EdTech, Andragogy, and Enhanced Feedback and Coaching Practices

     The incorporation of real-time and job-embedded educational technology tools within adult learning events has not been a standard or common expectation for my organization.  However, as an organization, much of our curriculum and resource procurement has incorporate a multitude of classroom educational technology tools that should be used to formatively assess students’ understanding, skills development, and learning mastery.  To ensure that these technology tools are engaged within classroom environment, it is imperative we utilize educational technology tools within our adult learning events, where educators can connect to classroom instruction through active participation and sustain opportunities for learning and model over time (Shi et al, 2021; Yurtseven et al., 2020).  However, some of the important aspects of the integration of educational technology tools in my plan for professional development stems from the target audience and intended outcomes.

The target audience are school administrators and instructional coaches who are receiving a multi-year arc of learning in a coaching model that incorporates provided specific and actionable feedback from two systemic resources meant to enhance instructional behaviors of teachers.  Therefore, the apps will be used both during professional learning events and between as job-embedded aids and differentiation tools for the professional development team as supported by current research (Yurtseven et al., 2020; Smith & Hill, 2019).  Provided that we can adequately support school administrators and instructional coaches’ use of the technology apps, this will provide the professional development teams with instantaneous formative assessments results, long-term formative assessment results, and recursive set of data to view participants as feedback providers, feedback receivers, and their skills and knowledge base.  This supports both andragogy and socio-constructivist theory that adult learners’ motivation for learning needs to be rooted in the co-constructions of knowledge through the implementation of educational technology tools (Diep et al., 2019).

            In order to achieve my intended outcomes for continuous and long-range support, I leaned on the use of AnswerGarden for face-to-face formative assessment during the professional learning events; PeerGrade for job-embedded supports where both peer and facilitators can anonymously provide support and feedback to skills-based practice from all participants, and finally Flip to enhance the skill of coaching through meaningful questions.  Check out below why I chose these tools.

AnswerGarden

Integration-This tool can be accessed by phone or computer and does not have any browser or operating systems requirements.  It is a web hosted response collector for a variety of prompts, questions, or sentence starters.  Participants join with a specific url link that can be displayed or disseminated easily through shared links or QR code.  The responses are sent in an immediately displayed and arranged through a word cloud that makes the most frequently used words larger than others. 

Cost- This tool is totally free and can be used to export individual responses to engage a deeper item/question analysis at the individuals’ needs level.  Without premium cost or sign on, you can receive instant feedback during a professional learning event, which is priceless when trying to make meaningful and intentional instructional moves in response to adult learners’ needs.

Classroom Design-This tool could be used in both a face-to-face and digital synchronous learning setting; however, I used it in a face-to-face event.  It was a multi-day event with many opportunities for intentional and flexible groupings to support and target specific areas of need.  Check out my AnswerGarden questions below, or if you want to participate in it, here’s the link: https://answergarden.ch/3116567

 

PeerGrade

Integration- This app requires the use of google-based products, which my organization has granted access to all staff and students with robust accounts and access.  PeerGrade allows you post prompts with unique rubrics (Check out my prompt above), participants provide a written response, and then peers and facilitators can score and provide feedback to help support revision and considerations for future steps.  As a part of the long-range learning outcomes, the professional development team plans to target learning and growth opportunities specifically around three “rungs of the ladder of feedback” to ensure that feedback given by principals and coaches is actionable, specific, and rooted in developing a trusting relationship amongst the teacher and principal or coach.

Support-Based on our experience, you may need to ensure to provide a guided walkthrough of how to operate within this application both as the posting participant and the rubric reviewer.  Our team used the monthly Instructional Leadership Meeting and the Principal Coaches to launch the use of this tool, and the Coaching Quarterly Virtual Meeting to launch this tool with the Instructional Coaches.  Even after the whole-group launch, we offered a few slots for 1-1’s for further support, which encourages anyone uncomfortable with the platform to get help.

Classroom Design- This application can be used in any learning environment-synchronous or asynchronous; however, the power seemed to come from the job-alikes co-constructing and calibrating their understanding of the power of actionable feedback and the application of the rungs of feedback within their own responses to a common scenario.  Because the posted feedback and the rubric reviews were all anonymous, all learners had an immediate entry point to display their best effort and still gain some support for continuous improvement.  Facilitators (i.e., the Principal Coaches and Professional Development Team) were also reviewers of feedback before it posted on the original post, which allowed for us to prevent from any negative, non-constructive, or suggestions outside of calibration to not affect the learning of the posting participant.  Additionally, the facilitators can see the responses with identifiable data included to provide targeted support for their own coaching sessions and cycles with respondents.  Check out the assignment and the rubric here: https://app.peergrade.io/teacher/courses/b7eadae7-99b7-4f56-b9b5-d7268599a730/assignments/1d762a85-cfdd-41d5-a74c-e148971c1d63/settings

 

Flip

Integration- This app allows you to post a compelling question or video and have viewers of the content post back a video or written comment.  It is hosted through a web-service; however, it can be embedded in Google Classroom easily as its own assignment.  This how I added it to our Arc of Learning through Google Classroom.  This ease of access, just click the assignment and automatically access Flip, made it an easy to integrate tool.  Additionally, the professional development team planned three different flip assignments to promote options for the principals and instructional coaches to select from based on their own experience and self-assessment of needs and growth opportunities.  Each flip assignment had a member of the professional development team posting a video of how a coachee may come to them for support or growth, which varied from assignment to assignment.  Principals and Instructional Coaches were then asked to upload a video response that would be their next move in the coaching scenario with a close attention called out to prior learning of the 3 P’s and Ladder of Feedback mentioned above.  This will provide all viewers and themselves the opportunity to literally watch themselves and assess their coaching presence. 

Support- This platform is user-friendly, but it may need some support in getting some participants warmed up to the video.  You may want to roll this out, as we did, in-person and try a silly/low-stakes prompt first to get people comfortable with the platform, videoing themselves, and ensuring connectivity and noise in the room is not too distracting for video quality.

Classroom Design- This is a tool used for both synchronous and asynchronous learning, and it can be used both face-to-face and in distance learning.  In order to allow participants to co-construct their knowledge, it may be helpful to consider how can you ask participants to review peoples’ responses.  Consider ways to have participants review their own video responses with a self-assessment lens even months after the submission.  Additionally, our professional development team viewed all submissions to highlight solid presence-making practices and highlights to share with individuals or groups.

 

I hope you found this review of these educational technology tools as adult learning supports helpful and have considered trying one of them in the future to model effective use of technology within learning environments. These apps were intentionally selected to engage adult learners in the socio-constructivist’s need for co-constructing understanding and knowledge as a root for motivation and engagement in the long-range learning arc (Diep et al., 2019).  Ultimately, the use of these apps was not about the use of technology but a means to tap into the adult learners’ need for cognitive and personal development as well as the use of feedback and scaffolding to support autonomous growth opportunities (Diep et al., 2019; Youde, 2020).

References

Diep, A. N., Zhu, C., Cocquyt, C., De Greef, M., Vo, M. H., & Vanwing, T. (2019). Adult learners' needs in online and blended learning. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 59(2), 223-253.

Diep, A. N., Zhu, C., Cocquyt, C., De Greef, M., & Vanwing, T. (2019). Adult learners' social connectedness and online participation: The importance of online interaction quality. Studies in Continuing Education, 41(3), 326-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2018.1518899

Shi, Y., Tong, M., & Long, T. (2021). Investigating relationships among blended synchronous learning environments, students’ motivation, and cognitive engagement: A mixed methods study. Computers and Education, 168, 104193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104193

Smith, K., & Hill, J. (2019). Defining the nature of blended learning through its depiction in current research. Higher Education Research and Development, 38(2), 383-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1517732

Youde, A. (2020). I don't need peer support: Effective tutoring in blended learning environments for part-time, adult learners. Higher Education Research and Development, 39(5), 1040-1054. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1704692

Yurtseven Avci, Z., O'Dwyer, L. M., & Lawson, J. (2020). Designing effective professional development for technology integration in schools. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 36(2), 160-177. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12394