Scenario
You have been identified as an innovative and creative educator. Your supervisor would like to take advantage of your ability to look at traditional practices from a new perspective. Your supervisor is unclear as to how online learning can fit into the learning landscape.
The instructional challenge
Your instructional challenge is to develop one brief lesson or professional development training module that shows how online learning can fit into your workplace's model of practice. Your solution must have a research foundation, must include models of practice, and must demonstrate how these models could be modified for use in your own learning environment.
Solution:
As an innovative and creative educator I prepared a professional development training module for my colleagues and it will be presented to them on Staff Development Day in the Media Center of the School.
As an innovative and creative educator I prepared a professional development training module for my colleagues and it will be presented to them on Staff Development Day in the Media Center of the School.
Agenda:
1. Welcome
2. Online Learning
a. Its significance in 21st century classroom
b. Its incorporation in Blended learning
3. Collaborize Classroom
a. What is it?
b. How to register for it?
c. How to register students?
d. How to start posting discussions,checking assignments and posting grades?
4. Collaborize Classroom in schools: Some models and testimonials.
5. Incorporation of Collaborize Classroom in our learning environment.
6. Questions
Online learning and its significance:
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| Source: www.onlinedegreezone.com |
After welcome and introductions, I'll present the topic of Online Learning and its significance as following:
In the 21st century classrooms, teachers are moving away from old factory version education towards more applied, experiential and individualized learning. Their classrooms are equipped with new technologies so that they can utilize them to enhance the learning experience of their students. Effective teachers try to address the specific needs of their learners; that is why they differentiate their instructions. They try to make learning to be engaging and fun for the learners. Online activities aid them to differentiate instructions. Online activities have the capability of engaging and motivating the digital learners in the classes. The K-12 Edition of Horizon Report (2009) outlined the importance and relevance of online learning by stating:
The best moment to teach a student something is the moment they are curious about it — but what about when that moment happens outside of classroom hours? Online communication tools create opportunities for “the teachable moment” even if students are at home, at the mall, on a field trip, or anywhere else.
Anytime communication also helps make students available to teachers when needed. Teachers can manage classroom activities even outside of classroom hours through synchronous, two-way online communication that can provide time-sensitive information about projects and assignments and reach multiple students at once.
There are many advantages of online learning. US Department of Education identified nine applications of online learning that are seen as possible pathways to improved productivity:
vii. Reducing school-based facilities cost
viii. Reducing salary cost
ix. Realizing opportunities for economies of scale through reuse of materials
There are many advantages of online learning. US Department of Education identified nine applications of online learning that are seen as possible pathways to improved productivity:
i. Broadening access
ii. Engaging students in active learning
ii. Engaging students in active learning
iii. Individualizing and differentiating instruction
iv. Personalizing learning
v. Making better use of teacher and students time
vi. Increase the rate of student learningvii. Reducing school-based facilities cost
viii. Reducing salary cost
ix. Realizing opportunities for economies of scale through reuse of materials
While researching for 'Online Learning', I came across this interesting image on Edublogs; it is sort of a mind map of advantages of online learning and I would like to share it with you.
As many schools are facing economic challenges, online learning can be utilized in creating blended learning environment in the school. By utilizing the blended learning practices, the teachers can maximize their limited instructional time.
A recent study conducted by the U.S.Department of Education found that students involved in blended learning programs generally performed better than students who participated in face-to-face instruction. According to the study, “The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face.”
Please take some time to watch this video to understand how to incorporate the online learning into a classroom.
1. What is Collaborize Classroom?
Watch this video to get an answer!
2. Teacher Registration process for Collaborize Classroom:
 |
| Source: madlearning.edublogs.org |
As many schools are facing economic challenges, online learning can be utilized in creating blended learning environment in the school. By utilizing the blended learning practices, the teachers can maximize their limited instructional time.
A recent study conducted by the U.S.Department of Education found that students involved in blended learning programs generally performed better than students who participated in face-to-face instruction. According to the study, “The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face.”
Please take some time to watch this video to understand how to incorporate the online learning into a classroom.
Introducing Collaborize Classroom:
1. What is Collaborize Classroom?
Watch this video to get an answer!
2. Teacher Registration process for Collaborize Classroom:
3. Student registration process:
There are two ways to do so. Watch this video to find out how:
4. Starting a Discussion/Instruction online, checking student work and posting results:
Watch this video to learn different ways of posting your instructions online for your students and how to find resources, free lesson plans, tutorials and much more :
Take a look at these videos where two high school teachers of different content areas incorporated Collaborize Classroom in their learning environment with positive results.
Models of practice:
1. English Teacher at Windsor High School talks about her experience of using Collaborize Classroom.
2.High school history teacher talks about his Collaborize Classroom experience:
Incorporation of Collaborize Classroom in our learning environment:
Collaborize Classroom is an easy-to-use online learning platform. It engages learners in online activities, discussions and assignments within and beyond the four walls of classroom. It provides safe, password-protected learning community to teachers and learners. Besides this, it is FREE and easy to set up! Unlike other online education platforms that offer an overwhelming amount of features, Collaborize Classroom is straightforward and easy to implement. There is a 'topic library' which contains lesson plans, assignments and activities created for the teachers by the teachers.
Every teacher can use it to enhance the learning experience of students in their respective content areas. They can continue online discussions with their students and facilitate online collaborative learning even after school hours.
This online platform can be used by administrators to create their own site dedicated to collaborative decision-making process on school policies, activities and goals of its members.
Their website is http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/
It has resources, Professional Development courses, Live PD Webinars etc.
Our school has three computer labs that can be fully utilized by Science, ELA and Social Studies teachers to blend online learning in their classes. Math teachers have a set of laptops for their own classes. All core content teachers and foreign language teachers can utilize Collaborize Classroom to make learning interactive and capable of promoting higher order thinking in their learners. They can motivate their learners to construct their own knowledge and collaborate with their peers all the time!
Incorporation of Collaborize Classroom in our learning environment:
Collaborize Classroom is an easy-to-use online learning platform. It engages learners in online activities, discussions and assignments within and beyond the four walls of classroom. It provides safe, password-protected learning community to teachers and learners. Besides this, it is FREE and easy to set up! Unlike other online education platforms that offer an overwhelming amount of features, Collaborize Classroom is straightforward and easy to implement. There is a 'topic library' which contains lesson plans, assignments and activities created for the teachers by the teachers.
Every teacher can use it to enhance the learning experience of students in their respective content areas. They can continue online discussions with their students and facilitate online collaborative learning even after school hours.
This online platform can be used by administrators to create their own site dedicated to collaborative decision-making process on school policies, activities and goals of its members.
Their website is http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/
It has resources, Professional Development courses, Live PD Webinars etc.
Our school has three computer labs that can be fully utilized by Science, ELA and Social Studies teachers to blend online learning in their classes. Math teachers have a set of laptops for their own classes. All core content teachers and foreign language teachers can utilize Collaborize Classroom to make learning interactive and capable of promoting higher order thinking in their learners. They can motivate their learners to construct their own knowledge and collaborate with their peers all the time!
References:
- Anderson,T.(2008). The theory and practice of online learning. Retrieved Feb.29,2012 from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RifNwzU3HR4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA45&dq=online+learning+in+classrooms&ots=Se8iLiK_tv&sig=zwY6ha5aJLZx_-xX1rc01Ujkpao#v=onepage&q=online%20learning%20in%20classrooms&f=false
- Alice, Danielle (2009). Why ONLINE Learning for Children?[Image] Retrieved Feb.29,2012 from http://madlearning.edublogs.org/2009/03/28/why-online-learning-for-children/
- Collaborize(Dec.2010). Collaborize Classroom, An Online Learning Platform(short version)[Video]. Retrieved March 1,2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP1gqxV8qMw&feature=related
- Collaborize (2011) Webinar: Getting started with collaborize classroom part I. [Video]Retrieved March 1,2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0_Q0s4NV6U
- Collaborize (May 2011) Collaborize Classroom for online education and development.[Video] Retrieved March 1,2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUbIvTkryIg
- Collaborize.(Nov.2010) Using Collaborize Classroom to bring stories to life [Video] Retrieved March 1,2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K40sFyD8xjE
- eLearnerEngaged (Aug.2011)Blended Learning: How to incorporate E-learning into a blended classroom model [Video]. Retrieved March 1,2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GErvLTovHQE
- Horizon Report: The K-12 Edition (2009).One Year or Less: Online Communication Tools. Retrieved Feb.29,2012 from http://wp.nmc.org/horizon-k12-2009/chapters/online-communication-tools/
- Salmon,G. (2002). E-tivities: the key to active online learning. Retrieved Feb.29,2012 from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NYCVAAXRG2gC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=importance+and+requirement+of+online+learning+in+classrooms&ots=7siPqwnqLo&sig=HgLldfJtu4LY21Y3w6_VoBSokoE#v=onepage&q=importance%20and%20requirement%20of%20online%20learning%20in%20classrooms&f=false
- Understanding the Implications of Online Learning for Educational Productivity. Retrieved Feb.29,2012 from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/implications-online-learning.pdf
- Wheeler,S. (Feb.2011). The Future of Learning.Retrieved Feb.29,2012 from http://www.slideshare.net/timbuckteeth/the-future-of-learning-6809148
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