I just started an online course all about how to teach online. It is my second course at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. So here is my first post to the discussion board, responding to the textbook and other readings. I plan to share here what I am learning.

Lessons from the Virtual Classroom

Reflection pages 2-20

Blended to virtual learning in teacher education programs…”students of education are seeking to gain these skills. Traditional schools of education are currently not meeting this demand. Given these facts, what has been the impact of this phenomenon on education?” (page 6) There are many recent news stories about our schools of education not preparing our future teachers to be ready to teach. One might conclude that there are limited offerings of more cutting-edge methods courses where the goal is to skill pre-service teachers to teach in a blended virtual learning environment.

I bring this up because we should not take it as a given that our young teachers are very skilled in using technology and online information resources just because they are “digital natives.” My reading and experience as a K-12 educator are that our digital natives going on to college are not profoundly skilled in using a variety of online research, communication, and creation tools. From my high school and college-age sons, it has only been in the last two years that their classmates have moved beyond Facebook to other social learning tools. Unless they attended schools with solid library research and instructional technology programs, they might know a lot about using their smartphone to connect to their friends but lack information and tech skills.

Speaking of Facebook, at least for my sons, it is their number one communication and collaboration learning tool. Their school district uses Blackboard, but it is mainly used in their cases as a place to post homework assignments.

Personalized learning is a hot topic in the blogosphere and on Twitter. It carries over to our student learners as they leverage the Web for learning. Savvy and self-directed students build their “personal learning systems” whether their teachers or schools provide them with rich online learning platforms or not.

“A good way for instructors to begin is by using technology to enhance an on‐campus class. As they gain experience in teaching online, moving from an enhanced approach to one in which a class is wholly delivered online becomes easier.” (page 7) Good advice to start slowly with blended to move on to some entirely virtual options eventually.

Yes, understanding one’s Learning Management System (LMS) is very important, as well as finding and posting various learning resources through multiple modalities. This supports the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principle number one.

I get the varying viewpoints of teachers and administrators of e-learning. The ownership of intellectual property is a big one.

“Many of those we have spoken with around the country continue to believe that the key to faculty training lies in familiarizing them with the technology they will be using to deliver courses.” (page 15) I would add that the shift in pedagogy supported by technology is how I would frame it. It is good to see that a chapter will be dedicated to this topic, as the authors point out that it isn’t just about technology.

Whether the big schools and the prominent name professors will dominate the MOOC scene connects to one of my friends who just attended a conference for liberal arts colleges and their place in the world of MOOCs. Looking at MOOCs, two of my friends are in higher ed, one at a small liberal arts college and the other at a state university. My friends believe we are far from a finalized version of MOOCs or whatever they might eventually become.

Resources:

Three Advantages of Online Learning

Checklist for Online Instructors

What It Means to Be a Critically Reflective Teacher

Clearing Up Some Myths about MOOCS

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