Clickmeeting Online Professional Development Environment

Design Considerations:  Synchronous, Interactive Sessions

Stakeholders

• Teachers
• Curriculum and Instruction - State, County, District, Site Faculty and Staff
• Educational Technology - Coordinators and Coaches
• Information Technology - Help Desk and Integration Team Staff Members
• Business Partners and Colleagues

Environment

The software company for which I provide professional development services, recently switched to a new, online PD environment called Clickmeeting.  The environment has numerous  features to make sessions engaging.  A well-designed session in Clickmeeting can transform a web-based “Sit-n-Get” to an engaging, collaborative session that capitalizes on active learning theory to solidify understanding.  

Rationale for Design Process Selection

I am an emphatic advocate of student-centered learning environments and believe that the learning space truly is  “​​​​The Third Teacher”.   Using a systematic approach to planning appeals to my learning style and I found IDEo’s straightforward process a well-thought out method.  IDEo views design as collaborative, optimistic, and experimental and can be applied to redesign of curriculum, learning spaces, processes and tools, and systems.  This is a new way of thinking for me - applying the same process to other aspects of the educational system that I use for learning space design.  Tim Brown’s book, Chance by Design, shares the way that design thinking can help us redesign our lives, starting with today as a prototype.  This has sparked a new approach to many tasks for me and I will explore opportunities to apply design thinking in different aspects of my work.   A large percentage of schools are implementing 21st Century learning environments, including online learning and assessment.  Teachers who engage in the role of a learner in online settings will become stronger designers and facilitators of online learning themselves.   Online settings are robust, active spaces that afford opportunities to bring a wide range of learners together in a collaborations that were once impossible due to limitations inherent in a physical training space.

Implementation Process for Design Phases

I selected to use the  Design Thinking for Educators toolkit provided under a Creative Commons license by the design firm, IDEo (pronounced “eye-dee-oh”) for my own learning space redesign.