Effectiveness of a web based teacher training program in Shenzhen China

Educational technology has become increasingly popular in its application in training programs of the K-12 teachers in mainland China. The value of using technology in providing training programs has been well recognized by educational agencies and recently millions of teachers all over the country have participated in the web-based educational technology training programs. However, the effectiveness of the web-based programs is still unknown to the Government agencies and the developers of this program. The current study tries to investigate from the perspectives of the participants the impact of the learning experiences about the web-based educational technology training program organized by Shenzhen City. 12 teachers who participated in the latest training program are invited for interviews. Six of them are best performed learners who received the highest scores and the other 6 got the lowest scores. Participants are selected in consideration with their age, experiences, gender, class and backgrounds. In ethnographic approaches, the personal experiences, information and narratives of these participants will be of great value to our understanding about how the experiences of the innovative approach to teacher training have been interpreted and viewed by the participating teachers . In addition, the online sample discussions'by these teachers and their assignments will form another set of data for analysis and triangulation. Findings will give light to our understanding about the direct experiences of the participating teachers as well as the major factors in the design and implementation of an effective web based learning program for teachers.