Training at CFAHS 1

Running Head: TRAINING AT CFAHS

Wiki and Blog Training at CFAHS

Dylan Dyer

July 16, 2010

University of Colorado Denver

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Background and Problem Statement

My name is Dylan Dyer and I am high school social studies teacher in

Englewood, Colorado. Currently, there is a strong push from our district to integrate

Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis and blogs, into the classroom in order to increase student

engagement and achievement. This is an excellent objective for our district to have, but

because of budget cutes and time constraints, there has been a lack of professional

development and training when it comes to using Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and blogs

for educational purposes.

In my school, we have an abundance of technology, including eMacs and

Netbooks, all for student use. These resources should be put to their fullest potential, and

with the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, there has never been an easier time to use them

than right now. However, there has been a lack of training and professional development

in these 21st century tools. Because of these reasons, I decided to assist teachers at my

school who want to learn how to effectively use Web 2.0 tools in their classroom,

specifically Wikispaces and blogs. I am excited that I have this opportunity because it

will allow my fellow staff members to gain more confidence with using technology in the

classroom and it will also help me establish myself as a technology leader within our

school.

I believe that it is extremely important that other teachers in my building are

effectively using technology and are capable of infusing innovative tools in their

classroom. Currently, most teachers are using computers in the traditional ways that they

have always been used. I believe that these teaching methods and strategies need to

change within my organization. My students desperately want to learn in new ways, and
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this responsibility lies with the teachers. I also believe that my staff wants to learn how

to use technology in the best way that they can. My coworkers need to be shown how to

use these tools and how they can benefit from them in their classrooms.

This situation has provided me with a perfect opportunity to organize a Web 2.0

training session for teachers that are interested in learning how to integrate new

technological tools into their curriculum. The need for change is present within my

organization and I believe that in order to facilitate these changes, an organized training

session that demonstrates how to use Web 2.0 tools, specifically Wikispaces and blogs,

will begin the change process in my school.

Project Description

Before I officially decided on the subject of my project I first spoke with my

administrators along with the technology teacher about what I was planning. I informed

them that I was interested in offering a training session on wikis and blogs and if teachers

wanted to attend it was completely at their discretion. I explained the goals of my project

and what I intended on accomplishing. All parties were excited about my plan and

encouraged me to move forward with the project.

Once I had received an approval from my administrators, I began speaking with

coworkers informally about their interest in Web 2.0 technologies and if they would be

interested in attending a training session that offered support with using wikis and blogs.

Through word of mouth, I discovered that there were several teachers that wanted to

learn how to use wikis and blogs to improve their instruction. From this strong show of

enthusiasm from teachers, I created an email list of interested participants and started the

planning process.
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I continued to speak informally with potential participants because it was crucial

that I understood what their needs were and where they stood in terms of technology

integration in their classroom. From these conversations, I began creating a prior/post

survey that measured my participant’s prior knowledge relating to wiki and blog use in

the classroom. This survey also served as a post survey to measure what my participants

learned through the training session. I created this survey using the online tool,

SurveyMonkey, and I distributed it via email. To view the prior/post knowledge survey

see table 1 in the appendix.

After I sent out the prior knowledge survey, I waited for my participants to

respond. I needed to collect and analyze the data in the survey so I had a good idea of

what kinds of information I needed to present. The survey gave me good insight into

what my participants needed and wanted as a result of the training session. After

analyzing and compiling my data, I was able to begin creating my instructional materials.

For my instructional materials, I created an informational presentation in Keynote

to introduce my participants to the goals of the session, a brief background and history of

Web 2.0, and an overall explanation of wikis and blogs. I also created a sample wiki and

blog site that I used to demonstrate how these tools work. Along with these tools, I

created short and targeted activities for my participants to familiarize themselves with

these tools. To view the instructional materials for the project see table 2 in the appendix.

Goals

My primary goal was to help my fellow coworkers understand that using Web 2.0

tools can be effective, relevant, fun and most importantly, easy, in their classrooms. By

working to achieve this goal, I also concentrated on addressing these additional goals:
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• Through the use of wiki and blog training, the participant teachers will be able to

create a wikispace and blog account

• Explain the purpose of wiki and blog tools and the advantages (peer collaboration,

easy access to resources, peer editing, etc.) of using them

• Create and design a wiki and a blog for classroom use

• Utilize the fundamental tools and basic set up of wikis and blogs

These goals were explained to my participants at the beginning of the training session so

they know what to expect throughout the training.

Constraints and Requirements

After speaking with my administrators and the technology teacher at my school, I

was given complete authority to construct my training session and do what was needed in

order to successfully complete the project. Fortunately, I did not encounter many

constraints. However, the one constraint I did encounter was time. It was very difficult

to schedule a time that worked for all of my participant teachers. I had to work very hard

sending emails and coordinating everyone’s schedule in order to find a training session

time that worked for everyone. In the end, the common time for everyone to meet was

the last week of the school year.

I was required to check in with my administrators about the dates that I selected

for the training to guarantee that the training would not conflict with anything else on the

school’s events calendar. Besides this requirement, I had the freedom to do what I

needed to do in order to complete my internship assignment.

My Role in Planning and Implementation

I believe that I am very fortunate because I work in a small school setting. This
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provided me with several advantages while conducting my internship project. Because of

the school that I am at, I was allowed to have a lot of freedom in the planning process and

I was able to make all of my decisions on my own. After consulting others for their

opinions, perspectives and expertise, I planned and implemented what I believed to be the

best action for my project.

I was responsible for scheduling training sessions, sending announcements to

participants, and independently leading the training. I created all the instructional

materials on my own and also created the prior/post survey. This was an individual

project where all responsibilities were mine.

Methods and Strategies for Change

Personally, I was very motivated and eager to convince my fellow coworkers that

they should all integrate wikis and blogs into their classroom and that these tools will

revolutionize the ways that they teach and their students learn. Prior to the training, I

naively envisioned all of the teachers immediately recognizing the benefits of these tools

and the advantages that they offered. However, this was not reality. As someone that

was promoting change, I knew that I should expect some caution and hesitation on the

part of my participating teachers. For this reason, I wanted to guarantee that the training

session was meaningful, relevant and organized and that I was prepared to answer

questions and provide my teachers with helpful resources if I was unable to answer their

questions.

I realized that some of my participating teachers were skeptical of these Web 2.0

tools and unaware of the benefits they offer. For this reason, I chose to open my session

with a background presentation on the history of Web 2.0 and on overview of wikis and
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blogs. This allowed me to clearly explain why these tools are popular in an educational

setting and the applications that they can offer teachers and students. I believe that by

providing my participating teachers with this knowledge at the beginning of the session,

they were more willing to learn how to use these tools and use them in their classroom.

After reviewing the prior knowledge surveys, I knew that my participant teachers

were all at different levels of understanding relating to wikis and blogs. Because of this

reason, I knew I had to move through the training material and a moderate pace to hold

and retain the interest of everyone.

After the training session was completed, I made it clear that I would be available

for the rest of the school year by appointment if any teacher wanted or needed further

assistance with their newly created wikis and/or blogs. I believe that by offering further

help and coaching with these tools will provide more opportunities for my coworkers to

become successful with using these technologies.

Schedule

For the most part, I was able to remain on schedule with my proposed schedule

for my internship project. See table 3 in the appendix to view the original schedule with

few modifications.

Research

The literature I reviewed helped me approach the change process in a constructive

way by understanding the best change tactics for any organization. I was able to use the

advice and guidance offered by different authors to assist me with my internship project.

All literature I came across clearly suggested that change was a difficult process for most

people and should be carefully planned with all things considered. It seems that change
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is such a difficult process for people to undergo for many reasons, but mainly, change is

difficult simply because it is hard (Prensky, 2008, 64). Because of this, I wanted to make

my training as simple and easy to understand as possible for my participating teachers. I

worked very hard to accommodate everyone’s scheduled and by sending out immediate

notifications about new developments with the project.

If the training were easy with few to no obstacles preventing my participant

teachers from attending, then it would be easier for me to accomplish my project goals.

One of those goals was to expose my coworkers to new technology. According to Butler

and Sellborm, new technologies will “spread by diffusion” and this is what I am hoping

will happen in my school (Butler & Sellborm, 2002, 22). The more teachers that have

been introduced to these technologies, the more common they will become throughout

the school, allowing students to be more familiar with them as well.

I was also encouraged by Ernst Mohr’s article, “Incremental Innovations”, to have

my training move at a moderate pace that wasn’t too slow or too fast for my participating

teachers. Mohr explains that if the change is “too drastic” than the opposition to change

will be higher (Mohr, 2007, 6). I worked to avoid the resistance to change on the part of

my participant teachers by maintaining a sensible pace throughout the session. I also

provide ample time for questions and work time so that the teachers could easily become

familiar with the tools I was presenting.

Project Outcome

From the informal verbal feedback from my coworkers along with the post

knowledge survey results, the wikis and blog training appears to have been a success in

many regards.
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After reviewing the post knowledge survey results, it is clear that there were many

positive outcomes from the training session. After the session, one hundred percent of

the participant teachers created a wiki and blog account. There was a clear knowledge

increase in every measured category on the survey. All participants increased their

knowledge of wikis and blogs by at least one knowledge category. This was extremely

encouraging because this means that now all of the teachers that participated in my

training at least have a “beginner” level knowledge of wikis and blogs. I believe that this

is crucial when creating change within your organization/school because now it will be so

much easier for change to take place, and disseminate throughout the entire organization.

Reflection

I believe that the work I completed for my internship project was very meaningful

and relevant and I was able to establish myself as a technology leader in my school. The

work that I completed last semester was important to me because it allowed me to apply

what I have learned in the ILT program to my work setting. This experience has given

me the confidence to be a technology leader in my organization and I want to continue

using my skills and knowledge the best ways I know how.

For these reason, I am excited for the upcoming school year and to see how my

coworkers change their instruction as a result of my training. I am also excited to see

how my students change as a result of my coworker’s new knowledge of Web 2.0 and

wikis and blogs. Finally, I am excited to see my entire organization change for the better

as these new technologies are effectively infused within all classrooms in my building.

I am looking forward to meeting with teachers next year and helping them

in any way I can with their wiki and blog accounts. I will be communicating with all of
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my participant teachers about their accounts and reminding them of simple and fun ways

to integrate them into their lessons.

References

1. Butler, D. L. , & Sellbom, M. (2002). Barriers to adopting

technology for teaching and learning. Educause Quarterly , 2,
22-28.

2. Mohr, E. (2007). Incremental innovations: changing the culture of

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teaching and learning . Educause Review, (September/October), 6-7.

3. Prensky, M. (2008). The Courage to change: guiding teachers to the

new paradigm . Educational Technology, (May/June), 64.

Appendix

Table 1. Prior/Post Knowledge Survey

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Table 2. Instructional Materials

Wikis Instructional Page: http://cfahs-staff.wikispaces.com/Wikis

Blogs Instructional Page: http://cfahs-staff.wikispaces.com/Blogs
KeyNote Presentation: PDF Format
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Table 3. Schedule

Week: Task to Complete: # Hours: Modifications

1. Write and submit Internship Project

Proposal 10 hours
2/1
2. Begin creating outline plan from project
requirements, steps and procedures
1. Research benefits of Web 2.0 tools,
2/8 5 hours
specifically wikis and blogs

1. Research benefits of Web 2.0 tools,

2/15 5 hours
specifically wikis and blogs
1. Research benefits of Web 2.0 tools,
specifically wikis and blogs
2. Begin building pre assessment
2/22 3 hours
survey/questionnaire for participating
teachers
a. Use SurveyMonkey.com
1. Finalize pre assessment survey
2. Begin creating training materials:
a. Training wiki and blog
b. Objectives to address
c. Background information on
benefits of using Web 2.0 tools for
3/1
instructional purposes 20 hours
d. How to create accounts
e. How to manage accounts
f. How to customize accounts
g. How to add content to accounts
h. How to moderate blog posts
i. How to publish/remove comments
3/8
1. Continues creating training materials 20 hours
1. Distribute pre assessment survey to I distributed
participating teachers the survey a
3/15
2. Review survey responses and adjust 10 hours couple weeks
instruction as needed after the
3. Continue creating traing materials proposed date
1. Schedule training times with participating
3/22 teachers.
5 hours
2. Continue creating training materials

3/29 1. Reschedule training sessions 5 hours This was

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unexpected and
due to busy
teacher
2. Continue creating training materials schedules and
other
unexpected
conflicts
This was
unexpected and
due to busy
4/5 1. Reschedule training sessions teacher
5 hours
2. Continue creating training materials schedules and
other
unexpected
conflicts
This was
unexpected and
due to busy
4/12-
1. Reschedule training sessions teacher
5/17 5 hours
2. Continue creating training materials schedules and
other
unexpected
conflicts
Finally
5/24 1. Complete training over wikis and blogs rescheduled for
10 hours
during this week the last week
of school
1. Distribute post assessment survey
5/31 10 hours
2. Review data from surveys
6/7-
1. Write final report 50 hours
7/12