How to Design an Online Teaching Course for a Beginner Teacher
Cathy Davidson and David Goldberg, in their book "The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age" maintain that the future of education lies not in the traditional brick-and-mortar buildings of schools, but rather in the silicon and plastic connections of computers and the Internet. As more and more education takes place online, it is necessary for beginning teachers to become versed in not just the traditional methods of classroom instruction, but also the contemporary methods of online teaching. According to Bloom's Taxonomy, one of the best ways to learn something is to experience it. Consequently one of the best ways to teach new teachers how to use online teaching tools is to teach them using online teaching tools. Designing an online teaching course for a beginner teacher engages new teachers on both the principles of teaching, as well as the principles of educational technology.
Instructions
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Identify your educational objectives for your teaching course. For beginner teachers, you could focus on any number of pedagogical topics such as lesson planning, classroom management, professionalization, lesson modification and enrichment, unit planning and so on. It is best to focus on one or two of these aspects in a course, or chunk the course up into individual units that focus on one of the topics. For example, your first unit might focus on unit and lesson planning. Your second unit might focus on lesson modification and enrichment. Your third unit could then focus on classroom management, while your fourth focuses on professionalization.
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Determine how an online course will help you and your class achieve your educational objectives. Cathy Davidson and David Goldberg advise against using technology for technology's sake. Your use of online technologies, therefore, should be reasonable and legitimate.
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Choose the type of online platform you want to use for your course. For example, decide if you will run discussions on a message board, a blog, some combination of both or some other communication device. Decide how you would like your students to submit assignments. Will they use email or an assignment delivery system? There are many types of course management systems such as Blackboard or Sakai that allow you to incorporate most of these attributes into your online course. Additionally there are many free online services that allow you to connect different online technologies. Google offers a number of free services such as Google Docs and Google Sites, which can be interfaced with one another.
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Train in your chosen online platform. As the lead instructor, you will be responsible for answering as many questions about the software as possible, in addition to running the course and managing the course content. Consequently, you must be well versed on the ins and outs of your course's online platform.
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Introduce your online course in beta form. Releasing beta software simply means that you are releasing it as a prototype that could have potential glitches and bugs in that users, through experimentation and manipulation, can identify and report back to you. Ask several colleagues to participate in a beta trial run of your online course platform and have them interact with the online platform as though they were students in your class.
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References
- Photo Credit computer class-room image by araraadt from Fotolia.com
