Kenosha Unified Case Study
THE DISTRICT
Kenosha Unified School District serves over 20,000 students residing in the City of Kenosha, Village of Pleasant Prairie, and the Town and Village of Somers, Wisconsin, with the mission of providing excellent, challenging learning opportunities and experiences that prepare each student for success. However, that effort extends to the over 3,750 teachers and staff across the district. As a Google Workspace for Education district, Kenosha USD, the third-largest school district in Wisconsin, faced a not-so-unique challenge when the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.
THE CHALLENGE
How would they ensure all of their educators’ Google skills met the needs of students in their new virtual learning environment? And how would they meet the Google proficiency levels of the less tech-savvy teachers while still providing valuable training to their high-flyers that used Google tools in the classroom regularly?
Like with many large districts, Kenosha teachers varied with regard to Google skill levels and adoption rates. While some teachers were proficient with Google tools and leveraging them in their instruction, others were not as proficient or as quick to adopt the tools in their classroom. When the pandemic hit, Kenosha, like all schools across the country, had no choice but to pivot to virtual learning. The importance of ensuring all educators were up to speed on their Google instructional technology skills rose to the top.
THE MOBILEMIND SOLUTION
“MobileMind was intriguing, and at the time, we were exploring anything that could help our teachers,” said Annie Fredriksson, the Coordinator of Instructional Technology for Kenosha. Before MobileMind, it was difficult to meet the personal learning needs of the over 3,750 employees. Now imagine the challenge of meeting those needs when it matters most and when everyone is no longer under the same roof of the district's 41 schools. With MobileMind’s professional learning hub, Kenosha educators and staff were able to engage in Google training anytime, anywhere. MobileMind’s just-in-time PD met the needs of learners at various skill levels during the pandemic and beyond. "MobileMind’s micro-courses on Google tools were exactly what our district needed when transitioning to virtual instruction,” Fredriksson explained.
"MobileMind has created excitement around professional learning that allows teachers to receive on-demand learning on topics they want to learn about and incorporate in their classroom right away."
- JEN FOLKERS
Kenosha wanted to know that their teachers understood their new training and that they would apply it to their instruction, virtual or otherwise. “The micro-courses and having them [learners] correctly complete the challenges was valuable,” Fredriksson stated. MobileMind’s competency-based, hands-on challenges ensure that teachers get immediate takeaways on using all of Google Workspace for Education tools. “We liked that they got timely feedback on their challenges,” she continued.
IT DIDN'T STOP AT GOOGLE PD
While the district’s primary use for MobileMind was originally for Google professional learning, Kenosha began to leverage the learning hub through MobileMind HQ to create and facilitate their district's professional learning on a variety of topics. When teachers started noticing a lack of student engagement in their virtual classrooms, Kenosha quickly created micro-courses on tools like Seesaw, how to give student feedback in a virtual environment, and other courses related to virtual engagement. MobileMind’s agile and easy to use platform allowed them to adapt their PL to meet teacher and student needs. Additionally, the district found MobileMind valuable for implementing new technology in the district, such as interactive whiteboards and document cameras. Rather than deploying technicians to each classroom that received a document camera to set up and install, Kenosha used MobileMind HQ to train their teachers not only on how to use the camera, but also to install the camera software. Lastly, new teachers to the district found onboarding to be seamless as the district used MobileMind HQ to train and deliver resources to new teachers.
THE OUTCOME
Before using MobileMind, Kenosha’s professional learning was facilitated largely through traditional PL courses and workshops. However, now that MobileMind has been adopted throughout the district, teachers have the autonomy to get the training they need when they need it, anytime and anywhere. “MobileMind has created excitement around professional learning that allows teachers to receive on-demand learning on topics they want to learn about and incorporate in their classroom right away," explained Jen Folkers, Coordinator of Professional Learning.
Other than the use cases for MobileMind HQ (which the district continues to leverage), Kenosha was surprised when leaderboards created friendly competition amongst educators and as a result, created a demand for more professional learning courses so that learners could make their way up the leaderboards. When asked what the main benefit specific to her role was to using MobileMind, Fredriksson stated, “Access. Self-directed twenty-four-seven means that more teachers will opt-in to complete it [PL],” she added, “from beginners to high-flyers, we have not heard of anything that was not meeting learner needs."
KEY KUSD NUMBERS
78%
of all Kenosha's MobileMind
learners have completed at
least one micro-course.
84%
of micro-courses completed
are Google related
12,224
digital badges earned
47,227
micro-courses completed
Top Learning Paths
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