[This is the third of a four-part series on planning, building, presenting and evaluating a
staff development program for technology.]

Last month, I discussed identifying content and creating policies for your staff development
program. Using content and policy to point the direction, it is time to explore a variety of
options available for presenting your Technology Staff Development program. Hopefully
these ideas will either reinforce your plans or maybe provide a different perspective that
will entice you to rethink your program.

"What's there to know about presenting a staff development program?" you may ask. Set
up a time; buy some donuts; print some handouts; what's so hard about that? Staff
development that will make a difference in the classroom requires careful planning,
presentation and follow-up. The content must be relevant to those attending the workshop.
The context must be similar to what they have in their everyday lives. The structure of the
workshop must provide opportunity for modeling, practice and feedback.

Using a needs assessment questionnaire (see August, 1995 issue of WK12) you have
defined your needs. You have identified content through identifying your needs by
schools/departments/grade levels and you can begin to schedule workshops for your
faculty. Last month I discussed making policies about whether staff development would be
mandatory or voluntary, compensated or not compensated, during school or non-school
hours. Whatever your decisions were on these issues, there are a variety of models
available:

1) At Malcolm Price Lab School in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the faculty was split between
wanting workshops after or before school. We decided to provide workshops on Monday
afternoon (3:30 - 5:00) and Tuesday morning (6:30 - 7:45). The advantage to this structure
was that after the Monday evening class we just locked the door and were already setup for
the early morning class on Tuesday. (Zeitz, 1995)

2) The Ames Community School District in Ames, Iowa, allows students to go home
every Wednesday at 2:00. The teachers then attend workshops from 2:15 - 4:30. The time
from 2:15 to 3:45 is part of the educators' regular day and the remaining 45 minutes is part
of the contractual agreement common in many districts which allow districts to keep
teachers after school hours for a specified amount of time per month. They also have funds
available from a state-supported staff development fund for attending conferences or
providing release time during the school day for planning. The advantages of this format
are 1) change will more likely occur because staff development is a weekly event rather
than once or twice a year, and 2) the importance of staff development is underscored by the
change in scheduling and available additional funding. This change didn't just happen on
the whim of an administrator, however. It required years of negotiating with teachers,
parents and even the union.

3) Alhambra School District in Alhambra, California, pays their teachers stipends to attend
staff development during the summer so it won't interfere with their already overloaded
school year. This provides teachers additional income during the summer and time to plan
these changes into their curriculum.

Workshops are Often Not Enough
A synthesis of research on staff development (Showers, Joyce & Bennet, 1987) provides
insights into the effect of various components of workshops on teacher knowledge and
application. They synthesized the results from a number of research studies that