For my e-learning initiative I am interested in developing the framework for a graduate course that would focus on the relationship between information and communications technology (ICT) and educational /school reform. This course would be designed for practicing teachers and educational technology specialists in K-12 settings. In particular I want to develop a course that prompts students to examine the particular contributions that ICT can make towards larger school reform by considering the following essential questions: 1) what kinds of learning environments and educational technologies are best for supporting innovative educational technology programs; 2) what kinds of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessments underlie effective reform efforts and 2) what are the characteristics of professional development programs that help sustain lasting and robust school reform?
I bring some knowledge (at fairly novice level) of some asynchronous and synchronous tools that can help engage students in these questions. Most of these tools I have become exposed to in the context of this program at JHU. I plan to conduct this initiative in a “blended” format meaning some meetings will take place in person and others will take place online. I plan for the live sessions to be conducted with a web-based conferencing platform I’ve been using, similar to Adobeconnect, that enables live video and audio conferencing. I would plan to have regular meetings with participants using this platform I’d plan to use some common asynchronous tools such as Voicethread. I'm impressed by the multimedia flexibility of voice thread and its user-friendliness. I would enable students to post reflections and collaborate with each other using voice thread while still providing other text-based forms of asynchronous communication such as blogs and wikis. Another tool I am intrigued by and gaining some familiarity with (although there is much to learn!) is Second Life. Second Life is a virtual 3-D environment that allows users to create an avatar and interact within an environment with other individuals. I see how Second Life environments can be used to support innovative professional development for educators by having visited some amazing Second Life site such as the ISTE site. I might plan to use Second Life throughout the course in order to help create a social space where participants can interact and gain access to additional resources related to educational technology and professional development. These resources would be selectively chosen to help students understand the relationship between ICT , professional development, and school reform.
Peter -
ReplyDeleteThank you for the detailed context for your initiative. This will be especially helpful moving forward as I review your plan and subsequent assignment. I really like the topic you have selected, focusing on technology as it relates to school reform efforts, rather than what we often see at the classroom level in terms of technology integration. I see a lot of the National Education Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A) published by ISTE as being relevant to your initiative -
http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-administrators/nets-for-administrators-sandards.aspx
It also seems you’ve thought already about how you can integrate a lot of innovative technologies into your initiative. We’ll look at some more of those in Week 5. Like you, I am intrigued by Second Life but admittedly haven’t had nearly as much time as I would like to further explore the possibilities, though also like you have seen how ISTE has used it for professional development.
I very much look forward to watching your plans unfold and seeing how you might integrate some exciting tools available into your initiative, and also see how you make the connections to school reform.
Donna