Post date: May 16, 2010 4:48:4 PM
One of the benefits I see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning is the ability to create a more user-friendly student interface. “Learning is now a 24/7/365 activity… Effective and ethical strategies for organizing the surrounding world are therefore crucial for educators to model and teach” (Richardson, 2007). According to Boss and Krauss, “Managing a complex project is the stuff of real work… and a good project manager is a master communicator, an efficient time manager, a careful budgeter, and a tireless troubleshooter” (2007). But since few teachers have been trained in project management, professional development will be a must.
I hope to use the course I designed to implement a teacher learning community, focused on implementing 21st century instruction. Research I have conducted since beginning this program has shown this to be a major need. After our last course, I had initially envisioned using a wiki to house the learning community, but I now realize that Schoology is a better fit. I based the course on strategies detailed in “Backward Design for Forward Action” by Jay McTighe and Ronald S. Thomas (2003), “Changing Classroom Practice” by Dylan William (2008), and “Making the Most of Professional Learning Communities” by Jay McTighe (2008).
I divided the course into three units, which can be used meaningfully by teachers with various technology proficiency levels, multiple times. The first unit guides educators through the first step of data-driven change: defining questions. The second unit guides educators through research to answer those questions and analyze the results. The third unit guides educators through solution and implementation, based on the analysis. Since unit one can lead to different questions, there are various research projects in unit two, and unit three offers multiple solutions, the course can be used many times by the same teacher to integrate data-driven change into their instruction. Participation in the course requires teachers to learn and utilize various Web 2.0 tools, letting the teachers become students. A study by ATRL best summarizes the benefit of this: “In ‘learning how to learn’ to use technology, the teachers became more cognizant of the best approaches for their own growth and bean to see commonalities between their needs as learners and those of their students” (Burns, 2002).
I will integrate online learning in my role as a teacher/staff developer. I have realized that some students just don’t respond to traditional classroom instruction. It will be especially helpful for differentiating instruction. The number of English learners in public schools has grown “by over 30 percent from 1994 through 2000” and “80 percent of general educators have a special education student I their classroom” (Wahl & Duffield, 2005). Of course, I don’t believe that online learning will eliminate the need for face-to-face learning; it will just provide another way to reach more students and perhaps organize learning that takes place in a classroom.
I feel like an expert in online learning, mostly because of the amount of it I have participated in since I began this program in August. The question I have will only be answered with time: when will it catch on?
With this new learning, I will definitely use Schoology or some other online courseware to house course information and encourage interaction from students. One of my favorite features of Schoology was the fact that student’s do not have to name their own files; the system does it for them. I have had students submitting work one way or another for years, and naming the files has always been a problem. I post it, I say it, and I write it in the assignment, but I still get students submit files with names like “poetry portfolio” or (even worse) “document1.” I will definitely be using Schoology as a way for students to submit work.
This is an exciting time for education. “Until recently, we have mostly been dabbling with technology in our schools” (Prensky, 2008). “New technology still faces a great deal of resistance…[but] a number of our schools (a very small number) have entered the stage of doing other old things in new ways” (Prensky, 2008). Programs like Schoology and other Web 2.0 technologies will complete the technology revolution. Educators will be doing “new things in new ways” (Prensky, 2008). It is up to us as technology educators to use these tools to make this revolution possible.
References
Boss, S., & Krauss, J., (2007). Real projects in a digital world. Principal Leadership, 8(4), 22-26.
Burns, M., (2002). From compliance to commitment: Technology as a catalyst for communities of learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(4), 295-303.
McTighe, J., (2008). Making the most of professional learning communities. The Learning Principal, 3(8), 1, 4-8.
McTighe, J., & Thomas, R.S., (2003). Backward design for forward action. Educational Leadershio, 60(5), 52-55.
Prensky, M., (2008). Adopt and adapt: Shaping tech for the classroom. Edutopia: The George Lucas Educational Foundation. http://www.edutopia.org.
Richardson, W., (2007). The seven Cs of learning: A new c-change in education. District Administration, 43(3), 97.
Wahl, L. & Duffield, J., (2005). Using flexible technology to meet the needs of diverse learners: What teachers can do. WestEd. http://www.wested.org/cs.we.view.rs/763
William, D., (2007-2008). Changing classroom practice. Educational Leadership, 65(4), 36-41.