Some fear that our entire world will soon be online, run by robots, and humans will be fed knowledge and skills through implanted microchips. While this is not likely to occur, the current shift towards computer-based learning is causing trepidation amongst the traditionalists. I have contributed to these fears in my own practices. As a high school teacher I used Moodle to conduct online assessments and extend my classroom resources beyond the school day with student forums. Though I never did any blended learning (some days face to face and some online), I see many benefits to that arrangement and wish I could have tried it as a classroom teacher. I'd also enjoy the opportunity to do something entirely online.
Recently, I have been involved in conducting mostly online PD courses for Kent County districts. The courses generally start with an introduction session, and the rest of the learning is done in Moodle, monitored by myself and other course administrators. One focused on an introduction to Common Core and UDL, and I am about to start one that focuses on using ed. tech. to reach all learners (bringing special ed. and general ed. together). We use Moodle partly because it is free and partly because of its versatility as an LMS. The courses are quite successful, and we receive predominantly positive feedback from participants. Some users struggle because of low technology skills and unfamiliarity with Moodle. For those students, we have provided workshop sessions and tried to incorporate more experienced users in helping their colleagues. That has worked quite well, and now that I think about it, those are strategies that could be effective in other online courses. Teachers could provide voluntary face to face sessions and arrange for tutoring for struggling students. As long as it's not robots, right?
I have my own fears about online modules replacing teachers. I am not, however, worried about folks using Moodle to deliver online content as long as the teacher who created the content is teaching the class, too. My biggest concern is that schools start to see instruction as something more static and they forget about the social nature of learning whether it's writing and commenting on a blog like this or participating in a discussion forum or another type of interaction that happens between teacher and student or student and student. We've read some research that shows the benefits of these social interactions so I hope more research comes along confirming this need.
ReplyDelete