EDLD+5368+Instructional+Design+Reflections

I believe it is important for individuals in the educational community to experiment with diverse methods and tools to deliver content and facilitate learning. Online learning seems to be a very effective means of professional development and learning; thus, online learning creates the opportunity for those involved in education to further share their knowledge by designing and implementing online courses of their own. Many of today's learners benefit from the fact that online learning can be delivered in an asynchronous environment, allowing the participants to learn in a convenient manner on their own time, adapting to their individual schedules. Not only will learning and education be more accessible to individuals as a result of online availability, but I believe instruction will be more effective since technology allows the instruction to be more individualized to learners' needs and more engaging. The fact that teachers can create networks and share their knowledge through technology tools, such as Schoology will have far reaching benefits on the effectiveness of educational programs, along with an increase in number of educated people. This will lead to positive results in the workforce, and ultimately in our world, considering the Internet allows even the most remote locations to access higher education resources and tools.

Throughout the summer, when I have more time, I will probably develop the course I created for Schoology with a little more detail. Hopefully, time will permit me to experiment more with the tools and format of Schoology. I believe this will be a great tool to introduce to my colleagues and students. I will attempt to use the UbD model to create a few lessons that address the weakest objectives in my subject area. In addition, I plan to use the lessons I create as a model to demonstrate this tool (Schoology) to other teachers in my content area, as well as teachers of other subjects. I am expecting to encounter some resistance among teachers because everyone seems to be extremely busy, and a few are intimidated by technology and out of their comfort zone. However, I have been preparing some of my colleagues to participate in some informal professional development sessions over the summer, in which I will share information on professional learning communities and encourage others to participate. My primary focus of the PLC will be to share the information I have learned throughout the time I have been enrolled in the Educational Technology and Leadership Master's Degree program through Lamar Univeristy.

Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer? I definitely plan to integrate online learning as a teacher, as well as a staff developer. I will most likely attempt to perfect some of my own lessons, once they have been modified to align with the UbD more closely. After this adjustment, I will incorporate these lessons in to my online course created in Schoology. I feel that I will be more comfortable in creating and presenting these lessons to my own students, before attempting to target my colleagues. Once I have a greater familiarity and more confidence in my knowledge of Schoology, I believe I will create a unit of some sort in which I can share this information with other teachers. I eventually see myself presenting much of the newly acquired knowledge and sharing some this new information with other educators in hopes of moving our school to a higher academic rating.

It's hard to say exactly what questions I still have in regard to online learning. I feel that I have been involved in a very rigorous program, in which I have been exposed to some very powerful tools and resources. Many times, I felt like the program was too fast paced for me, simply because I did not have the time to explore each new tool and resource to the degree that I would have liked. I feel that this summer and the following school year will provide me with an opportunity to actually apply much of what I learned to address the specific needs on my campus. As this occurs, I am certain that many questions in regard to online learning will arise. However, the ability to collaborate with others in my field and exercise/apply the new knowledge and tools to address my questions will prove quite effective I feel sure.