Effective professional development is dependent on five key principles (Gulamhussein, 2013) which I have sought to observe in this project. In order to create a library of virtual field trips to career job sites, stakeholders will need to engage in professional development that moves beyond the “sit and get” model and extends to “go and show.” CTE Arts A/V teachers and Campus Instructional Technologists will first have to work through the learning opportunities presented in this project; furthermore, they will have to use these same principles to teach the students who will also be charged with creating these 360° videos and explanations.
The Five Principles of Effective Professional Learning:
Principle One
The duration of the PL must be significant and ongoing to support the implementation.
Beginning in the summer of 2019, the professional Learning will be broken up into in-depth, iterative sessions in which participants will be versed on the technical aspects of creating 360° photographs of business partners’ work sites.
Principle Two
Learners will be supported while they are implementing.
Throughout their summer training and during the implementation stage, CTE Arts A/V instructors and Campus Instructional Technologists will have the support of the CTE department. Understanding how to create the VR field trips and implementing the five principles of effective PL with their students will make this project a success.
Principle Three
Learners will experience hands-on practice.
Teachers and CITs are not only learning these skills, they are expected to turn around and teach students these same skills; therefore, it is critical that they not just observe, but perform the skills they will be imparting. Learners will have ample time to practice and collaborate with their peers.
Principle Four
Model the skills and techniques.
Throughout the various training sessions, I and other personnel from the CTE department who have been trained up will model every aspect of the project from identifying a needed virtual field trip, to equipment selection, to performing the technical skills, to communicating with industry partners when soliciting permission to film, to finally uploading the field trips to the web site.
Principle Five
The content will be audience specific.
The communication and setup for filming will look entirely different from job site to job site. Additionally, an audience of peer educators is different from an audience of CTE students who will be engaging in PL for this initiative. My plan will address the different environments and audiences.
Learning That Fits 