Continuing Education

While many outside of the education field do not see it, teachers are continually expanding their education. Whether it is through professional development provided by the school district, self learning on a tool or strategy specific to their content area, or taking courses during their free time through a university or other facility. That's what I have done, a course during my free time. I have signed up to take a course called LEC Online & Blended Learning Certification.

Over the past 5 years I have used Moodle as an LMS. I was thrown into this with little to no training, learning mainly on my own via trial & error.  While I can honestly say I've come a long way since then, after our face to face meeting to begin this new course, I know I've got a long way to go. To be in education today, we must embrace technology and respect its role in our classrooms and a student's educational process.I have used Moodle as a means to get information to my students & have them turn in work, thus saving paper. I've considered this the start of a hybrid class, but boy, are there some HUGE components I am missing.

Providing links or documents to information for students to access is only part of an online course. My ultimate goal while taking this course is to find ways to engage students when they are not sitting in front of me. The absence of my physical self has to be my focus. Right now I can easily track down a student and have a conversation with them. This will not always be the case. How can I best "instruct" to students while they are at home? The media center? Or anywhere other than a typical classroom environment? AND how can I create meaningful & engaging interaction between myself and my students?  Building a community among my students is also a priority. Students are encouraged to rely on each other in my classroom, work together, ask each other questions, etc. This should not be any different in an online class. And it needs to be continuous throughout the course.

Now these goals are mine for my personal classroom. But I also want to be able to share, inspire and encourage my colleagues to enhance their current Moodle courses (or whatever LMS they choose to use) to incorporate these items. I am fortunate to work with some amazing people that embrace technology whole heartedly, and there are some that are tolerating its integration into the classroom. And of course, there are those that are content with their current status. Now, I am not so naive to think that all teachers in my district will ever embrace technology in the way that I do. I have to be realistic about my own expectations. Any growth is better than none at all, and my job is to encourage and support growth to the degree that a teacher is comfortable with it, and will see the benefit of it for their students.

I hope as I learn new technologies, I'll be able to share them with staff (and show them I am right there learning with them) in such an enthusiastic and infectious way that soon they'll start calling me the Pied Piper, I'll be leading staff off into the land of technology!