Patton College hosts inaugural technology institute to benefit P-12 educators and their students

Photo courtesy of: The Patton College of EducationApril Stewart, Athens City School teacher and Level 1 Google-certified instructor, delivered five presentations on Google and classroom technology to enhance student learning.

This summer, The Patton College of Education hosted its first Summer Technology Institute: “Educators Implementing Innovative and Practical Technology in the Classroom.” The event, held in McCracken Hall, provided technology training and professional development for P-12 teachers, teacher educators, and teacher candidates.

“The importance of technology and its role in the classroom cannot be overstated,” said Renée A. Middleton, dean of The Patton College. “To incorporate technology, however, teachers must first know how – and when – to use it. This event sought to provide clarity on that front, and I am extremely proud of how it turned out.”

The Summer Technology Institute was the brainchild of Middleton’s Design Teams – Teams III and IV, specifically. Design Team III – co-chaired by Maureen Coon, assistant dean for Student Affairs and Academic Advising, and Heidi Mullins, director of Clinical Experiences – is charged with developing online professional development workshops for mentor teachers. Using survey data, Coon and Mullins determined that teachers wanted ideas to help them better integrate technology in the classroom.

“The idea for the Summer Technology Institute began as a way to satisfy the needs and requests of The Patton College’s P-12 partners,” said Mullins. “When our P-12 teachers were surveyed last fall about what types of professional development they wanted, utilizing technology in the classroom to enhance student learning was the most requested topic. With today’s technological opportunities – and the speed with which these opportunities are evolving – it is imperative that teachers keep abreast of new programs, platforms, and initiatives in educational technology that can enhance P-12 student learning. Therefore, being able to provide a variety of hands-on technology sessions to teachers became a personal goal of mine.”

With the help of Design Team IV – which is chaired by Dr. Jesse Strycker, Educational Studies assistant professor – The Patton College organized a hands-on technology workshop that allowed teachers, teacher educators, and teacher candidates throughout Ohio to network, collaborate, share, and learn from each other.

“The leadership team worked well together and did a great job of looking at the event from different perspectives, which helped us to really consider a lot of different factors that could have been overlooked,” said Strycker. “Having most of the sessions proposed – and run by – practicing PK-12 teachers in the region was really important to us because we wanted to highlight the good work and innovative technology integration practices taking place in our region and encourage others to share in the future as well.”

The day-long workshop featured 18 different sessions for participants to choose from, with topics ranging from Google Classroom for Beginners, to developing a Makerspace, to using robotics to teach kids how to code. Fourteen people presented to 33 attendees throughout the day. Presenters included Athens City Schools teachers Amy Shaw, Shannon Williams, and Noah Waspe, as well as The Patton College’s Tracy Robinson, Sarah McCorkle, and Xinyue Ren.

“This was an opportunity for anybody with expertise to share their knowledge,” said Coon. “We cast a wide net throughout Ohio, and because we have such good relationships with our local school partners, there was great collaboration and support throughout.”

That collaboration did not go unnoticed, as nearly three-fourths of the sessions were led by local K-12 teachers.

“I appreciate the efforts that The Patton College and Dean Middleton put forth to better equip and further educate P-12 classroom teachers and administrators,” said April Stewart, Athens City School teacher. “Offering opportunities such as this institute not only benefits P-12 educators, but also every child in our classrooms. It is very evident that The Patton College values educators and, most importantly, our P-12 students.”

Stewart, a Level 1 Google-certified instructor, delivered five presentations: Google Classroom, Google Forms for Education, Google Docs, Google Slides, and Tech Savvy Technology – Using Technology to Enhance Student-Centered Learning.

“My goal was to expose educators to technologies and applications that would allow them to better engage students in learning and collaboration,” she said. “These applications allow for student-centered learning inside and outside of the classroom.”

Some attendees were tech novices, while others were more tech-savvy. But they all learned valuable information. Participants used their own devices to experiment with different platforms and left with new tools and tips to take back to their classrooms.

“The immediate benefit is to the educators as they learn technology and strategies to implement into their classrooms,” said Stewart. “But the long term beneficiaries are the P-12 students who are engaged in student-centered learning, research, collaboration, and innovation with the educators who have attended the institute.”

All attendees received Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for participating in the event, with 93 percent attending five or more sessions. Surveys were distributed to gather feedback, which was overwhelmingly positive.

“The combination of presenters brought a collection of diverse and important voices together,” said Strycker. “Many attendees were surprised that this was our first year and kept telling us how well everything was going.”

With the inaugural event going so well, the leadership team fully expects there to be a second event next year.

“The goal of all of our work is to benefit our school partners and, very specifically, our P-12 students and their learning experience,” said Coon. “We’re definitely planning on hosting another Institute next summer.”

Photo courtesy of: The Patton College of EducationInstructional Technology doctoral student Xinyue Ren helped teachers explore current trends of integrating Augmented Reality (AR) in K-12 classrooms.

Photo courtesy of: The Patton College of EducationThe daylong institute featured 18 sessions for 33 attendees, earning participants Continuing Education Units.