Questing for Professional Learning

The second half of the NC Ed Leaders Summer Blog Series begins with a post from Lucas Gillispie (find him on Twitter @lucasgillispie), Director of Digital Learning and Media for Surry County Schools. This post is all about professional learning for educators, and Lucas has helped develop a new program in his school system that brings personalized, game-inspired professional development to his district's educators. The program is called the EPIC Academy (http://epicacademy.info), and if your district is looking for a way to improve professional learning for your teachers, this post is a must-read. Be sure to connect with Lucas if you want to learning more about the EPIC Academy, and also check out his blog here: http://www.edurealms.com

It’s mid-fourth period and you’re only 15 minutes into your 90-minute block. Most of your students are well-engaged in their project, but you find yourself using the old “proximity trick” to remind Joseph that, yes, in fact, you can see that he’s getting destroyed in Fortnite on his phone when he should be engaging with his group working on a cell parts project. At the same time, you’re noticing that Sam’s body language indicates that she and her boyfriend clearly are still on the outs. Oh, and now, you remember you absolutely cannot procrastinate any longer about calling Zeke’s parents about his slipping grades. (His mother is certain it’s your fault, or so you tell yourself.) You wonder whether or not today’s after-school workshop will be shortened so you don’t have to make that call from home. How are you going to get everything done before the end of the day? Before the end of the semester? If the so-called experts are to be believed, the success of your students fully rests on your shoulders, after all. No pressure.

Hopefully, you’re not so far removed from the classroom that you don’t remember what it’s like to manage 25-30+ variables (your students) as you attempt to bring about the conditions conducive to learning. Teaching is mentally exhausting work. Fighter pilots and their hundreds of dials, meters, and switches have nothing on us. One element of this story, however, that we as instructional leaders can directly impact, is that after-school workshop.

I am fully convinced that we do our teachers a great professional disservice with mandatory, after-school trainings. Who has the mental bandwidth to learn anything of value at 4PM? This is especially true for our classroom teachers. Sure, I know that some things are unavoidable. (Yes, please tell me about how I shouldn’t touch bodily fluids, again… for the sixteenth year in a row.)

When is the right time for professional development, you ask? I’d respond with, “Well, that depends on the individual.” Am I saying we should customize the learning for each individual learner? Yes.

In Surry County Schools, we’ve launched a program focused on digital learning professional development called EPIC Academy. EPIC is a fully-only, choice- and mastery-driven approach to teacher professional development. Built around an instructional design approach known as quest-based learning, EPIC leverages some of the best elements of tools built purely for engagement… GAMES! In EPIC, teacher-players choose their pathway through a variety of learning quests, choosing the level of depth they wish to explore in any given topic. Want to browse the surface of Skype? No problem. Want just a taste of Breakout EDU? That’s OK, too. However, should you choose to dig deeper, you’ll have the opportunity to master a tool or concept and apply what you’ve learned in your own classroom with students. Following a series of quests to their conclusion unlocks your badge for that topic or tool and opens up new possibilities.

Quests can be thought of simply as a connected string of mini-lessons. Some might take 10-15 minutes to complete while others may take one to two hours or more. This bite-sized learning format allows teachers to squeeze in a few quests during lunch or break, or to enjoy learning while in their bedroom slippers and enjoying umbrella drinks on their back porch.

As they explore, teachers in EPIC Academy are brought into the EPIC Community. This is a true community of practice in which players share their reflections and artifacts with the broader community. This has proven an invaluable source of cross-pollination of ideas between subject areas, schools, and even grade spans.

Upon earning their first badge, teachers are granted their EPIC Educator banner. This banner proudly proclaims that the recipient is, in fact, EPIC, and well on their way to earning additional badges. These banners are a constant source of celebration and friendly competition between colleagues and schools.

While much of this has engaged our teachers, causing the program to launch almost virally in the past six months, the creation of special events and challenges (achievements) continues to spark engagement in the community. Some of these are lighthearted while others require intense commitment. This summer, several EPIC players have taken up the #EPICSummer2018 call. To earn this one-time achievement, they must accumulate 500 experience points (.5 CEUs worth of learning), unlock at least one badge, and take a selfie of themselves enjoying some summer fun while including the EPIC logo in the picture. Oh, and this has to be tweeted (that’s how you crowd-source your marketing)!

Another fun (yes, I said “fun”) thing we do to promote learning is the addition of hidden easter eggs in the program. Much like their spring counterparts, easter eggs are hidden/secret bits of content the most devoted track down in DVDs and video games. EPIC currently has two hidden quest series that have only been discovered by a few. This exclusivity and mystery only serves to boost engagement and a sense of community among those who’ve beaten the challenges.

Adults, just like our students, need to be engaged. As instructional leaders, our role is one of service, meeting them where they are, and providing them the just-in-time learning and resources they need to grow professionally. We’re excited to be launching Season 4 of EPIC Academy in the coming year and are already teasing our teachers (YouTube Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oSiPC82-YM) with hints of what’s to come. And yes, this makes my job fun, too!

Lucas Gillispie is the Director of Digital Learning and Media for Surry County Schools.