Syllabus+for+Web+2.0+and+AP

Professional Development Introduction:
toc This week's professional development will be directed towards improving AP courses in Carroll County through the use of Web 2.0 technologies. As teachers we are all well aware that the future of education is through technology. It is for this reason that we must start to embrace and utilize all of the possibilities that new technologies are creating for us as educators. The topics for this week will range from using Google Docs for collaborative purposes, to exploring the many ways of incorporating blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. into an AP classroom to foster critical thinking skills and collaborative learning. Due to the accelerated pace of AP courses, teachers do not always have the time necessary to allow for such collaborative learning to take place, but through this professional development, educators will come to find out that incorporating these technologies is easy, fast, and engaging for the students. Teachers will acquire and use these skills over 5 days of professional development, each session will last 5 hours and will be made up of time for face to face instruction as well as individual implementation of the technologies discussed during the session. The culminating session will make use of all the skills that have been learned over the course of the professional development sessions.

Audience:

 * The audience for this workshop are all AP teachers in the county.

Prerequisite Knowledge

 * Word processing
 * Power Point
 * Email
 * Basic photo editing
 * Web surfing
 * Teacher should have some previous knowledge of how to create a blog, wiki, Google Doc. If you do not, please click on the hyperlink for whichever technology you need more knowledge of in order to practice using these technologies.

Materials Needed

 * Laptop/desktop
 * Internet access
 * Gmail account-click here to create an account
 * Microphone
 * Lecture notes, Power point presentations, Promethean Flip charts, etc. to be evaluated

Professional Development Goals/Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, teachers will be able to...
 * 1) evaluate effective uses of Web 2.0 technologies in their classrooms
 * 2) create collaborative assignments with AP teachers from different schools using wikis
 * 3) design a class blog and assess its proper uses in their classrooms
 * 4) judge their existing Power Point presentations based on principles of contiguity, coherence, and multimedia usage
 * 5) analyze teacher resources available at Promethean Planet and Slideshare.net
 * 6) produce a step by step guide for their own AP students using technologies presented in the course

Day 1: Creating Professional Learning Communities

 * Meet and greet with all AP teachers in the county
 * Break into like content groups and create Google contact lists
 * Upload previously created lectures to Google Docs and work on peer revisions
 * Create strategies for using Google Docs as a means for collaboration

Day 2: What Makes a Good Presentation?

 * Presentation on Principles of multi media and presentations
 * Search Promethean planet and Slide share for examples of good and bad presentations
 * Upload current Power Points to Google Docs in order to be peer evaluated
 * Create a Promethean Flip chart or a Power Point presentation based on Multimedia Principles

Day 3: Web 2.0 and AP

 * What is Web 2.0 and why use it?
 * Using Wikis to support critical thinking and collaborative learning.
 * Blogs for improving communication with learning community
 * Alternate AP Assessments using Glogs, Wikis, and personal websites

Day 4: Podcasting and Your Class

 * What is a podcast?
 * How does a podcast fit in an AP class?
 * Research, create, and embed a podcast for your subject area into a personal website
 * Presentation of Podcasts for evaluation

Day 5: Putting It All Together

 * Evaluate which tech activities would be most appropriate for your course
 * Create a semester long plan to incorporate technologies in class
 * Create materials necessary for integration plan
 * Presentation and evaluation of integration plan

Evaluation:
At the end of each day's professional development there will be a brief survey to complete, along with a longer survey at the completion of the course. Please complete these surveys truthfully so that the professional development staff can know what we have done well and what we still need to improve for the next PD session.