Affordable, accessible expert professional development downlinked across Pennsylvania

Tapping into a super fast intranet with expert researchers engaging hundreds of teachers across Pennsylvania in “real time” professional development, the International Reading Association (IRA) and PAIUnet, as the high-speed network is called, are partnering on a new e-learning venture that is growing more successful with each session.

Brian Griffith, director of curriculum services for the Capital Area Intermediate Unit (CAIU), and Barbara Marinak, IRA author and an assistant profes-sor of reading at Penn State Harrisburg, got the project rolling while brainstorming about professional development for CAIU based on IRA’s Essential Readings Series. The popular series of affordable books on topics such as assessment, comprehension, and vocabulary contains readings selected and introduced by expert researchers.

The idea to offer the PD sessions grew quickly beyond one intermediate unit—one of the 29 regional educational service agencies that provide cost-efficient programs to Pennsylvania’s public school districts, private schools, and public libraries. IUs also serve as liaisons between the 501 school districts and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“What a great opportunity this offers,” Griffith said. “And in a broader sense, more and more this is how professional development might look in the fu-ture.”

Marinak, Linda Gambrell, and Jacquelynn Malloy presented the first session from their collected Essential Readings on Motivation.

“We didn’t mind being the guinea pigs to work out any technological issues,” Marinak said, adding that she believed motivation was the right topic to start off the series.

The first session was offered in September, “broadcast” from CAIU in Enola, Pennsylvania, and downlinked to three other sites. Some 60 participants were able to see the high-definition video stream. Presenters can see the participants at all the downlink sites in a matrix of screens, and can interact with the audience at each site through sophisticated voice-activated software.

Michael Graves, who did the second session, said he thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and that the feedback he got from teachers has been good. Griffith said Graves did a great job of actively engaging the participants, especially by discussing ahead of time what he wanted to accomplish with curricu-lum specialists at each downlink site and providing them his facilitator’s guide on vocabulary instruction. In addition to the curriculum coordinator at each site, a technical specialist is there so presenters can focus on the message, not how it is transmitted.

Griffith, who also is co-chair of the PAIU Curriculum Coordinators, said each time a session is offered, they learn how to improve the next one.

For instance, at first, if a PowerPoint presentation was onscreen, the audiences—except the live, host-site audience—couldn’t see the presenters. The issue was resolved by using two screens, a large overhead screen and a large-screen television. “We are learning our way through,” Griffith said.

Pennsylvania has roughly 150,000 teachers in elementary, middle and high school. According to the state’s Act 48 requirement, teachers must earn 6 collegiate credits or 180 continuing education hours in a five-year period. Each five-hour Essential Readings Series session counts for five hours, a good value for the $50 each session costs. The fee includes registration, a copy of the book being discussed at that session, any presenter handouts, and a light lunch.

Griffith said they are trying to get to a PD model to use statewide and even to share with other states that are interested. The next session will be “live” at the Luzerne IU facility in Kingston—and then downlinked to seven to 10 additional sites.

The idea is to make the series accessible, affordable, and within an easy drive for all who want to attend. Most sites can accommodate about 50 peo-ple at a time, so about 500–600 statewide could participate.

About 200 people registered for the session on fluency with Timothy Rasinski on January 20, and 200 have already signed up for the one February 24 on struggling learners with Richard Allington, Griffith said.

Graves, who said he’d never presented in this fashion before, found “It really did not present any unique problems. I try to go at a reasonable pace, in-clude some humor, and include some things for teachers to do in any in-service I do these days, and that seemed to work here much as it works in ses-sions that are solely face to face.”

That’s a testament to the partnership’s successful approach.

Already, IRA and PAIUnet are looking to the future for more opportunities to work together to provide new professional development in this high-tech format, so stay tuned.

Upcoming sessions

• Essential Readings on Struggling Learners, Richard Allington, February 24
• Essential Readings on Comprehension, Diane Lapp and Douglas Fisher, March 11
• Essential Readings on Assessment, Peter Afflerbach, May 17

IRA and PAIUnet partner in e-learning venture (February/March 2011). Reading Today 28(4), 3.