Professional Development is The Key to success in a 1:1 Learning Environment! In addition to developing new skills for instruction and classroom management AND designing a Web-Based Curriculum and Course Management System, teachers need time to communicate with each other. Since 2007, one year before high school students got their laptops, CPS has conducted weekly staff development sessions on Wednesday from 2 pm to 4 pm.
Having time to share ideas about their successes and failures is new to most teachers. However, this type of collaboration is even more important to developing a successful 1:1 Learning Environment than actually training on technology applications. Computers and the Internet should not be thought of as learning tools. They are a part of the Environment in which today's learning takes place.
To facilitate teachers moving from Traditional Instruction to Web-Based Instruction, much of the professional development at Crescent Public Schools is delivered through Moodle, our Course Management System. The "Possibilities" Moodle Course began in 2008 as a model for our teachers in providing and managing Web-Based Instruction in a Blended Learning Environment. This environment includes both face-to-face instruction and online instruction and is the best model for today's Public Schools.
Teachers new to CPS can access past training sessions to help them adjust to the philosophy of our 1:1 learning environment. The CPS Moodle Sever is password protected, but we have made available some of the discussion material and handouts from key training sessions as public pdf files. The links are arranged in presentation sequence, moving from the foundation of the 1:1 learning environment to some current discussion topics.
The Laptop Frequently Asked Questions page on the CPS Website.
The Crescent High School Faculty hosted a mini-conference in June of 2010 entitled Teaching in a 1-To-1 Laptop Environment. Fifteen Oklahoma schools participated with 140 teachers and administrators attending.
