Holy Heck Hangouts on Air is Happening.

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Yep, today I am going to be talking about another venue that I use to deliver Tech professional development (PD) to my teachers, Google Hangouts on Air (HOA).

I can’t say enough good things about Hangouts on Air. It’s easy to use, allows you to have an unlimited number of viewers, viewers don’t have to have a Google Plus account, and if your viewers do have a G+ account they can even submit questions in realtime to the presenters. Oh, did I mention that HOA also records your transmission and stores it on Youtube so that if someone misses the PD they can watch it whenever they want! CLICK HERE to see our first HOA.

So what are PUSD’s Tech Tuesdays? They are an hour long technology PD on any technology topic that applies to our district. Teachers can participate in the PD three different ways:

1. They can signup to view it in person here at our office. Yes, we record with a live audience!
2. They can view the PD live remotely via our Google Plus event page. While the event is being broadcasted our remote viewers are able to submit questions, give thumbs up (and down), and applause to the presenter(s).
3. After the PD is over HOA records the entire broadcast and posts it to our YouTube account where we can go back and edit the video and repost it for anyone who would like to watch the PD later.

As of right now it is just myself and my colleague Harmony doing all of the presenting, but I have built a Google Form that is live and as soon as I open it up people can sign up to present on tech that they are using in their classrooms.

Recommendations

1. Test, test, test, and then test one more time before going live with a HOA PD. Our first broadcast went off perfectly, but we had practice a lot before going live. Our second Tech Tuesday wasn’t so lucky. We had a feedback loop that caused a really annoying echo, which leads us to the next point.
2. Have a second (or fourth in our case) computer setup that is running as a remote viewer so that you can test the audio that your audience is hearing. Don’t forget the earphones!
3. Get yourself a good microphone. Nobody wants to listen to a baseless tinie voice for an entire PD.
4. Make your lower-third in the toolkit. They just look cool and up the production value.

Pitfalls, Premonitions, Pluses, of All Staff PDs

If you don’t have time to read the backstory, or if you already know it, you can skip down to the “good stuff” below “The Pluses”.

Well, it has finally happened, we have just finished out final Phase 1 Training. It only took us nearly an entire school year to accomplish this task, but our final school has finished their Phase 1 PD and has been trained on the basics of the Chromebook and Google Apps. Does this amazing fear mean that they, the teachers, understand what Google apps are and will begin to integrate the technology available to them into their classrooms, not necessarily.

I am sad to say it, but at some point in the year I began to feel that the entire staff PD model really wasn’t producing the results that I was hoping for when I designed them. In my district there are only two instructional technology coaches for over one thousand employees, so in an effort to train everyone on the basics of Chromebooks and Google Apps, I designed a large-scale PD that was to be given to every school site at the all staff meetings that occur every other Monday. It seemed like a good idea and for the smaller schools it was, however at the sites that had more than 30 staff members we could not differentiate enough to meet everyone’s needs and get through all the content in one hour.

Seeing this problem we created an online calendar where the staff of PUSD could book 1:1 time or small group time with us, the technology coaches. This took our somewhat effective PD and made it much more effective. We were able to raise awareness and get people excited about technology in the large meetings and then support them in their efforts to implement it.  

The Pluses

1. All-staff-large-scale PDs help ensure that everyone is on the same page and aware of district technology policies. ( I really wish this could have been accomplished quicker)
2. These PDs raised the teachers awareness of the technology available for the classroom.
3. It got the teachers excited to see some of the things they could accomplish using tech.
4. By having the PD be a top down push made everyone aware of how important tech integration is becoming.
   

Pitfalls

1. Don’t cover too much. Your goal should be to get the teachers who are on the fence about tech to make the jump to use it. If you go too fast or cover too much they may never give it a try. CLICK HERE to see what we covered. (A tiny bit too much)
2. Don’t worry about your tech proficient people. This PD is not made for them, they are already integrating. If you put in stuff for them you might scare away the less tech savvy teachers.
3. Don’t forget to provide your teachers with some sort of support. This PD is more propaganda than true PD. It only becomes really effective once they start to book time with you, the coach.

Premonitions

I have a feeling that the president of these large scale PDs has been set and although they did some good I think that they turned some people off of the idea of using tech in their classrooms. We are having to work twice as hard to reach those teachers now. What is really working for us now is word of mouth from the teachers that have booked time with us. I also fear that some teachers will expect to receive all their tech PD this way and it may cause issues with some of the asynchronous learning opportunities we are starting to roll out.

Summary

Do I think they were worth it, oh-yeah! I think the negatives I talked about were for small a small population of the teachers we reached with the PDs. We have seen SO MUCH growth in the use of tech in our district this year, it has been an awesome ride. I can’t wait to roll out the stuff we have planned for next year! (read the later blog entries for more details)