CEP 820: Developer Notebook 6

DN ENTRY 6

Course Link:

http://www.myhaikuclass.com/colingally/g5pyp/

Developer Notebook Link: 
http://is.gd/cep820DN

Reflection on developing an online course

I had a hard time substantiating the need for this online lesson for our Primary Years Programme unit of work. Did the students need this extra avenue of work? Had they got enough on their plate with the day to day classroom activities and investigation?
I felt that this online lesson area could act like a guide and a framework for our grade 5 students as they went through the weeks leading up to the mandatory exhibition. It challenged me to come up with an area where, keeping with the schedule of the unit, students could utilize the advantages of online learning alongside their normal everyday learning in their classrooms. The concept of blended learning is not something that we are akin to in our school so initiating something like this is something new, something exciting, and something that could pave the way for future styles of teaching and learning in our school.

The fundamental issues in planning the online lesson were trying to keep in line with the learning throughout the weeks going on in the classroom. I think in doing this working closely with the classroom teachers eventually teaching them how to construct the online lessons is the best method of planning. Blended learning if done correctly can be a very worthwhile experience but the structure online needs to co-relate to the timeline of events in the classroom. Perhaps a timeline type structure like I went for is not the best layout in an ideal blended learning experience? As it was my first foray into this type of blended instruction I would need to get feedback and opinion from both students and teachers to see what other type of format would work best. On the surface, a weekly format looks defined and well organized and works well for students of that age but perhaps simplify each week into more bite size chunks or activities that follow on directly from classroom activities. However, this might be hard to follow when just the online lesson is viewed by people other than teachers and students!

Engaging web 2.0 tools are essential but always need to be in context. It helps if the students have learned these tools already prior to this so they need not waste time learning how to use the tool. If students have not experienced the tool before it’s important they have resources to learn. The fundamental characteristics of Web 2.0 tools enable the students to engage in discussion, feedback, conversations, and collaboration. These tools go hand in hand with online learning and differentiating this type of learning from traditional classroom pedagogy.

There are a number of platforms to base your online learning lesson on and to be honest it really doesn’t matter which one you chose. It’s what goes in to it that matters.