Online Learning to Support Educator

Professional DevelopmentBarbara Treacy

i3 Grantees MeetingOctober 15, 2012

Questions What are the advantages/challenges of

online PD? What have we learned about making online

PD effective? What are some examples? How do we build effective online PD,

learning communities and coaching models? How do we keep it dynamic and engaging?

How do we prepare teachers to facilitate and design online PD?

What technologies should we use?

Online Learning Opportunities Flexibility: Anytime, anyplace learning

Access: To experts and resources that may not be available locally

Reflection and deeper learning: Educators participate and interact with colleagues on their own schedules

Personalization: Custom paths for a variety of goals Cost-effectiveness: Eliminates travel/related costs Extended learning over time: Opportunities for

educators to try things out in classrooms with feedback

Scalability and sustainability: Capacity-building approaches work

Assessment: Increased access to learner data

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

-Alvin Toffler

What’s Different about Online Learning? Content: Different structure of content

Technology: Increasing choice of tools; some will disappear quickly and technical issues can occur regularly

Accessibility: Online learning increases access but access and accessibility issues must be addressed

Social dynamic: Different interaction methods & pacing; new strategies needed to address cohort & individual needs

Discussion: Specific facilitation strategies needed; importance of written communication and “online voice”

Assessment: New tools available but new strategies needed

Facilitation and design: Labor intensive activities!

More on Accessibility Needs Video and audio: requires captioning, transcripts,

ability to pace to be fully accessible Multi-media requirements not activated in schools Image descriptions needed for webpages/documents PDF’s not accessible to many screen readers; must

create word or other accessible versions of documents

CMS’s are generally designed to address accessibility but won’t insure uploaded content is accessible

For more info and to test accessibility of a webpage: http://webaim.org

Example Program: E-Learning for Educators

Goal: build state online teacher PD programs focused on content, pedagogy, student learning

10 state consortium: AL, DE, KY,MD, MO, MS, NC, NH, PA, WV

Funded in 2005 by USED Capacity building approach: EDC online

facilitator & course developer training for all states

Few face-to-face meetings; virtual learning community anchored whole program

Large-scale experimental research showed significant impact on teachers and students

Impact: Ability to Scale 10 state programs aligned to unique state

goals 500+ workshop facilitators trained 2000+ workshops delivered 25,000+ participants completed workshops 450+ course developers trained 91% teachers rated workshops excellent/very

good 98% teachers agreed/strongly agreed courses

aligned with their school’s PD goals 96% facilitators rated training excellent /very

good

State Example: DE Science Course

“Delaware Watersheds” Created and facilitated byDE educators trained to design and deliver online PD Developed to provideconvenient, high quality PDfor 7th grade teachersassigned to teach DelawareWatersheds, an integrated Earth Science

course taughtacross the state 

Research Study Goal: examine the effect of online PD on teacher

knowledge, practices, and student learning Conducted by: Boston College Included: 4 large-scale randomized

experiments using 3 workshops designed by EDC for teachers in:– English/Language Arts (4th and 8th Grades)– Math (5th and 7th Grades)

Participation: 369 Teachers; 21,000 Students Results: Significant impact on teachers and

students across subjects/grades

Example Research Course: Functions

Online PD Lessons and Challenges Facilitators need training, incentives & time

Content development is labor intensive & requires training

Multi-media can be costly; little research on cost benefits, especially video

Marketing strategy needed to generate teacher enrollment

Content must be dynamic; requires updating Credit or incentives for participants boosts participation Course management system is needed; requires

investment Need for registration systems as program grows Important to integrate with other initiatives/programs Sustainability requires attention to cost structures/fees

Key Lesson: Importance of Learning Community Models

“Learning is social, and we will all get better at our projects and at learning from each other by social learning together.”

-John Seely Brown, USC and Deloitte Center for the Edge

How do we keep online learning dynamic and engaging?

Ten Tips for Effective Online Facilitation1. Make everyone feel welcome & heard;

create a comfortable environment2. Establish clear goals & expectations at the outset3. Provide behind-the-scenes support via email4. Foster communication between participants5. Model participation & discussion techniques for

participants6. Keep the discussion alive; prevent stagnancy7. Keep the discussion on-topic8. Guide participants through the curriculum9. Make sure the audience & the content are in sync10. Bring closure to each topic before moving onhttp://courses.edtechleaders.org/documents/opd/ETLO_Ten_Tips.htm

Building Online Learning Communities: Learning by Doing

Technology Considerations Focus on the learning goals! More choices than ever now; multiple ways to meet

goals Hardware is cheaper, more ubiquitous, more mobile Explosion of Web 2.0/apps: easy to use but hard to

use well Increased access to broadband – but still need to

design for all access levels Multi-media development is costly, and so are the

updates Facilitator training: more important than “tool”

training“A focus on expanding access to new technologies carries us only so far if we do not also foster the skills and cultural knowledge necessary to deploy those tools toward our own ends.” -Henry Jenkins, USC

Choosing Technology Tools Course Management Systems

Integrate content, discussion, assessment, data collection, users, social media

Support courses, coaching and more

Social Media Supports formal/informal learning;

courses and coaching Varied uses/user roles: creation,

lurking, sharing, collaboration, communication

Synchronous/asynchronous options Examples: blogs, wikis, micro-

blogging, social networking, virtual meetings, content sharing, Google Apps, etc.

Recap: Key Lessons Online learning is different; requires careful

attention to goals, planning, training, design, technology tools and implementation

Online PD can improve educator practice and student learning

Online learning community models foster reflection and inquiry based approaches with careful facilitation

Learning goals must lead; technology supports Technology and online learning can enable

scale Online learning is not a simple solution: can

be effective but requires time and resources

“If we want our students to succeed in a global environment, then we, as educators, must be engaged in 21st century content, context, tools, thinking skills and

assessment. Thanks to online learning I am a 21st

century life-long learner!”

-JoAnn Nuzum, WV online facilitator and developer

The power of connected learning

Thank you!

Barbara TreacyEdTech Leaders Online http://edtechleaders.org

Education Development Center http://edc.org