Online+Learning+Presentation

Kourtney's Online Learning Summary: Upon sharing this PowerPoint with my principal, a kindergarten teacher and a 5th grade teacher within my school, it was evident that technology does play a critical role in the way we educate our learners to be 21st century learners. The power of the internet and its role when using an online learning system definitely proves its worth to create a global learning environment that extends beyond the school day. We currently use Oncourse Systems Management to create lesson plans, a teacher website and make homework accessible to parents on our weekly calendar although not all teachers are doing this within our own school community. We now need to host more professional development opportunities for teachers to learn how to better implement technology across the content areas with the resources we have in our district such as Oncourse as one example. I‍n addition to professional development, we need to build a team to work on gaining funding for technology equipment and an increase in technology tools in the hopes to gain access to more handhelds. ‍By familiarizing my principal and 2 colleagues about the 4 key change agents in creating 21st century learners, we can work to gain more support at the school level to show the importance of technology and its role in improving student achievement across the content areas. My principal and I both discussed our vision and how she wants to create with me an action team to go forth with getting funding for more technology tools ranging from more laptops to accommodate at least one full class as well as the possibility of iPads as a means for increasing the anytime/anywhere access. My presentation really brought light that we need to get moving in order to keep up with the changes and that we are capable of achieving great things. We have currently already purchased 2 additional interactive whiteboards for use in our multi-purpose room as well as the library. These resources will also allow teachers to create more engaging lessons that are multimodal. Through my PowerPoint, ‍I know where we are as a school and where we need to go in terms of online learning. ‍Finally, through the support of my principal and colleagues, we will soon be creating an action team which will then look closely at opportunities for technology funding for schools to improve the quality of education within my school community.

Chad Martin Online Learning Presentation

In my online learning presentation, I was able to present to my superintendent, principal, the technology director, my department head, and three other teachers. ‍Our school is heavily military students and they miss a lot of school due to the issues within their lives. I decided to make this the focal point of my presentation because online learning would benefit these students more than any others. ‍In my presentation, I focused on the military students and how online learning would help them in trying to catch up the work they miss in a traditional classroom, I used RCampus as my example, and I addressed concerns that the faculty may have.

Overall, the response was very good from the people I presented to. They were all very receptive to the ideas that I had and agreed that it may be a viable option for our students. Most of the concerns that they had were addressed in my presentation and the only other ones that were brought up was how to get other faculty members on board and how much it would cost. The presentation went very well and the superintendent and the principal have al‍ready scheduled more meetings with me and the rest of the group want to meet again as well. ‍ I will continue to look into this matter more and hopefully have more ideas to bring to the table in our next meeting so that we may be able to get this idea up and running.

Missy McCoskey's <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">Online Learning Presentation Week 4 <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">I presented my power point to my principal and two high school teachers. My presentation was well accepted, and I am going forward in trying to develop some lessons on Moodle. <range type="comment" id="373980">‍Since my school is the recipient of a technology grant, our tech is requiring several of us to take a Moodle course on collaborative classrooms. ‍This will open the door even more to use Moodle at our school since several teachers will be familiar with it.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Some concerns about online learning modules were expressed. The most significant hurdle may be selling the idea to teachers. Teachers are already very busy, and therefore, trying to get them to buy in to one more thing to do may not be easy. One way to alleviate this is to have teachers be able to create one lesson during a professional development day and try it in their classrooms.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Other concerns were that students would be able to cheat easier if they could access the program at home. One way to alleviate this is to have students complete lessons at home and tests at school. This seemed to be an acceptable solution.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Currently, online learning modules may fit our school at this particular time. Since we are working with a technology grant and are taking online courses ourselves through Moodle, my presentation was very timely. Everyone seemed very open to trying Moodle in the near future.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">In my experience with Moodle, I have had some difficulties. I downloaded the program and then tried to access it. I was able to log on, but I could not create a course. I am currently trying to resolve my issues. I have spent a couple of hours trying this and still have no results. I do not want teachers at my school to have this same experience. So, I plan to work this out before I push for Moodle implementation. I welcome any instruction you can provide.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The most significant hurdle may be selling the idea to teachers. Teachers are already very busy, and therefore, trying to get them to buy in to one more thing to do may not be easy."
 * Response to Missy (re-post after deletion)**
 * I can understand how overwhelming it can be have other teacher "buy in"to a new program. They are very busy and many times don't want to put in the time to learn something new. With that said, I think if sufficient professional development is provided then teachers will be more eager to learn. In my school district Starboards were recently purchased. Many teachers shyed away from learning it since it was new and seemed complicated. You said, "**
 * With professional development available hopefully these educators will jump on board!**


 * Lyndsay**

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><range type="comment" id="716960"><range type="comment" id="891898">Nellie Murison's Online Learning Presentation (Week 4)

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">After giving my presentation to my 3rd-5th grade dean and two other third grade teachers, I realized that my dean is a huge advocate for online learning. She was previously the technology facilitator in our school before taking the position of vice principal. (Our administration was re-worked later to have a principal and 3 deans instead of just a principal and vice principal.) Being such a huge advocate for online learning she has already done extensive research on using online classes within our school.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">My school is a public charter school and we happen to be on the same charter as our high school (which is at a different location and with different administration). Because the charter school uses online classes with some of their students, that leaves us at the K-8 school between a rock and a hard place. We cannot use online classes at our school, and if we did they would not be acknowledged by the state and students could not receive any credits for these classes. The middle school teachers pushed for this as a way to meet the needs of a few students who are capable of taking high school math classes. However, due to laws put in place by the state, our middle school students were not allowed to do this.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The other big hurdle that we discussed was the lack of hardware. We have over 750 students and only 1 computer lab and 1 set of laptops. For my students to really utilize an online classroom they would have to have more frequent access to computers. I am looking to start with implementing an online classroom with my own class to begin with. I think that if I could begin with my own classroom and try to work through some of the troubleshooting, I could begin to introduce it to some "techie" teachers first teaching them as I learn myself. I think that if I were willing to be the first one to try it, I would have another group of teachers who would be willing to give it a try too. If we could begin implementing things just a few at a time we could help each other to learn other features in the software. I have only just begun starting to explore moodle but am very excited to see where it could be useful in my classroom and at home.

**By: Lyndsay Jaskowski** **My online learning presentation was presented to my school Principal, two colleagues, and my student teacher. The presentation was brief and I used my Starboard to show the Power Point in my classroom. The area I explained that online learning would assist is reading. The reading scores in our school district have been significantly low over the past couple years. Through online learning the students would be able to engage in reading activities from home. In addition, using the online learning module would teach the children 21st century skills that are important for their future.**

**Following the presentation my Principal and colleagues shared their thoughts about the presentation. My Principal suggested that I engage my classroom in an online learning environment through a classroom blog or wiki. After the year of implementation I would collect data to see how the children’s reading abilities have improved. A concern my Principal and colleagues brought up was that many of the students do not have home computers. How can they be expected to engage in online learning if they do not have home computers? This was an issue that would need to be discussed at a further time. Overall, it was a successful presentation and I am eager for online learning in the future.**



<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">VIrtual Learning Environment Presentation <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">By: Colleen McCray <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I chose to look at the Study Island Program. It is not a virtual learning environment in the truest sense of the word, but there is enough that allows students to collaborate and teachers to customize, both for their class and for an individual student, that I thought it beared looking into. Study Island is relatively new for my school, so I knew that most of the teachers were not familiar with all of the details. I took the time to play with the program and see what it could really do, and then created the powerpoint for my principal, a fourth grade teacher, and our librarian - all who are part of the "Instructional Technology Leadership Cohort" with me. We are generally looked at as leaders within my building when it comes to the use of educational technology, so I knew these people would give me the best feedback on my ideas. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Overall, they were very impressed with the information. The librarian seemed the most familiar with everything I had to say - she's used Study Island a lot within her classes with the students. She has not, however, had a chance to share what she knows, and the ready-made presentation was impressive enough for my principal that she asked me to make a few changes (i.e. showing some of the ideas in action instead of merely mentioning that they were possible) and to present it at the in-service day the Monday after Thanksgiving. I am anxious to see how the presentation changes the perspective of some of my colleagues who simply use it as a tool for their students to practice. There is the concern that there is only one computer lab for the students to use. However, each student has their own individual log-in, and can access the program at home. This also gives parents an option to interact with their children academically, and know that they are helping.