Virtual Topical Seminar10/12/04
Dr. Pamela Broadston
Note: this transcript prepared for possible submission for captioning.
00:00 Dr.Pamela Broadston is shown on screen with PowerPointpresentation in the background "Objective 1.4". A small box in the lower left corner shows Dr. Harold Johnson.
Dr. Johnson: I'd like to welcome everyone to the fourth set of Virtual Topical Seminars as you can see on your screen. Uh, today's presenter is Dr. Pamela Broadston from the University of Arkansas,Little Rock. Ah, Dr. Broadston works with Dr.Kate Reynolds at the University of New Orleans. They have a very big task on the grant. Uh,what they're doing is trying to help us to design and test and propose a multi-state teacher preparation program that will allow more individuals to learn from more places for both initial, and hopefully eventual uh you know emergency university certification and professional development; what they mean by putting together all of the pieces that the grant is trying to, to address. Today Dr. Broadston will be talking about the information that ahshe and Dr.Reynolds and their team members have learned during year one. Um, after her presentation, do kind of a brief summery of some of the key points that she made and if there's time she may in fact even talk about some of the technology that she's using for this presentation, which as you can tell is a bit different. So given that brief introduction,I thank you Dr.Broadston for, for, for providing us with this Virtual Topical Seminar and I look forward to hearing information that you'll be sharing today.
Dr. Broadston: Thanks, Harold. Um, as Harold mentioned we are doing,our objective is objective 1.4 and basically it’s a multi-statedeaf and hard of hearing teacher preparation and certification models. And we're doing this in collaboration with SERRC, the SoutheastRegionalResourceCenter, which is a resource center for the eight states in the Southeast region, and I'll talk about those in a minute, and two territories.
So our charge was…to establish an advanced technologyfacilitated multi-state teacher preparation and certification model and pilot investigation of the implementation of that model so that there is greater access to deaf and hard of hearing teacher preparation programs within the multi-state area and an increase in the number of deaf and hard of hearing teachers within the multi-state area. Whew! That's a mouthful! *laugh* And it's a pretty cumbersome task, but we are uh making significant progress.
Our overall outcome is to provide empirical evidence of the use of an advanced technologyfacilitated, multi-state deaf and hard of hearing teacher preparation and certification model and of course an increase in the number of deaf and hard of hearing teachers with multi-state certification.
And here I am again. So one of our first activitieswas to conduct a needs assessment. And in conjunction with SERRC um we uh we conducted a needs assessment on the current availability of deaf and hard of hearingteachersand the certification requirements of the eightSouth um Eastern states which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia,Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas, and that also includes the ter, two territories of Puerto Rico and the UnitedStates Virgin Islands.
So here is a shot of some of the preliminary data. And I'm sorry, I just realized it’s a little bit um skewed off the screen. But this is preliminary data that was from the initial needs assessment that um that SERRC put together. And so, these are the different states and then the number of deaf and hard of hearing certified teachers and the number of students who are deaf and hard of hearing. The um we did find out that there was a problem withsome of thisinformation, as we all know in the field ofuh special education, in all fields of special education, this deaf and hard of hearing count was taken off of the December one count for IDEA.And so we know that these numbers are really um significantly under-reported because this only reports the number of students um whose primary uh disability is listed as deaf and hard of hearing. And then, so truly, this really,uh is deaf and hard of hearing that are receiving services. So we know that these numbers are um are seriously under- represented, so as part of the grant we are continuing to look for more complete, more accurate data to support this needs assessment. And this is just the rest of the,of the states that are involved in that region, in our region.
Ok. In another part of the needs assessment we um
5:00 Dr. Broadston is in the lower left-hand corner and the PowerPoint is full screen behind her. The PowerPoint title is "Certification Requirements" and there is one bullet.
a choice was given to an individual to develop a matrix of these certification levels and requirements within the eight state region and the two territories. Um and we do have an initial draft of this available and we can post that on the website.
Then our second activity was again in collaboration with SERRC to establish a memorandum of understanding.And the memorandum of understating um was developed for um, to be signed by the um directors of spec, state directors of special education and the first go around um most of the state directors had signed that. Then um after one of the meetings that SERRC had two years ago they added an addendum to that memorandum of understanding. So that the addendum was then resent out to the state directors and, and also the certificationofficers. And um the memorandum of understating addressed the issues of the critical shortage of deaf and hard of hearing teachers in the region, the need for a flexible multi-state deaf and hard of hearing teacher preparation model, a need for a multi-state deaf and hard of hearing teacher certification model, and a need for a longterm plan to resolve the deaf and hard of hearing teacher shortage. And so, all of the uh the state directors in the state, plus both of the two territories, have signed the addendum for the memorandum of understanding. And so, not all of the states certification officers signed off on it, but um I believe um five did sign off on that.
Um so basically, I just talked about that um the memorandum of understanding was signed. Then also as, as another portion of this objective we um we are in the process of identifying one or two individuals from each state who will be given a choice though our choice system to act as objective 1.4 liaisons um with the special education directors and the chief certification officers in their states. And then also act as liaisons to start working on some collaboration models either of student-to-student or instructor-to-instructor collaborations. And Dr. Reynolds will be talking in great detail about that in the next seminar.
Then we have activity three. And again with SERRC. Um this whole objective was written in conjunction with SERRC because they were already; they had started the work on some of these areas um for all three low incidence disabilities and so um we didn't, we felt like we didn't want to be doing double duty so everything is in conjunction with SERRC. Um that throughthe use of web-based videoconferencing established a multi-state deaf and hard of hearing teacher preparation and certification models for ten Southeastern states and territories.
So a choice was given to an individual to research the existing successful models of cross- boundary collaboration in a variety of disciplines other than deaf education. And um we're hoping that there will be a white paper written as a result of this.
Then our fourth activity um is we've started and it's going to be ongoing throughout the entire um process of the grant. And that is conduct research of the viability of a web-based videoconferencing facilitated, multi-state deaf and hard of hearing teacher prep and certification model. And um we've already started some of these activities uh last sem…over the past year we have done several pilot programs. Um one of these pilot programs were collaborative efforts towards delivery of instruction.
Uh,Dr. Nancy Scheetz and Susan Easterbrooks, both in Georgia, have initiated a cooperative online instructional schedule of courses that allow their students to share instructors and classes without uh class enrolling. So,Dr.Scheetz's students enroll in her university, Dr. Easterbrooks' enroll in her university, but they're uh one semester Dr.Scheetz will teach a class, the next semester Dr. Easterbrooks will teach a class. So that's, that's one model and um so we will be collecting some data on that and um that will be available to you.
Then Dr. Reynolds, myself, and Dr.Scheetz um did a collaborative effort in which my students here at UALR and Dr.Reynolds'students at UNO um collaboratively enrolled in classes, online class using technology we have here with the video stream lectures. And um Dr. Reynolds did several of the lectures,
10:00 Dr. Broadston is in the lower left-hand corner and the PowerPoint slide is full screen behind her. The PowerPoint title is "Pilot Programs – Collaborative Delivery of Instruction" and there is one bullet.
videotaped them in New Orleans, sent them to me, we videostreamed them out. Everything ran off of the server here at UALR. So again, it was just ah it was a very successful collaborative effort. And then Dr. Nancy Sheetz, we used her textbook and so um she uh also did several of the lectures, e-mailed them to, ah sent them to me, and we would video stream them from UALR. And then she also ran the thread of discussion as the author of the textbook. She proposed the questions, the students responded, and she responded back to them. So it was really quite a neat endeavor, cumbersome in some ways, but ultimately very successful and um again we'll be sharing some more of the results of that as we try other things.
And then of course, as in all of our objectives, the disseminations um of the resulting research and this will you know occur towards the end of the, the grant, but we are starting to disseminate some of the information. Now we do have the needs assessment that’s available, we have the matrix um of certification that's available, and then we um we'll also have some of the reports about of the various pilot projects that we are doing.
Then I just wanted to very briefly uh talk about some of the SERRC initiatives that have been completed over the past um year which would be year one of our grant. Um SoutheastRegionalResourceCenter did establish a low incidence disability task force. And Dr. Reynolds and myself are both on this taskforce. Then from that taskforce, there were two smaller taskforce tha, task forces that were developed. One was for the regional certificationsstandards model. And then one was for regional personnel prep model. And there was about thirtymembers in each and um there were two two-day workshops; one for the regional certification standards and one for the regional personnel prep. And both of those uh meetings did occur in the spring and we do have quite a bit of information and data as a result of those meetings and I believe, and I'll pose this question to Harold at the end of the, the um this session, but I believe that information will be available on the website. And then as in with SERRC we're identifying instructional delivery methods um using the sixteen um institutes of higher ed personnel prep programs in the SERRC region who want to participate and um collaboration and looking at different models of delivery so that we can develop some um ah regional personal prep model.
Some of the challenges um uh cross-boundary preparation programs uh don't threaten the integrity of existing programs.And this is a big challenge, but I think we're overcoming a lot of those challenges and we're looking more and more into ways that we can have these cross-boundary um programs and um we'll be reporting on that as we go on through um the next few years of the grant. And then, determining the coordination activities without duplicating the effort. And I think we've done that pretty well, but it has still been a challenge and we're ending up picking up a lot of the responsibilities as SERRC's role is changing. And then um of course we want to establish the ongoing intrastate, in your state, and between state dialogue uh between the special ed directors, um the uh certification officers, and the institutes of higher learning.Because if the communication isn't open then this, this isn't going to be successful. But we really have um met a lot of these challenges; we do have the dialogue going and we're pretty excited about it. Hey Harold! *giggle*
Dr. Johnson: Hello, hello Pamela. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, I wasn't sure just there if you were finished or not. As you can see on the screen you know that there are the e-mail addresses Dr., for both Dr. Broadston as well asDr. Reynolds. Information also about the particular objective and how you can get involved will be shared more when Dr. Reynolds presents her presentation. Uh the full schedule of presentations and how to download previous presentations as well as copies of this pres, uh PowerPoint presentation are all available via the um deaf education website which is Dr. Broadston, I wonder, um each presentation we've done has been via a variety of technologies umand uh and some of them are of course are more challenging than others. This presentation went very, very smoothly. I have a feeling there's a lot of technology behind it we're not really seeing. Can you maybe talk very, very briefly about how you're doing what you're doing.
Dr. Broadston: Absolutely, um
15:00 Dr. Broadston is in the lower left-hand corner, Dr. Johnson is in a box in the lower right-hand corner, and the PowerPoint slide is full screen behind them. The PowerPoint title is "Contact Information" and there are two bullets.
I'm very fortunate to, here at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, we have um a Tandberg lab set up. So one of the pieces of equipment that we have is called the Tandberg and it's um I really don't know the intricacies of, of that technology itself, but what it does is it um we have cameras set up in the room and it, it takes the information, records the information, and also is able to send it out. So when I do a lecture, I come into the lab, which is very high-tech, which is called a turnkey lab. This is like a, a, ah, astudio, a professional studio and you know how, how your weatherman always points to different things? This is what's happening. The PowerPoint is technically not behind my, behind me. There's just a green wall back here and we have lights and everything and the computer projects the image and then I use monitors to be able to point to the various aspects of the um the presentation. Very much like your weatherman does on the, on thenews stations. So, it really is a very high tech lab but a lot of, from my understanding, universities do have these labs, but a lot of faculty just don't know, don't know about them. You might be a little intimidated by the technology. It's a fabulous medium to present your lectures, that can go out, the students can watch the video screens at, at 2:00 in the morning when they're sitting there in their pajamas. And it's really a fabulous situation, so I recommend that faculty members check into your universities, see if you have this technology available, and if it's there utilize it. And I'd be more than happy you know to share some tips and tricks that I've learned over the past year with using this technology.
Dr. Johnson: And really that, that design is part of what Dr., what Dr. Broadston and Dr. Reynolds are doing, which is not only to have the basic agreements and the basic you know vision, but also the various technology packages that they are, that they are helping to identify, like you just heard. Also Tom McNeal, who is sit, who's desk sits just behind me, he's not here right now, uh is also working in collaboration. So note that where as programs you know such as you know those asDr. Broadston's are just, is superb. There frequently is room for more students than simply can drive there easily so this is, this is a way to take advantage of existing resources in terms of Dr. Broadston and her classes,existingtechnologies like simply the University of Arkansas and other places. Simply apply them in novel ways so that how far you are doesn't inherently limit you to how much that you can learn. And that's really what Dr. Broadston and Dr. Reynolds are, are endeavoring to lead us on. Dr. Reynolds will talk uh on her presentation. Is that, uh what date is that on?
Dr. Broadston: It's on Thursday,
*Overlapping voices*
Dr. Johnson: on Thursday this week um…
Dr. Broadston: on Thursday…
Dr. Broadston: And um Harold let me just also point out that um the ah a lot of the schools for the deaf are getting grant money and stuff to um, for technology in their classrooms as well as the school as um the schools and Arkansas School for the Deaf also has a Tandberg set up. They don't have as sophisticatedof a lab and they don't have the turnkey, but they do have a Tandberg, they have the lights set up,and so we're hoping to be able to do someprofessionaldevelopment um between the university and the teachers at the school, ah Arkansas School for the Deaf. And then also,we're hoping toconnect the Ark, students at ArkansasSchool for the Deaf with students at other schools for the deaf either via the Tandberg or via the Polycom ViewStations or the Sony um but just various technologies..