· What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning?
Online content is so prevalent now and virtually all curriculum lends itself to some degree of online learning, with the provision that all students have the proper hardware and interconnectivity options. “Online and blended learning have flourished over the past decade. Many faculty and students now crave this mode of teaching and learning, and across the educational landscape world class pedagogies, courses and programs have been created.” In the future, I see online education being utilized via live Q & A sessions with teachers or webinars where the teacher will re-teach or reinforce a lesson online outside of school hours. The web is revolutionizing some areas of study through increased opportunities for learning and alternative formats for information. Certain advantages to the design and implementation of online learning are the enhancement of the student-to-student and faculty-to-student communication experience, enabling student-centered teaching approaches, and providing an excellent opportunity for 24/7 access to course materials.
· How will you professionally use your course that you designed?
The course I designed was created based on the Comprehensive Needs Assessment document for my campus for the 2009-2010 school year. This assessment was performed by using the following data sources: AEIS Reports, 2009 School Quality Survey Data, AYP Data, Discipline Records and Campus Profile Data as well as Title I Parent Surveys. The student needs showed that 68% of all students only 68% were proficient in the area of Science, therefore, my online course featured an 8th grade Science lesson on force, motion and energy. I am an 8th grade Desktop Publishing teacher and although to use the Science lesson in my classes would not be the most practical because of the nature of the Science experiments, I could introduce and have students participate in the online course environment. This would satisfy my requirement of my Technology Applications TEKS that reads “extend the learning environment beyond the classroom through the creation and sharing of electronically formatted and published documents via electronic networks”.
The Texas Education Agency (2010). Chapter 126. Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Technology Applications Subchapter C. High School §126.24. Desktop Publishing. Retrieved on May 15, 2010 from http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter126/ch126c.html#126.24
· Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer?
I would like to see that my campus integrates some form of online learning with web-based tools that can provide many ways to increase communication between class members and faculty, including discussion boards, chats and e-mails. “Researchers have found that adding these elements to a course increases student motivation and participation in class discussions and projects.” (Kubala, 1998 as cited by Blackboard Inc. 2000). Another Lamar student who is a teacher and coach at the same campus as myself, has expressed to me that we should collaboratively enact and implement some type of online learning environment for our middle school students in the coming school year. With resources and material provided through EDLD 5368 and with further investigation about what type of online learning would best suit our students’ needs, I sincerely believe that he and I can pilot a program at our campus. Recently I came across a website that features a web applications index. On it I found a site that features the ability to work on one document in an online setting in real time. This is an excellent opportunity for students to collaborate effectively and use a word processor-based environment that they are all comfortable with.
Blackboard Inc. 2000. Educational benefits of online learning. A blackboard tip sheet. Retrieved on May 15, 2010 from www.blackboard.com.
· What questions do you still have about online learning?
There are questions I still have about online learning that could directly affect me and my position as a technology teacher in a public school which does not currently offer any type of online learning environment. I want to know what the current policy is, and if there is one, regarding being able to “meet” with my students in an online setting. Are there parameters set for collaborating with students while off-campus? If I were to be available online twice a week from say, 7 to 8 p.m. so that students could participate in online chat sessions about classwork, would this be acceptable to the school, with parents and with the district? Not knowing the answers to these and underlying questions is my biggest fear because this is all uncharted territory. I would be thrilled and eager to be a pioneer in piloting an online course at my campus. I hope I can meet with the proper personnel soon to be able to find out.
· What will you do with this new learning?
I will utilize this new information to provide a first-hand account of what online learning is like, not only from the Schoology standpoint, but also from the entire Lamar University online course system that I’ve been a part of for the last 16 months. I will also incorporate the use of online surveys much like Lamar uses at the completion of a course to help gauge the reliability and usefulness of the various course elements. Although Schoology was the tool used for this course, I believe that our district offers a comparable delivery method in the form of our teacher webpages. This delivery method is also one that the majority of our students are familiar with. Content is customizable, readily available and can be modified at any time with district support if necessary. I’d like to use this method of delivering online content to students in the coming year or perhaps creating an extra-curricular club in which interested students would learn the parameters of various Web 2.0 tools such as those we’ve learned throughout our Lamar studies.
