EMT501 Action Plan

Current Situation
My educational institution has recently introduced a 1-1 iPad program in years 7-10. As a result of this, the College expects a much stronger focus on the use of ICT in the classroom to enhance our educational practices. Changing these educational practices is quite difficult in any educational setting and I would like to continue to take an active part in integrating ICT into the curriculum and to encourage others to do so as well. The College currently offers many opportunities to learn about and trial new educational technologies but more focus needs to take place within the subject departments that explores better ways to engage students and improve learnning outcomes through pedagogical change.

Ideal Situation
1. My priamry goal is to produce a unit of work that utilises the flipped classroom model and utilises a range of educational technologies to improve the engagement and learning outcomes of students. 2. I wish to share this work and knoweldge with other staff within the English department as a means of encouraging them to try this teaching model and some of the educational technologies that were used throughout the unit of work. A significant part of this goal is to model ICT integration and work collaboratively with other faculty members to assist them in integrating ICT into their practices.

Steps to success

Look through the current teaching programs for a unit of work that may be appropriate to implement the flipped classroom model. Once an appropriate unit of work has been identified, negotiate the possibility of implementing the flipped classroom for the topic with the associated staff. Revise the current level of ICT use in the unit of work. Look through the existing resources to obtain an idea of what educational technologies were used during the unit of work in previous years. Determine the ICT strenths and weaknesses of the department members who may be teaching the unit of work. Conduct some initial reseach and discussions with staff regarding the educational technologies they may wish to trial as part of this unit of work. Conduct further research on the different models of the flipped classroom. Negotiate which model other staff members may be willing to trial using as part of the unit of work. Develop a range of teaching and learning experiences that fit the flipped classroom model and effectively utilise educational technologies. This will require the creation and trialling of several different learning technologies that have not been employed by

the teachers in this institution previously. Produce, locate and deliver some professional development materials such as tutorials that may benefit the staff members taking part in the project. Implement the teaching programme according to the time allocated in the scope and sequence. During the teaching of the unit, review the ICT needs of both staff and students and proactively develop these ICT skills in the staff and students through direct instruction, peer tutoring, etc. Conduct a review of the unit assessing both student and staff reflections on the success of the unit of work.

Overall Completion Date

04 October 2013

SWOT analysis
Strengths There is support from the college executive to enhance the use of ICT in our classrooms. Thus trialing any new pedagogy should be supported by the College. The eLearning Coordinator is like-minded and will be able to provide support and assistance to me and the other staff in implementing any ICT integration. There are some staff within the department who see the value in changing some practices within the faculty and may be more willing to be involved in such a project, so I may need to target specific individuals. The formal structure of English Department faculty meetings may provide a good opportunity to share this experience with others and encourage them to trial the educational technologies used. Weaknesses There is resistance to change by older more senior members of the English department. So I would have to be cautious in selecting appropriate staff to become involved in the project. We have suffered significant change regarding technology use, adding to the workload may put people off-side. The recent implementation of the 1-1 iPad program coupled with the introduction of new learning management software takes up considerable time and may affect the willingness of others to learn skills additional to these. I have never developed a unit of work using the flipped classrrom model and may find this difficult. There is always an element of risk involved in trialling something new and people do not want to adversely affect the learning outcomes of their students or create more work for themselves.

Time is always an issue. Creating all new resources for a unit of work will take considerable time. While the unit of work is not new, teaching it under the flipped classroom model requires a significant refocus of all the resources and materials associated with the course. I am relying on other staff to learn new technologies. There are so many variables when dealing with the professional development of staff and this is heightened further when the stress of using technology is involved. I am relying on students to take more responsibilty for their learning in a school that is riddled with academic apathy. While there is significant evidence to suggest that educational technology can enhance the learning process, it will be difficult to overcome the initial apathy towards learning that many display. Opportunities Our college, like many in the state, is in the process of reviewing our teaching programs and resources in light of the imminent changes prompted by the implementation of the Australian Curriculum. As such, now is a good time to consider significant changes in content and pedagogy to enhannce learning. The College executive is very supportive of any pedagogical changes that use technology and may result in better student engagement. There a couple of professional development opportunities available in the coming weeks that may build on my knowledge and understanding of the flipped classroom model and curriculum delivery through effective use of ICT. The College's eLearning Coordinator needs to have a few projects like this succeed to further encourage others to use ICT in their classrooms. This being the case I may be able to get help with the professional development of other staff and the development of appropriate professional development materials to meet the growing needs of the staff and students involved. Threats The most significant threat will be people's fear of trying something new and the lack of time to discuss and develop ideas and knowledge fully. Without being able to step colleagues through areas of difficulty at their own pace, they may become frustrated and resistant to trying new educational practices. Time is such a crucial commodity in educational settings. Without adequate time being allocated to each phase of this plan, people will feel rushed and under-prepared which may create anxiety and anomosity towards the project. Much of what I am proposing is based on the premise that teachers want to better engage their students through more effective use of technology. I may find this is not actually the case. Much of the research in the area of ICT implementation states the likelyhood that teachers will fall back onto known teaching methods that revolve around a teacher-centerd

approach when others methods of curriculum delivery fail.

Supporting Resources
Books / journals Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching by Roblyer and Doering. Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 15. (Book) Jonathon Bergmann and Aaron Sams, Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day (Book) Matzen and Edmunds, Technology as a Catalyst for Change: The Role of Professional Development (Article) Web links http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ People The eLearning Coordinator may be able to offer guidance and assistance in regards to selecting appropriate educational technologies and to aid with the professional development of other staff. Training courses / workshops Materials collected from Edutech 2013 relate to ideas on the flipped classrrom model. Materials and resources available from ISTE 2013 conference may be helpful in locating and assessing educational technologies appropriate to this action plan. Electronic resources The Impact of Educational Technology on Student Achievement: What the Most Current Research Has to Say https://bookertdev.ito.lacoe.edu/funding_coordination/docs/impact_of_et.pdf iTunesU contains a number of resources relating to the Flipped Classroom Model such as, podcasts and iTunesU courses. These may be valuable in the professional develpment of colleagues and dtermining the most appropriate model for use in this instance.

Reflection
The success of this Action Plan needs to be measured on many levels. Anecdotally, I am interested in how well students complete their assessment task that is attached to the unit of work used for this project. Often the depth of responses in the students'

formal assessment task is a good indicator of the success of the teaching methodology. The better the range and depth of responses often indicates that students have engaged more deeply and widely with the content and ideas covered. Ultimately this project is about improving student engagement in the learning process so anecdotal evidence of this nature will be significant. Another anecdotal method of assessing the success of the action plan is through the observations by any staff who are willing to trial the flipped classroom model for the selected unit of work. If staff are able to observe noticable positive difference in the bahaviour and motivation of their students, this will serve as a good indicator for success. This success of the action plan can be measured once the unit of work has been taught and students complete a short online survey regarding their experiences. Students can answer questions on their learning experiences, their motivation levels, reflect on the depth of their understanding of content, effectiveness of ICT use, etc. If this is done using a Likert Scale, then quantative results can be produced and discussed by the stakholders in the process. Staff can contribute their thoughts and reflections on the unit through a more direct interview style debrief session. Their discussions will propbably focus on similar areas to that of the student survey and in addition, assess the success of the pedagogy behind the flipped classroom and possible uses in the future. All staff in the department will get the opportunity to ask questions and offer feedback when the unit of work is discussed during a faculty meeting. This should provide opportunities for all members of the faculty to discuss and assess the relevance of trialling this pedagogy in the future.

Items attached to this

Learning Objectives - Ranked

Description: This document ranks the 5 Learning Objectives associated with the first portion of the assessment task. Size: 255KB File: learning objectives 2.xps