As
I reflect over this school year and the many successes and challenges teachers
and students faced, I ponder over what can assist both parties in their journey
towards success. Our district has outlined reading and math initiatives including
instructional shifts that will benefit students greatly, so what else is
needed. Teaching and learning in the 21st Century must effectively
integrate technology to prepare students to compete in a global society. With
this being stated, teachers and students at the elementary level should combine
face-to-face traditional teaching with distance education (blended learning) to
prepare young learners for technological advances in education. There is no
research to prove which delivery method produces the best results in student performance.
According to Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek (2015), “When courses are
designed and instruction delivered, what are the templates, the processes, the
approaches to be used to determine whether a module, course, or program should
be delivered face to face or online? Instructional design processes help the
instructor make informed decisions about technology use” (pg. 127).
Instructional Design
Instructional Design
As
an instructional coach, one of my major roles is to assist teachers during the
lesson planning process. During this time, teachers work collaboratively
through our district’s lesson plan protocol that is standards-aligned planning.
We focus on the standard(s) and the needs of students asking the following
questions:
·
What are my students’ misconceptions?
·
What background information is needed?
·
What barriers can I foresee?
·
What is/are the big take away(s)?
·
How do I deliver this information to the
different tiers of students?
·
How will I check for understanding and adjust?
Because our lesson
planning time is focused on making sure students are receiving and retaining
information with a conceptual understanding, Schoology will work well at my
elementary school. Schoology is an “LMS focusing upon individual students, tracking
the learning needs and outcomes over periods of time that can be several years
in length” (Simonson et.al, 2015).
Teaching
More than 200 educational tools and platform integrations teachers use to engage their students in the
learning process while integrating technology are already embedded within the
Schoology platform. This works well for young learners who find themselves on
other sites because they have typed in the wrong URL or accidently clicked on
another site. Teachers and students alike become frustrated and technology
becomes the distractor instead of the tool.
Students
Since
Schoology is a closed system, this allows students and teachers to have the
distance learning experience without the need to surf the World Wide Web. As an
educator of young students, this provides the ideal setting to incorporate Digital
Citizenship. Educators must teach and model proper online etiquette. As stated
in Simonson et. al (2015), “It is essential that students understand the
complexity of the distance education setting in order to be certain to
participate in an appropriate manner” (pg. 192). Additionally, Schoology provides a discussion
forum where students can collaborate with other students practicing what they
have learned regarding proper etiquette and content.
Support Material
Support
materials and how to use them are extremely important. Schoology provides
teachers and students the luxury of having support materials all in one place. It
reminds me of ACAP (Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program), the new
assessment for Alabama. Our school had the opportunity to be an ACAP Field Test
School and we administered the ACAP to our second graders. ACAP is not adaptive
like Scantron and it is packed with technology enhanced features like masking
(ability to cover parts of a problem and only focus on one part), cross-out
tool, highlighter, magnifier, and line guide. These are tools that students
will use as support during the state mandated test.
We must expose our students
to support materials and tools, so they are ready for the test and beyond. My
biggest fear is students will not do well, not because they do not know the content
but because they do not know how to navigate through the platform and use the
support materials and tools. According to Simonson et.al (2015), “teaching and
learning materials are critically important to the effective practice of
distance education” (pg. 223).
Assessment
Assessment
is the means of measuring learning gains and can be used to improve the
teaching-learning process in distance education settings, as well as
traditional environments (Simonson et.al, 2015). The analytics of Schoology provides
teachers with information regarding student performance aligned to the
standards. Teachers and students can identify gaps and learning and adjust.
References
[Jessie Metzger]. [2017, Nov 17]. Schoology analytics [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvBmhbUrHRc.
Simonson,
M., Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. (2015). Teaching and learning at a
distance: Foundations of distance education (6th ed.). Charlotte, NC:
Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Lisa, I believe you are locked in to some of the most important factors to consider in regards to digital learning. I really like your statement, "My biggest fear is students will not do well, not because they do not know the content but because they do not know how to navigate through the platform and use the support materials and tools." From my experience with High School students, I have identified transfer student students that display this in our school. As a school system that has been 1:1 since 2008, our students who have been enrolled since Kindergarten or 1st grade are very tech knowledgeable. After Middle School, the students have managed all of their face-to-face courses through Canvas as required by Board Policy. As High School teachers, we find ourselves assuming all students are at the same knowledge level with technology. What we have discovered it that many of our transfer students are only struggling in High School classes that have teachers using a digital format. Our High School teachers are not required to use Canvas, so it's very easy to identify students that are struggling with the technology, not the content. Simonson, Smaldino, and Svacek stated that "the student centered approach to learning fits well into distance education environments (2015, p.168). As we move towards more LMS in distance learning or face-to-face settings, we need to consider this student centered approach to allow students options. Unless the course standards requires specific applications, file type submission or LMS usage, we need to listen to the student voice on how they want to display content knowledge. I enjoyed your view on Schoology on the features it offers. From my experience, I feel it's important for the LMS to be streamlined across the system. Students need to know how to function the LMS early. Great Job!
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Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., and Zvacek, S. (2015). Teaching and Learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (6th ed.). Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.
One of the most powerful tools that teachers can use to guide instruction is student work. Schoology allows teachers to look at student needs based on their assignments not only within a school year, but also across school years. The ability to have an in house system to give you that type of information is powerful when working towards standardized testing. You have more data to grow your students than one set from one test given at the end of the school year. Simonson,Smaldino and Zvacek (2015) say it best "assessment is the means of measuring learning gains and can be used to improve the teaching-learning process in distance education settings, as well as traditional environments" (p. 252).
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