User talk:Faiza Altamimi

Digital Learning for Teachers Professional Developments -- Faiza Altamimi (talk) 08:36, 18 May 2022 (CEST)

Digital Initiatives to Support Teachers Professional Development Faiza Altamimi & Jehad Alrefaea

Part 1/Introduction: Teachers' development is key element of teachers' wellbeing, which has direct impact on the quality of learning process. As stated in the INEE minimum standards; teachers and other education personnel should receive periodic relevant and structured training according to needs and circumstances. Thus, ongoing teacher professional development (TPD) and support is essential to ensure that teachers are well equipped to handle the learning process. Effective teachers development is important in Education in Emergencies (EiE) because it enable and motivate them to deliver accepted quality education instead of feeling unsupported to deal with emerging challenges. There is no doubt, that teaching conditions in the emergency become more challenging and teachers’ wellbeing is more fragile. According to the international Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) https://inee.org/minimum-standards, conducting good quality TPD programmes should be based on assessment of teachers' need, with long-term support, delivered by specialists, cover multi-dimensional training, measure teacher progress in workplace, linked to agreed competency, based on teachers, school and MoE priorities, and evaluated by how teachers demonstrate improvement in classroom teaching/management. In that regard, several programs had been developed by education led agency to support conflict affected government and fragile countries, such as: 1- Training Pack for Primary School Teachers in Crisis Contexts (TICC): https://inee.org/resources/teachers-crisis-contexts-training-primary-school-teachers - UNICEF’s cycle of continual improvement of teacher performance. - Save the Children’s Enabling Teachers approach. However, lack of financial resources to implement capacity building programs is remain huge barriers in front of millions of teachers living in fragile countries. Therefore, in this paper, we will discuss the competencies towards Open Education, how Digital Education can help teachers to access new professional development training/learning opportunities and support children in emergency contexts to adapt with the fragile situation by applying the digital education strategies. In this paper, we will present some exciting digital initiatives for teachers’ development through on online training and reflect the strength, limitation of digital solutions; and suggest some recommendations toward more action in the future.

- OPEN EDUCATION COMPETENCES FRAMEWORK The framework consists of eight key competences organized in two competence areas, Open Education Recourses (OER) and Open pedagogies (OP). Each competence is composed by knowledge and a set of specific skills. Regarding the attitude, the following is shared between all the key competences: Be ready to openly share one's work and to use the knowledge created by others and openly distributed in order to improve access, participation and quality of teaching and learning. Finally, we note that open education competences and digital competences - intended as the confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learning, at work, and for participation in society are closely related.

Competence 1. Use open licenses:

Understand the (comparative) advantages of using open licenses and know the existing open licenses types. 

Competence 2. Search for OER: Know the major OER repositories and be able to identify those that are the most suited to your needs. Competence 3. Create, revise and remix OER: Know the different options for adaptation of an OER (translation, illustration, accessibility, contextualization, etc.). Competence 4. Share OER: Know reputed OER repositories most suited for OER creators and cocreators to disseminate their creations for wider impact. In the area of Open Pedagogies we have four competences and corresponding skills: Competence 5. Design open educational experiences: Know strategies on how to allow students participation in curriculum and learning design. Competence 6. Guide students to learn in the open: Know about connected and network learning strategies. Be aware of the issues connected to online privacy and personal data management. Competence 7. Teach with OER: Master knowledge related to 1, 2, 3 and 4 above. Competence 8. Implement open assessment: Know the comparative advantages of open assessment and be aware of existing open assessment methods and tools

Part 2/ Samples of digital initiatives that support teachers' development: Digital technologies offer immense potential for transforming teacher professional development activities and improving teachers’ careers. The Covid-19 pandemic and widespread schools closures have rapidly escalated the need to offer teachers various support options for using technology for remote teaching and learning, including digital pedagogical strategies and mental wellness support. Many governments and higher education institutions, but also the private sector, have made learning resources available for teachers or provided professional development options online to support teachers in adapting remote teaching, and new opportunities to build online professional learning communities are being explored. In the emergency contexts, such as the Syrian and Yemen contexts, NGOs and institutions that support education in these countries try to equip teachers with digital competencies to be able to deliver digital education to students. Such support has mainly included the provision of access to resources and peer networks and has mostly been online-based; for example, giving access to digital platforms and offering online courses on digital learning at these platforms such as Udemy, Kaya, and Disaster ready). In the Arabic world, some open digital platform, such as Riwaq and Edrak offered a number of online courses to improve the capacity of teachers on the digital learning. In some systems, there has been work on the development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) or intensive training for teachers dedicated to the creation of distance learning courses. Teachers can browse the Internet for relevant information, use open education resources to support their work, participate in MOOCs or engage in online communities to share resources and experiences with other teachers. As teachers represent a large share of MOOC learners and as MOOCs providers are progressively shifting their model towards online professional degrees and credential programs, there is increasing potential for teacher professional learning to expand in online formats that provide the flexibility for teachers to link the learning content to their own practice and context.

1- SELFIE for TEACHERS https://education.ec.europa.eu/selfie-for-teachers

A free self-reflection tool for primary and secondary school teachers. It is an online tool to help teachers to review and get feedback on how they are currently using digital tools and technologies in their work.

SELFIE for TEACHERS is one of the 13 initiatives of the Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan. This wider action plan supports the sustainable and effective adaption of EU countries' education and training systems to the digital age. It is based on the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators. The tool was piloted with 4,000 teachers and validated before its launch in October 2021. Key features free online tool takes around 25 minutes to complete receive an automatic feedback report with results and tips for the next steps all answers are anonymous different language versions are available Team up with colleagues The teacher can also use SELFIE for TEACHERS with other teaching colleagues, where the anonymous aggregated results are shared with the group.

2- “Teaching online under emergency conditions” It is an initiative of the Educational Sectoral Commission. The design and implementation of this initiative was inspired by the MOOC delivery model, aimed at massive outreach to Udelaras teachers, more than 11,000. The characteristics of MOOCs have been evolving since their start. Teacher Education in the Emergency: a MOOC-Inspired Teacher Professional Development Strategy Grounded in Critical Digital Pedagogy that emphasizing its relevance in the context of rapid response to the transition to Emergency Remote Teaching. It analyzes teachers’ contributions and interactions during the course to assess appropriation of educational principles, methodologies and tools applied to online course redesign in the light of Critical Digital Pedagogy and Pedagogy of Care. Critical Digital Pedagogy demands that open educational environments be more than content repositories, therefore, a MOOC cannot simply be a delivery device, but must first be aimed at building empowered communities, making MOOCs a space for dialogue, openness and change Regarding course relevance, it was highlighted as useful and timely given the emergency context, particularly the relevance in terms of the timing and the flexibility of its modality. Also, teachers were very expressive about the importance of this space as a place for being cared for.

3- Google for Education to help expand learning for everyone Transform how educators and students learn, work, and innovate together with free, secure tools from Google Workspace for Education.

Features: Learn from anywhere Students can access their apps, settings, and more from any device Prepare students for the future with collaborative projects that deepen digital skills Discover and share new apps with educators using the Chromebook App Hub Empowering educators and supporting lifelong learning with free, online training for the classroom Bring technology to life in the classroom with tips, training, and resources to help educators get the most out of Google tools. Google Workspace for Education Classroom Docs Slides Jamboard

4- Other organizations support the focus on mobile phones. The British Council report mentioned earlier42 presents the results of a survey of school teachers of English across six South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The report describes a situation of widespread access to mobile phones and frequent use of mobile internet among this group of teachers. The majority of teachers in the study had phones with mobile internet connectivity and they used them prolifically. The teachers were much more familiar with mobile phones than with personal computers. It is interesting to note that teachers in Nepal reported the highest levels of engagement with their mobiles, with, for example, 77% of teachers reporting that they accessed Facebook on their phones. The teachers in the British Council survey of South Asia had broadly positive views of the potential of their phones for professional development.

5- Teacher Training - How to Teach Online - Remote Teaching Online Teacher Training https://www.udemy.com/course/teacher-training-how-to-teach-online-remote-teaching-1hr/

The Coronavirus has changed the world. Teachers who have spent a lifetime teaching students in the classroom must now learn (quickly!) how to teach students online and in virtual classrooms.

This course is designed for busy, stressed teachers who are battling numerous crises at the moment and don't have time for a 1-3 day course on online teacher training. This course can be completed in less than one hour! For anyone used to teaching in front of real students, the prospect of talking in an empty room to a video camera can seem intimidating and even scary. But it doesn't have to be! learn all the fundamentals on how to speak with confidence and poise on camera and engage students effectively, Teaching online is not harder than teaching in a live classroom, but it is different. The skills needed to excel as an online teacher aren't difficult, but they aren't common sense either. TJ Walker will guide you through the process, step-by-step, on how to be equally confident and competent in the online classroom as you are in the real world classroom.

6- Teacher Training on Kaya platform:

Kaye platform is one of emerging platform, which created several interaction free training for teachers and education management staff such as Teacher Professional Development, Curriculum, Language, and Materials, and Learning through Play in EiE. All you need is to have internet, email account to register and joint. However, despite to current effort to localize training through provide it in several language; the most of training are in English, which makes linguistic barriers in front of non-English speaker. Add to that, not all program are internet- off mood, which also consider another barriers for people in poor infrastructure areas. https://kayaconnect.org/

7- Edraak Online Learning Platform; Learn. Improve. Grow; Edraak, is a massive open online course (MOOC) platform, that is an initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation (QRF) to create the first non-profit Arabic MOOC platform that can be part of a necessary revolution in education and learning. The platform enriches Arab education through its partnership with edX, the platform gives Arab learners access in Arabic to courses taught and developed at top tier institutions like Harvard, MITX, and UC Berkley. All courses are delivered at no cost to the learner. Edraak offers a number of online courses for teachers and a lot of teachers in the fragile and emergency contexts are benefiting from its courses to improve their digital competencies. One of these useful courses is: Teaching Online: Be Ready Now! As everyone moves to online teaching, there is a lot of wondering over what can be done online and how we can do it! Therefore, this course was created as a quick response to the current situation to support teachers in different sectors on how to design the educational process online. The course consists of only two units. In the first unit, we are thinking about the tools available to both the teacher and students. Then we talk about what position we are in now. What challenges do teachers and students face when learning online? We also talk about the challenges that learners might face. Finally, we talk about the types of learning that help us design learning experiences that stimulate learning. In the second unit, we talk about each type of learning, and how we can design different activities online. The course’s activities will be supported by a live lecture to interact with the course’s team and answer the participants’ questions. The main objective of this course is to create a community of practitioners so that we support each other in the process of transitioning to teaching online. There are many interactive activities available in the course, so you are expected to do some of them. https://www.edraak.org/en/

Part 3/ Reflective practice on "Learning Through Play in EiE (5.4)" training using Daivid Boud way :

This piece of writing is part of a structured course, where we experience this type of writing for first time. As our core, focus of this module is about figuring out to which level the exciting and free digital learning opportunities can support teachers' professional development in fragile and crises affected courtiers. We tried to play teacher role and decide to enroll in a sample of available training in Kaya platform, which is one of the most famous, resourceful MOOC and rich by trainings about education in emergencies targeting education practitioners. After checking the list of produced training, we went through Learning through Play (LtP) and started our journal, which been reflected in three phases as following:

1- Phase One/Before the Training: Our goal of participation in it to learn about Practical Tools and Strategy to apply active learning in different primary education classes, as most of our experience is in education project management, but we did not experience teaching. We are motivate to discover new approach, contextualize it with our community. We seek to answer three questions: 1- What new teaching technique which promote students active engagement and enjoyment of learning. 2- How we can adopt this technique in unstable and poor recourses environment. 3- To which level this techniques are harmonize with our community culture.

Learning through Play Training has 11 unites, the shortest unites takes 15 minutes and longest ones take one hour and half; 10 hours in needed in total to complete . No advice on how we can do/plan it in best way. Despite they clarify the tow competencies that this training focus on based on INEE Framework, there is no information about it, such as what is INEE Competencies Framework, how many levels in and how we can access to this document. No instruction about what type of training strategies we will have during it; and what fundamental knowledge that we need to have to fit with course level. However, we asked ourselves, What if the training content is not design to meet our expectations. If this is the case, we decided to complete it. To be prepared, we allocate time in the weekend to take it, with no work related issues interruption; ensure internet connection and obtain laptop, pen and note.

2- Phase Tow/ During the Course: As we went through the course, we were recognizing, it had been designed to education management and NGOs staff rather than targeting teachers; which be difficult level for formal and volunteer teachers. What we really like is the colorful and lively content (activities, games, videos, reading). However, it indicated some culture sensitive content such as mentioning that Learning through play mitigate boys and girls separation in reserved communities, which non accepted idea and may cause to totally refuse apply this approach in local environment. Interim of interactions with other, despite that there is a box for sharing questions, comments, but it is not lively. We find it good idea that group of two colleagues or more agree to do it in same time so they can create some interaction and lively discussion about. One of suggestion that comes to our mind is to clarify in each training if it is directly targeting teachers or it have been designed for other education practitioners.

3- Phase Three/ Afterward Completing the Course:

First irritating action was a technical issue in the system denied our access to training certificate. It is better to adjust the system to show the Downloadable Certificate after passing the final assessment instead of the Hpass, which require around 5 steps to do. On the other hand, one of positive aspect is the easy ability return to experience, whenever you need. As you have your personal account in Kaya, you will find a record of all completed, ongoing courses with ability to go through any of them any time for further reflection.

No one can deny how this training was well-prepared and a lot of collaborative effort between several INGOs to produced. Moreover, it was informative experience, and we have to acknowledge learning through play is blind area in several unstable context. However, if we are really teachers, this experience will frustrate us for the following reasons:

1- It serve for NGOs education staff rather than teachers. 2- Despite it presented samples of plays and activities, it determined for early childhood. 3- There is more than 50 long reading rescores, which hard be handle by teachers individually. 4- The training is need more time than it is expected, this might lack teachers self-confidence. 5- It is only available in English, some video were produced in other tongue, such as Tanzania which out translation. Most teachers in developing and conflict affected countries are not English speakers 6- It has heavy and long content, which hard to be handle by educators who have lack of fundamental skills. 7- Require good quality internet, which is, mostly, not affordable for most in need teachers. It is better to divide it into two courses; one about the logic and value of LtP and the other about tools, techniques and activities guild lines for each age category.