3.3 Online & Blended Learning
Candidates develop, model, and facilitate the use of online and blended learning, digital content, and learning networks to support and extend student learning and expand opportunities and choices for professional learning for teachers and administrators. (PSC 3.3/ISTE 3c)
Artifacts: Online Learning Experience
Technology Workshop
The Online Teaching Experience I created in ITEC 7481 and the TKES website and workshop I created in ITEC 7460 will serve as my artifacts to address standard 3.3. I created each of these artifacts as part of my regular coursework.
The Online Learning Experience demonstrates my ability to develop online and blended learning, digital content, and learning networks. The artifact is a document that contains screenshots from my district LMS in which I created and housed a unit of blended learning to be used in a sixth grade Social Studies class. The unit contains six modules and address all the content standards related to Latin America. The module was designed to leverage the functionality of Its Learning - my district's new learning management system. My course contains the following elements: a welcome statement and site navigation instructions, basic support and guidance, community building activities, a course syllabus and an orientation into how to use it, six learning modules that contain a checklist of outcomes and that provide a variety of rich, collaborative, authentic learning experiences to engage students, a variety of assessments of student learning, and a means to evaluate the effectiveness of the course.
The professional development workshop I created and facilitated demonstrates my ability to model and facilitate online and blended learning, digital content, and learning networks. I created this website to provide support for teachers in my school as we became subject to the new teacher accountability measures for the first time in the 2014-15 school year. I lead professional development sessions in which I introduced my website and trained teachers in both the technical aspects of the teacher accountability platform and in their choice of appropriate artifacts to address the 10 teacher performance standards. I designed the workshop and website to be able to stand alone. So, teachers would not need to be present for professional learning to benefit.
The completion of the Online Learning Experience introduced me to many best practices in online/blended learning that I was completely unaware of. Some of these elements include higher order thinking, differentiation, multiple intelligences, active learning, choosing developmentally appropriate software, synchronous / asynchronous encounters, and appropriate student collaboration. I knew how each of these applied in a traditional "brick and mortar" classroom, but this learning experience showed me how they applied to online/blended environments too. The facilitation of the technology workshop enabled me to apply my knowledge of professional develop best practices. I was able to draw on the idea that professional development is most effective when teachers have a say in when and where they receive the professional learning. I designed my workshop accordingly. Participants attended by choice (attendance was not required), and the learning was made available asynchronously to accommodate those who could not attend.
The impact of the work that was involved in each of these artifacts can be assessed. My district is at the forefront of moving the entire school system to a blended environment. By modeling online/blended "best practices" I can help my colleagues make this transition. Also, by making the TKES workshop available to my fellow teachers, they will feel more confident as they take on the new requirements of documenting their performance.
The Online Learning Experience demonstrates my ability to develop online and blended learning, digital content, and learning networks. The artifact is a document that contains screenshots from my district LMS in which I created and housed a unit of blended learning to be used in a sixth grade Social Studies class. The unit contains six modules and address all the content standards related to Latin America. The module was designed to leverage the functionality of Its Learning - my district's new learning management system. My course contains the following elements: a welcome statement and site navigation instructions, basic support and guidance, community building activities, a course syllabus and an orientation into how to use it, six learning modules that contain a checklist of outcomes and that provide a variety of rich, collaborative, authentic learning experiences to engage students, a variety of assessments of student learning, and a means to evaluate the effectiveness of the course.
The professional development workshop I created and facilitated demonstrates my ability to model and facilitate online and blended learning, digital content, and learning networks. I created this website to provide support for teachers in my school as we became subject to the new teacher accountability measures for the first time in the 2014-15 school year. I lead professional development sessions in which I introduced my website and trained teachers in both the technical aspects of the teacher accountability platform and in their choice of appropriate artifacts to address the 10 teacher performance standards. I designed the workshop and website to be able to stand alone. So, teachers would not need to be present for professional learning to benefit.
The completion of the Online Learning Experience introduced me to many best practices in online/blended learning that I was completely unaware of. Some of these elements include higher order thinking, differentiation, multiple intelligences, active learning, choosing developmentally appropriate software, synchronous / asynchronous encounters, and appropriate student collaboration. I knew how each of these applied in a traditional "brick and mortar" classroom, but this learning experience showed me how they applied to online/blended environments too. The facilitation of the technology workshop enabled me to apply my knowledge of professional develop best practices. I was able to draw on the idea that professional development is most effective when teachers have a say in when and where they receive the professional learning. I designed my workshop accordingly. Participants attended by choice (attendance was not required), and the learning was made available asynchronously to accommodate those who could not attend.
The impact of the work that was involved in each of these artifacts can be assessed. My district is at the forefront of moving the entire school system to a blended environment. By modeling online/blended "best practices" I can help my colleagues make this transition. Also, by making the TKES workshop available to my fellow teachers, they will feel more confident as they take on the new requirements of documenting their performance.