L.A. Teacher Training Goes Interactive

Ann McGuire was able to observe closely as a student struggled to answer a math problem posed by her teacher--without even entering the classroom.

Instead, she followed the interaction on her computer screen. “It’s so like being in the classroom,” the veteran elementary school teacher marveled.

The videotaped lessons are part of a teacher-training program at the Los Angeles Unified School District. The 40-hour program is meant to improve upon more traditional--and costly--teacher-development workshops where participants hear lectures but rarely have input.

Through computer classes, taken at designated sites throughout the district, they are encouraged to question their own assumptions--and everyone else’s.

A facilitator gives teachers a series of questions after they watch an online video, then the teachers discuss their answers both in class and via the Internet outside of class.

“Each teacher has to respond and reflect,” said Maria Fergosa, the co-director of the LAUSD/UCLA Collaborative Institute, which created the videos for the L.A. district.

“We can then go in and look at the responses and discuss them. We’ve never been able to do this before.”

After watching the video with about 30 other teachers, McGuire was asked by the facilitator to devise different questions that would best engage the struggling student. If necessary, she could go back to relevant portions of the video, which is broken into chapters.

Her questions were then shared on the Web site.

Advocates say the format is both effective and efficient.

“We want to streamline staff training through technology,” said Jim Konantz, assistant superintendent of information technology for the Los Angeles school system.

By 2004, Konantz said, the district aims to have 60% of all teacher development online. As it stands, about 95% of the district’s teacher development is done through traditional workshops and seminars.

Half the kindergarten-through-second-grade teachers in the Los Angeles district, about 5,500 teachers, are being offered the program as part of their ongoing professional development.

So far, 1,200 teachers have participated since training began in September.

The program being used by the Los Angeles math teachers was developed by LessonLab, a Santa Monica company that sells Web site access to educational organizations.

So far, LessonLab has done business with UCLA, a Florida school district and Pepperdine University. It has also joined with the publishing company Pearson Education to use the company’s textbooks online.

The Web site content for K-12 math teachers was developed by UCLA educators in coordination with the school district. UCLA has a contract with the state to train teachers. Fergosa and her colleagues made sure the content related to what the district was teaching.

Not all teachers will use the program; some are uncomfortable with computers. But McGuire said she chose it in part to overcome her technophobia.

“You can learn faster through this technology,” said McGuire, who teaches severely handicapped children at Los Angeles Elementary School in Koreatown. The online lessons give teachers fresh ideas. Recently, they inspired Cary Davis, a second-grade teacher at Allesandro Elementary School in Silver Lake, to encourage his students to try different ways of counting.

He gave the class some problems to solve. Then, he said, “I had the kids lay out scratch paper, counters and number lines and said, ‘Go for it.’ I typically don’t take the time to do that.”

The online training also provides flexibility, teachers and administrators say.

Using the program is much cheaper than sending teachers to seminars and paying for substitutes to cover for them.

The teachers can attend a few days of classes when they are off-track, be given their tasks and access the program at home to complete the training.

The technology is being used for teachers at other levels as well. One subdistrict within Los Angeles Unified has developed a pilot program with LessonLab to train algebra teachers.

In addition to LessonLab, two other online companies, Teachscape and Scholastic, have begun developing pilot teacher-development programs for the district--although not as extensive as LessonLab’s, Konantz said.

With the slow economy, dot-com education companies are looking more attractive to cost-conscious school districts, some experts say.

“I think they’re looking for alternative ways [to train teachers],” said Tim Stroud, assistant director for educational issues with the American Federation of Teachers. “Once you’ve invested in the computers, there’s not much additional cost. It has great potential.”