If you\u2019re a teacher today, you know that technology is moving into every part of the educational experience. Whether you\u2019ve been teaching for a long time without digital tools, or you were an early adopter, the fact is that keeping up with educational technology can require considerable time and effort.<\/p>\n
Capella University recently began offering free professional development courses in edtech for teachers. Jane Spencer-Mills, a Japanese language teacher at Mills High School in Millbrae, CA, has taken a course, and she shares what makes it different\u2014and more valuable\u2014than others she\u2019s taken in the past.<\/p>\n
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Spencer-Mills notes that it\u2019s standard for teachers to be told to \u201ctake as many courses as you can so you can move up on the pay scale.\u201d But she feels there should be a different motivation when approaching professional development, especially when it comes to education technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to learn not just for my own sake, not just to move up the pay scale, but to learn new ways to help my students learn, and help them enjoy that process,\u201d she says. \u201cThe course was set up to support that motivation\u2014allowing me to evaluate how well I knew something, and how well I could teach it to others.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In the case of technology, there\u2019s an imperative to continue to keep up. \u201cTechnology is like a box of fractals,\u201d Spencer-Mills says. \u201cOnce you open it, they all go off in a bunch of different directions. Trying to put a large group of people into a tech class and assume they\u2019re all at the same level and will progress at the same pace, that\u2019s not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where she found Capella\u2019s approach to be particularly successful. \u201cI really liked Capella\u2019s option for self-checking,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can work at your own pace, and you can pause partway through to see if you\u2019re really grasping the concepts rather than continuing to the end and discovering too late that you didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-checks are something I hope to do with my own students,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
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Another aspect of Capella\u2019s professional development courses that Spencer-Mills appreciated was that the course could act as foundational work towards an advanced degree. \u201cI liked that I was building units to do a master\u2019s, even though I\u2019m not currently planning on going for that degree,\u201d she says. \u201cBut knowing that the course could lead to that, it upped the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
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If you\u2019re looking into edtech-focused professional development courses, Spencer-Mills has some tips for you. \u201cLook for the course deliverables,\u201d she advises. \u201cIs there direct application to your work? You want a course that tells you, \u2018At the end of this course you will be able to\u2026\u2019 Theoretical is fine, but direct application is what\u2019s really valuable. And that\u2019s what I found at Capella.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had more personal advice on the subject as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake a course on a topic new to you,\u201d she recommends. \u201cThen you\u2019re experiencing the process of learning from the other side of the desk, like your students do. It makes you remember the first time you approached learning something new. Otherwise you can get stuck in a teaching rut. If we\u2019re telling kids to be lifelong learners, we have to walk the walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
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