Professional Development

Professional Development 2023-24 

Welcome to the Professional Development page! While encouraging my students to be lifelong learners, I also take the initiative to be a lifelong learner. This page will remain a witness of the constant progress in my education career.

About Learning to Teach Online:

"Learning to Teach Online" is a 47-minute online course that provides guidance on how to teach online. This course provides the keys to successfully teaching a digital class, which is becoming increasingly popular in middle school, high school and higher education. This course covers the essentials of online education, discussing synchronous and asynchronous learning, the benefits of online teaching, and the required technology and skills. It explores learning management systems, the SAMR method for tech integration, and addresses the impact of online teaching on course design. Emphasis is placed on fostering a culture of learning through engagement, communication, and feedback. The course also focuses on ensuring accessibility for learners with disabilities and enhancing overall teaching skills in the online context.

My reflection:

Before taking this course, I arrogantly believed that online teaching simply involved moving traditional teaching methods to the internet. Frankly, I lacked a systematic and comprehensive understanding of online education. What are the pros and cons of online teaching? What technical challenges does it face? What does online learning mean for students, and what issues might they encounter? Although I could answer a few of these questions before the course, completing it made me realize how inadequate my knowledge was.

Many of the suggestions provided in this course are incredibly practical, which I previously took for granted. For instance, in the past, when providing study materials to students, I assumed they knew which software to use to access these materials. The course advised me to include clear instructions to ensure students know how to use the materials—an aspect I had overlooked. The course also reminded me of the importance of making accommodations for learners with disabilities. For example, when selecting visuals, I should avoid images that are unfriendly to students with color blindness. This is something I used to neglect but now recognize as crucial.