Most educators know that technology is just one variable in making video-enhanced professional learning work effectively. We look forward to the day when our users don’t have to think about the technology, so they can spend most of their time on the teaching and learning process, which in our professional opinion is the greater challenge. Successfully implementing video-enhanced professional learning takes a lot of effort to do well. It’s important that relationships are established first and protocols are put into place before using video to support and enhance the instructional coaching process.
This past year we accomplished many milestones that we are proud to announce. We successfully implemented Sibme into the new teacher/mentor program in the 85th largest school district in the United States. The Sibme platform helped streamline and enhance the observation cycle between their mentors and new teachers. By using Sibme Huddles, a private shared workspace, Pasadena’s mentors and new teacher interns were able to easily exchange videos of their lessons for the purpose of reflection and feedback. The Huddle is a great way for a mentor to model practices and coach their intern privately and securely from anywhere and at anytime.
We spent a lot of time learning from the Pasadena ISD team and other partners, and we are grateful for the opportunity we had to help build a better observation model that is more targeted and informative when it comes to helping support and develop new teachers in large urban school districts. We are even more excited about their program this year, since video will officially become part of their mentoring process this school year.
Our team believes, along with Pasadena ISD’s program coordinators, that incorporating video-enhanced coaching into the observation cycle has the potential to be emulated in school districts around the state of Texas as well as the United States when it comes to providing more efficient and cost-effective support to its new teachers. It’s no secret that teacher support is resource intensive.
If it’s possible to reduce costs, while making a program more effective, there is no reason why school districts shouldn’t adopt a remote-based solution as long as it’s a blended approach rather than solely remote-based. It’s important for mentors and instructional coaches to do in-person observations, but we all know this is costly and logistically difficult to do consistently. Reducing in-person mentor observations 50% will save districts a significant amount of money in substitute teacher costs, since most mentor teachers still teach a full class load.
This summer we have focused on refining our technology, so that we can better serve our partners this upcoming school year. We will be releasing our new version 2.0 iOs app later this month, which has been entirely redesigned, and is a significant functional and aesthetic upgrade from our first generation iOs app.
One new feature we have added for our users is the ability to record in three different resolutions from an iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. We have also added an option to enable automatic uploading, which is a great feature to have when using the countdown-recording timer on the Sibme record screen or when using the Sibme iOs app with the Swivl robot.
For example, if a teacher enables automatic uploading with the Swivl, and films multiple segments during the lesson cycle, using the stop and start recording feature on the Swivl wireless marker, most video segments will be viewable in their private cloud by the time they finish their lesson. The hassle of capturing and sharing video is starting to become less and less of an issue.
Our goal from day one has been to make the video sharing process seamless, so our partners do not have to deal with file transfers and extra steps that are no longer necessary. Mobile is redefining the way we use technology to enhance our workflow. There has never been a better time to personalize teaching and learning for both professionals and students.
The Sibme Team
