So YES, I Need Some EdTech Training, But Where to Find It?

~ estimated 15-minute read ~

In my last blog post, I wrote about the importance of teachers making EdTech PD a regular part of their career plan since education has changed towards Tech since the Pandemic. If you missed the post, “Why EdTech PD is a Necessary Part of Teaching after the Pandemic?”, check it out here! I talk about seven reasons how the Pandemic has changed the atmosphere, platform, and education expectations of students, parents, and administrators. EdTech is no longer an option; it’s how we deliver, teach, and assess post-Pandemic. And the way it shows up is different for each teacher due to school and district expectations and the way it is planned to incorporate online learning, platforms such as LMSs, and accessibility for students and parents.

In this post, I’ll give you some tips and tricks that will make your self-chosen and initiated EdTech PD in your career something you look forward to, and gets you excited as well as those higher teacher evaluation scores!

First, you should begin where you are at with Tech. Where you are at means your prior training with EdTech, your prior experience, and your integrations of tech inside your teaching, student learning, and assessment. All those factors are what creates the comfort zone teachers have when using and infusing tech into their content and classroom.

In last week’s blog post, I offered a FREE EdTech PD Checklist for teachers to self-assess their EdTech knowledge, skills, and proficiency to bring structure and a planner timeline for your EdTech PD. You can grab that EdTech PD Checklist at the link below:

https://engage.edtechenergy.org/edtech-skills-checklist

🧐 I highly recommend that teachers choose their EdTech PD with the following considerations in mind:

· What are YOU interested in learning?

· What connects well with your content?

· What is aligned to your instructional style and strategies?

· What is appropriate for your grade-level of students?

· What is your experience with EdTech?

· What kinds of EdTech have you used in the past that gave you and your students top results?

· What skills do you want to build in your students?

· What engages your students?

· What SPEAKS to you and gets you excited to learn?

· Where do you want to save time?

· What kind of data do you want to collect and consider in making data-driven decisions?

· Are there any department, school, administrator, or district initiatives that they EdTech training would help you follow and contribute?

· What hardware is in your classroom?

· What software is already installed on your and your student’s devices?

· What is the ratio of devices to students? For example, are you a 1-to-1 Tech Classroom, one device for each student?

· What is your students’ comfort zone around using technology in the classroom?

· What IEP accommodations do you include in your instruction, student learning, and assessment?

· What 504 accommodations do you include in your instruction, student learning, and assessment?

· Are you co-teaching with another teacher who would also need to complete the EdTech PD training?

· Will you be learning independently, or will your grade-level or department take the EdTech PD training as a group? Many times, there is a discounted price for a group of teachers to train.

· What are your district’s guidelines around self-initiated professional development?
· What do you need to get credit for licensure from your school district?

You should consider these questions, so you select an EdTech PD training that not only fits your schedule and interest, but also is easy to implement because of hardware and software, as well as check off some other boxes that you need to think about and do in your teaching position.

Let’s use the EdTech PD Checklist as a first step to steer you to the most obvious EdTech PD training to build your EdTech know-how, proficiency, and confidence. There are 40 different EdTech Skills to self-assess in the Checklist. Complete the Teacher EdTech Checklist and take in where it is showing you should concentrate first.

Which EdTech Skills did you give yourself a lower rating?

LEARNING MANGEMENT SYSTEMS

· Learning Management System (LMS) Lesson Pages

· Learning Management System (LMS) Assignments

· Learning Management System (LMS) Online Discussions

· Learning Management System (LMS) Quizzes

· Learning Management System (LMS) Homepages

MICROSOFT

· Virtual Classes in Teams

· Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)

· Microsoft 365

· Flipgrid

· Thinglink

· Online Quizzes and Forms - MS Forms

GOOGLE

· Google Classroom

· Google Docs

· Online Quizzes and Forms - Google Forms

MEDIA LITERACY

· Copyright, Fair Use, Creative Commons, and Public Domain

· OER – Open Educational Resources

· Plagiarism Checking & Intellectual Property Instruction

MEDIA

· Graphic Design in Canva

· Screenshots & Photo-Editing

· Video Creation

· Podcast Creation

· Timeline Creation

· Infographic Creation

TEACHING TRENDS

· Flipped Classrooms

· Amazon Alexa

· Student Portfolios

· Organize Content Planning – Trello or Asana

· Social Media for Education

· Embedding HTML Code

· Creating Avatars, GIFs, and Caricatures

CONTENT CURRATION

· Wakelet

· Pearltrees

EdTech TOOLS

· Nearpod

· Kahoot

· EdPuzzle

· Socrative

· Mentimeter

· Newsela

· Adobe Spark

· PollEverywhere

MISCELLANEOUS TEACHER RESPONSIBILITIES

· Student Privacy

· Accessibility in Education

· Differentiation with EdTech

· Learning Analytics

These forty teacher EdTech Skills do not need to be all known well and developed. Choose your top three EdTech Skills you want to get better and improve to improve what you want to see in your classroom. All the following results are recorded to happen when using EdTech integration in the classroom. Which EdTech skills and integration work in a specific classroom are due to the teacher choosing the EdTech to use in the classroom given all the considerations listed above. 🧐

· Increase in student attentiveness

· Increase in student participation

· Increase in student engagement

· Increase in student buy-in

· Increase in student motivation

· Increase in student performance

· Increase in student mood

· Increase in student achievement

· Increase in student satisfaction

After you assess your EdTech skills, choose your top three EdTech Skills you want to expand on and develop a higher competency, confidence, and comfort zone within your classroom, peruse through the EdTech teacher professional development linked below for each of the 40 EdTech Teacher Skills.

Know that EdTech Teacher PD training comes in all shapes and sizes:

· Webinars (live or recorded), Online or in-person courses, Training sessions, Masterclasses, Memberships, Certification programs, masters’ level courses, school district training, MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) or other PD resources, like what professional development teachers may purchase on teacherspayteachers.com

· Online or Live

· Digital or Tangible (files, presentations, and materials)

· Individual PD training course or part of a pathway of learning

· Participation, Completion, Certificates, Credits, Micro-credentials, Professional Learning Units, Certifications, or Badges

· Free or Priced

Now, let’s check out some teacher professional development training that are available online.

LEARNING MANGEMENT SYSTEMS

· Canvas LMS

· Schoology LMS

· Google Classroom LMS

· Brightspace LMS

· Blackboard LMS

MICROSOFT

· Virtual Classes in Teams

· Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)

· Microsoft 365

· Microsoft Apps

· Flipgrid

· Thinglink or Thinglink videos

· Minecraft

· Online Quizzes and Forms - MS Forms

GOOGLE

· Google Apps

· Google Docs

· Online Quizzes and Forms - Google Forms

MEDIA LITERACY

· Copyright, Fair Use, Creative Commons, and Public Domain

· OER – Open Educational Resources

· Plagiarism Checking & Intellectual Property Instruction

MEDIA

· Graphic Design in Canva

· Screenshots & Photo-Editing with TechSmith SnagIt

· Video Creation with Loom

· Podcast Creation with Podomatic

· Timeline Creation with OfficeTimeline

· Infographic Creation with Vennage

TEACHING TRENDS

· Flipped Classrooms

· Amazon Alexa in the Classroom

· Student Portfolios with ClassDojo

· Organize Content Planning with Trello

· Social Media for Education

· Embedding HTML Code

· Creating Avatars, GIFs, and Caricatures

CONTENT CURRATION

· Wakelet

· Pearltrees

EdTech TOOLS

· Nearpod

· Kahoot

· EdPuzzle

· Socrative

· Mentimeter

· Newsela

· Adobe Spark

· PollEverywhere

MISCELLANEOUS TEACHER RESPONSIBILITIES

· Student Privacy

· Accessibility in Education

· Differentiation with EdTech

CERTIFICATIONS

· Nearpod Certified Educator

· Flipgrid Certified Educator

· Adobe Creative Educator

· Apple Teacher Certification

· Kahoot Certifications

· Distinguished Educator Program

· TextHelp Certification

· Book Creator Certified Author

· EdPuzzle Certifications

· Wakelet Certifications

· ISTE Certification

· Quality Matters Online Teaching Certification

· Screencastify Certifications

· edX course completion certifications

· MOOC for Educators completion certifications

EDTECHENERGY TEACHER PD OPPORTUNITIES

· EdTechEnergy Engagement is the Name of the Gain secondary teacher online PD course
o Next launch: January 2022 – Join the waitlist!

· EdTechEnergy Momentum EdTech Coaching membership

· EdTechEnergy TPT Online PD products

Since I began teaching 19 years ago, I’ve invested a lot of money in EdTech teacher professional training. The PD training, I have purchased, brought me the greatest returns and results in the classroom over the free EdTech PD training I completed. Some of the BEST teacher EdTech PD investments I made are:

· ISTE certification

· CCE (Canvas Certified Educator) certification

· Quality Matters Online Teaching certification

· Harvard EdX course

· Coaching Digital Learning MOOC-ed

In EdTech and teaching interviews, the above self-initiated and self-funded teacher EdTech PD trainings I invested my time, energy, and money into are the ones that got the most interest and attention from the principals and Deans in my interviews.

One digital student assessment that always gets high results for students and teachers is student video assessments. This month (November 2021) in my EdTechEnergy Momentum EdTech Coaching membership, the EdTech assets are about Student Video Creation Assessment. And to help teachers plan, design, create, deliver, implement, differentiate, and evaluate student video assessments.

The following resources are available to EdTechEnergy Momentum members in November 2021:

WEEK 1: Student Video Project (Summative) or Assignment (Formative) lesson in both audio and video formats (55:39 minutes)

WEEK 2: Step-by-Step Guide with screenshots on how to create a video using Microsoft PowerPoint

WEEK 3: Timesaving templates that provide teachers what they may use when assigning a video creation project or assignment to students

· High School Video Creation Rubric

· Middle School Video Creation Rubric

· Video Creation Time-management Timeline

· Video Creation Storyboard

· Media Licenses TASL Attribution Cheat Sheet

WEEK 4: Implementation Guidelines and Resources about Student Video Projects (Summative) or Assignments (Formative)

· Video Creation Assignment Blueprint

· Video Creation Peer Review Template

· Student Video Creation Reflection Template

If you are interested in joining the EdTechEnergy Momentum EdTech Coaching membership, click on the link below. The cost of membership is $15/month or $144/annually, saving you 20%.

Click here to join: https://edtechenergy.thinkific.com/courses/edtechenergy-momentum

Cancel anytime. Membership ends when the paid subscription time ends.

I’ve added the PD links above with the the EdTech PD Checklist for teachers to self-assess their EdTech knowledge, skills, and proficiency to bring structure and a planner timeline for your EdTech PD. You can grab that EdTech PD Checklist at the link below:

https://engage.edtechenergy.org/edtech-skills-checklist

Want to learn more? One way I aim to support teachers with technology inside activities and assessments is providing many different tried-and-true EdTech strategies, tutorials, templates, action plans, and a whole lot more in a 6-week (or at your own pace) online professional development course for secondary teachers.

My six-week course, Engagement is the Name of the Gain, provides your EVERYTHING to increase your students’ engagement to heights you’ve never seen before!

Step-by-Step Strategies! Templates! Action Plans!
Blueprints! Roadmaps! AND MORE!
Over 50 video lessons and tutorials!
Powerful Results while SAVING YOU TIME!!!

Engagement is the Name of the Gain
EdTech Secondary Teacher PD Online Course

Energize and Increase Student Engagement, Participation, & Achievement!

6-Week Course Dates!

Begins February 7, 2022, and ends March 20, 2022!
OR complete the course at your own pace!

👉 Learn more here!

Please comment below—What will be your next EdTech PD opportunity you plan to complete?

Share your ideas in the comments below. Or share them on social media and tag @EdTechenergy. I would love to read all your technology integration magic!

Next week’s blog topic: Is plagiarism happening in your classroom? I will give you some tips and tricks that will help you create a consciousness around intellectual property to prevent your students from committing plagiarism.

So YES, I Need Some EdTech Training, But Where to Find It?