Google Shouldn’t be the Only Hero of Your School’s PD Story

Once upon a time, there was Google. And Google was a hero...as usual.

Here’s a short story of how a different hero saved one school's PD.

A crazy, record-setting deep freeze has just swept the nation. As a result, it left the schools across the U.S. in a mad scramble to provide remote learning for their students.

 “Flee from here!” 

“Go home!”

“Take a computer with you!” 

It became a virtual learning frenzy!

Consequently, all the educators and leaders of the districts needed guidance.

So, Google came to the rescue, of course, and did not disappoint.

In fact, the educators were amazed at the generous amount of educational resources at their fingertips...for free!

“Our virtual learning problems are over!” the leaders exclaimed. So, one day, the leaders of the districts called a virtual gathering on Google Meet. They wanted to check-in with their faithful subjects.

But, what they heard...was disturbing.

They didn't hear how smoothly everything was going or how great it was to teach from home. They heard murmurings full of pain and anguish. For instance, one teacher stated, “There is so much available, I don’t know where to begin or how to use half of it.”  “I thought I was decent with technology, but I’m more confused than ever,” said another teacher.

“How are we supposed to: 

• get the teachers up to speed with all of this technology,
• provide professional learning that makes sense,
• and have a way to monitor progress?” exclaimed the technology specialist.

Sound familiar?

Ok, let’s cut to real-time. 

Yes, that’s a dramatic, silly story, but guess what?

It is so realistic.

The Real School PD Story

Education is unbelievably demanding on all fronts. With weather craziness and the unfortunate challenges presented by a global pandemic, I bet there isn’t one teacher out there saying,  “Bring on another computer program for me to try and figure out. I have all the time in the world!” Let’s face it, administrators and tech specialists don’t have time to undergo lengthy training on how to effectively integrate new or existing technology into their school's PD either. 

So, what ends up happening? All of these outstanding resources Google for Education provides are simply not used to their full potential or, worse, not used at all. What a waste.

Schools need a plan to ensure that technology works seamlessly together to support student learning during this difficult time. Educators need professional development that is personalized, practical, and convenient. In other words, they need a hero...someone to save the day by making their life easier, not harder. Sound too much like a fairytale?

What Is a Professional Learning Platform?

First of all, it’s not a fairytale.

It’s real, logical, and life-changing for teachers right now.

A professional learning platform houses all of a school's PD (and so much more) in one learning hub, available at the click of a button through our Chrome extension.

MobileMind is an example of an all-in-one professional learning platform that offers teachers:

• Personalized professional learning (Teachers can begin at their skill level.)
• Micro-courses (Information is chunked into short bursts and easy to digest.)
• Human feedback (Certified teachers grade their challenges and offer helpful, live feedback.)

This platform offers administrators:

• Progress Reporting (They can view progress and track and collect data for accountability purposes.)

If you are interested in learning more about MobileMind’s all-in-one platform, click here and schedule a call.

How to Choose a Professional Learning Platform

It is not easy to choose the most effective professional learning platform for your school's PD. This is a huge decision. Technology is front and center. But, if teachers don’t know how to integrate technology into their classrooms effectively, they miss rich opportunities to transform learning by using it. However, choosing the right platform doesn’t just affect teachers.  In addition, it affects the technology coaches, professional learning specialists, and administrators. That’s a lot of people to keep happy, and each of these professionals has very different needs and expectations that the school's PD platform must accommodate. 

Technology Coaches 

The technology team needs something easy to roll out to all staff members, including administration. Gone are the days of gathering everyone in the library or cafeteria for hours at a time to have professional training on a new computer program. MobileMind is so user-friendly that the tech coach or instructional leader can simply tell the staff to check their email, click the link, and get started. It’s truly a breeze from there. 

Administrators

School and district leaders need a platform that allows them to view learning progress and access information they can collect for reporting and accountability. MobileMind offers leaderboards. They show who the top-performing learners are, the learning paths they are taking, badges earned, and even compliance reports to compare learners’ progress. The MobileMind HQ plan has an area where Administrators can even develop learning paths specific to their school, including onboarding new teachers. These paths cover everything a new teacher has to read, sign, learn – you name it. As a result, it makes training new employees nearly effortless.

Teachers

Teachers need online PD that is easy. They are already overwhelmed with all of the technology currently available to them. Learning that is personalized and self-paced is a huge bonus. The reason being, teachers have very different skill levels when it comes to technology. An all-in-one platform like MobileMind allows teachers to set their learning pace, choose their learning path, do hands-on challenges, and get feedback from certified teachers. In addition, they can do it all from the comfort of their own home when it fits their schedule.

Practical Professional Learning Is Not a Fairytale

In conclusion, the right platform for your school's PD should be personalized, practical, and convenient. MobileMind has impacted over 11,000 teachers who have completed over 242,000 micro-courses. So, will you be the hero of your school’s PD story? You will be, if you deliver your school’s professional learning through a user-friendly, impactful platform. And...we would love to help you with that. For more information about MobileMind, book a call with us at mobilemind.io/schedule-call.