What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning?
The availability of the internet is the most valuable advantage that any educator can have in a learning environment. This opens bigger when we are able to implement online learning. The unprecedented challenges that the new frontier of the web present to us are at the same time land for innovation and creativity. The internet is presenting us with new tools to develop a virtual classroom in order to make it more appealing for our students. Basically any class can be taught through the internet. Environments such us Schoology, Blackboard or Brighten are available to give students the opportunity to access long distance education, many times at lower price, highly connective, high quality, and 24/7 access. More advantage in a learning environment had not being possible in any other age. The digital age has revolutionized the classroom environment. The biggest question now is not so much “What we can do” but “When will it get to do it?” This description from Edutopia is very important to understand the great advantages that we have in this new frontier.
How will you professionally use your course that you designed?
I will use Schoology for my next year class. I will introduce my students to different concepts and lessons especially in reading. We have many tool in the website that should connect to delivery them to our classroom more efficiently. Schoology is a hub that we can use to make learning more accessible for our community. The ideal is to promote the development of technology facilitators and leaders that will work with ISTE’s Technology Facilitation (TF) and Technology Leadership (TL) standards, tech specialists will receive professional benefits from the web-based movement as their classrooms will become more sophisticated and will cover larger audiences. Now, the web quests are to utilize technology in a constructivist manner to facilitate meaningful learning. Humans tend to emulate the teaching styles or methods that we were exposed to both as students, and as educators. Therefore, along the process of using Schoology I will be careful to expose my students with the most current pedagogical theories, but also modeling how these theories translate into actual practice in the classroom.
Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer?
Yes, I will. I am the technology coordinator in my school. This is an ongoing process. I will focus on managing tools from the Web 2.0 and connecting them to learning objectives. The challenge is to integrate teachers to the web instruction model. This problem will be sorted in a short future when the technology natives take over education. In the meanwhile we will work to engage technology immigrants in new technologies to make them willing to use them. Technology leaders play a pivotal role in determining how well technology is used in our schools. We should be able to prepare effective technology facilitators and leaders to meet the growing need for highly qualified educational technologists. Therefore, I will keep on taking online classes and giving online training and classes to students and teachers in my school and classroom. The great thing about technology is that it changes constantly and there is always room for improvement and professional development.
What questions do you still have about online learning?
More than a question, I have to solve the puzzle of crafting online learning. This will approach me to the ideal described by Jones (2007). The idea is to configure room for online instruction in an interactive environment. The availability of the Internet is the most valuable advantage that any educator can take from implementing online learning. The unprecedented challenges that the new frontier of the web are at the same time land for innovation and creativity. The Internet is presenting us with new tools to develop a virtual classroom in order to make it more appealing for our students. Mark Prensky (2007) is very wise on his article on adopt and adapt. According to this process of shaping technology for the classroom, I am on the third stage that is when we do old things in the new way because I had not mastered the tools to start doing new thing in the new way. I understand that I am a digital immigrant, and from that point, I have been able to evolve into learning to overcome my own barriers and become functional in new environments.
What will you do with this new learning?
I will engage students in technology-dependent learning that is project-based, using open-ended questions and higher-order thinking skills. The use of new tools we are changing our definition of literacy, but we need to adapt to an expanded notion of what skills are we expecting to develop. The very nature of data has changes in the past decade. It has become increasingly digital and networked. We moved from the print version of the Encyclopedia Britannica to Wikipedia, now we can have digital tours to museums and places we did not know they exist. Avatar is moving us from a physical reality to a virtual world where we interact in social networks, inquire for knowledge, interact in basically all senses, teach, and learn using the magic of the internet. That is the world I want that I want to belong. I will dedicate my professional expertise to develop more ways to teach in virtual environments.
References:
Jones, Eric (2007). Strategies to Put Instruction Ahead of Technology. Principal Leadership. February 2007. 7, 6; Research Library pg. 35
Prensky, Marc. Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom. Edutopia.org. 2007. http://bilblos.lamar.edu/eres/heh/Abernaty/Abernathy%20EDLD5352%20A
