"Stand on the shoulders of giants." All it takes is a professional learning community!

A. How has this process of revision and lesson study in our professional learning community influenced your thinking about the DESIGN of the learning experience that you’re creating for learners?

B. Has this process influenced your understanding of yourself as a technology integrator in the making?

On the day that I began to really dive into my topic of research for the #GREAT15 conference, I (on three separate occasions) came in contact with the following quote, “Stand on the shoulders of giants.” Not knowing what it was referring to, I did what any other 21st century teacher would do and "googled" it. It’s definition, to discover truth from building off of the knowledge of others, is how I would define how my professional learning community has influenced my thinking.

A. Being a perfectionist at heart, I was skeptical of the process and very self-conscious at the thought of having to share my under developed ideas and designs to the many different partners. What I came to find was that the process of revision and lesson study helped me grow, develop, and recognize the holes of my work. Each of my parterres in my learning community, had different strengths. One was knowledgeable about my subject matter, another on technology, and another on asking the research-based questions to get me thinking about my what I was trying to explain. Each of their skills, helped me to grow and develop my learning experience every step of the way. During one meeting, I was able to get confirmation on whether or not my research and questions for study made sense. In another meeting, I was able to decide on which technology I would use for the support system of my practice section. Then in the last meeting, I was able to discuss my ideas and find where more research was needed. They were open to the process of revision, which meant that I was able to learn a great amount of information from each of them.

When I talked with partners who were not from the same subject matter, they were able to explain to me when ideas did not make sense. They helped me to see the holes in my thinking and explained how to make my ideas clearer. They supported me with “I noticed…” and “I wonder…” statements, and they were honest. This support system has helped me to find the truth in what I’m researching. They’ve guided my search process and helped me sort out the muddled thoughts inside my head.

B. To be honest, this process has shaped more of how I think about the process of developing curriculum and pedagogy rather than my thinking of myself as a technology integrator. If anything, this lesson study has confirmed my ideas of technology being just one piece of the larger puzzle, and helped me to accept the ideas of TPACK. Because my thinking was more focused on the pedagogy and content, I didn’t consider the technology portion until the last few meetings with my professional learning community. Just as how it is used in my classroom, technology remains a supporting element of the content I’m teaching— a place where students will place what they learn— and a resource to use when wanting to teach the content in a specific framework. All in all, I suppose this process has helped me to consider the frameworks for which technology can best be used in more detail, as well as how to research those particular frameworks for truth.

Overall, this experience has been extremely beneficial. Every meeting paired with a Google form to track our responses to partners, has been meaningful and supportive of the process. It has helped me to grow in my knowledge of teaching frameworks and research, develop new ideas on technologies to integrate, and recognize where more study was required.