Professional Growth Plan and Service and Leadership

Professional Growth Plan: Promoting Effective Technology Use

Adnan Ezad

New Jersey City University

As an educational practitioner and a doctoral candidate in the educational technology leadership program, I aim to glean knowledge and insights into matters concerning the field. In the past year, I have used — and shall continue to use — these insights to promote effective use of technology to various educational institutions, by placing myself in positions to share my ideas with educational practitioners across various spectrums. As of right now, I have influence within my school district and have taken measures to achieve my goal of reaching broader audiences. Through my service and networking, I have been successful in this endeavor, as my doctoral candidacy in the educational technology leadership program afforded and made me aware of many opportunities to share my ideas with a larger audience.

 I have accomplished — and will continue to accomplish — my goals by continuing to spread best practices regarding technology through various professional development sessions and conferences. As someone whose leadership style falls within the realm of the team management subcategory of the style approach, I will “…promote a high degree of participation and teamwork…” (Northouse, 2013, p. 81) within my organization by continuing to provide professional development sessions and engaging in team-teaching activities, with teachers of various content areas, which will model appropriate use of technology. As I have learning about — and received grant money for — 3D printing technology through this program, my focus for this school year will be implementing effective use of 3D printing technology in mathematics courses. In order to facilitate implementation of this technology into said courses, I shall provide at least three professional development sessions to my colleagues in the math department and engage in team teaching sessions with them, in which lessons I have collaborated with them on will be executed.

            In addition to providing professional development and speaking at conferences, I will continue to build my Youtube page, which features videos that model best practices, regarding incorporation of technology. In the past year, I have made two videos to complement presentations I gave at the New Jersey Maker’s Summit and New Jersey City University’s TedX event, regarding use of technology to enhance mathematics instruction. As of now, my Youtube content is pertinent to content areas associated with history, language arts and mathematics. I will continue to build on my Youtube page, having demonstrations of technology use for all major content areas and having reaching wider audiences. It will — over the next two years — have gained more exposure, and possibly more subscribers, as I will continue to incorporate them into presentations that I give at various conferences, In particular, I wish to present at the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) teacher’s convention in Atlantic City to further extend my influence across the state.

            In addition to 3D printing technology, I will continue to experiment with various technologies and their implications for redefining learning, which I will share through professional development, conferences and my Youtube page. After all, “…new technologies can become liberators or incubators of powerful ideas” (Bers, 2010, p. 24), which can “…afford new ways of thinking…putting knowledge to use and …making personal and epistemological connections” (Bers, 2010, p. 22). In three years time, I will be in a supervisory position and have a Youtube page that reaches a broad audience, allowing me to share what I’ve gleaned from my exposure to these technologies, to show teachers of all content areas how they can be catalysts for their students’ powerful ideas.

Bibliography

Bers, M. (2008). Blocks to robots: Learning with technology in the early childhood classroom. New York, NY: Teachers              College Press.

              Northouse, P (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th edition). Thousand Oaks, CA:

        Sage Publications Inc.

Service: 

Maker's Summit (8/18/17)

My presentation at the Maker's Summit in Rutgers New Brunswick and my video, demonstrating use of the Sphero, which was shown at the Maker's Summit:

My live presentation for the New Jersey State Library (8/18/18):

Professional Development Session for use of Google Classroom LMS in Health and Physical Education (12/6/17):

Here is a link to the agenda: https://drive.google.com/open?id=11DjN_fs_5J52SaoyWeOjtk5fTnY7zcCs

Below is the survey staff members took for the aforementioned professional development session on the LMS:

The Resources I Created for the Aforementioned Professional Development Sessions for my Colleagues:

Piloting the Summit Learning Program for Lincoln High School (2017-2018):

Here are links to an email chain and professional development certification regarding conferences I had with Summit Learning LMS mentors and involvement in the Summit Learning initiative, as a co-coordinator for the program this year: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GOeJTRIGQZbxTdZSVzTg1_on-4bTjtbl

         https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rajnBUZEWFxY4IDuN-U9cD9rbscW5iS3

Involvement in STEM grant (Gamified Orientation) 5/29/18:

Here are links to an emails and documents that are indicative of ongoing work with this grant: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GOeJTRIGQZbxTdZSVzTg1_on-4bTjtbl

          https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ysDqhbn3Ybp835Hw6IQ8JX1hf2eHHJDc

Planning and Presenting at Hudson County Hackathon (2/2018-6/2/18):

My presentation during the Hackathon.

Awarded Lowes Toolbox for Education Grant for Purchase of a 3D Printer for Lincoln High School:

Link to relevant documents: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Z93Dv_S8vV41D-6TA2kvKx9yIMxOthmu

TedX Talk — Making Math Tangible with Technology:

The video from my own Youtube page about 3D printing that was originally intended to be included in the TedX presentation.

Summit Learning Personalized Learning Presentation Provided to Parents during Orientation 9/05/2018

Panasonic Design Challenge Participation on Behalf of LHS (Emails and Schedule for Preliminary Challenge) 9/20018-01/2019

PlayPosit Presentation Provided to NJCU Staff (In Collaboration with Cohort 6 Member)

Webinar Series Session on Personalized Learning 4/18/2019

See Link Here

The Slideshow that was used for the webinar is below. 

Gamified Orientation 5/28/2019

Tutorial for Using Unity Game Design Engine for Language Arts On Public Youtube Page (Also the Intended Subject for Future Presentations at Conferences [Published 6/9/2019])