Preparation for Online Instruction

In regards to the technical preparation for school, my cooperating teacher focuses greatly on programming languages, PHP, HTML, and CSS. I learned HTML back in like 2005 and still use it off and on, depending on what I choose to involve myself in. Sometimes, just to brush up on things, I will choose the raw code view for the posts to D2L and see can I see it before hand/predict and also, look for new things. Interestingly enough, codes for line breaks, font attributes, picture orientation and size, etc, have changed drastically since then, or have become completely obsolete and now are controlled/set with CSS.

PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor; it is server programming language. HTML, Hyper Text Markup Language, is website language that can be interpreted by a browser, no server needed. CSS, Cascading Style Sheet, affect the way a web page's text looks. So, for instance, when I learned HTML, I was learning to write a web page for my parents. When I did this, HTML was used to determine the placement and orientation of everything on the screen, images, text, 'add to cart buttons', checkout, etc. Then CSS was used to change the way text looked, this way, Titles, product descriptions, item quantity, etc. was different. PHP was used to set up the shopping cart, order generating, logins, etc. It took a lot to learn HTML, and I didn't have the energy or time to move forward to PHP, because that was the end of the summer.

HTML has since gone through 5 different transitions. Thankfully, much of the language's essence is still the same, but the changes must be kept up with if I am to stay current. The website that I used, which is excellent, is http://www.w3schools.com/. Just as they said, I recommend those wanting to learn use notepad to write the code, not a program like DreamWeaver, because you need to KNOW the language by the text, not by what you see. It always reminds me of the Matrix movie, when he was like I don't even see code anymore, I see a blonde, brunette, red head. DreamWeaver does certainly have its place, for instance, I needed it to create the clickable polygons, that overlaid my pictures. I could have just used a clickable square, but I was trying to produce a great quality site.

Anyway, while typing I received his response. He has definitely had a lot of divine directing towards online instruction. His on the job experiences built a strong foundation for online instruction. Also important, is the development of online pedagogical skills. He spent years learning more and more about online instruction in its creation. This has surely made a great difference in his practice. I think it is cool to see how similar his preparation has been. To tell a little about how my experiences mirror his is somewhat coincidental to the point of being uncanny.

Like him, I too was imbibed in technology as soon as it was made available to people. As in, my parents bought one of the first IBM PC's for the house. The case and monitor were altogether. There was a 5.25” floppy drive as well as 1.44” hard disk drive slot in the front. The screen was 16 colors and DOS based. I learned DOS commands, about text editing, Basic commands, and more. After that, my brother helped found the technology club at Banneker High school and established a partnership with, Tech Corps Over GA. This non-profit organization would take old business computers, normally trashed after an upgrade, wipe them, repair them, strip them, rebuild two types of machines, base and special/custom, give them free internet access, word processing capability, Windows, monitor, and whatever necessary peripheral devices and give the base models to impoverished communities and sell the special/custom models for next to nothing. My brother and I, (he the most) learned so much from that. Learning things from the inside and out.

Since my brother decided to pursue a career in technology, then I, as his loving and dedicated older brother, have also had to keep up with technology to be close to my brother. We have worked together on lots of things. We fix computers, reprogram them, flash phones, mod Wii's, and all kinds of other stuff. Clearly he is much more proficient than myself, but I try my best to keep up. Anyway, I have been able to develop a solid technology background working at GA Tech, helping them upgrade their accounting software, and also working for Intelliteach, which provides 24 hour help desk services for law firms all around the world. All this time I have been tutoring, during undergrad and at Sylvan Learning Center, working on education degrees, and have been in the classroom for six years.

Like I would imagine he was, I was completely blown away when I heard about instructional technology, because it allows me to combine two important areas of my life together into one. I am continuing as he does to perfect the merger between the two by developing a better understanding of what online learning is and how it takes place. I hope to be as successful, knowledgeable, dedicated, and effective as he is in this field.

His response is below....

As requested, here are my responses to:

·         a short reflection upon my training for online learning environments

·         additional training I would like to pursue in order to become an effective online teacher

My training for online learning environments:

As I’ve stated before, my preparation for teaching in online learning was largely self-directed. Since my undergraduate and graduate experience occurred prior to the existence of now common and ubiquitous components of the internet, I strayed into the nascent movement toward online learning and teaching via a series of serendipitous circumstances. Key events that helped me build skills for conceptualizing, constructing, and delivering digital learning experiences included:

·         working with one of the best Media Specialists early in my teaching career. I had the great luck to begin my first professional teaching in a school where there was a well-known and innovative Media Specialist by the name of Paula Galland. Paula was ever looking for an trying new ways to develop efficient, effective, engaging, relevant, and deeply meaningful learning experiences for students. Less than a week into my brand new teaching career, Paula delivered four (at that time) state-of-the-art Macintosh computers to my room and encouraged me to participate in a National Geographic program in which middle school students used telecommunication resources to electronically learn with a partner school from another location on the globe. Paula also rustled up a computer and modem that I could use to explore the early 1990s (pre-World Wide Web) version of the internet. Paula and I collaborated to construct an online presence for our middle school and she continued to lead to and through all manner of rich foundational experiences for communicating and teaching online.

·         working with a district-wide project in the middle school where I began my career and strengthened my pedagogical skills. In the early 1990s (around 1992-1993 or so), I was fortunate enough to be part of a group of middle school teachers who were (thanks to funding from the district, one of the district’s community Partners in Education, and a wealthy individual) able to explore and learn about using dynamic mathematical modeling software. We plunged into the study of systems thinking. Along with my colleagues, I was able to attend extremely powerful professional development, national conferences, and mathematical modeling software industry meetings. Being steeped in the potential of constructing digital simulations, I found myself continually communicating and learning with people from all over the world via email, telnet sites (early hypertext internet directories), and dial-in servers. I was cognizant of the fact that people were engaging in training/teaching sessions without being in the same location. I saw the implications, that learning could and was moving into online frontiers. After that, I began to research, read, and practice any and everything I could that would sharpen my skills as a teacher beyond the confines of the traditional brick-and-mortar school.

·         being asked to deliver professional development in my school district. As I was working with my peers in absorbing and integrating the precepts of Systems Thinking and the meaningful use of mathematical modeling software (in our case, a resource known as STELLA), I was increasingly relying on tools and resources from the internet to communicate and collaborate with writers, educators, researchers, industry leaders, and scientists. My district’s professional development director noticed and asked me to share what I was learning with others in our district. Being unable to go to all of our district’s schools all of the time, I advocated and taught others to go online to communicate, share,and learn. I was also teaching students in my 6th grade classroom to do the same. Parents began to ask me if there would be opportunities for students to learn or go to school online. I knew the answer was yes. Soon, I was reaching out (via online tools) to like-minded educators and teachers around the world to help me refine my approach to creating and delivering online learning experiences.

·         changing my occupation from classroom teacher to instructional technology consultancy. Around 1999, I left the classroom and went to work for a Regional Educational Services Agency that maintained an onsite Educational Technology Center. When I went to work for the First District RESA ETC I wanted to blend my love for teaching with my desire to help classroom educators at all grade levels to meaningfully integrate technology in a more efficient and effective manner. As I had imagined, learning had begun to move online. During my years with First District RESA ETC, I frequently communicated and worked with Georgia Department of Education officials who were beginning to recognize that learning and teaching would no longer be confined to physical classrooms.

·         working with the Virtual High School program. Around 2000 (or thereabout), the Georgia Department of Education partnered with a nationally recognized Virtual High School program. The DOE sought Georgia educators who wanted to develop online courses. I jumped at this opportunity. My opportunity to develop a high school course was extremely rewarding. I developed the course but did not get to teach it. It’s safe to say a newborn daughter necessitated a few lifestyle changes. Even so, my work generated positive feedback from the instructors who taught the course I had developed. I resolved to explore all manner of learning management/content management systems and how they could be used to facilitate richer, more robust online learning. Blackboard, Moodle, etc.

·         being immersed in an environment where others shared a desire to learn as much as possible about online learning. As a favor to the school districts that First District RESA ETC served, I began a blog and collected and disseminated advice for and about online/digital learning. I was able to attend local, state, regional, and national conferences focused on enriching and perfecting online pedagogical practices. My colleagues lauded and enthusiastically supported my efforts. During this time I was surrounded by the best, brightest, and loyalest colleagues I have ever known. Everyone of my colleagues explored and shared the same desire I did. We had a work environment that became a veritable Camelot of best online teaching practices. Sadly, despite our innovative experiences and successes, state funding cuts left me no choice than to move on. Even so, I was still determined to perfect my online teaching skills.

·         working in other occupations dedicated to the perfection of online learning. After leaving District RESA ETC, I began working for Georgia Southern University (part-time) and Georgia Virtual School. Though these entities support differing communities both use similar resources and approaches. Being able to develop and implement content for GSU and GaVS has continued to allow me to pursue training to acquire more knowledge and skills for teaching and learning online.

Additional training I would like to pursue in order to become an effective online teacher:

I am currently exploring research and experiences that give me more of an understanding of learners and what educators need to do to better meet the needs of students as fellow human beings. Although content and courses are important, the needs of people are even more so. I want the knowledge, tools, and resources that let my learners know that I fervently believe that they are important, that their well-being and success genuinely matter to me. Toward this end, I have been studying literature and research that explores how to help people develop grit (see: Duckworth’s work). I like to think that this and related information will guide my thinking about how to construct online learning experiences where students acknowledge and build the wherewithal and skills to cognizantly, consistently, and conscientiously dig in and become a lifelong learner.

In addition to a better understanding of the psychology of helping students develop a sustainable passion for learning, I want as much training/professional development as I can get in regards to assessment. Assessment should drive learning. I want to know about the best methods for ascertaining what online learners know and are able to do. I want to know about new resources, tools, and practices that will allow me to give students timely and rich feedback. I want ways to help my learners track their performance and improve upon what the discover and do.

I want to acquire a deep and useful knowledge of the tools and skills necessary for arranging an inviting environment for online learning. I want to learn as much about programming as possible. Having a strong understanding of HTML5, CSS, PHP, and database driven resources will be key to allowing me to construct digital resources that load faster, work on multiple platforms, and across different devices. I want  to make my content available and accessible any and everywhere.