Teaching and Instruction by Design

Missing the Cake Do you ever go to the store to buy a cake, but end up with a pie instead? They are both desserts and delicious. The pie was really tasty and satisfied that sweet tooth craving, but you still want cake. I created an online resource for teachers to develop an understanding of personalized pathways. I ended up with a great repository of information with opportunities for reinforcing practice, but I wanted the course to become a community of learners sharing and growing. So what is missing? As I looked back through the course, I built in many places for teachers to research and understand the elements of personalizing learning for their studens. However, there is no instructor involvement or interactive opportunites for teachers within the course. As the cake became a pie, the course evolved into more of a training manual for reference purposes. At this point I would like to modify the course form its original purpose to become a more dynamic learning envir...

I think most people agree to the idea of communication being a critical aspect of learning as we discuss and explore new ideas. However, when learning moves from a face to face environment into the online elearning arena, the type of communication to insure effective learning needs to be addressed. Should learning be driven online as a timed and structured event where everyone is moving at the same pace and schedule with real-time chat rooms (synchronous) or do students learn effectively in a more self-paced environment (asynchronous)? Or should the two be blended to create the ultimate elearning experience? In a blog post addressing the pros and cons of synchronous versus asynchronous, the author describes the two types of learning facilitation. (Paula, 2018) She details some of the positive qualities of real-time synchronous learning as more of a social interaction with immediate feedback and answers and the down side of synchronous learning is timing constraints, lack of on...