Guest blog by Dr. Susan Kandianis, Supervisor of Educational Technology, Colonial Intermediate Unit 20
Twitter: @IU20EdTech
Leading the Way with Student-Led Professional Development
Need some assistance with integrating a new technology resource into your lesson design? Curious about the free resources to teach digital citizenship skills? Call in the Junior Technology Leaders to assist and lead your professional learning session!
What is a Junior Technology Leader?
A Junior Technology Leader is a student in Grades 4-7 within the Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 region. Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 (CIU 20) is one of 29 intermediate units throughout Pennsylvania. CIU20 provides services and programs to schools, educators, families and students within Northampton, Pike and Monroe counties, and one of these programs includes the Junior Technology Leaders!
The creation of the Junior Technology Leader program was a joint effort of the CIU 20 technology and professional learning departments. The program was born out of a passion for delivering quality teaching and learning experiences with technology as well as a strategy to help break down barriers to technology tools/resources and professional learning. Today’s learners are growing up with digital tools, so why not have them provide learning sessions for the classmates as well as for their teachers? The educational technology team planned the curriculum for the first year of the program, basing lessons on current resources available to member school districts within the CIU 20 catchment…..and we were ready to roll!
The program began in 2017 with a small group; five teams and 15 students. Initially, there was a registration fee for the program as we worked to get the program off the ground. A team consisted of the school district advisor and three students. With school district administrative support for the program, advisors attended each session at CIU 20 with their students, and provided support for students back at their home school to complete the lessons and/or facilitation of a professional learning session.
Valuable feedback was key during our first year. Feedback was provided by program advisors and students via surveys at the end of each season. The lessons for the program were tailored to meet the needs of our attending teams.
What Does Student-Led Professional Development Look Like?
Junior Technology Leaders return to their schools with the provided lessons and resources to provide professional learning experiences at their home school. The professional learning experiences may be delivered to their classmates, teachers, and administrators (depending on the school.)
Student-led professional development is not a new concept, but it seems to be one that is challenging to bring into the school schedule. As shared in Unconventional (Poth, 2019), “creating an opportunity for students to provide feedback to teachers about what strategies and tools help them learn best, and add their different ideas into the classroom, will help students to
feel more valued in the classroom and create a more meaningful experience” (p.97.) (Reading this section in Unconventional was actually the inspiration to write this blog. More on how students provide student-led professional development in my next blog. I only have 900 words!)
How Does the Program Help Break Down the Digital Design Divide?
Student technology leaders can also make an impact on their schools by helping bridge the Digital Use Divide. As shared in the newly released 2024 National Educational Technology Plan, the Digital Design Divide, is an “inequitable implementation of instructional tasks supported by technology. On one side of this divide are students who are asked to actively use technology in
their learning to analyze, build, produce, and create using digital tools, and on the other, students encountering instructional tasks where they are asked to use technology for passive assignment completion” (U.S. Department of Education, 2024, p.9.)
The work of the Junior Technology Leaders addresses the Digital Design Divide. Their work helps break down barriers by sharing lessons and resources they obtain through the face-to-face sessions and taking them back to their school to provide engaging learning experiences. In doing so, the schools within our catchment can work to ensure that “all students have transformative, active, creative, critically thoughtful experiences supported by technology” (U.S. Department of Education, 2024, p.10).
What’s Next for the Junior Technology Leaders Program?
We continue to grow our Junior Technology Program. With the support of grants, we have been able to purchase enough resources to support our lessons, and we now offer the program at no cost to our member districts. Our Junior Technology Leaders have presented at faculty meetings in their schools, at the annual Junior Technology Leader Showcase at CIU 20 Central Office, at the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Conference & Expo (PETE &C) and twice at the International Society of Technology Conference (ISTE).
We continue to grow the program, and who knows where you will see our Junior Technology Leaders presenting next!
Resources:
Poth, R. (2019). Unconventional. EduMatch. Alexandria, VA.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology, National Educational Technology Plan, Washington, DC, 2024. https://tech.ed.gov
Colonial Intermediate Unit 20. Educational Technology. http://www.ciu20.org
About Rachelle
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