5368+Reflection

**EDLD 5368**

Educators need to know how to design effective and appropriate online learning experiences for a number of reasons. One of the more powerful reasons, in my opinion, is that online courses help to transfer learning from the classroom to home and other real world situations. Wiggins and McTighe say that understanding is characterized by the ability to transfer learning to new situations. That transfer can be difficult to promote. I believe that students associate learning with the specific environment where they are taught. The use of an online learning tool that requires student participation in a variety of environments including school and home helps with the transfer that Wiggins and McTighe discuss. It is also becoming more and more important to be able to function in an online learning environment. More colleges and universities are expecting students to participate in online courses. Online interaction in all kinds of organizations including businesses is also becoming more prevalent. The idea that online learning is not appropriate for some students is not something we can afford to follow anymore. Students need to develop the discipline, study habits, and communication skills that are important to function in an online environment. The online learning environment can also involve parents in the course, giving them information about what students are learning and due dates. In this course we conducted needs surveys and used them and the readings from Understanding by Design to design an online course. I'll use the course I created to train teachers. Many of our teachers are using the Internet for research. The course I created is intended give teachers information and tools to teach students how to manage all the information they will encounter in their lives. It is focused on Internet research, but the ideas presented apply to all of the forms information can take. In this divisive political climate, it is becoming more and more important to determine the reliability of information. This will be a part of a larger course intended to ensure that teachers have the basic technology skills required by the SBEC. The concept of backward design will be something that I use to make this course a tool for teachers to design activities that incorporate technology into their core curriculum areas. I would like to make every technology offering an online course. The plan would be to provide a face to face day to help those who need help with the course and the skills it teaches. This would give every teacher experience with an online course. The teachers that attend the face to face course would get the same experience, but they would have the support of an instructional technology trainer to guide them through and provide hands on help if needed. I was not very happy with the schoology system. It had a good platform, but it was very basic and I would prefer a system with a wider variety of activities. I would like to learn more about some other platforms for online learning. I have learned a lot from this degree program through Lamar. Some more experience with structuring a unit of study would be good. This course was a very good start, but experience and guidance with more projects like this would be very helpful. It takes time and practice to develop the thought processes a part of all planning. This new learning will be a part of all of my planning for professional development. Our training is going to be put all online so I'll be developing several courses for teachers. I have to learn a few other systems for our courses, but this experience has prepared me to begin this initiative. The backward design concept has reinforced the need to make all of my training experiences apply to the classroom so teachers have a product that they leave with. It takes sustained training and practice to transfer learning to new situations. Often in professional development we don't get to take that much time or expect that much practice. My goal is to have teachers leave with a product that they can use in their classroom and a plan for doing so.

 Wiggins, G, & McTighe, J. (2005).  //Understanding by design//  [Expanded 2nd ed.]. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/lamar/docDetail.action?docID=10081770