by Kim Loomis | Aug 6, 2016 | Blended Learning, Online Learning
Too often we hear talk about teacher-absent online courses, where someone made the decision that the digital curriculum was enough, but is that what we really want? The human touch is so important. When a teacher shows that they care about their students, the student in turn cares about the class. Many times over we have seen students who showed that ‘mean and nasty’ teacher a thing, by failing their course. Student can also rises to the occasion and achieves more than possible because the kind heart of the teacher coached the student to believe in their abilities, grew self-confidence, and pushed them to success. Keeping the human touch in the online classroom creates a student-centered learning environment and conveys a sense of who the real person is behind the academics. Don’t think that just because your classroom is blended and your students see you on a daily basis, doesn’t mean that you can be absent from the online environment. These strategies are just as important to the fully online arena, as well as the blended learning environment. Be seen. Your presence in the online classroom is important. Use video clips to communicate with students (and their parents). Start with a welcome video that shares your passion for the subject. Consider weekly video announcements. Provide assignment feedback in video format, using the student’s name and looking directly into the camera so they feel your presence. The discussion area is a wonderful place to give public praise by quoting students. Get to know your students. The first week of any class is tough for both the students and...
by Kim Loomis | Jun 25, 2016 | Blended Learning, Online Learning, Research
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Instructure Canvas Learning Management System staff about preparing teachers for a digital learning classroom. Over the last five years working with Nevada’s Clark County School District, with over 10,000 teachers, in this area we’ve seen the full scope of educators from early adopters, to middle meddlers, and the slow to change. Moving to digital learning takes a mind shift in pedagogy and philosophy that embrace technology as a tool for instruction. Too often professional development is focused on the tool’s “point and click how to” leaving teachers with little ideas on “why to” or “when to” deploy the tools. It is important to take the time to start with pedagogy and philosophy, so that teacher understand initially why and how to adopt digital learning. Concerns that teachers bring to digital learning professional development range from making the change from a comfortable known environment, being replaced by technology, lack of control over pace and content, to fear of failure. Internal voices scream these concerns loudly through participant’s heads as they partake in professional development. What we do to calm these concerns and reduce the internal chatter is key to helping change teacher’s mindset. To reduce teacher concerns about the digital learning classroom have them become a digital learner themselves. Having them step into the role of an online/blended learner makes the unknown and makes it known. Learning through technology helps participants see that technology does not replace the classroom teacher, but rather changes their role. By being an online learner, participants discover the teacher’s role and allows them to become...
by Kim Loomis | May 7, 2016 | Blended Learning, Digital Learning Models
Budget cuts and staff reductions have hit many schools hard. It’s time to look “outside the box” when trying to deal with growing student populations and fewer quality teachers to serve them. Digital content is ideal for building foundational skills. We need to look closely at how schools can use digital content to support student learning and reduce the teacher workload, yet increase teacher reach (e.g. caseload). Use of digital content within the lab rotation model is a great deployment strategy. Depending on your state statues and/or school district regulations, schools may be able to use a support staff in the lab to monitor and guide students through the digital content. For example, in Nevada the law allows non-licensed personnel to manage computer labs when a licensed teacher is behind the instructional deployment. At the secondary level, Nevada students may be assigned a virtual lab period during the day for mathematics. Students go to a lab and work on digital courseware, rather than meeting with a teacher. The highly qualified math teacher is working with students from a distance within the online classroom. This maintains the concept of one prep period for the teacher and 30 students in a lab/classroom. It’s time to think outside the box, beyond the four-walled classroom and structured timeframes of the day. Let’s consider a Hybrid model where students spend part of the week with their high qualified teacher face-to-face for hands-on engaging instruction and the other days in the week working with digital content. Typically elementary software and secondary courseware is a form of low level skills based direct instruction, yet...
by Kim Loomis | Mar 28, 2016 | Blended Learning
It’s March! The time of year, when NCAA steps into our living rooms and we are reminded of the madness. At the high school level, it’s important to know the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) guidelines when designing a digital learning program, as NCAA targets nontraditional courses through very strict governance. Nontraditional courses are defined as classes taught online or through distance learning, independent study, individualized instruction or correspondence methods. Knowing the requirements and application questions below can help you design a NCAA-approved nontraditional program. Requirements There are five very clear requirements to meet NCAA-approved nontraditional core course: The course must prepare students for academic work at a four-year college. Students must complete the course in its entirety, without testing out of course content. Courses must have subject area certified teachers supporting the learning environment. The course must be comparable in length, content and rigor to courses taught in a traditional classroom setting. Maintaining the credit hour of the Carnegie Unit, half-credit semester courses should be designed to include sixty hours of instruction. Courses must include teacher-based instruction, with a full balanced set of formal assessments. A student in the course must have regular interaction with the teacher for instruction, evaluation and assistance for the duration of the course. The digital learning program must require regular and ongoing interaction between the student and teacher for instruction, evaluation and assistance. Access to an instructor is not enough. Subject area teachers must engage the student in individual instruction. Interaction must be regularly scheduled, which can be conducted in a face-to-face environment or from a distance; exchanging emails, online chats,...
by Kim Loomis | Jan 26, 2016 | Blended Learning, Digital Learning Models, Online Learning
There are many vendors in the digital content market that sale online secondary semester-based courses, which they will all claim are aligned to every state and national standard. Before making a purchase, start with confirming they meet your specific state standards. Then ponder how best to deploy the courseware. There is no one right solution, but many ways courseware can be utilized. Here are ten different deployment models to consider. These different models demonstrate how to reach more students with a single product. Exceeds our typical 500 word post, but well worth the read, plus bonus infographic at end. Traditional Semester Calendar-based Online Courses. Use the product as intended within an 18-week semester calendar to pace student. Highly qualified subject area teachers can be in the room with students or from a distance. This is ideal for programs with limited enrollments, such as Advanced Placement or world language courses. For example use courseware to assign AP Calculus to students who sit in the back of the room in a mathematics instructor’s pre-calculus class. Using an 18-week semester calendar will help pace students (and posting of grades to transcripts in the student information system), as the immediate access to the instructor and ease for one-on-one instruction will enhance student opportunity for success. Single Content Area Virtual Lab. Schedule students in a lab for one period of the traditional school day. Assign one subject area (e.g. English, grades 9-12) hosted in the lab with a highly qualified teacher in the room. The instructor may conduct whole class activities (great for hands-on investigations or projects to enhance the digital content),...
by Kim Loomis | Oct 18, 2015 | Blended Learning, Research
The traditional African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child” has been widely quoted. The basic meaning is that the upbringing of a child is a communal effort. The responsibility for raising a child is shared with the larger family – blood relatives, neighbors, and the whole community. This does not have to stop once the child is grown. Adults also need a village – a communal effort, an extended family, to continue to grow. Educators are a close knit family, with support built into the work day. We can reach out to fellow co-workers for advice, feedback, and support. But let me ask you, “Who is part of your extended family?” When it comes to growing and supporting your thirst for building quality digital learning programs who are you allowing to fill your head with advice? The International Association for K-12 Online Learning, known as iNACOL, has wisdom deeply rooted in digital learning. One might call iNACOL an elder of our community. iNACOL drives the transformation toward student-centered, next generation learning for K-12 education. They support innovators in online, blended, and competency education to share best practices, provide resources, connect practitioners, develop quality standards, and amplify educator voices to transform education. Through research and collaboration with other leaders in the field, iNACOL pens white papers, hosts teacher and leader webinars, and gathers the greatest thinkers in the field annually at the Blended and Online Learning Symposium. This past week, I attended two webinars from iNACOL: Blended Learning Leaders Discuss their Roadmap for Success and Supporting and Sustaining Blended Learning Throughout the Year. Playbacks...
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