1 research outputs found
A VIRTUAL PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY SUPPORTING TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IN A 1:1 CHROMEBOOK SCHOOL DISTRICT
School district leaders provide public school teachers with technology to use in their classrooms without addressing the factors that affect implementation and integration to benefit students' learning. In the context of this study, technology implementation is defined as having access to and using technology, and technology integration is defined as incorporating technology confidently and successfully into the curriculum on a daily basis to support student learning and 21st century skills. The focus of the convergent parallel mixed-method study was to support technology integration for kindergarten through eighth grade classroom teachers through a virtual professional learning community (PLC). Framed around a constructivist and connectivist approach to learning, participants had access to support, resources, and collaboration through a virtual PLC that provided teachers with the opportunity to build their technology skills and confidence. The intervention was conducted from October 2020 to March 2021 with 15 participants from two schools. The study was conducted during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected concurrently. Data analysis occurred qualitatively through thematic analysis and quantitatively through descriptive statistics. The overall results of the study revealed that the virtual PLC was able to provide support, resources, and collaboration opportunities for participants to build their technology skills and confidence, helping to foster technology integration. The discussion board section of the virtual PLC was found to be the most useful to the participants in providing support and collaboration opportunities. The virtual PLC was found to be successful in an extremely difficult school year