Standard 6: Content Knowledge and Professional Growth. Technology coaches demonstrate professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions in content, pedagogical and technological areas as well as adult learning and leadership and are continuously deepening their knowledge and expertise.
For this standard, I participated in, and then evaluated the effectiveness of, two MOOCs. MOOCs are "massive online open courses" that are available to anyone with an internet connection. They are an online distance education tool for teachers and students to expand their knowledge on a variety of topics and subject areas. I participated in two MOOCs: Financial Literacy and Math in Sports. I then created a Prezi to present my experience and evaluation of the process. This exercise met standards 6a and 6c.
6a. States that coaches should engage in continual learning to deepen content and pedagogical knowledge in technology integration and current and emerging technologies necessary to effectively implement the Standards.
6c. Regularly evaluate and reflect on their professional practice and dispositions to improve and strengthen their ability to effectively model and facilitate technology enhanced learning experiences.
MOOCs are a relatively new technology tool for increasing knowledge. There are thousands (if not more) of MOOCs available, for free, to anyone with an internet connection. It is critical that I, as a technology coach, understand their benefits and limitations. Given our busy schedules as teachers, MOOCs are a very flexible way for us to learn new ideas. In addition, since they are free, they are easily accessible to us and our students.
Being a Coach: I am implementing this coaching standard through my collaborations with my colleagues in my school small learning community. Members of our small learning communities (we call them “houses”) meet approximately once per month. During those meetings, I am discussing the benefits of MOOCs as PD, and also for use with our students. For example, the Financial Literacy MOOC I reviewed provides an opportunity for our students to explore math concepts in “real world” setting. This is something we are always looking to help our students with, and the MOOC is a way they can do that.
6c. Regularly evaluate and reflect on their professional practice and dispositions to improve and strengthen their ability to effectively model and facilitate technology enhanced learning experiences.
MOOCs are a relatively new technology tool for increasing knowledge. There are thousands (if not more) of MOOCs available, for free, to anyone with an internet connection. It is critical that I, as a technology coach, understand their benefits and limitations. Given our busy schedules as teachers, MOOCs are a very flexible way for us to learn new ideas. In addition, since they are free, they are easily accessible to us and our students.
Being a Coach: I am implementing this coaching standard through my collaborations with my colleagues in my school small learning community. Members of our small learning communities (we call them “houses”) meet approximately once per month. During those meetings, I am discussing the benefits of MOOCs as PD, and also for use with our students. For example, the Financial Literacy MOOC I reviewed provides an opportunity for our students to explore math concepts in “real world” setting. This is something we are always looking to help our students with, and the MOOC is a way they can do that.
