Assignment # 3:
Take a look at each other's Educational Challenge Scenarios (Individual Assignment #2). Choose one that is compelling to you, and that you have an idea about how to help solve. Write a description of an educational solution, learning environment, application, or training program addresses the Educational Challenge Scenario you chose. Your Prescription should consider the learners, learning objectives, and environmental context, and should respond to challenges, needs, and pain points (technical, logistical, financial, motivation, perception, etc.).
Blended e-Training to be e-Teachers:
SECTION 1: Link to Educational Challenge Scenario
SECTION 2: Prescription for a Learning Problem
One possible solution is to create a mixture of blended and e-training courses for those teachers. The first blended training course, created usingCollaborize Classroom, aims at intrinsically motivating them to develop themselves technologically. Once they accept the idea of integrating technology into their classes, an e-training course will be created using CourseSites to provide them with e-activities and tools that can help them motivate their students to attend their school and enjoy while learning.
There are 3 stages to successfully implement this proposal:
1. Pre-Training Stage (it needs a month):
- Conducting a survey to identify the trainees' needs and their technological skills. Then, analyzing the survey responses to put the final results into consideration in the design and implementation stages.
- Designing a blended-based discussion board.
- Designing an e-training course.
- Preparing the training room and checking the internet connection.
- Interviewing some featured teachers who managed to integrate technology into their classroom and made a difference in their students' lives. Then, creating some case studies videos to showcase them to the trainees as real models to follow.
- Informing trainees with the time and place of training.
2. During-Training Stage (It needs 3 months):
- For a month, trainees will attend a blended-based training where they can meet face-to-face in a computer lab discussing some topics about integrating technology into their classrooms and how to motivate their students using tablets in particular. Discussing these topics will continue in the online discussion board that are created using Collaborize Classroom. Trainees will attend two face-to-face meetings and complete the discussion online.
- Once trainees get involved, an e-training course will be created and conducted for 2 months using CourseSites. In this platform, trainees will meet each other online experimenting and trying out e-activities, assignments and team projects. They will use a lot of tools at the same place, e.g., discussion board, wikis, blogs, journals, live chatting ... etc. They will discuss, collaborate and reflect on their experiences. Their progress will be based not only on scores and attendance, but also on their work with others and sharing experiences. When each trainee completes a module, he or she will get a badge besides the score. It's desirable to include some of the gamification features to motivate these trainees.
- During this stage, some case studies will be shown to provide some real examples to follow. There are a lot of featured teachers on Microsoft website.
- After the completion of the blended and e-training courses, trainees will get certificates, badges and some rewards (as extrinsic motivation sources).
3. Post-Training Stage (It needs a month):
- Conducting a survey to collect the trainees' responses after the completion of these two courses.
- Conducting a follow-up course for 2 weeks to see how far they apply what they have learnt and identify additional training needs that can be put into consideration when running other courses.
- Introducing the Microsoft Partners in Learning competition that is held every year to encourage teachers' integration of technology. Trainees can create projects with their students and submit them in this competition.
Learning Topics and Objectives:
- The author's objective is motivating teachers to use tablets in their classrooms and getting some confidence using them. This training series helps teachers to use the technological element from blended to entirely online course. It enables them to break the ice between the use of these tablets and their resistance to use digital content. Once they feel motivated and get involved, they attend an online course. It provides them with a great opportunity to learn more about methodologies and activities using tablets. I think that involving persons in doing something is better than just encouraging them by words. This is the ultimate goal of the proposed solution.
- The process of assessing and evaluating will be done through the use of rubrics for every course, quizzes, peer evaluation and feedback. The best indicator for progress will be creating a project with their students and participating in the Microsoft Partners in Learning competition. This will show how they apply what they have learnt.
- The initial tasks that the trainees will do are just to respond to some topics in the discussion board after talking about some topics in the face-to-face meeting. Those who are a little bit clever at using technology, they can initiate their discussions or co-moderate the website. In the second e-training course, trainees will find a lot of alternatives that match most of their needs, skills and learning styles. They can discuss in the discussion forum, they can collaborate in projects using wikis, you can create groups and conduct a live chatting with them .... etc. I guess it will address all their multiple qualities and intelligences.
Environmental Context/Learning Conditions:
- This school will receive a financial support to get a room with computers connected to a high speed internet connection. This is what is needed to implement the training. Trainees will discuss some topics related to integrating technology into their classrooms and then be trained on how to use the discussion board using Collaborize Classroom and the e-training course using CourseSites. They can complete their tasks online either in this room or using their PCs or tablets at home.