ESETT PD Wiki – AnalysisDDIE
Analysis
Who are your users?
The wiki would be created for use during a week of professional development right before the beginning of the school year. The professional development is for middle school science teachers who are part of a grant called ESETT (Enhancing Science Education Through Technology). All of the teachers have a good deal of familiarity with technology, but are more familiar with computer applications than web applications (with the exception of Moodle) that are 2.0ish. They frequently use the Moodle, Office Suite, ComicLife, Inspiration, iLife, the web, etc.
What do you want them to be able to do as a result of using your web site?
I want them to be able to do the following:
- Have a personal page where they will share some of the ways that they integrated technology into their curriculum that were most effective at getting student’s brains to work at a higher level. They could post video, images, etc. (These personal pages will be perused by others in order to nominate individuals for awards such as Rookie of the Year, King/Queen of Moodle, The Adventurer, etc.)
- A place for group reflection on breakout sessions. (Each break out session will have it’s own page in the wiki. This is where the agenda will be posted with all of the resources, but groups will also work together to edit a page that offers suggestions on how the topic covered in the break out session could be useful to 6th, 7th, or 8th grade science. Maybe instead of having a separate page, I will use PB wiki and have teachers post comments to the page. How could it help raise the bar in student thinking and achievement?
- The wiki front page will have an agenda for the week and link to useful resources.
What have others done that is similar?
I have been to trainings and presentations where the wiki was used as the presentation tool and also as a resource for teachers in the training. For example, Will Richardson uses his wiki for presentations and provides links to all of the resources he will use in his presentation. Also, I have seen Mark Wagner do something similar in a training on PowerPoint. But in both of these cases, I don’t think that participants were expected to contribute to the wiki. In the wiki for our professional development, teachers would be participants in making the wiki meaningful.
What performance drivers might prevent them from learning with this tool? (skills/knowledge, motivation, environment, incentive)
Skills/Knoweldge – Although teachers are pretty tech savvy, wikis will be new to most of them. However, since most of them are familiar with editing in Moodle, the interface will be similar. Navigation will be the main problem. I will need to make sure that the navigation bar is clear and will probably need to have links back to pages built into pages they navigate to.
Motivation – Motivation is often difficult in professional development. Teachers are often full from all that they are responsible for and busy with. They don’t need more poured in (especially if it is perceived as irrelevant or unhelpful with what they are concerned with). I think that motivation will be enhanced given that the wiki will add another element of participation and activity to our PD.
Environment – I don’t think there should be any problem here. We will be meeting in our brand new Edtech Offices that have an excellent set up for both hard wiring and wireless in the training room. The teachers wil bring their own computers, and if they forget, they can borrow one from the department.
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