Improving Educator PD: U.S. Department of Education Guidelines

"The same personalized, collaborative, anytime/anywhere learning that technology can enable for students should be available for educators and administrators."

Wise words from the U.S. Department of Education, who this month released their EdTech Developer’s Guide.

Check out page 12 of the report, which includes a section on improving educator PD. Here are some highlights, emphasis mine:

"Technology-enabled professional learning can help educators find setting-specific answers and guidance for helping their students learn."

"One-size-fits-all professional development sessions cannot meet the specific needs of each teacher in a school or college. Educators need tools that help them tap into the expertise of their peers by accessing networks of reliable professional support andresource sharing . . ."

". . . educators need job-embedded, differentiated, and on-demand access to contentthat supports their mastery of effective instruction."

The doc also details the attributes the most helpful technology tools would possess. We're proud to say, TeachBoost embodies all of these qualities:

• Connects educators with each other and to educational experts
• Helps teachers reflect on their own practice
• Provides educators support to master new strategies, techniques and tools
• Offers on-demand availability
• Differentiates for a range of levels of readiness and expertise
• Curates content so teachers can find appropriate support and ideas quickly
• Showcases content-specific best practices

While it's certainly reassuring to see these guidelines in print, much of this insight has already come to us in the form of educator feedback and suggestions for improving our instructional leadership platform. If you'd like to learn more about how we support personalized, job-embedded, on-demand professional growth, reach out any time!