Kimberly Purvis
Digital Learning Journey
Alternate Professional Learning:
A Call to Action
The Why
Professional learning is a necessary component in all careers, but in education, it is crucial that you stay up to date with the latest developments and continually learn more as you are educating others. Being shouldered with additional learning can be daunting for educators. It can leave them weary and have the side effect of producing apathy during their professional development meetings. Most check in to get credit for attendance, just to check out after they arrive.
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Simon Sinek (2011) stated, “We say WHAT we do, we sometimes say HOW we do it, but we rarely say WHY we do WHAT we do”.
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My “Why” is my desire to train and mentor educators effectively.
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As a mentor and trainer in an online setting, I facilitate professional development meetings with educators. What I see on the other side of the camera is not always the most engaged individuals. At times, I adjust my methods because I can see participants checking out as the session goes on. Relevant content is presented, and small adjustments have been made to include fewer lectures and more participation, but there is still something missing. My motivation for this call to action is to create a change in our professional development platform that ignites the fire that fuels the love of learning in our educators. I want to learn how to provide professional learning in a way that everyone attending benefits.
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As I moved through the thought process for this project, I was reminded of all the areas we improved sessions to meet the needs of those in attendance. I saw those areas, like more interaction, engagement, and modeling reflected in our class texts. It was encouraging to notice the areas that changed for the better.
Going forward, I want to change the way I employ professional development so I can effectively train and mentor educators in the most effective and engaging way possible. My presentation is the first step in influencing changes that will help me to grow in that respect.
The What
Below you will find my alternate professional learning presentation. Please click on the presentation script first, then follow along while you scroll through the slides below. This presentation is made to be presented in an online learning environment. The idea is for it to be a call to action that models "go and show" professional learning. Participants will play an active role throughout the presentation to demonstrate the effectiveness of alternate professional learning.
Presentation Script
Click above to open script first, then click through the slideshow below to follow along
The How
After formulating my “why”, I began to think of what types of media would best serve this presentation. I decided on a slide show, as I wanted the presentation to model alternate learning and the participants’ experience to be more interactive. In my experience, a video presentation would not meet the five key principles of professional development as effectively as a slide deck coupled with interactivity. I brainstormed different platforms I could use to create my slideshow. I have experience in Google slides and PowerPoint, so I started there. I recently joined Canva educator for my Innovation Proposal video and found it to be user-friendly, however, I wasn’t quite sure how to embed Canva slides to Wix. I thought it would be wise to stick with programs I was more familiar with. The only issue was I had found a template I wanted to use in Canva.
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I spent time discussing options with classmates in our group chats and received helpful advice. As a result of our collaboration, and with a little help from Google, I learned how to embed slides from Canva into Wix. This was an exciting discovery since I had gone through a more laborious process of using Canva then migrating to YouTube and then to Wix on my last project. I learned something new! Knowing how to embed the Canva slides made the decision for me. I began to craft my slideshow in Canva, taking full advantage of all the graphic and textual choices that would flow well and speak more to the participants.You can see some of the screenshots illustrating the different programs I used below.
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As I designed the presentation, I kept in mind Simon Sinek’s (2018) suggestion to be sure not to over-explain everything. I also wanted to meet the needs of not only verbal but visual learners. Through supporting research, I learned to simplify and replace some of the words with pictures to represent meaning causing participants to be drawn to, but not distracted from, the message (Five Simple Rules for Creating World Changing Presentations, 2009). I used this approach during creation to ensure my slide deck would have the most impact.
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For my script, I had typed out a few notes as I went, but I wanted it to be a natural approach like I use in training sessions. I presented my slides on my computer and used voice-to-text in Microsoft Word to go through the presentation. This worked very well because I was able to simply edit my language and knew this would be a natural presentation for me instead of reading from written text.
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I have expanded my knowledge in many areas while completing this project. Most importantly, I have improved my training skills and have become more effective in creating dynamic media presentations that will aid in my goal of creating change and promoting alternate professional learning in the organization.
