Connecting, Collaborating, Continuing to Learn

Schlager, M. S., & Fusco, J. (2003). Teacher Professional Development, Technology, and Communities of Practice: Are We Putting the Cart Before the Horse? The Information Society, 19, 203. doi: 10.1080/01972240390210046

Mark Schlager is the co- founder of TAPPED IN an online community of practice established in 1997.  Judith Fusco is the project co-director and [...]

Barab, S. A., MaKinster James G, Moore, J. A., & Cunningham, D. J. (2001). Designing and building an on-line community: The struggle to support sociability in the Inquiry Learning Forum. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 49(4), 71.

Teachers need to have ownership in a community in order for it to be successful.  Wenger (1998) [...]

Hur, J., & Hara, N. (2007). Factors Cultivating Sustainable Online Communities for K-12 Teacher Professional Development. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 36(3), 245-268. doi: 10.2190/37H8-7GU7-5704-K470

In this study of online teacher community called INDISCHOOL in Korea, the researchers examined online postings from the community and conducted interviews.  12 factors were identified as a resulte [...]

Borko, H., Whitcomb, J., & Liston, D. (2009). Wicked Problems and Other Thoughts on Issues of Technology and Teacher Learning. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(1), 3-7. doi: 10.1177/0022487108328488

Editorial: Journal of Teacher Education, theme issue: Innovative Uses of Technology for Teacher Learning
Wicked Problem: problem that include a large number of complex variables.
The fast pace [...]

Lieberman, A., & Pointer-Mace, D. (2009). Making Practice Public: Teacher Learning in the 21st Century. Journal of Teacher Education, 0022487109347319. doi: 10.1177/0022487109347319

Lieberman and Pointer-Mace continue to redefine the field of professional development and teacher learning.  As the ability to collaborate and connect via the web affords teachers with new opportunities, Liberman and Pointer-Mace frame [...]

Educational Leadership
Teachers, Writers, Leaders
Lieberman and Friedrich capture the essence teacher leaders.  Much has been written about leadership, defining, what it takes to be a leader, lead a company, a project, a group; yet leadership in education is different.  The authors proclaim that teacher leaders are the key to school reform.  If this is truly the [...]

What a great overview of the shared experience repeated by so many teachers who participate in a National Writing Project Summer Institute. I’ve been involved with NWP for the past four years and through my interactions with teachers both at the local, state and national level, the message is clear: the NWP model is a [...]

In many schools, both K-12 and higher education, there is a no expectation for active participation and organizational support as a critical part of the school environment.  Whereas networks are sensitive to the notion that building a sense of community through the creation of collaborative groups is an essential component for the development of a [...]

Many people assume that a computer in classroom automatically makes it a technologically advanced learning environment.  Throw in a few iPods, a SMARTBoard and start a blog and you it is automatically assumed that students are gaining the technology skills needed for the “21st Century“.  For the last decade or more our schools have been [...]

Research Development Portfolio

My initial thoughts:
Student success is directly linked to teacher quality. Many teachers aren’t fully comfortable in a classroom until their experience level reaches between five and seven years. If school districts are to retain quality instructors within the field of education, then they need to develop meaningful, continuous, engaging forms of professional development; [...]