Monday, March 3
1:30 PM-5:00 PM
UTC
Royale 7

Teacher Education Goes into Virtual Schooling

Workshop ID: 21675
  1. aaa
    Niki Davis
    Iowa State University Center for Technology in Learning & Teaching
  2. aaa
    Ray Rose
    Rose-Smith Assocaites
  3. Zahrl Schoeny
    University of Virginia
  4. Dennis McElroy
    Graceland University
  5. Rick Ferdig
    University of Florida
  6. aaa
    Ron Ellis
    Graceland University
  7. Rachel Graham
    Iowa State University CTLT
  8. Karly Wortmann
    Iowa State University CTLT

Abstract: As of September 2007, 42 U.S. states had significant supplemental online learning programs (in which students enrolled in regular schools take one or two courses online), or full-time programs in a virtual school, or both (Watson, 2007). Therefore, it is time to introduce this new mode of schooling into all preservice and professional development programs for educators. The workshop will be led by Niki Davis who will provide an overview of Virtual Schooling and as PI introduce the national project supported by FIPSE: “Teacher Education Goes into Virtual Schooling.” Instructors from the project’s growing national community of practice will also support the workshop and an equity dimension will be led by Ray Rose. There will also be links to initiatives beyond the U.S. Participants will be supported to evaluate and adapt the project’s resources and tools for their own programs and courses, preferably using their own laptop computers with the materials provided.

Objectives

Goal: Start to integrate K-12 distance education into your preservice program and/or course of professional development for K-12 educators Objectives: This workshop will enable teacher educators to: • Appreciate the phenomenal growth of K-12 distance education in the U.S. • Understand that all teachers and administrators will be impacted and the responsibilities that may be required of them • Review curriculum materials and research in their use in preservice teacher education • Plan adaptation of curriculum materials to fit your preservice and/or in-service program(s) http://www.public.iastate.edu/~vschool All participants will receive a CD with a range of resources and curriculum that they will be supported to adapt to their courses and programs. These include: • A lab and lecture introducing Virtual Schooling and preparing preservice students for the role of a Virtual Schooling site facilitator in high, middle and elementary schools. These include scenarios of online learning and its challenges for non adult students. • Materials to provide a pre-student teaching field experience in an online course for high/middle school students. Also induction materials for use in regular field experience course. • A range of publications and web resources to develop teacher educators’ understanding of this rapidly growing mode of secondary and elementary education. These include two issues papers published by the North American Council for Distance Education in November: (1) Professional Development by Davis & Rose and (2) Equity and Social Justice by Rose & Blomeyer.

Topical Outline

As of September 2007, 42 U.S. states had significant supplemental online learning programs (in which students enrolled in physical schools take one or two courses online), or significant full-time programs, or both (Watson, 2007). Therefore, it is time to introduce this new mode of schooling into all preservice and professional development programs for educators. This significant growth spreading within and across schools included over 50% growth over a year in Florida Virtual School, Idaho Digital Academy and the Virtual High School™, including students outside the U.S. At least one third of U.S. high school students have had some form of online education experience, including students in every state. In the state of Michigan an online learning experience is required as a prerequisite to high school graduation, beginning with the graduation class of 2010. Florida Virtual School is an educational district in its own right and has franchised quality courses to other virtual schools. Teacher educators are also beginning to include this mode of twenty-first century schooling. This workshop is part of the dissemination efforts in the closing phase of the “Teacher Education Goes Into Virtual Schooling”, which has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) and collaborating organizations. Where existing pre-service programs have a course that introduces students to instructional technology it is recommended that instructors adapt the TEGIVS developed lab session that is designed to introduce the range of virtual schooling and the roles that educators play (Harms et al, 2006).

Prerequisites

Some experience of preservice teacher education or professional development with technology and preferably some experience of online learning. Alternatively enthusiasm for these will be enough. Please bring your own laptop computer if possible. In addition, TEGIVS has created resources and strategies to integrate online education in a methods course and pre-teaching field experience (Compton et al, 2007). The four universities that have collaborated to create and research this are: Iowa State University (lead), University of Florida, Graceland University and the University of Virginia. The evaluation from initial uses are described in Davis et al (2007) suggest that these tools can influence future educators’ thinking about teaching and learning in the 21st century. Multiple and crisscrossed tours are necessary through the complex and ill-structured domain of teaching, (Spiro et al., 1988), including teaching online.

Experience Level

Intermediate

Qualifications

Niki Davis, Ph.D. is Director of Iowa State University Center for Technology in learning and Teaching and Principal Investigator of the FIPSE-funded project: “Teacher Education Goes into Virtual Schooling. She has over 20 years experience in professional development in Europe and the U.S. including preparation of teachers and teacher educators for flexible and distance learning. Niki is a past president of SITE and a member of SITE’s distance learning and international committees. Niki will be supported by project personnel Karley Wortmann and Rachel Graham. Ray Rose, principal of Rose-Smith Associates is well known for his expertise in virtual schooling as well as social justice. Ray was closely involved with the Concord Consortium project that resulted in the research and establishment of the high quality Virtual High School, VHS ™. Project partners who will support the workshop leaders include: Dr. Rick Ferdig, University of Florida, Dr. Zahrl Schoeny, University of Virginia, and Drs. Dennis McElroy and Ron Ellis, Graceland University.
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