EDLD+5368+Reflection

Reflection EDLD 5368 Week 5  The use of online learning is becoming more popular between our colleges and universities. In today’s world, the majority of our graduate and postgraduate students need to work and study at the same time, and the delivery of content through online learning is an option these students seek to complete their graduate or postgraduate education. This means that our K-12 educational program should require the integration of this type of learning to develop in our students the skills needed to succeed in their graduate or postgraduate education. As educators, is our responsibility to prepare our students the best we can for their future, and address their learning styles to accomplish this purpose. The benefit for educators to know how to design and implement online learning, is that the process to integrate this technology into their instruction will be done in a seamlessly manner. Solomon and Schrum (2007), establish that teachers will be able to let students with specific learning styles use the tools that address their particular needs. When teachers design their course for online learning, they have the opportunity to include the materials and resources that will address the learning styles and levels of their group. This opportunity will also ease the educator’s implementation process of the course, and provide his/her students the education they deserve. 

To decide the target area for my online course, I searched and analyzed all the available data from my class. The findings after the data analysis encourage me to design a course that will address the students’ development of their problem solving skills. The online course I designed directly responds to my group learning needs and styles. This aspect of the course was very important for the success of the course implementation process. As a professional, I will use this course as part of my instruction to promote the delivery of the education my 21st century learners’ demands. I will use this course as one of my working station, where students will be able to learn and practice at their own pace and level. The course provides the students a variety of resources and materials that assist them to develop their problem solving skills and engage them in online learning by addressing their learning styles. Prensky (2005-06) recommends to educators to help all the students take advantage of these new tools and systems to educate themselves. The use of the online education provides the teachers with the opportunity to be the students’ guide through the learning process, shifting the process from teacher centered to student centered. When students have the convenience of learning at their own pace and level, they feel ownership of their learning. Students that acquire ownership of their learning will continue to be lifelong learners, because they understand the importance and relevance of what their doing. As a teacher, the integration of an online education will promote the sense of learning ownership among my students. In addition, the integration of online learning into the instruction, develop in the students the skills and abilities required for the 21st century working force. It is my responsibility, as a 21st century teacher, to provide my students with all the opportunities to be prepared for their learning and working future. The incorporation of an online education course, also assist me in fulfills the role of a guide for my students learning journey. In today’s schools, the role of teachers will be to guide students in using the new tools for academically rigorous investigations and presentations (Solomon & Schrum, 2007). As I mentioned before, students needs to be in charge of their learning to be effective and relevant to them. This means that, as a guide I can transfer that responsibility to them, the integration of online learning into my instruction will do just that, and my students will be able to develop the necessaries skills to survive and succeed in the 21st century world. As my experiences with online learning progresses, some of my original questions about the use and integration of this educational technology tool have been answer. However, one of the most important questions that I still have about online education, is how we can successfully integrate online learning to students that are economically disadvantage? This concern comes directly from my own classroom experience as a teacher in a school where most of the population is economically disadvantage. Most of the time when I introduce the use of computers or laptops with my students, it takes me close to an hour just to have them turn on the computers and log in. I have a self-contained classroom, which means I am responsible to teach all the subjects, which translates in time restrictions between teaching every subject, and state, districts, and campus assessments. I feel that these variables affect the success of the implementation of the online learning. The acquisition of this new learning will help me develop my teaching skills to deliver the education today’s students demands. The learning I have acquired through this course, materials and assignments gave me the opportunity to improve and develop my vision of the education and instruction I should be providing my students. I plan to use the attain learning to shape and complement my instruction design to become a 21st century teacher. As educators, we need to keep up with the new educational technologies, and update our instructional strategies to satisfy the learning needs of our students. Every learner and every year our students brings different needs and learning styles to our classroom, this means that we need to take in consideration all these variables when planning and designing for instruction. Fortunately, the integration and implementation of online education, and other educational technology tools help teachers address all of these situations more effectively.

Reference: Prensky, M. (2005/2006). Listen to the natives. //Educational Leadership//, //63//(4), 10.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. (2007). Washington, DC, USA: International Society for Technology in Education. p 20.