In the school setting, I feel that the main performance problem among teachers is getting their students to be successful on state tests. Our district is providing access to PD360 which is an online professional development site that offers on demand professional development 24 hours a day on a wide variety of topics. While that is an instructional solution to the problem, the district could tie some non instructional incentives in with it. By monitoring the use of the site, administration could reward employees for completing a certain amount of staff development programs.
Dictionary.com gives the following as their definition of EPSS: A system that provides electronic task guidance and support to the user at the moment of need. EPSS can provide application help, reference information, guided instructions and/or tutorials, subject matter expert advice and hints on how to perform a task more efficiently. An EPSS can combine various technologies to present the desired information. The information can be in the form of text, graphical displays, sound, and video presentations. I like this definition because it gives information about what it is, what it can do, and what form it can be in. I think that EPSS has not been widely used widely because it would be very time-consuming and costly to set one up for each individual business. I do not think that they will become more prevalent in the future because the internet is so easily accessible now by the majority of the people. With the major search engines available on the internet, a person can find solutions to almost any problem they run in to. Why would a company spend money to develop an EPSS when the information can be found on the internet for free? I found the following YouTube video that explains EPSS and is very informative.
As a teacher, one of the main problems that my co-workers have is using the online grade book. Right now, their solution to the problem is sending either the PEIMS clerk or myself an instant message and expecting us to drop what we are currently doing, for me it is usually teaching my class, and come help them solve their problem. By having a knowledge management system in place, the other teachers could access the information system on their computer and troubleshoot their problem. There would still be times when a more blended approach would be needed and a person would be needed to assist the other teachers. Initially the teachers would have to be trained on the use of the knowledge management system. Overall, I think that it would be very beneficial to the entire district to have a knowledge management system in place.
There are many examples of informal learning that I have been exposed to in my adult life. I have been on trips to London and Paris where I have visited famous landmarks and museums to satisfy my own curiosity. I have taken part in online professional development just because it was an area that I was interested in. I have read many books on topics such as behavior just to see if I can improve the everyday operations of my classroom. Friday I received a newsletter from TCEA and one of the sections in the newsletter said that PlayScience, is looking for help from first and second grade teachers with the development of an online database of literacy skills content from The Electric Company. I filled out the survey and was accepted into the program. I will spend the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas incorporating their content into my literacy lessons and allowing my students to engage in the activities using my interactive whiteboard. I will also spend time each week chatting online with others that were accepted into the program. What better way to learn informally than by getting to play with their content that is appropriate for the students in my classroom. I expect the experience to be very engaging. I have gone to the website and looked around and it is full of videos, songs, and worksheets that are geared for six to nine year olds. The role that I will be playing will be that of a user of the product to see if it something that other first grade teachers will want to use in their classroom. I do not expect there to be a teacher since this is being done by a company. There will probably be a facilitator to keep the discussions going. I think this will be a very interesting way to informally learn about the content database provided by PlayScience.
No comments:
Post a Comment