What benefit do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning?
Benefits for educators knowing how to design and implement online learning can be many. First is the ability to communicate and reach the digital learners that are in our classrooms. When an educator can design and implement online learning, they are “speaking” the digital learner’s language. Online is considered their “territory” and the more opportunities we provide for them to work online, the more successful they are as 21st century learners. This also means that teachers are doing their part to meet the goals of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology and implementing the Technology Applications TEKS in their classrooms, campuses, and districts.
Second, is that we can stretch the hand out a little further to reach those students who would otherwise miss out on instruction for various reasons. Whether it is because of illness, extra curricular activities, suspension, teenage mothers, etc., more students would benefit from participation in online learning, who would otherwise not be able to attend class.
Another benefit of educators knowing how to design and use online learning is for their own professional growth. Teachers become more comfortable after practice and so this would be an introduction to what could be the future for all professional development. With today’s economy, districts are trying to cut back on expenditures. Some districts may see online professional development as a more cost effective approach versus paying for a consultant to come out to a school or district to conduct a staff development. This would also save time during the teacher’s work day and less missed time from the classroom. New teachers would not have to start school so early attending the many staff development days. New teachers could instead spend time working on preparing their classrooms. This is where they would rather be working anyhow.
How will you professionally use your course that you designed?
I am currently trying to use it in my 1st grade classroom. Schoology is helping me activate my students’ accounts and hopefully soon we will be fully operational I have already tested it to see if it was accessible at the school, since all social type websites and blogs/chat boards are blocked. I was afraid that this would not be accessible, but was pleasantly surprised when I was able to access it and the links that I had created in the course. Once my students are activated and are comfortable with using the website, I would like to add more topics to my course and eventually have at least one activity uploaded for each content area per 6 weeks. The topics and activities would need to be adjusted according to 1st grade reading abilities throughout the year. Also, I would like to share the course with the other 1st grade teachers so that the entire team can participate in creating assignments in the course and all 1st grade students could be included in the online learning course.
Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer?
My 1st grade classroom has 3 computers for student use. Our campus has one lab with 25 computers. We are a small campus with Pre-K thru 4th grade and approximately 600 students. We are a title 1 campus which means many of our students do not have access to a computer at home or if they do have a computer, they do not have internet access. My class in particular has only 2 students with computers at home. Therefore, for my class, the online learning will take place on campus, most likely in the computer lab. I am concerned with accessibility with the current network. Our network already runs very slow. I am afraid that we will have limited or no access because of the network and with the way our district has been making cuts in programs and the extras, I feel that improving the network bandwidth will be a project that will be put on the back burner for a long time. As a staff developer it would be much easer to integrate online learning for teachers. Currently, many of the technology professional development courses are offered after school around various campus locations in the district. Teachers’ schedules vary widely and so this prevents many teachers from attending some of the professional development opportunities. If these courses were instead offered through an online learning format, many more teachers might be available to participate.
What questions do you still have about online learning?
Some questions I still have about online learning are: What are some other online learning service providers like? I have heard of think.com and edmoto.com to name a few and I would like the opportunity to explore each one to see how they differ and what they can offer in terms of online learning. Specific questions about Schology that I still have are: Why did we have to use Schoology for this course? Is one better than the other? Will there ever be a fee for using the online course service? My campus does not currently use an online learning tool and if they do use Schoology, the cost of using a service would be an important factor when choosing to use it or not. Is there a way that I can view other 1st grade courses so as to share or exchange ideas with other teachers in my grade level? This would benefit many teachers and students to be able to see examples of other courses and to communicate with them. When will the chat function be activated? This would help with communication between teachers and students as well as teachers with other teachers and students with other students.
What will you do with this new learning?
With this new learning, I would like to create more courses for students and teachers. For the students I would like to begin by using the scope and sequence to create courses for each 6 weeks to include one objective for each content area. Once I get more practice with creating and using Schoology, I would like to create a professional development course for teachers on how to use it. More teachers would be able to participate since it could be accessed anywhere and at anytime. This could help get a few more teachers excited about using the online learning tool and help create courses for each grade level. This could also be a team effort in that grade levels could create a course together and all the teachers of that grade would be the administrators of that course. Then all the students of that particular grade level would be a member of that course and they could collaborate and participate in group work across the grade level, not just in their homeroom class.
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