Preparing Teachers for Online Education

Yesterday I had an insightful and inspiring conversation with Brad Rathgeber of the Online School for Girls. In learning about their program Brad started me thinking about how to formally prepare teachers for online education.

It is an inevitable that online courses will become an integral part of our students' educational experience. David Nagel of Campus Technology reports that "nearly 12 million post-secondary students in the United States take some or all of their classes online right now. But this number will skyrocket to more than 22 million in the next five years, according to data released recently by research firm Ambient Insight"(Campus Technology. October 28, 2009). As my school, School of the Holy Child, seriously considers adding the option of online courses for a variety of reasons (scheduling, collegiate preparedness) key questions must be explored and answered. Are we preparing our high school students for the online course environment? How is student learning different in an online venue versus the traditional classroom? Is assessment authentic and accurate? Does teacher pedagogy change as a result of online courses? Are there certain classes which are more appropriate face-to-face instruction or can any course be delivered online?

As the educational technologist on staff whose primary task is to train faculty in the latest technology and educational applications of such technology I am contemplating how to best approach my staff with inevitable shift in classroom content delivery. Our school has had a successful 1:1 laptop program for ten years. Over the past decade we have had many discussions on the impact of technology on education and developing lessons and content that foster a more student-centered approach toward teaching and learning. Web 2.0 tools have been an essential part of that discussion and implementation. Teachers at Holy Child blog, skype, create videos, podcasts and the like. Yet it still seems that there is a significant amount of time in the traditional teaching paradigm. It's hard to argue that a total shift take place when our teachers and students are successfully teaching and learning blending traditional and web 2.0 approaches. Our students are accepted into the top colleges and universities around the country. Thus, how does the educational technologist and administration approach staff with this model?

Stay tuned for my next post on how we are embarking upon this topic with faculty.