The ARRA Ed Tech Grant uses federal stimulus dollars for the purposes of enhancing education through technology in the classroom, using a similar structure to the E2T2 system. In applying for the roughly $3 million, Iowa is prioritizing capacity-building for its schools to deliver K-12 online learning.
The needs for this are self-evident: Iowa has limited statewide options for online learning that pale in comparison to other states. This has come as the result of its fine educational system (and the pride that the state takes in it), as educators and community members alike have been slow to demand fixes when what we are used to "wasn't broken." But, times have changed, and the most vocal group for needing the benefits of online learning have been administrators.
To address this need, all 9 AEAs and 7 of the 8 largest districts in Iowa banded together to create a common proposal. They were awarded $2.7 million, to be used to address the needs of online learning for rural access, high teacher shortage areas, credit recovery, and disaster/pandemic preparation.
The specific action steps have quickly materialized:
Develop/purchase online content for schools to freely use
Link to and vet free online resources that exist on the web
Deliver professional development to train K-12 teachers in online pedagogy
Create a common repository for schools to access the content and deliver online learning
Partner with Iowa Learning Online, which brokers courses that districts can open up to other district students
One distinct thing about this is the speed at which things are moving. This isn't a 6-year development process before schools can peak behind the curtain (okay... maybe that was too blunt of an allusion). These things are coming quickly. We had a 100-teacher cohort complete summer training in online pedagogy from 19 different Iowa school districts, and we are currently in the middle of a train-the-trainer sequence for AEAs to deliver their own training. We also will have purchased some content from Florida Virtual Schools this fall, and will have the repository up and running by next summer.
I've had the pleasure to work closely with Nancy Movall, who was named the grant specialist, and has been overseeing the governance of the grant. Nancy has been vigilant about 3 things--sustainability, efficiency, and results. The grant's funds are limited to one year, so purchasing seats in a program like Plato or Apex won't have any sustaining effects. Neither would they be transformative, as it would emphasize the same detached form of online learning that schools had been engaged in, one where the student works through endless modules in isolation.
She has stressed that we need to own content, that we need to make one-time purchases and have the content indefinitely. This will include some local development, geared around specific aspects of the essential skills and concepts. But given that we have limited resources in the area of instructional design, we have to be systemic about what we choose to develop ourselves.
Most importantly to Nancy, we need to avoid situations where teachers are developing content on their own. It is a model that is highly inefficient, and past track records have shown a tendency to take traditional face-to-face lessons and move them online, not taking advantage of the features about online learning to make it unique. Instead, teachers will be trained on how to take existing content, be they units, lessons, activities, or resources, and weaving them together for a powerful learning experience.
So, what do schools need to know? First and foremost, that help is coming. Schools interested in systemic professional development in online pedagogy now have an option, the OLLIE sequence. This professional development can be delivered in different formats to fit a school's needs. In addition, schools will have a solid base of content to choose from within a year's time, eliminating the need to purchase high quantities of seats in packaged programs. Plus, the process for schools to become participants in the arena of online learning will be made much easier with the resources that Iowa Learning Online offers.
More and more, I receive random emails or calls from those with an interest in teaching online. The reasons for their interest are different; some are looking at retirement and see this as a more flexible way to stay in teaching, others see themselves as changes agents for educational delivery, be it a constructivist pedagogy or a tech-infused classroom, and online learning is the next frontier. Some in this rough economy see teaching online license renewal courses as a decent part-time job that allows them to keep their present position. And still others are being asked to by administrators.
Whatever the reasons, my responses are usually the same. Online teaching is not easy. Whether you thought so or not, you have to understand that it isn't as simple to do what you do in a face-to-face classroom, only this time with a keyboard.
I've seen several good face-to-face teachers who are not able to teach online (and vice versa). It is a completely different skill set. Not an impossible one, mind you (and certainly one we need to learn as a state). But it is different.
Here are the ten pieces of advice (not in importance, but rather in terms of when you'll encounter them) that I would recommend for any person looking to become an online teacher:
#10. Take an Online Course
Or five. You'll learn more from being a student in an online environment than you will researching it. You will see first hand what type of organizational structure or communication patterns work for you and what don't work at all.
Of course, a problem is that there are currently many bad online courses out there. My wife recently completed one where she was asked to read the two articles and make two reflective posts in the forum each week for 9 weeks. And that's it. She never discussed the content with her instructor or fellow classmates... it was simply a sequence of hoops to jump through for her credit. So, take the course with a critical eye, and take a variety of courses to gain some perspective. This one step will help you not just at the beginning, but throughout your online teaching career.
#9. Online Teaching is Time Consuming... Have a Plan!
You know, when I receive evaluative feedback from my participants at the end of the course, the most frequent comment is how surprising the amount of work is. They were thinking an online course would be less work than a face-to-face course.
The same misperception holds true for the teacher as well. It takes a considerable amount of time to read student's work, answer student questions, communicate through announcements, etc. Your evening hours can quickly evaporate. What makes it worse, students who are used to getting an answer immediately in a face-to-face class will wonder why you haven't emailed back to their question (it's been 5 minutes already!!!).
For your own sake, have a plan of when you will be teaching. Block out some time from your schedule. And communicate this plan to your students. Let them know that Wednesday is "Church Night" and you will be busy, or Saturday morning is spent watching each of your sons' flag football games. Let them know when you will be grading assignments, and how frequently you respond to questions. The more up front planning and communication you can add, the more sane your life will be. Which leads us to...
#8. Communication Online IS Different
You probably already get the whole netiquette, "You-don't-know-how-they-will-interpret-sarcasm-online-so-don't-use-it" thing. And yes, use emoticons.
But there is much more. As an instructor, you have to use many different tones, be it analytical, informal, inquisitive, humorous, concerned, reassuring, or more. You have to know how to phrase things positively, even when students aren't reading the directions (which you will be tested on even before your first class starts). And, you need to know when and how to jump in to online discussions, helping steer them to the learning outcome you desire, without people knowing you are steering them.
#7. Remember, Online Students Have Issues, Too
Which, is better stated as "Online Students have Needs". They will need to have clarity about assignments, meaning you will need to provide many levels of support. That includes a "Question & Troubleshooting Forum", screencast tutorials showing how to navigate the site, and virtual office hours for asking questions.
But the bigger needs are social needs. Students need to get to know other people. Research out of UW-Madison has shown an interesting phenomenon: When students rate the quality of online courses, even if they are in the exact same course, they will pick different reasons why it was a good course or not. But actually, the biggest constant for good courses vs. bad courses is something that appears later in the survey... how well did you get to know your fellow students. Even though participants can't articulate this, their perception of being in a close social group in class makes the class good.
Social presence can be built in several different ways. How you have students introduce themselves is critical. How you have them keep connected at the end of the class is critical. And, how you structure assignments so that there is honest interaction, requiring a person to converse with others is critical. As a beginner online teacher, this is a hard area to perfect right away.
#6. Flexibity... and yet, structure
Online courses are synonymous with being flexible. "Any time, place or pace" is the mantra.
Well, that's not quite correct. Flexibility is important, even more so than in a face-to-face environment. In addition to differences of prior knowledge, learning preferences, and favorite topics, online courses bring in differences of technological proficiency and technological access (doing certain online activities on dial-up = not fun). So, it is important to provide choices for students.
But, that doesn't mean you don't have due dates. Letting students wait until the last day of class where they turn everything in is a recipe for disaster. Items like pacing charts help students budget their time to meet weekly due dates. And with each choice, you will want to provide models of the desired outcome as well as the steps to get there, so students can see clearly the path of their learning. Without this structure, students are left wandering the great desert of online courses.
#5. Need-to-know vs. Nice-to-know
The most common mistake a new teacher make is putting too much into their course, not too little. Myself included. I haven't had a course yet where I haven't taken out considerable portions after teaching it the first time (I know... if you have taken my course, you are allowed to say "No Fair!")
When you design your course, be sure you clearly identify what you want your students to know, and then stick to it. If you have other material, clearly identify it as "Enrichment" that participants can learn on their own.
#4. Make it Interactive
This video really says it all:
Interaction isn't jump-through-the-hoops forums. Your class need to have high quality multi-media, simulations, scenario-based activities, and role-playing.
#3 You can't just take everything off the internet
Take some time to understand copyright, including Creative Commons. Copyright for an online classroom is very grey at the moment. While you are a teacher and you are guided by fair use policies, you also are putting things on the web. There is debate right now between whether a learning management system like Moodle is an online classroom or a webpage (which has a great impact on whether you can use items through fair use).
#2 Rethink assessment
How could you assess student ability to graph inequalities online? How about singing? Physical agility and endurance? Oral speaking?
Not everything can be taught online, but more can than you think. A common mistake is, for a performance-based objective, an online teacher will require non-performance-based assessment. Taking a multiple-choice quiz to see how well you can sing, for example. There are a multitude of tools out there, be it podcasting or data-collection tools (heart-rate monitors and video cameras for a PE class, for example). Don't settle for inferior forms of assessment.
#1 Make it fun
You know which face-to-face courses are fun within minutes of being in them. The instructor has a personality, uses humor, and doesn't take themselves too seriously, making everyone feel relaxed and safe to learn in the process. That's harder to do online, but just as critical. How can you make your course fun right away?
From the moment you introduce yourselves to your students, let them know your personality. Use personal anecdotes. Use a theme throughout the course (best online course I took was from a Disney nut, who kept putting random images of Walt Disney World throughout the course). And, be sure to show them you are not perfect either. Show them how you have learned the content you are currently teaching, and point out some of the mistakes you made at the beginning too. All of these things make the course more enjoyable and safe for students.
As I mentioned yesterday, we have 2 concurrent initiatives regarding online learning in the state at the moment. The first, which had been called "the statewide system" for months, has now been dubbed "AEA PD Online." But, what is AEA PD Online?
A little over 3 years ago, the chief administrators of Iowa's AEAs commissioned what was called the AEA Online Council. It featured at least one representative from each AEA, and the representatives came from a set of diverse roles within their respective AEAs; we had Educational Service directors, Media Service directors, Educational Technology consultants, and License Renewal coordinators in our group. In addition, we had representatives from other partners, such as the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Learning Online, and IPTV. Recently, that has expanded to included representatives from higher education as well.
The chief administrators commissioned the group out of a concern of duplicating resources. There was the reality that as AEAs began to develop online content or online professional development, there would be some unnecessary duplication from one AEA to another if they did not communicate. So, in its infancy, the Online Council was that vehicle for communication.
It did not take long for the members of the council to realize that by actually pooling together resources and proactively working together, they could work most efficiently, producing the most amount of professional development for the money. This could only happen if the AEAs worked as a system with dedicated staff and resources being not for one AEA, but for all the AEAs. In 2009-10, it was a goal of the council to make this system a reality, and by this last summer, we had hired a project manager to oversee the system, started laying down our online technological supports of a registration system, Moodle server, and website, and developing a legal agreement to govern this new system. The birth of AEA PD Online.
The mission of the Online Council is:
To develop a statewide system for development of content for online professional learning related to statewide efforts and mandates by determining the vision and managing the process
To develop a single, transparent system for delivery of online professional learning content
To serve as an advocate for quality online professional learning by collaborating with other state organizations
AEA PD Online will bring to Iowa educators those 3 things. Our goal is to offer 150 online courses in 2011 and double that for 2012. Included in this are the rapid deployment of several state initiatives, including Iowa Core professional development, the Intel Elements series, training on the Google Apps, and the OLLIE professional development series. We have recently added a training to our training server on 103b Overview of State Requirements Regarding Seclusion and Restraint, a legally-required area of professional development for Iowa schools, and we have plans to continue adding more. We will aggregate the webinars and webinar recordings from the AEAs in one place, and will help host statewide webinars. And similarly, we will gather together and support the online communities that allow Iowa teachers to connect with each other.
SO, WHEN DOES THIS HAPPEN?
The AEAs, through AEA PD Online, are in the process currently of applying for license renewal provider process, a process that should go through December. By that time, the aforementioned registration system and Moodle server will be put in place, meaning we will see our first official "statewide" courses in April. However, individual AEAs are already hosting online courses. A list of them can be found on the AEA website. The training server has already existed statewide for some time, although individual trainings are new. And, while the aggregation of current webinars, recordings, and online communities will happen once our new website goes live in April, you will see more efforts in those areas in the spring.
But, this does not happen without you. We need instructors willing and interested in teaching online. And, teaching online is not the same as teaching face-to-face. If you have a desire to teach online or want to know more, please contact me.
In an upcoming post, we'll look at what it takes to be an online instructor, and let you see if it would be right for you.
I had promised to myself that I'd have met my year-long goal of re-designing the look of the blog before I started blogging again, but that's still a work in progress.
In the meantime, it is fall conference time, and I'll be presenting at the following in October:
"10 Things You Need to Know About Being an Online Teacher" at ITEC
"Technology Isn’t Enough: Structuring Your Gifted Program to Fully Utilize Digital Learning" at the Iowa Talented and Gifted Association conference.
But, I'm more excited about what has happened over this past summer. The AEAs are making headway to having a statewide system for online professional development, a one-stop shop for Iowa educators for online trainings, webinars, online communities, and for-credit online courses. That should roll out this winter, with complete offerings in those areas up and running next summer.
In addition, the AEAs are collaborating with the districts of Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Dubuque, Iowa City, Sioux City, and Waterloo on a federal stimulus money grant. The grant brings nearly $3 million to the state to build the state's capacity to deliver online learning for K-12 students, especially in the areas of rural schools, high-need/teacher shortage areas, and credit recovery. The grant will do this through 1) systemic professional development, 2) collection and development of content that is free for Iowa's schools to use, and 3) creation of a repository for online learning to take place.
These are two big developments (and directly responsible for my blogging hiatus), and Iowa's teachers and students will greatly benefit. In upcoming posts, I'll help highlight the details of these developments.
My time to blog has pretty much evaporated over the past month, as we are busy working on the Online Learning for Iowa Educator consortium this summer, as well as putting in motion several items to develop the statewide system for online professional development. Here's a quick update:
Northwest AEA and Prairie Lakes AEA are holding their 3-day TICL (Technology Integration and Instruction for the 21st Century Learner) conference starting today. I present today at 1:00 at Buena Vista University on the professional development opportunities available online for educators. I've included my presentation below.
In addition to me, there are several presentations on online learning, Moodle, and online courses for K-12 students. Many schools in these AEAs have already considered implementing K-12 online courses (and a few are on their way to putting those in place in 2010-11). This promises to be a good chance to see what others are doing and considering.
This is the question that I've recently discussed with superintendents and principals across Iowa, at least those who are seriously considering the benefits of online learning and the future reality of it as well. Here's a synopsis of what they have said:
SCENARIO 1: CREDIT RECOVERY Our number of dropouts is way too high. We've got students who fail a semester of algebra 1, which means they cannot enroll in second semester or geometry the following year until they pass. This puts them a year behind. Fail again, they are now 2 years behind with almost no way of graduating on time, just because of math courses alone (or substitute in the science course sequence).
If we could have our present curriculum placed in an online format, a student can work through the portions of the course they failed with the assistance of an at-risk teacher; do so at their own time, pace, and place; and be back on track for graduation. We could purchase packaged programs like E2020 or Apex, but that yearly cost is expensive, and if we had our own online curriculum, it saves money for more at-risk teaching staff.
SCENARIO 2: CONSORTIUMS FOR TEACHER-SHORTAGE AREAS It is difficult to find a Spanish teacher in many rural school districts, let alone a language like Chinese or Arabic. Plus, the vocational areas of Family Consumer Science and Industrial Technology are hard to staff as well. On top of that, in many schools, those teachers have class sizes of 5-10 students, making it hard to justify the costs.
Sharing staff between two districts has worked somewhat well, but consider the time spent for the teacher to drive between one district or the next. Instead, what if we had the teacher teach online, putting students from 3 different schools in the same course and raising numbers to a more sustainable amount. That teacher could drive to a different school each day (as opposed to several within a day) and still keep the course going.
SCENARIO 3: FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES If you like impossible puzzles, you should try developing our master schedule for next year. There is no way to get courses placed so that students can be out for Band, Choir, and Computers, which not only upsets the students, it also upsets the teachers of those respected programs.
But if we offered that Computers course online, then the student could take it during their free hour, whenever that would be. Or if they have a full schedule, they could still take the course and work as time permits. That flexibility sure makes scheduling an easier proposition.
SCENARIO 4: ADVANCED COURSES The hardest students from scenario 3 are students who are the most academically-inclined. Not only because they are more likely to fill up their schedule rather than take a study hall, but also because their courses tend to be ones that there are only 1-2 sections of it (and in many cases, courses whose numbers don't allow a separate section, like scenario 2).
The result is if we have a student enrolled in Advanced Algebra 2, AP Biology, Honors Humanities, Advanced Chemistry, Band, Choir, Journalism (because they are the school newspaper editor), and Honors US History, as well as PE somewhere, they are over capacity, despite often having the ability and desire to take all of those courses. But, by putting Honors US History, Honors Humanities, Advanced Chemistry or Advanced Algebra 2 online, we have some flexibility we didn't have before.
SCENARIO 5: FLEXIBILITY, PART 2 I have a student who was recently suspended, and because of tensions with fellow students, I don't want him back in his course. Or, I have a student who is pregnant and finds it difficult to be in a class with other students. Or, I have a student who consistently butts heads with our one and only government teacher, and government is a required course. I wish I had another option.
SCENARIO 6: FUNDING OPPORTUNITY In addition to the other scenarios, we have enthusiastic staff and belief that this is the future of education. If by putting our courses online we can offer them to other schools, we could stand to get weighted funding from those students. In essence, online learning makes increased enrollment a possibility.
ACCESS & LEARNING Here's the upshot, of course. All of those have to do with the access of the curriculum to the student, which is a primary reason for online learning, and realistically, this is where Iowa's administrators should be initially thinking. But at some time, we also need to get to the point where we see students learn more from an online or blended learning opportunity. That, even if the above were not true, there would still be benefits to putting a course online in that it:
Is a media-rich environment
Allows both synchronous and asynchronous communication
Uses ongoing group collaboration
Connects students with outside resources and people
Creates a digital portfolio of student work
Puts the student in a position where she can share her work with the larger world easier
I don't know when the conversation in Iowa will turn from "Online learning brings us better access" to "Online learning brings us better learning"; what I see is that until the first one is fully understood by a majority of Iowa educators, the second one cannot happen. But ultimately, we need to get to that second conversation.
Here's a quick list of some of the summer AEA online courses available with links for more info and registration. Note that in some cases, 2 sections of the course are offered... I have linked to each section by their dates.
I'm teaching the courses with an asterisk by their titles.
