Online Collaborative Tools and Tutorials (Profiler)

Overview of Profiler

• Download the Word File or the PowerPoint File.
• View the PowerPoint File (Best viewed with Internet Explorer).

Profiler (http://profiler.pt3.org) is a tool designed to help groups of individuals improve their skills around a general topic by inspiring cooperation and collaboration among teachers and students within a school. The aim of Profiler is to strengthen the capacity of students and teachers to learn new technology skills from each other.

Take a survey to assess your skills in a general area. Update your Profile at any time by retaking the survey. The results are automatically and immediately generated.

Track your results over a period of time with Profiler badges.

Compare your individual Profile to the group results.

Roll your mouse over your Profile to find experts in your group who can help you learn new skills...

...or click on the number of a question to view a tutorial on the subject, and learn about it on your own!

District-level planners can download the data for statistical analysis in any spreadsheet program (such as Excel or SPSS). Perform needs assessment, study analysis of variance, track progress over time-whatever you can want.

Currently, many professional development initiatives within a state are driven by the available resources. Experts from outside a district are often expensive, and a district may not have experts of their own to facilitate inservices to teach skills. Profiler allows a professional development coordinator to know what expertise is present within a district, to support inservice planning. Profiler also allows the coordinator to assess the professional development needs within the district. Additionally, the Profiler is used to facilitate technical assistance opportunities within a building or district. In a sense Profiler helps an organization know what it knows, and communicate that knowledge to its members. With the Profiler tool, teachers and administrators in a district can see a visual representation of the knowledge that exists within their school building and district. They can use this information to seek out knowledge-possessors for task-specific mentoring.