At the beginning of the school year, I wrote an article on Online Learning and provided some resources to help teachers move to the next level. The biggest takeaway is that online learning does not mean moving traditional style teaching and resources online. It doesn't work that way, and students need more guidance than to be passive receivers of information while being online. Now, we’ve seen, first hand, students are failing. Thomas Arnett recently published data regarding online learning for the public sector. His article can be found here. We are going to delve into his report, which coincides with my recent article. The data collected reveals that many teachers are moving their traditional forms of teaching online and attempting to do so using video conferencing software. Again, this is NOT online learning. Here are the statistics: only 15% of teachers are teaching in-person, 89% of teachers are using technology only to manage assignments (such as an LMS), 84% of teachers are using video conferencing software to deliver instruction, and only 56% are creating online lessons. Here is the most eye-opening statistic in the report; 42% of teachers using synchronous learning, replicate their in-person instruction. Based on the data, it is evident that teachers do not know how to deliver instruction online. This is no fault of their own, as many teachers graduated college decades ago when online learning wasn’t fathomable. More specifically, only 16% of teachers regularly used online learning prior to COVID! This is obviously unchartered territory for schools, teachers, and probably parents. There are a few positives to take away from this, however. Although teachers are struggling to find resources suitable for asynchronous learning compared to synchronous learning, teachers are beginning to curate more materials and modifying others to support their teaching. This is an early sign that educators are transitioning and teaching themselves how to better deliver instruction online. 79% of teachers report finding new resources and best practices to help them develop their skills for teaching online. This particular data point should be emphasized. Teachers are teaching themselves how to teach online. It is learning on the fly in unchartered territory. Here is where we missed the opportunity to prepare our teachers. According to the survey, school districts’ top challenge was the need to set up programs quickly, followed by quality of technology and programs available for teachers and course development. Teacher professional development on designing online learning was never mentioned and, therefore, is the reason why teachers are struggling to teach online. Rather than focusing on technology or rapidly developing courses, schools should have focused on the skills required to be an effective online teacher. The other aspects would follow. According to the survey, 71% of teachers who receive effective professional development for online learning feel they are able to better serve their students in such an environment. However, it isn’t evident how many teachers received effective professional development. Going forward, online learning isn’t going away when COVID settles down. This form of instruction will continue to grow and probably change the landscape of public education. Subsequently requiring teacher education programs to incorporate more online learning into their curriculum to better prepare new teachers for the change in instruction. Additionally, schools should be preparing to provide students online learning as a separate entity with different teachers, always as a separate school, and according to Arnett, separate administrators. Teachers should be hired with a background in designing online learning to better serve students and their families. Here is my plug.... Online PLNs can help tear down the barrier of teacher professional development. Here is a video of their benefits and here is a link to my doctoral research.
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Dr. Jeremy O'TooleInstructional Technologist Archives
December 2022
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