue developing my problem of practice, I spent some time this week incubating and brainstorming solutions. Since my last blog post I have further refined my PoP to specifically address the issue of low attendance at technology PD sessions.
My intentional incubation exercise began with 15 minutes of thinking about my problem, followed by 30 or so minutes of distraction in which I read a book and didn't explicitly think about my problem. I then returned to the task and was able to answer some of the questions that arose during my initial brainstorm.
See my notes from the exercise bellow...
Part 1: My Idea Notes
When are teachers free?
-before/after school
-lunch/recess
-Free periods
Staff and faculty have different schedules
Assistants may have different tech needs than lead teachers because they follow the class to specials and have to work with students in technology class
Are their schedules different than lead teachers?
Offer PD multiple times throughout day/week?
Scheduled drop-in tech time each week?
Should we incentivize attending?
-Food
-Pay assistants their hourly sub rate
Should there be a PD requirement?
Just for teachers or for everyone? Maybe one session per trimester?
Part 2: My Post-incubation Addendum
I don’t think we should make tech PD required. No one will want to be there if it’s a requirement, and the goal is enrichment and exposure, not meeting a quota of PD hours.
Incentives:
-Having food is a good incentive-- do this
-Paying people wouldn’t work, but what about entering everyone’s name into a drawing for a gift card or something? Maybe once per trimester?
-What if we had levels of “certification” and PD requirements for each?
I’m seeing that there are three different groups of users, each with slightly different tech needs:
-Lead teachers/specialists-- most are well-versed in basic Mac/Google Apps stuff, so they might benefit more from exposure to new apps/extensions/tools they can teach with (like FlipGrid or Pear Deck)
-Assistant teachers-- they seem to need most help with Mac/Google stuff. We briefly go over it when they are hired, but don’t revisit it unless they explicitly ask for help. We should schedule more time during orientation for tech training and offer refresher lessons on this regularly.
-Staff (business office, admissions, facilities, advancement)-- I don’t really know what their needs are. They are very good at reaching out to the tech team when they need help with something. I could interview each department and see what their needs/wants are.
Scheduling: I think we need a mix of regularly scheduled meeting times (like a drop-in time each week at the tech office) and sessions on specific topics at various times of the day so more people can attend. Maybe offer the same topic during lunch and after school on the same day.
-I don’t have a set lunch time, so I could teach the same workshop twice in one lunch/recess block. That way teachers who have duties could still come.
Advertising: we haven’t advertised our PD very well! We’ve sent out interest forms and reminder emails, but it could be more engaging.
Part 3: My Reflection
The work-incubate-revisit strategy is something that I do frequently, mainly because I am easily distracted. This was probably the first time I let an idea incubate intentionally, and it was very fruitful! I feel like I had more clarity when I returned to my problem, and was able to get more specific about some ideas I had been toying with. Instead of just asking more questions, I felt I was able to answer some of my previous questions.
In the future I would include some out-loud brainstorming with a friend. I feel like I come up with new ideas whenever I try to explain a problem I’m working on to someone else. Working through it aloud usually helps me gain some clarity and forces me to be less vague than when I am just working through something mentally.
After the incubation lab, I spent some time ideating. I kept an incubation journal for a few days, in which I wrote down any ideas or thoughts relating to my PoP as they occurred.
I then brainstormed solutions with a friend in order to get an outside perspective on my problem. This was a very useful exercise to get ideas out in the open without judgement and then refine/evaluate them later!
I was excited to see that group brainstorming was part of this assignment, since I just mentioned wanting to do it in the Unit 4 lab! Thinking out loud helps me concretize my thoughts, and it’s always useful to hear other perspectives on a problem I’ve been focused on. I wanted to brainstorm this problem with someone who wasn’t connected to it because I thought they would be able to approach it objectively. I brainstormed with a friend who had some great suggestions, including better advertising to increase attendance and inviting teachers to lead workshops about tech tools they enjoy using.
My incubation journal strayed a bit from my PoP and became more focused on what to teach in my PD. The most useful note I wrote down mentions my school’s Wellness Committee, which holds events and challenges throughout the year. They get a lot of participation, so I could examine the strategies they have been using and try to apply them to my problem (these strategies include food and rewards for participation).
Moving forward, I know I need to focus on better advertising the PD and making sure it’s accessible (in terms of scheduling) and relevant to my users.
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