Course+Embedded+Reflections+-+EDLD+5368

In reflecting upon teaching and learning styles, I believe that a highly effective teacher will appreciate, accept, and encompass qualities, skills and knowledge from all 3 learning styles, Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism, to such a degree that it allows them to effectively plan instructional opportunities that address the different learning styles and/or the combination of these styles that their students are going to possess.

I have always taken pride in knowing that I have held myself and my students to a high level of expectation. As I looked at the results of my Teaching Style Inventory, which placed me in the D quadrant of both the Teaching Goals and Teaching Method Matrix, I realized that my teaching methodology is in fact inclusive of all 3 learning styles to varying degrees.

In regards to the Behaviorism side of my teaching, I always try to plan and allow opportunities for the learner to acquire skills of discrimination (recalling facts), generalization (defining and illustrating concepts), association (applying explanations), and chaining (automatically performing a specified procedure). To the Cognitivism side, as a teacher I know and understand that learning results when information is stored in memory in an organized, meaningful way. This is why I go to great lengths to plan my lessons is a manner that allows for this level of assimulation.

As for Constructivism, I understand that the focus is on the process not the product, the role of teacher is that of a mentor not a “teller”, it encourages reflective thinking and higher-order learning skills, encourages testing viability of ideas and seeks alternative views. It is particularly in the areas of math and science that I feel my Constructivist side is most apparent and ultimately where my strengths lie. As a classroom teacher, I planned more group activities that allow for indepth research, collaboration, group discussion, and the opportunity to explore alternate methods and solutions. I love to see the high level of engagement and learning that inevitably takes place during these types of learning opportunities.

The activities dealing with teaching and learning styles have provided me with greater clarity as to the why and how I teach the way I do. I can't say that I would change the way I have been doing things, but I could see myself recommending the use of a learning style survey, such as the one I utilized in this course, to other classroom teachers. I would express to them that it would make them aware of the learning styles for each new group and individual learners they receive every year. The information gained from such a survey is helpful for the teacher, but can be much more valuable to the learner/student themselves. As the saying goes, “Half the battle is in the knowing.”

The experience and knowledge I gained from the activities pertaining to the development of a Professional Development course for faculity/employees, is about to become extremly useful for me in my new position as a district level Technology Integration Facilitator. I recently obtained my certification as a professional Smartboard SmartNotebook trainer. As a result, I will of course be expected to provide trainings within my district., which would ultimately help support “teachers practice putting engagement before content when teaching” (Prensky, 2005/2006, p. 10).

Just last week, I suggested a possible week long Professional Development course that would offer GT credit hours to be offered this summer. My technology leaders were very pleased and open to my suggestion, but they immediately advised me of the necessary next steps that would need to be taken, before a course was to be offered.

First, I was asked to develop a needs assessment survey, that was aimed at determining whether there was an actual need and/or want for this type of training. After doing a bit of research, I developed an online survey within a Moodle site for SAISD district employees to complete. Next, I must type up and submit an Executive Summary. Basically it would provide information for the following questions.

- Where do we want to be? - Where have we been? - Where are we? - How are we going to get there? - How will we know if we are getting there? - When should we be there? - What are the resources needs/issues? - Project cost estimate? - Critical Deadline? - Budgeted Funds? - Consequence(s) of Non-Approval? - Executive/Cabinet team members responsible?

Once the summary is viewed and then hopefully approved, my Technology Director would submit the proposal to the Executive Director of Technology for further review. After this point, I am not quite clear on the process. All of this just occurred last Thursday, December 2, 2010, so I am still needing to ask many more questions.

My point is, that the entire experience and process of carrying out a needs assessment, and being knowledgable of NSDC standards, especially those that deal with the area of design and being able to identify what the learner needs to know, will be extremely valuable to me as I attempt to design a week long professional development course. In creating this course I must remember that “Technology-related professional development programs need to provide teachers with a variety of activities such as modeling, discussion, brainstorming of ideas, hands-on actions, and just-in-time support” (Mouza, 2002/2003, p. 285).

In regards to the benefits of online learning, I learned the greatest benefit is that it allows more flexibility for the learner to complete an assigned task. An example being completion of a professional development course. By design, an online course can be completed on any computer (with internet access of course) at any time, anywhere. This is a huge plus in the life of an educator.

Last year, my previous district began utilizing online learing to complete several Professional Development trainings via Avatar Web-based Learning Portal. The number one question that staff members asked when it came to completing a course was, “Can I take this course at home?” When I anwered yes, many of them opted to complete it at a time and place they felt was more convienent for them. When the tight time and location constraints were lifted, there seemed to be more acceptance and willingness to complete the tasks, which I can only hope resulted in a higher levels of learning.

Other educational advantages of online learning include (Blackboard, 2000): • Enhancing student-to-student and faculty-to-student communication. • Enabling student-centered teaching approaches. • Providing 24/7 accessibility to course materials. • Providing just-in-time methods to assess and evaluate student progress. • Reducing "administrivia" around course management.

A big part of my job as as CIT was customer service and creating a positive learning environment for my students and staff as they learned more about technology integration. With the use of online learning opportunities I saw some positive results. My staff really seemed to embrace the freedom that online learning provided for them.

The course I designed for my Staff Development Course within Schoology was one that I could have used with my staff at the beginning of this school year (had I still been employed with the district.) The title of my course was “Designing and Delivering Effective Instruction Refresher.”

As we started the year looking at the various data for the previous year, both positive and negative, and discussing areas in need of improvement (based on the data I gathered from the Scoring Tool for the Professional Development Needs Survey), which in our case was in the areas of 1) Assessment and 2) Curriculum Design.

I used the word “refresher” in the title of my course, because it would have been exactly that. Last year was the third year my campus utilized the Designing and Delivering of effective Instruction (i.e. DDI) model based on the work of Mageline Hunter. I feel that a “refresher” course would been very beneficial to all returning teachers and would have also served as a basic “introductory” to the DDI model for all new teachers until such a time that a full training could have been provided.

I also would have welcomed the opportunity to introduce a new free open-source product to teachers; Schoology. There are usually at least 1-2 “tech savvy” individuals that are willing to experiment with any new technology resource I introduced.

As a CIT and now as a Technology Integration Facilitator, I have had the opportunity to develop training documents for courses and then published them for viewing and completion via our Learning Management System by Avatar. I realize there are several different open-source Learning Management Systems available today and one of the more popular right now seems to be Moodle. My previous district had just recently purchased a Moodle server, which I am assuming would have led to the district’s utilization of Moodle as a source of deployment for many of their future training courses and teacher online course content. Within my currently district, Moodle is heavily relied upon and used as an online course development program.

Through my studies and experience via this Master’s program, I definitely embrace the opportunity to use online learning in my new role as a district level Technology Instructional Facilitator. Why wouldn’t I? Afterall, online education is defined as, “An approach to teaching and learning that utilizes Internet technologies to communicate and collaborate in an educational context. This includes technology that supplements traditional classroom training with web-based components and learning environments where the educational process is experienced online” (Blackboard, 2000). It is the perfect way of modeling for teachers, how online learning can be used with learners.

Being in a district level position within the Instructional Technology Department, I feel that an indepth knowledge and understanding of both the benefits and disadvantages of online learning will only help me as I help to support future district initiatives in the development and deployment of future Professional Development opportunities. If all of the disadvantages and pitfalls of online learning are known ahead of time and all necessary measures are taken to avoid them, then all of the advantages of online learning can be taken advantage of and would ultimately result in a positive learning experience for both teacher and student.

** References ** Blackboard. (2000). Educational Benefits of Online Learning. Retrieved May 15, 2010, from Blackboard: [|www.blackboard.com]

Mouza, C. (2002/2003). Learning to teach with new technology: Implications for professional development. Journal for Research on Technology in Education, 35(2), 272-89.

Prensky, M. (2005/2006). Listen to the natives. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8-13.