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RUNNING HEAD: SCREENCAST PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ENGAGING TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

Screencast Professional Development for Engaging Technology Tools

Laura J. Williams

July 13, 2017

Dr. Kathy Shields

Fall 2015

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SCREENCAST PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ENGAGING TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

Capstone Report

Capstone Experience and Results

The capstone project of Screencast Professional Development for Engaging Technology

Tools was beneficial in numerous ways. It provided teachers with the ability to access

professional development at their own time and pace. There were many things that were

needed and altered to complete this project. Though the screencasts creation and some focus

groups were held in the first semester of the two thousand sixteen school year, most of the

actual capstone work took place in the spring semester.

Table 1.

Actual Rollout with Participants Month Project Item/Activity, or Evaluation Item July 2016

August 2016

December 2016

January 2017

February 2017

Creation of Screencasts

Meet with participants

Meet with participants

Professional Development for Screencast project

Editing Screencast after meeting up

First focus group

Screencast for Google Forms and Docs, Seesaw, and Weebly

Teacher check-in

Screencasts editing

Focus group

Screencast for Plickers, Weebly, and Kahoot

Teacher check-in

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Screencasts editing

March 2017

April 2017

May 2017

Beginning of the month focus group

End of the month focus group

Teacher check-in

Screencasts editing

Beginning of the month focus group

End of the month focus group

Teacher check-in

Screencast editing

Focus group

Teacher check-in

Screencast editing

Post survey

The change was due to the Fulton County roll out of Personalized Learning. This

initiative was designed to help guide teachers and staff in the tools they would need to develop

more student-directed learning environments. The designs and professional development

behind the Personalized Learning movement was based on student’s diverse learning needs

that lead to higher achievement. Part of the roll out was to place each school in a cohort within

the county and then work with each school’s Personalized Learning team to develop a plan of

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action. For this reason, our timeline for the Personalized Learning rollout was pushed back by

the county therefore, this capstone project was also postponed until spring semester. The

timing and success of this capstone was led by the Personalized Learning initiative in our school.

The integrity of the capstone was kept in place with the idea of the screencast videos

utilized for professional development. However, after the first focus group for this project, it

was determined to alter a few of the resources. For example, with the county’s push for using

Office 365, teachers felt as though the need for Google Classroom had diminished. Instead,

Google Docs and Google Forms were the only interest teachers had in that area. It was also

determined with the purchase of a county wide license for Seesaw, that one of the professional

developments should be used for this resource. Seesaw replaced Quizziz.com as teachers felt

that Kahoot.com and Plickers would be utilized more.

Besides the timeline and resources being altered, the social media was no longer going

to serve as an artifact. The percentage of Hembree Springs teachers using Twitter accounts for

educational purposes was extremely low. Instead, a bulletin board was used to show classroom

usage and tips for the resources. Staff meetings were also used to promote the resources.

I felt with these changes, the screencast project was tailored more to the needs of

Hembree Springs ES. The entire project took place with a specific group of teachers, but all

teachers were invited to check out the resources. Utilizing results from the Pre-Assessment,

the screencasts were tailored to address time constraints on teachers as well as resources that

were necessary. According to the Pre-Assessment, about 72% of the teachers felt comfortable

enough with Weebly (See Appendix A). For this reason, the focus on Weebly went to the

smaller details of creation. For example, using drop down menus and adding videos to websites

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was a focus (See Appendix B). Since Plickers was only acknowledged by fourteen percent of the

group, this resource was focused on basic set up and implementation. After the first focus

group and Pre-Assessment the level of differentiation needed for the Screencasts were going to

vary due to many factors. For this reason, the bulk of the time was spent on creating and then

amending the screencasts.

The majority of the project took place in the creation of the screencasts. There were

components that were needed by the teachers that had not been considered at first and were

amended as the project continued. For example, other professional development outside of

the screencasts were needed for the Plickers to be utilized. The cards that needed to be

printed took some practice with students to utilize especially in the slower grades. This mainly

took place during the time we met for our focus groups to allow for collaboration. During the

focus groups, many things were analyzed. Of these items, the following emerged for each

resource. Plickers was a great resource for a pre-assessment or to use with the Brainpop.com

quizzes. It was also utilized to identify misconceptions in social studies and science content

areas. Google Forms were a great resource for the classrooms that had iPads as a resource.

This also led to another professional development of using QR Codes for center rotations to

utilize Google Forms easily. Google Docs were addressed as more appropriate for grades 3-5 as

the younger students were still working on word processing techniques in the classroom. It was

discussed that with the roll out of Personalized Learning, teachers felt more prepared having

these resources available to them to carry out the initiatives associated with personalized

learning with validity in their classrooms. Since engagement was a key factor in this capstone,

every focus group addressed the student’s engagement. As we continued on with the

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semester, I was able to observe teachers using the resources presented. Many teachers

commented on the time that it takes to implement, but that in the end, it was better

engagement for their students. As one teacher said, “I feel as though all of this is great and has

helped, but I am still needing to build time in my lesson plans to attempt this” (Personal

Communication, 2017).

After giving the Screencasting Project Post-Assessment, the results concluded the that

overall project was a success in using new tools for engagement. With participants’ level of

comfort in using a student response system that was not paper/pencil increasing by almost

twenty-nine percent, the overall theme of getting teachers to feel confident about

implementing the resources is evident. When asked what the preferred method of professional

development was now that the capstone was complete, seventy-one percent of the group

reported wanting more blended learning and twenty-nine percent reported the screencast

method. Independent learning is more ideal to adult learners. This supports the claim that

Staples, Pugach, & Himes’ (2015) make in their article about technology and that teachers feel

technology integration and professional development need to take place simultaneously. With

the last focus group of this project, many pieces were considered for adult learning. Teachers

were asked what part they felt was the most beneficial to them and they unanimously stated

that having access to the professional development when they wanted and needed it was key

to their implementation in their classrooms. Teachers also felt that having the ability to also

refer back to the screencasts when needed was key. Through focus group discussion teachers

noted that professional development that takes place after school or during planning was

pointless at times due to the one size fits all, full faculty trainings. It was also noted that in this

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project, they enjoyed the ability to pick and choose which resources would beneficial to their

students.

The work completed in this capstone will continue as teachers have asked to make this

available for them again in the next school year. There is a need for a better method of housing

the videos as the website has been removed due to a school assignment change. The plan is to

make a free site available with all videos as well as continue to screencast as new resources

become available.

Discussion and Reflection

Addressing the barriers of time, screencasts were implemented to help give back the

planning time of teachers. In Kopcha’s (2012) article, it is addresses the barriers of technology

being the lack of time, resources, and training to integrate technology usage in the classroom.

This project addressed those topics and determined that educators need their time in the

school buildings to be valuable to the direct work done in the classroom. Time was needed to

complete report cards, parent conferences, data collection, etc. Professional development

after school was difficult with the haul of the long day on the teacher’s shoulders. One more

thing could not be digested. The idea behind the project came in reflection as when they best

ideas are seen and planned. Most teachers use time after the work day either in the evenings

or weekends to search for new strategies. They also use informal collaboration with their

peers. Teacher leadership was key in implementation of this project. My disposition included

that I had to be passionate about the content that was being presented for the educators to

feel the importance. This disposition addressed the standard 5.2 Professional Learning where

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modeling principles of adult learning and promoting best practices was vital to support the

important work in this capstone project. I also needed to be able to take back the feedback

from focus group times and enhance the learning needed for the educators in this group.

Through the entire project, standard 3.2 Managing Digital Tools and Resources was a key skill

needed as was a technology-based professional development. The digital tools and resources

needed to be relevant and easily accessible.

The success of this project would never have happened without the facilitation of

standard 5.1 Needs Assessment; candidate conduct needs assessment to determine school-

wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses to inform the content

and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs. It was through this needs

assessment that the required resources were determined and organized for the project’s

successful implementation. The needs assessment was also a must in supporting the

confidence needed by the teachers to succeed in using the resources. In Lui’s (2013) article it

takes a look at the instructional strategies of the elementary teachers and how they are using

collaborative professional development to really provide the teachers the confidence to

reorganize how they are implementing in their classroom.

When reflecting on how this project would have gone had a lacked the knowledge, skills,

and/or dispositions needed to make is successful, I do not see the educators getting the support

they would need. I had to truly believe in this and be excited to learn from others through this

process. The educators I worked with needed to feel supported through many different forms

of communication as well. Some would text me while others would stop in my classroom to

run an idea by me. Through all of this, I never acted as though I did not have the time for them,

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even if I was inundated with my own work load. The success of this project was priority for me,

but beyond that, success for our students and staff was the most important. It is the same

story we see all of the time with professional development. Sit and learn, go and do, and then

cross your fingers that it works. The support during and after are rarely there. I wanted to

exemplify my knowledge and skills in the area of technology integration for engagement with

the teachers I had committed to leading. My advice would be the same to anyone attempting

to lead a group in a new tool or resource. You have to listen to the feedback and make changes

as you go through a project with the educators. I learned so much about adult learners

throughout the implementation of this project and I was able to guide myself in the direction

needed to not only make it successful, but also make the teachers feel as though I was in their

corner. I truly believed that I was able to really master standard 5.2 Professional Learning

through my ability and knowledge of promoting best practices in teaching, learning, and

assessment.

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References

Kopcha, T. J. (2012). Teachers' perceptions of the barriers to technology integration and

practices with technology under situated professional development. Computers &

Education, 591109-1121. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2012.05.014

Liu, S. (2013). Exploring the instructional strategies of elementary school teachers then

developing technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge via a collaborative

professional development program. International Education Studies, 6(11), 58-68.

Staples, A., Pugach, M. C., & Himes, D. (2005). Rethinking the technology integration challenge:

Cases from three urban elementary schools. Journal Of Research On Technology In

Education (International Society For Technology In Education),37(3), 285-311.

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Appendices

Appendix A

Post-Survey Results

Appendix B

Dropdown Menus from Weebly

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