In this course, I have designed an online course for professional learning. This fits into my position at school as an instructional technology specialist. As I look to other courses in my school that I could redesign into online courses I have decided on two. One would actually be a district wide course – new teachers orientation. The other would be for all of the students in my school – digital citizenship.
Every year the new teachers in my district attend a full week of orientation. So much information is shared in a short period of time and it is hard for the new teachers to retain it all. Teachers learn about programs, such as Special Education and English Language Learners and they learn school district policies and technology (this is just a short list of what is actually covered).
By changing the district orientation to an online course, teachers could be given access to the course as soon as they are hired. The new teachers could work through the coursework over an extended period and are more likely to retain what they learn. As opposed to jamming all of the content into a one week course. It would also give the new teachers experience using the LMS that they will be using with their students. This experience would be from the student perspective which is important as the LMS does not allow teachers to impersonate students so they never really see how students view work in the LMS.
Instead of having weekly assignments, the assignments would be for each topic (Special Education, ELL, etc). Different types of learning, such as videos with embedded questions, interactive review games, etc would be used as a method of learning with assessments or other types of evidence of learning to ensure that there is accountability for what is learned. A discussion board would be a place for new teachers to collaborate with each other and district personnel. This would also give teachers experience using technology tools and programs that we use in the district. Tutorials for the technology tools and programs would be available in a resource library. Weekly meetings would be scheduled. but in a different way. There would be weekly meetings in two hour blocks, with meetings for all topics being available each week, that way it would not matter when someone was hired, they would still have access to the meeting for that topic. Also, teachers would only have to attend meetings that they felt they needed to (not all new teachers in a district are new teachers, but all have to attend our current orientation). Teachers would also have access to the course all year so they have a place to refer to if any questions arise.
The other course I would redesign is digital citizenship. Digital Citizenship is currently taught as part of an elective class, and does not get the attention that is needed. The class works through scenarios and has discussions, but that is all that happens. I would move this class to its own online course that all students must take during advisory.
Students would work through each topic and then demonstrate their learning. There would be a variety of methods for learning such as: videos, discussions, quizzes, collaborative projects and video reflections. This is a perfect class to give students an opportunity to have a choice and voice in their learning. A new topic would be introduced each month. Students would earn badges after successful completion of each topic.
Sandra Negro 