Teaching in Online and Blended Classrooms

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Task Navigation 

*Wk 1-Getting started

Welcome to Teaching in Blended and Online Classrooms!

I'm excited about this course and hope you all are too. I know we'll all learn a lot from each other.

Getting to know P2PU

Here are a few important things to know about P2PU. It's really all about:

  • Community and peer learning - This means we are all learners and teachers, so jump in and collaborate, add to the class, edit posts to make them better, help teach, share, etc.
  • Openness - All content on P2PU (including your contributions) is open licensed. This means we are all giving others permission to share our work here as long as they attribute us as the source (CC BY). This is great, because it means these courses can be remixed and reused by others. Share the love!
  • Personalization - This is one of the things that makes the School of Ed different from other professional development you might have been involved in. This course is about your learning so take control of it and make it work for you. If you don't find an activity here to be beneficial to you, suggest another one. Personalize, customize, and make your learning the very best it can be!
     

And here are a few techical tips to get you started.

  • P2PU is pretty straightforward, but ask any questions you have. (A good way to do this is either as a comment on a task or on the Activity Wall, which is for course related comments rather than task related.)
  • You will get notifications by email of various comments and important things going on this the course. If it gets to be too much, just go to My P2PU -> Edit Profile -> Notifications and choose which ones to turn off.
  • Most tasks on P2PU can be edited by participants. If you see something that is wrong or have something important to add, just click the Edit button in the upper right. Don't worry about messing things up because there is version control so anything can be "undone." :) If you have something to add but aren't sure about editing the task, you can also say it in a comment.
  • We'll use tools on the P2PU site in this course as well as others. Don't feel constrained to the tools we use though. If you have a favorite tool or Web 2.0 site that meets your needs, please use it and invite others to do the same.
     

This course

For this course, we'll use these conventions:

hands on work icon to indicate hands-on activities or other things to do

 

to indicate optional supplemental readings. These will be included in a separate task for each week.

 

Getting to know each other

hands on work iconAs we're starting on this course, please do two things to help us get to know each other. First, if you haven't already, update your profile (My P2PU -> Edit Profile) to include info about yourself and a picture. Also, post a comment on this task to introduce yourself (Post Comment in upper-right corner). In addition to your name, what grade and subject you teach, and anything else you want to  share, include your own goals for this course and collaboration ideas you have. (See below.)

Setting your own path for this course

This course is all about steering your own learning in a way that works for you.

hands on work iconAs we're getting started, take a look at the syllabus. Think about how you can customize each week's activities to meet your own goals. In particular, weeks 3-6 have a lot of opportunities for this.

In your introductory post, include how you plan to customize the course to meet your own goals. (You may link to your own customized version of the syllabus if you like.)

Possible collaborations

Collaborting is a big part of peer learning, and one way to do this is through active collaborations on tasks. The sky's the limit on what you might do for this course but here are some ideas:

  • Collaborate with others using the same tool (e.g. Moodle or Blackboard) to exchange ideas and provide support.
  • Join up with someone in a similar grade level or subject area and exchange resources, ideas, etc.
  • Choose an area you are especially interested in or have expertise in and moderate a webinar or contribute additional material to the course.
  • Form a cross-classroom collaboration with students.
  • Ask someone to be an online guest speaker for your students.
  • Look at each other's course outline or materials and make suggestions. Iteratively design in teams.
     

hands on work iconUse this spreadsheet to record what platform you're working on and your ideas or interest in being a part of a collaborative effort and/or write about it in your introductory post.

 

I've also include a column here to include your Twitter account name as well. I tweet as @kfasimpaur and will be using the hashtag #p2pued for all p2pu related tweets. Join me there if you're on Twitter.

Task Discussion


  • Casey Sapp   Oct. 4, 2011, 11:14 p.m.

    Sorry I couldn't make it to the webinar, really wanted to be there. Being in Shanghai, the discussion was at 5am for me and was not able to get up in time. Any highlights or is there a summary available of what was discussed?

    As Karen recommended, I indeed would like to develop some blended learning ESL material with low cost resources already available online to lower the total cost of the program. Do any of you have any recommendations of good online ESL resources and courses online? I was an English teacher for a year so I have a general idea of what is out there but the internet is so big and the environment is always changing that I know there is so much I still don't know.  

  • karen   Oct. 5, 2011, 10:32 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Casey Sapp   Oct. 4, 2011, 11:14 p.m.

    The webinar materials and video are posted in the "Webinars" task.

  • karen   Oct. 11, 2011, 2:04 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Casey Sapp   Oct. 4, 2011, 11:14 p.m.

    This is an ESL site I'd used in the past (especially the podcasts); I haven't used it in a while though:

    http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

    I would think that good multimedia support (recording and playback) would be essential for this. I've used audio blogging as well as online course tools like voice boards for this in the past.

  • Lane   Oct. 4, 2011, 11:54 a.m.

    Does anyone have experience using the learning platform Epsilen? http://www.epsilen.com/LandingSite/index.aspx

    It seems like a valuable resource for online course management, professional development, and e-portfolios.

    Thanks!

    Lane

  • Shannon   Sept. 30, 2011, 10:07 p.m.

    I teach in a suburban district in a traditional model but I am interested in creating my first hybrid course in American History. I teach 9th grade and AP US History face to face 5 days a week but am considering creating a Contemporary American History course. I am looking to gain insight into how to set up a hybrid course but also looking for interesting assessment ideas and hybrid model teaching tools. 

  • jen gleason   Sept. 30, 2011, 9:11 a.m.

    I am excited to join this group of educators!  I currently work in NYC for a non-profit organization called Teaching Matters.  We do professional development in the NYC public schools.  I am interested in how teachers can use online spaces to complement in-person meetings / PLC collaborative groups.  

    I am experienced in Moodle and Google Apps for Education.  I am interested in learning about new LMS platforms, as well as other online tools to support teachers in their professional growth.

    Looking forward to collaborating with others interested in PD.

     

    Jen

  • Lane   Sept. 30, 2011, 12:03 p.m.
    In Reply To:   jen gleason   Sept. 30, 2011, 9:11 a.m.

    Hi Jen,

    I work for a similar nonprofit that trains Pre-AP and AP teachers to improve effectiveness. We are attempting to create our first online PD courses to complement our face-to-face trainings.

    We recently began using BrainHoney as our LMS. So far, it has only been used for assessments (pre-test for students). I am interested to know what kinds of online tools you used in your previous PD courses.

    Looking forward to working together.

     

    Lane

  • karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 12:40 p.m.
    In Reply To:   jen gleason   Sept. 30, 2011, 9:11 a.m.

    Cool. It sounds like we have a few people here looking at online peer learning environments...much like we are doing at the P2PU School of Ed!

    I'd love to talk more about this. This is an early pilot project, and we have already had some big successes and some big challenges.

    Would any of you be interested in devoting one of our webinars to talking about online peer learning for professional development for teachers?

  • Lane   Oct. 3, 2011, 11:38 a.m.
    In Reply To:   karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 12:40 p.m.

    Karen,

    I would be very interested in a webinar on the topic of online PD for teachers. Teacher training is becoming a major focus in education, and I think delivery via online "courses" will be invaluable in the future. The real question is, what will they look like? This is something my organization is struggling with because we have not been able to find many successful examples. Looking forward to discussing this further.

    Lane

  • karen   Oct. 3, 2011, 4:34 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Lane   Oct. 3, 2011, 11:38 a.m.

    This seems to be a topic a lot of us are working on! I think we'll have this be the topic for the Oct. 18 webinar. Hope you can make it. (Our first webinar will be tomorrow. Oct. 4 at 5pm EDT (2pm PDT).

  • Mark Woolley   Oct. 4, 2011, 6:04 a.m.
    In Reply To:   Lane   Oct. 3, 2011, 11:38 a.m.

    Also keen on a webinar on that topic. As with Lane I am very interested in exemplar courses. 

    Thanks

  • Itibrout   Sept. 30, 2011, 7:11 a.m.

    My name is Stephani, and I work with Stacy at Medina High School in Ohio.  I currently teach Sophomore Language Arts and Advanced Placement Literature and Composition.  I am trying to use Blackboard more and more to enhance my teaching and assessments (and my own learning!), and I am supposed to come up with a hybrid/blended course for next year.  I am tearing my hair out.  I have three different ideas, and I keep going around and around with the pros and cons of all of them.  I hope to learn more about the philosophies and specifics of creating a blended learning class.  I want to create something that is better than what I currently do with my students.

  • karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 12:38 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Itibrout   Sept. 30, 2011, 7:11 a.m.

    I'm a writer and often have lots of ideas and have a hard time knowing where to start. Sometimes, it's just best to choose anything and get started. If it doesn't work, you can always go to "Plan B." (As teachers, we're good at that, aren't we? :) In my writing and my online teaching, it's usually one big iterative experiment!

    Do you wnat to throw your ideas out here for input of the group?

  • karen   Sept. 29, 2011, 11:27 a.m.

    For a long time I've thought about remixing one of the great open textbooks available into a shareable Moodle course.

    http://www.k12opened.com/blog/archives/771

    Does anyone a) have a suggestion for a textbook or course thaat would be immediately useful to you or your school, and/or b) want to collaborate on this?

  • karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 3:01 p.m.
    In Reply To:   karen   Sept. 29, 2011, 11:27 a.m.

    So I'm honing in to possibly remixing this 6th grade math textbook into a Moodle course.
    http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/book/2832/

    We could vary the level to differentiate and make this accessible to a wider variety of students.

    I have some good math movies we could include as well.

    What do you think?

    Does anyone teach this content, and if so, might you use this and/or want to collaborate on this project?

  • Anonym   Oct. 1, 2011, 4:30 p.m.
    In Reply To:   karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 3:01 p.m.

    I teach 6th grade math!! I am inexperienced with Moodle, and would need to move slowly.  Right now I'm finishing up two extremely busy weeks at work and haven't had a lot of time to devote to this course as of yet.  I would still like to collaborate on this project though, so if you don't mind offering guidance, I will work on this too!

  • karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 5:27 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Anonym   Oct. 1, 2011, 4:30 p.m.

    Oh my gosh! That's awesome!

    I am ok (though not great) with Moodle, and we have lots of other Moodle experts here. It's been a good few years since I've taught 6th grade math though.

    I would *love* to have you and anyone else interested collaborate on this. I think there are a couple folks in my OER class who are interested as well.

    I was thinking about choosing one chapter from this book to start with as a prototype that we can experiment with. Maybe chapter 5 - Number patterns and fractions... or something else?

  • Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 6:41 p.m.

    Hi I'm Matt Huston and am excited to be a part of this course, which I expect to be a great journey (as my colleague Shelee King George likes to use that term).

    I'm not currently in a school setting, but a great week means that I've been able to collaborate with several teachers who are. My business partner Les Foltos and I run Peer-Ed, where we primarily focus on Peer Coaching and online learning. I have been learning online for many moons, and I am constantly amazed at how much there is to know, experience, and enjoy in that realm. P2PU is a great example of that -- a free, learner-leader organized university with collaboration and learner-customized curriculum at its core.

    (It is a nice sunny day here in Seattle--contrary to popular belief, even here, summer is *not* over until I say it is ;) -- so my thoughts turn to coaching my daughter and her lax team...here's a shot from last spring, and yup daughter the goalie is going to save this one.)

    goalie will stop this shot

    I am a big Moodle fan, and looking forward to developing / redevloping a course I built a few years back. The goal of the course was to immerse teachers for five weeks in being learners in Moodle, transitioning them in small steps to being designers in Moodle. All online, all asynchronous, lots of fun and probably too many activities. When originally offered, the course was called Create Powerful Online Learning; I'm re-christening it as Build Effective Online Learning and hoping I can get lots of input on it from people in this course.

    Am also very interested in trying one or more of the co-creation ideas Karen tossed out there in the introductory task / writeup -- such as working on a course with a peer in this course. I was a high school English / journalism teacher, so that's a relative strength for me in terms of online content design, but in truth I'd love to collaborate in any subject area, and without getting spread too thinly, the more the merrier.

    If you are interested in collaborating, either by offering feedback on my Build Effective Online Learning ideas, or by having me join in working on ideas for a course of yours, leave me a message in this thread or send me an email at mhustonwa@yahoo.com or mhuston@peer-ed.com

    Best,

    Matt

  • Mark Woolley   Sept. 28, 2011, 7 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 6:41 p.m.

    Hi Matt 

    I work on the PLANE project here in Australia and we have been working with Les on incorporating Peer Coaching into our online learning environment. I would be really interested in collaborating on the course and would love to be able to offer it to Australian teachers via PLANE.  

    regards 

    Mark 

  • Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 8:49 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Mark Woolley   Sept. 28, 2011, 7 p.m.

    Hey Mark - small world! I'm guessing you were in the recent Peer Coaching cohort (well, one of the recent cohorts) that Les worked with face-to-face and online --- hey, blended learning!.

    I think you are saying you'd be interested in collaborating on the Build Effective Online Learning course, and then offering it to Australian teachers via PLANE. That sounds interesting -- am I reading you right?

    Looks like I'd better get my Moodle-server + sandbox course revved up in the next short while ;)

    I'll hunt around for a syllabus for the 'old' course and either post it, or if I have to, scratch it up again from memory.

    Is there a good place for us to share ideas with one another, and keep it open to the rest of our p2pu gang in case someone else wants to join or just observe?

    Matt

  • Craig Hicks   Sept. 28, 2011, 10:31 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 6:41 p.m.

    Matt,

    I would be interested in collaborating on this project. I have been helping teachers develop their Moodle skills for about 6 years. My trainees are primarily 7-12 teachers, with a handful of elementary teachers. Most of them are using Moodle to enhance their face-to-face courses, with a few enhancing their synchronous video distance learning courses, and an even smaller group of teachers leading online courses. Nearly all of my training has been delivered in a face-to-face method, with supplemental materials and communication available online.

    I recently came across this video when searching for designing online learning resources. The audio is very weak, but good information. I did try to embed the video, but the code was stipped out.

    http://youtu.be/Zv-_GCFdLdo

    We are planning a transition to Moodle 2 which will be one element in a learning portal that will also contain Mahara, Google Apps, and BigBlueButton.

  • Mark Woolley   Sept. 29, 2011, 6:30 a.m.
    In Reply To:   Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 8:49 p.m.

    Hi Matt 

    Yes I was part of the facilitator training that Les did in Sydney a few months back. 

    Would love to collaborate on the course and offer it via PLANE. It would be a great example of international online collaboration, just the thing we want our teachers embracing. 
     

    I like the idea of sharing ideas here, hopefully we will pick up others and share the load + innovation. 

    Cheers

    Mark 

  • karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 12:05 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 8:49 p.m.

    Matt, I made a new task called "Llinks to our online courses." You can either post links there or upload actual materials like a syllabus. If you want more of a decidated space, we can always create separate tasks for this.

    Let me know how this works and/or how else you all might want to do this.

  • karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 12:29 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Craig Hicks   Sept. 28, 2011, 10:31 p.m.

    Info on embedding on P2PU:

    - Use the 4th button on the bottom tool bar (Embed)

    - This uses embed.ly so it supports anything they support (and see that site for URL examples....doesn't use the regular HTML emded codes....for YouTube, paste in the http://www.youtube.com/watch?___ link).


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv-_GCFdLdo
     

  • Ben   Sept. 26, 2011, 10:08 a.m.

    Hi! My name is Ben McCray and I teach high school math. Currently I am teaching geometry but I offer academic support in all math areas from 7th grade math to pre-calculus. My goal is to widen my understanding of the online teaching platforms.  I would like to make the classroom more engaging and will look for peer tips for how to do this.

  • Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 8:51 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Ben   Sept. 26, 2011, 10:08 a.m.

    Hey Ben. Wondering if you are hoping to add online resources for your f2f students, or use online learning in some other way?

    I once was certified to teach math in California, but luckily for all involved was never assigned a math class -- I *like* math, I was *decent* at doing math, I would have been a *disaster* as a math teacher.

    Matt

  • karen   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:57 p.m.

    Hi, everyone! I'm Karen, and I put this course together. I'm looking forward to having you all help make it better in this inaugural run!

    I primarily work with schools to provide in-classroom coaching and mentoring. Not surprisingly, I also do some online course facilitation, here at P2PU and elsewhere. (The online platforms I'm most experienced with are Moodle, Blackboard, and P2PU.) In the past, I've taught middle school and elementary.

    My goals for this course are:

    • to think more about online peer learning, especially with adult K-12 in-service teachers
    • to work on some future P2PU School of Ed courses
    • to learn from all of you!

    On a personal note, I live in a remote part of the desert southwest in an off-the-grid house I built myself. Quite an adventure for a city girl who spent most of her adult life in Los Angeles!

  • Claire Amos   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:29 p.m.

    Hi there,

    My name is Claire Amos, I am married and have two young daughters. I am the Director of e-learning at Epsom Girls Grammar School in New Zealand. For the past year, I have also been the facilitator of the ICTs in English NZ community on English Online. In 2009 I was a NZ Ministry of Education e-fellow for which I undertook a study of how ICTs can be used to support literacy in and beyond the English classroom. I am also an (high school)  English (literature) teacher.

    I am keen to learn tips and share ideas about encouraging teachers to make the most of a blended classroom environment. We are a 'Bring Your Own Device' secondary (high) school which means students are encouraged to bring their own laptops, netbooks, smartphones and iPads to use for learning in and beyond the classroom. My job focuses on providing professional development to our staff to ensure they make the most of the BYOD policy, and to encourage them to use Moodle, Google Apps and Mahara to increase student engagement and to improve student outcomes.

  • Claire Amos   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:34 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Claire Amos   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:29 p.m.

    Also, I am keen to connect/collaborate with other Moodle users out there!

  • karen   Sept. 25, 2011, 6:03 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Claire Amos   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:29 p.m.

    BYOD is getting very popular here in the US too (mostly because of severe school budget cuts). I've worked with mobile computing for years and have some experience with how to make BYOD work well.

    Are you using a mobile app with Moodle that works well?

    Also on the subject of Moodle, have you seen these open licensed Moodle courses that are available as downloads that you can bring into your own platform (more being released here all the time):

    http://ocw.openhighschool.org/

    I think this is just great. More sharing = more content and customization options for all of us!

  • Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 8:56 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Claire Amos   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:34 p.m.

    Count me in a connector / collaborator / Moodle co-conspirator Claire (that's a lot of the letter "c" in one sentence). What version are you folks running? I need to get my 1.9 / 2.0 / 2.1 skills together.

    I have never met someone helping to make BYOD work, so this is pretty exciting -- want to know how it's going, do's and don'ts, why all the usual fears don't matter (but other issues do) -- all the good stuff. Is there somewhere you suggest I start reading to know more, a blog perhaps?

    Also am wanting to dive into Mahara. Have been putting it off for no good reason.

    Matt

  • karen   Oct. 1, 2011, 12:16 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Matt Huston   Sept. 28, 2011, 8:56 p.m.

    I love Mahara! Just got into it (actually via a conversation on Twitter, which I think indirectly also drew Claire here :).

    Here's a site that lets you set up your own free Mahara portfolio:

    http://foliofor.me/

    Here's one I set up for myself in a couple hours....lots of fun:

    http://foliofor.me/view/view.php?t=tGw0xnsKTIpWO92ePLMa

    I am working on a way to integrate Mahara into P2PU. The idea would be to have courses (like this one) that inlcude projects that would then go into the e-portfolio. We might tie in badges as well.

    Do you all think that idea has merit?

    Also, I am also looking for info on any states or districts in the U.S. that require portfolios or use them for salary scale. (I know about NM's dossier program but am looking for others.) We are thinking that this might help build incentives for teachers to take courses here.

  • Greg   Oct. 4, 2011, 11:48 a.m.
    In Reply To:   Claire Amos   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:29 p.m.

    I'll chime in on the topic of Mahara, we've recently started using Mahara at out County Office of Education.  I like it as it is one of the few tools that maintains the idea that a portfolio belongs to the student rather than the teacher.  There are still some quirks to it that I hope get fixed in the next versions, but I really like how it works.  We are currently using it for our Aministrator credential program where each administrator in training needs to document their learning and hours on different compentancies. I'm still learning the in and outs of it and would love to hear how others are using.  I would like it to eventually be the platform for all teachers to use to document their PD hours and how they have use their profesional development.

  • karen   Oct. 4, 2011, 2:02 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Greg   Oct. 4, 2011, 11:48 a.m.

    I like the idea of using this for an administrator credential.

    I am currently researching how portfolios are being used as a professional development tool, including as documentation for recertification or salary scale changes. Does anyone have other examples?

    We are exploring the possibility of integrating portfolios into P2PU...so that when you complete a project in a course, it could go into your portfolio, possibly tied to badges. Any thoughts on that?

  • Mireille   Sept. 25, 2011, 2:04 p.m.

    Hello Everyone

    My name is Mireille (said like Me-Ray)  I'm a corporate trainer currently on sabbatical.  My sister is a teacher.  She teaches at risk kids.   I'm very familiar with the teaching profession and I think for most of you guys, you are definitely the unsong heroes.  

    Why be a part of this course?    I learn from teachers like you.  I look at what you do and prepare my world to keep up.   Not an easy thing.

    I'm going to talk to my sister to find out what would be a good mini course to develop.  I'm focusing on something visual.   More specifically and after reading some of the introductions I would like to collaborate with some of you or all of you to develop a training program that everyone can use.  Perhaps a tutorial on how to use social media safely or something that these kids can use, share and learn.  

    I'm looking to contribute and learn a lot.  And I'm so looking forward in connecting with all of you. 

    Mireille
    Toronto, Canada

  • karen   Sept. 25, 2011, 6:04 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Mireille   Sept. 25, 2011, 2:04 p.m.

    Thanks for the pronunciation tip, Mireille! That's something I often miss in an online format.

  • Shawthorne   Sept. 25, 2011, 1:14 p.m.

    I am the Technology Integration Coordinator for the Medina CIty Schools in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. This year we implemented Blackboard LMS in our high school and teachers are learning how to integrate this tool into their traditional classroom. Unfortunately, we have had to lay off several teachers over the past two years for financial reasons and this means that some student class offerings have been eliminated. I would like to see us utilize Blackboard to offer hybrid and eventually online classes to our students so that we can increase the number of options available to students. Right now we are losing students to other educational providers who do offer hybrid and online classes to meet our student's needs. If we can develop our own classes, we will be able to retain our students and potentially offer our classes to students outside of our district. We have some awesome teachers who are working this year to develop hybrid offerings for next year and we look forward to collaborating with our P2PU colleagues to make this a reality for our students.

  • SandyJ   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:02 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Shawthorne   Sept. 25, 2011, 1:14 p.m.

    Hello!  I am working with a group of teachers in New Mexico doing the exact same thing!  We are currently developing blended content with the plan to move to fully online within a year.  In NM there is a state policy that students must take an online, honors, or AP course before they graduate so the need to offer this within school districts is very important.

    Sandy

  • karen   Sept. 25, 2011, 6:08 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Shawthorne   Sept. 25, 2011, 1:14 p.m.

    That's interesting. A lot of schools I'm working with are going toward blended and online precisely because of budget cuts.

    Especially when used with free, open content, I think htat online/blended is a great way to offer students more options and to differentiate more effectively.

  • Mark Woolley   Sept. 28, 2011, 2:07 a.m.
    In Reply To:   SandyJ   Sept. 25, 2011, 5:02 p.m.

    Hi, I have a slight twist to this theme however there are items in common. In Australia we are developing "PLANE" a professional learning environment designed to allow teachers to learn online. Better access, cost effectiveness and powerful teacher networks are driving this project. 

  • karen   Sept. 28, 2011, 7:58 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Mark Woolley   Sept. 28, 2011, 2:07 a.m.

    Very interesting. Sounds like this has a lot in common with what we are trying to accomplish here at the School of Ed here on P2PU. We also want to have professional development be more authentic and inquiry driven.

    Is PLANE online yet, and if so could you send a link? I'd love to talk to you more about this sometime to brainstorm ideas.

  • Mark Woolley   Sept. 29, 2011, 6:25 p.m.
    In Reply To:   karen   Sept. 28, 2011, 7:58 p.m.

    Hi Karen 

    We have quite similar goals, our focus is on innovative online professional learning centred on meanful use of technology in learning. Australia now has a 1:1 laptop program for students from years 9-12 and hence there is great need to teachers to continue to learn and share their experiences. 

    PLANE is not quite online but well into the creation stage, you can find more details at http://plane.edu.au/

    Cheers

  • Greg   Sept. 21, 2011, 5:35 p.m.

    Hello, I am the academic technologist for Santa Clara County Office of Education in San Jose, CA.  My background is in secondary science, having taught middle school science for 8 years and delivering instruction to K-12 classrooms via videoconference with NASA.  I currently work with our curriculum & instruction department to incoporate 21st century skills into our workshops and help move them into an online forum or at least deiiver them in a hybrid mode.

    Some goals I have from this course is to learn methods/ best practices for rigoruous discussion online, how to regulate the work/ time commitment balance, new ways to collaborate.  One project that has been on the back burner that I would like to use this course for is to design an online course helping teachers guide students for science fair projects.

    I hope to be able to give and get good critique on my work and have a vigorous, honest discussion of ideas and thoughts on how to structure and implement online courses.

  • Anonym   Sept. 19, 2011, 1:26 p.m.

    Hi, I teach music part time for Bridewater Academy and the Wilkes-Barre Area School District.  I hope to gain more knowledge in online teaching.  I am already an online teacher with Bridewater Academy, but I feel that I can always learn more so I can become a better teacher.  As they say, learning is a lifelong process.  I also have Moodle account through the school district I teach in.  I use it as an online resource center for my students.   I attach all the worksheets we do as a class on the resource page and try to put a brief overview of what the class did for the day or our goals for the next class.  I find my biggest challenge is time there isn’t enough time in the day to scan the worksheets into the computer and attach them to Moodle and to write a brief class overview.

  • richard   Sept. 19, 2011, 8:11 a.m.

    Hi- I'm Richard, a higher-ed librarian in the Philly area. I'm working on increasing my knowledge of Moodle, particularly, after installing it on my home PC with the notion of working on it to improve my marketable skills in online instruction design, and I'm hoping to gain further skills and knowledge in this class from following the readings and incorporating the knowledge of my peers.