EDLD+5368+Instructional+Design+ET-+8011

Emily Priesmeyer EDLD 5368 Course Reflection As an educational technology factilitator, I believe that teachers who are given the opportunity to learn to design and implement online course management systems can create new opportunities for themselves and their students. Designing and integrating online learning into traditional classrooms benefits teachers by allowing them to teach individual students more efficiently. The problems of large class sizes and varying student ability levels can be alleviated when a teacher is able to provide instruction that meets the needs of auditory, visual, and tactile learners in a setting that also encourages independence. The ability to design online learning will also benefit teachers by giving them another option for creating student-centered, project-based learning outside of the traditional classroom. Teachers can use online learning systems to provide supplemental activities for students who need additional practice, and extension assignments for students who excel or would like to learn more. Teachers using online learning systems also have access to course management from anywhere at any time, and have a marketable skill that will ensure employment opportunities beyond the traditional campus setting.

The School Wires course I developed is designed as a follow-up to an introductory School Wires training session that will take place in early June. I will be a co-facilitator at the June training and my partner and I will use time at the end of the training to enroll teachers in the online course. The timing for creating the Schoology course could not have been more perfect because teachers on my campus have been charged with including teaching tools on their websites before school starts in August. Since most teachers will not be working in the summer, the Schoology course is ideal for off-campus training. In addition to training them to integrate website tools, we hope to model the benefits of using online learning. Our district encourages the use of Moodle; therefore, we will focus on Moodle, but include examples from Schoology. I hope that teachers will see both Moodle and Schoology as simple and realistic and integrate them into their classes.

As a result of my experience creating the Schoology course, I am enthusiastic about integrating it into my classes. My main goal is to use online learning as a tool to increase student independence. I am hoping it will help me solve the problem I currently have providing accelerated learning for my over-achieving students, while still trying to meet the needs of the students who need extra time and assistance. I would like to use online learning to provide resources for my Digital Graphics and Animation students who learn at a fast-pace and want to extend their knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and Flash. In addition, I hope to use Schoology to develop an online version of my classes that can be easily accessed by students who are in off-campus discipline programs or are homebound due to illness. As the new teacher coordinator on my campus, first-year teacher training is another area in which I would like to explore the use of online learning.

One question I have about online learning is how states will reach standards for online learning. Since public school standards vary from state to state, I am curious about how the standards for this new form of education will evolve. Federal standards may be necessary to determine teacher qualifications, curriculum standards, testing standards, and accreditation. Students taking courses across state lines should be guaranteed to receive the same education no matter where the virtual school is based. The other question is when such standards will be developed in the United States. The number of virtual schools is growing so rapidly that there is a sense of urgency if the United States is going to compete with the rest of the academic world in the future. Our students will, very soon, need access to online course that challenge them and give them the experience they need to be successful in a global economy.

Learning to use Schoology for this course has shown me what I’ve been missing by not learning to use the Moodle course management system my school district uses. I want to learn more about Schoology and all that it can do, along with Moodle so that I can give teachers two different perspectives in training this summer. I also want to use one of these platforms in my classes next year so that I can give my students more options for learning. I am planning on testing it in my Digital Graphics classes next year because I usually have a few students who work at a pace faster than others, and I have a few who need more reinforcement. I will have time this summer to plan that and decide in which unit plans I will implement it. I am glad that school will be out soon and I will have more time to learn and plan.