Not long ago, PD for educators was primarily characterized by passive learning, in which teachers gathered to listen to experts impart information about everything from the latest teaching strategies to updated educational standards. These sessions would occur periodically throughout the year, which often wasn't enough for educators to get any lasting benefit from them. While districts organized these courses with the best intentions, they often fell short, failing to engage teachers and give them the tools that they needed to improve in the classroom.
Learning hubs like MobileMind offer pre-built microlearning courses that make it easy for districts to create engaging and effective PD content. In this article, we look at how these pre-built courses can benefit your district.
One thing that you'll never hear district leaders complain about is having too much time on their hands. Unfortunately, the old-school approach to creating a PD program was often time-consuming and failed to deliver the desired results. MobileMind recognizes these challenges and has designed pre-built microlearning courses on various topics that districts can use to build their PD programs.
When districts use pre-built courses, they don't have to worry about developing courses from scratch. All they have to do is visit MobileMind's ReadyMade Marketplace to access a comprehensive library of pre-built content. The library includes courses about EdTech solutions like Kami, Nearpod, and Screencastify, ones built by experts from these companies through their partnership with MobileMind.
District leaders can also use MobileMind's AI Content Genie to speed up the process of creating PD content. They just have to enter the topic that they'd like to cover, along with a few notes, and the genie quickly creates the content that they need.
While pre-built microlearning courses are great for saving time, each district has its own unique needs. When district leader uses MobileMind's pre-built content, they can create courses covering a wide range of topics, from compliance to technology.
MobileMind's one-click cloning tool makes it possible for districts to quickly add micro-courses to learning paths and edit them based on their needs. This customization enables leaders to provide teachers with courses that are directly relevant to them, resulting in personalized PD that's meaningful and directly applicable to their work.
A district's PD program can include all the bells and whistles, but it won't be of much use if it doesn't keep educators engaged. That's where microlearning courses come in, offering bite-sized, manageable chunks of learning that teachers can fit into their busy schedules. The main benefit of microlearning for PD is that when complex topics are broken down into smaller, more understandable lessons, educators are more likely to understand what they've learned and retain it better.
MobileMind takes engagement further by incorporating gamification to make PD more fun. This includes leaderboards to encourage healthy competition and digital badges that document what courses teachers have completed. All these things can help motivate them to reach their goals as they work through micro-courses.
While PD was largely a passive exercise in the past, modern teaching training is moving away from that paradigm and embracing competency-based learning. It requires educators to demonstrate an understanding of a subject before they can proceed in a course, and it provides them with tailored instructions to help them master its core content.
Once they've done so, they're rewarded with a digital badge or micro-credential that serves as tangible proof of their achievement and gives districts an easy way to identify which teachers are proficient in specific skills. This approach to PD helps ensure that they are mastering the skills that they're being taught.
As the name suggests, job-embedded training brings learning to the educator's work environment, making PD more practical and relevant to their daily needs. With job-embedded training, teachers can apply the new skills that they've learned in real time within their actual work context, enabling them to immediately see the impact of what they're learning.
When using MobileMind's guided learning feature, educators learn while using their technology tools, like Google Slides, within the context of their actual work environment. This training involves step-by-step instructions and hands-on challenges, helping them to master their learning goals faster while actively involving them in the learning process.
With school districts spending upward of $20 billion a year on PD and educators expressing dissatisfaction with the old one-size-fits-all model, districts across the country have started to break free from the status quo and design PD programs tailored to the unique needs of individual teachers. Technology is helping them do that while also saving them time. A significant development in educator training has been micro-learning courses, which enable educators to cover topics in small chunks instead of the hour-long sessions that traditional PD often requires.
MobileMind offers personalized professional development with activity-based learning. All PD activities are brought together in one space to simplify reporting and tracking. The ReadyMade Marketplace makes it easy for school leaders to develop relevant, effective PD programs. With one click, you can get pre-built learning paths, micro-courses, and badges for EdTech training. Schedule a call to learn more.
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