Icon for: Barbara Zahm

BARBARA ZAHM

It's About Time
Public Discussion

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  • Icon for: Lauren Allen

    Lauren Allen

    Facilitator
    Postdoctoral Research Associate
    May 16, 2016 | 04:30 p.m.

    Wow, great description of this very strong program, I really appreciate the level of detail the presentation is able to reach in such a short time. I am curious about the “stand alone units”. Does this mean that teachers can implement them in any order that they find useful? Is there a suggested or recommended order that units might go in if teachers want to connect across ELA or mathematics units? Also, is there a way for teachers to interact with one another (an “online community of practice” of sorts) built into this system?

  • Icon for: Barbara Zahm

    Barbara Zahm

    Lead Presenter
    Grant Director of Product Development and Grants
    May 16, 2016 | 05:17 p.m.

    Thank you for your comments and careful review! In regards to your question about stand-alone units, yes, Project-Based Inquiry Science (PBIS) teachers can implement the units in any order. We often make customized recommendations based on sequencing based on state or district standards or any other criteria requested. In terms of the “online community of practice,” we have used Edmodo to set up district learning communities. But, our research has informed us that sustaining a learning community is extremely difficult, and will not be successful unless it is district-driven.

  • Icon for: Barbara Zahm

    Barbara Zahm

    Lead Presenter
    Grant Director of Product Development and Grants
    May 16, 2016 | 05:59 p.m.

    Hi, I’m Barbara Zahm, PI on this project, along with our collaborating partners at University of Colorado, Boulder, and researchers at WestEd. The official title of our project is “Overcoming Obstacles to Scaling-Up with a Cyberlearning Professional Development Model.”

    Our research has supported the view that a cyberlearning PD system such as this one would help to overcome residual teacher resistance to adopting and using reform-based curriculum programs, as well as supporting and sustaining districts’ implementation efforts. We would be interested in hearing your views.

  • Icon for: Teresa Eastburn

    Teresa Eastburn

    Facilitator
    Digital Learning & UCAR Connect Lead
    May 16, 2016 | 09:01 p.m.

    Hi Barbara, First thank you for such a thorough and thoughtful resource to accompany the successful implementation of PBIS in MS classrooms. The video mentions that this is a 3-yr grant. I would presume you are near the end, yes? If so, have you accomplished all you originally set out to create in the resource to promote successful implementation of PBIS? What insights did you learn from your research with educators along the way? I particularly love the reflection component imbedded with the tool and each lesson. Have you found it to be used, or are teachers often challenged by time? Have teacher reflections informed the Cyber PD tool at all? Also, who are you working with at CU if you don’t mind me asking. I’m in Boulder.

  • Icon for: Barbara Zahm

    Barbara Zahm

    Lead Presenter
    Grant Director of Product Development and Grants
    May 18, 2016 | 02:38 p.m.

    Hi, I’m Ruta Demery, and I was the development editor of PBIS as well as the PBIS CyberPD system. Our initial grant period ended last August, and we are presently wrapping up a supplementary grant. We are pleased to say that we accomplished everything that we set out to do and more.

    One thing we learned during this study was that although project-based learning has the potential to engage students in science and engineering, project-based learning requires fundamental changes in the way teachers facilitate student learning in the classroom. Teachers must understand and reliably implement the curricula for any learning gains to be realized. A CyberPD system such as ours is able to support teachers make this shift in their classroom practices.

    We feel that journaling and reflection are very important components of a teacher’s professional development. In one of our field-test sites, teachers were provided with district PD credits to answer the reflection questions. This was an excellent incentive for teachers to find time to allocate for reflection.

    We were privileged to work collaboratively with Tamara Sumner and Heather Leary at CU as well as Holly Devaul at UCAR.

  • Icon for: Teresa Eastburn

    Teresa Eastburn

    Facilitator
    Digital Learning & UCAR Connect Lead
    May 19, 2016 | 04:25 p.m.

    Thanks Ruta. Tamara and Holly are wonderful! I know of Heather, but I have not worked with her in the past. Thanks so much for all the detail here. It’s too bad that you have to offer incentives to get teachers (really anyone) to take the time to reflect. We all know it’s good for us and has positive results on our own practice. Still we put it aside! And yet I’m glad you found a way to “make us eat our vegetables.” Thanks for all your efforts. I’m sure it will be extremely beneficial to many! Kudos.

  • Icon for: Roger Taylor

    Roger Taylor

    Facilitator
    Assistant Professor
    May 17, 2016 | 05:00 p.m.

    One of my graduate students and I are using the Oculus Rift in a collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to help improve understanding of astronomical phenomena, so your use of the term “3-D learning” threw me for a loop at first. :-)

    Could you explain a little more what you mean by just-in-time support?

  • Icon for: Barbara Zahm

    Barbara Zahm

    Lead Presenter
    Grant Director of Product Development and Grants
    May 18, 2016 | 02:44 p.m.

    The CyberPD System enhances and extends the technique of a traditional wraparound teacher edition page to a digital format. In print, the amount of content that can be provided is severely restricted by the limited space that is available around the student page. In the digital format, all the educative material needed can be placed directly beside the corresponding student page without any space restrictions. Whether on a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone, teachers have all the material they need to prepare for or teach a lesson at their fingertips.
    Unlike traditional print materials, the electronic just-in-time support permits teachers instant access to multimedia assets, such as videos, URLs for additional teacher resources, extensive correlations, and the professional-learning community on any electronic device, including smartphones, tablets, and computers. For example, a teacher may wish to listen to the audio portion of a Walkthrough Video en route to school in the morning. Electronic, just-in-time support provides student-page support assets that teachers can access anytime and anywhere as needed before or during their actual teaching experience.

  • Icon for: Jennifer Adams

    Jennifer Adams

    Facilitator
    Associate Professor
    May 18, 2016 | 12:37 p.m.

    This is a great project that allows teacher agency over how they will implement the units and that it has a range of supporting resources. I also agree that it is hard to maintain learning communities without district buy-in. Have there been much teacher interest in maintaining learning communities? What might happen if the the learning communities were teacher-driven?

  • Icon for: Barbara Zahm

    Barbara Zahm

    Lead Presenter
    Grant Director of Product Development and Grants
    May 18, 2016 | 03:00 p.m.

    Unfortunately, although teachers express the desire in having a learning community, from our experience, there is very little interest in maintaining the community. In several districts, we have provided facilitators to answer teacher questions, however, this also did not prove to be successful. We welcome any and all suggestions.

  • Icon for: Jennifer Adams

    Jennifer Adams

    Facilitator
    Associate Professor
    May 19, 2016 | 03:36 p.m.

    This has been a challenge in my own project, I have a group that meets every two week but the numbers who show up greatly vary. I am trying to use an online space but this too is proving challenging. This is a larger question that is worth investigating in the teacher ed field as I always hear teachers lament about the lack of community (unless they are in a very collegial and collaborative school which seems to be rare).

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