Issues in Online Professional Development

Building an Online CommunityPD Challenges for Blended Learning

Professional Development ActivitiesActivity Type When Optional/Mandatory DescriptionTeacher Week F2F August Mandatory New teachers - 5 days

Returning teachers - 3 days

Facilitator Intro (7 weeks)

Virtual Varies Mandatory Initial training for all instructors

Adv. Facilitator (3 weeks)

Virtual Varies Mandatory - FT Optional - PT

Virtual learning community

Mission Control Virtual Continuous Mandatory-Tricks Trade Optional - all other boards

Discussion Boards/Learning community

Webconference Sessions

Virtual Bi-Monthly Optional Variety of topics hosted by admin and team leaders - archived for those who can’t attend live

Faculty Meetings

Virtual Weekly Mandatory Thursdays at 7 pm via Elluminate Archived for those who can’t attend live

Department Meetings

Virtual Monthly Mandatory Hosted by team leaders

AP seminars / workshops

F2F/Virtual Varies Mandatory Week long seminars every 5 years Full day workshop every 2 years

Webinars Virtual Varies Optional Hosted by ETLO, SREB, NACOL

Teacher Mentor Program

F2F/Virtual Continuous Mandatory for New Teachers

Paired with experienced teachers/Meet regularly/Enrolled in courses

Facilitator Training

• ETLO – 1st PD for all online instructors• Components:– Facilitated course (usually six weeks before

beginning employment)– Experimentation course for practice of concepts – Project based (planning template)

Mission Control• Content area - All reference documents, forms and how-to’s

• Tricks of the Trade – A place for colleagues to seek and to offer general instructional support as well as discuss best practices for online learning

• Faculty Bulletin Board - A place to share non-instructional news with colleagues

• News Articles of Interest - This is a place to post news articles either in print or online that may be of interest to the online learning world

• Department Forums – Science, Social Studies, English/Humanities, World Languages

• Book Forum - discussions (voluntary)

Virtual Virginia

At this point we appear to have a

19th century curriculum,

20th century buildings and organizations

and 21st century students facing an undefined futureBruce Wellman, MiraVia, LLC http://www.miravia.com/index.html

Blended Learning

Blended learning is anytime a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.

http://www.innosightinstitute.org/innosight/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/The-Rise-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf

Six Models of Integration• Face-to-face Driver

Teacher driven in a f2f environment with supplemental online resources

• Flex: Most of the content is online with tutoring in a f2f classroom• Rotation: Students rotate between f2f and online within the same

course• Self-blend: Students are online after hours on their own initiative• Online driver: Content is online and students meet with f2f

occasionally• Online lab: Students in computer lab with mentor during school

day and teacher is online

http://www.innosightinstitute.org/innosight/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/The-Rise-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf

http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/blended_learning/Blended%20Learning%202010.pdf

Blended Learning: Pros

• Increased teacher effectiveness – Teachers trained in online delivery are more successful (http://www.bc.edu/research/intasc/researchprojects/eLearning/efe.shtml)

• Increased content access for students – anytime, anywhere content

• Increased interaction with instructor – f2f and virtually – home and school

• Potential for students to work at individual pace with greater control of their own learning

Implementation Issues

• Curriculum and resources• Tools training – teachers and students• Facilitation/support – school and home– Role of parents/guardians

• Technology access – alternatives– Backup for lack of access

• Pedagogical support for teachers – Initial and Ongoing

• Resistance to change

Blended Learning Instructor Support

• Blending Learning or Integrating Technology?• Designing a “new” classroom • Putting the puzzle pieces together (ie. Student,

classroom, parent)• Dynamic curriculum• Rethinking traditional bricks-and-mortar policies• Automation of manual tasks (data entry)• Other

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34879177@N00/4097747722/

Resources• http://www.marcandangel.com/2010/11/15/1

2-dozen-places-to-self-educate-yourself-online/

• http://www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/ • http://www.innosightinstitute.org/innosight/

wp-content/uploads/2011/01/The-Rise-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf

• http://www.inacol.org/research/promisingpractices/NACOL_PP-BlendedLearning-lr.pdf