Final Week EDLD 5318 Reflection

 INTRODUCTION

I currently serve at the Blended Learning Specialist at Uvalde CISD. In this role, I provide support for the blended learning intiative at my district through professional development, coaching, job-embedded support, and program management. The course I have designed is called Blended Learning 101 and it will serve as an introduction for teachers new to the district on the Uvalde CISD Blended Learning model.

Instructional Design Theories 

I believe that every instructional design theory could lend itself to the development of online learning environments given the right context, audience, and purpose. For Blended Learning 101, I used the constructivist theory to drive the design of my online learning environment. Blended learning is complex and involves many moving parts, so I felt that this set up was ideal in helping the learners/teachers connect the moving parts in the ways most relevant to them. For this reason, I included project-based applications for students to make their own interpretations and connections to the content in order to apply the principles in their own classrooms. 

UbD Plan Implementation 

I implemented the UbD plan for my learning environment by starting with the end in mind. I had to decide what I wanted learners to be able to do and articulate upon completion of my course, so backwards design was the perfect fit. After I identified the desired results, I had to determine what evidence would prove to me that my students understood the module and the overall topic of the course. Once I determined those pieces, I began to build each module as a learning pathway for students to ultimately reach mastery. 

Importance of Online Learning 

Today, more than ever, online learning is critical for our students to be familiar with. In my job, I have to consider the teacher experience, while also determining how to support them to best to support students. Throughout the COVID-19 school closure, I have found myself wondering how much to “give” teachers in terms of training so as to not overwhelm them more than necessary in an already trying time. Through this course, however, I have determined that a priority for district-level instructional staff now has to be online course creation training. We know so many more things now than we ever have before about online learning, and this course has opened my eyes to where our priorities need to be. Instead of focusing on the coolest tricks, we need to focus on the SECTIONS model described by Bates (2015) in order to be sure that we are providing equitable, accessible, safe, quality online instruction to students. 

Enduring Understanding

My enduring understanding from this course is an extension of what I previously mentioned in my response to the importance of online learning. I will work tirelessly to spread the message among the teachers I support and their administrators that online learning has to be intentional and strategic. Simply providing links and expecting students to get it is not enough and I hope that I can successfully support those I serve in helping them see this importance. I plan to take what I have learned here and create a template or model class that other teachers can utilize to help them drive their online course design using UbD. I am excited to see how this helps and what the data shows in terms of student success and accessibility. 

Many of the courses created by my peers were courses for their own students and particular to their content area. One of my classmates created an entire online course for a unit of study that his students tend to find “boring” so that he could incorporate some engaging activities and incorporate student voice and choice. Another one of my classmates set up an online course for her entire middle school class that is concurrent at the moment to give all students the ability to access the same content consistently. The most interesting course I discovered through my online discussions though, was one created by Danielle Fry on the Impact Cycle. This one stood out to me because it was designed as a professional development course, similar to mine and I was unfamiliar with the impact cycle before I go to look into her course. I even bought the suggested book by Jim Knight on the Impact Cycle that is basically a guide to effective instructional coaching.

Reference list

A.W. (Tony) Bates. (2015, April 5). Chapter 8: Choosing and using media in education: the SECTIONS model. Retrieved February 22, 2021, from Opentextbc.ca website: https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/