(NB – PDF link fixed now)
More from the work I have been doing to assist the NZ MoE in determining what an online learning environment might look like. In sharing the work I’d done previously (see Future OLE) I kept getting questions from teachers and principals about how this might apply to schools who, at the end of the day, are still charged with managing the complexity of learning for students, and are required to make decisions about the appropriate technologies to support this (eg SMS, LMS etc)
I’ve prepared a short paper titled OLE – a school perspective (pdf) which attempts to outline what a school’s response should be, and how this would relate to the personal learning environment of the individual learner as well as the various other systems and repositories that are ‘out there’. I should point out that the particular products and services I’ve used to illustrate the diagram are merely that, illustrations, and are not intended to convey any sense of exclusivity.
Your thoughts or feedback would be welcomed.
It is both exciting and terrifying to see the question of school-based online learning environments in the wider context of social software tools. The average teacher in the average NZ secondary school is probably a million miles away from being able to cope with all these concepts and websites!
Is there an exemplar school that is making this whole thing work yet, either in NZ or around the world?
And how does the above-mentioned average teacher find the time to explore these new toys?
I’m afraid you’ve put your finger on some key issues here, Karen – it’s all pretty scarey in some respects. But at least there is movement in terms of getting some support for the infrastructure and work with the vendors (at a government level) to avoid schools being left to do this all themselves.
At this stage I know of no secondary schools that are doing this successfully.
Re the average secondary teacher – I’m afraid there’s no simple answer to this – the experience overseas would suggest that time isn’t the issue. In several reports where teachers have been given time allowances to upskill and update thinking, there’s been little or no uptake overall. It’s part of a more integrated approach that is needed – in the meantime, we risk alienating even more of the kids in our schools and classes.