Email: MAAP Con 2012 - Online/Hybrid Learning

MAAP Con 2012 - Online/Hybrid Learning
	For the next few days, I'll be covering the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs (MAAP) conference in Rochester and passing on some of the most interesting, exciting, and thought-provoking concepts.

My first presentation on Thursday afternoon was about online/hybrid learning, presented by a teacher from District 287. The main thrust of the presentation, in Star Trek Ed terms, was about moving past the shiny factor to the substance factor of online-facilitated learning.

An interesting point about framing came up early in the presentation: the presenter noted that we should stop talking about “online learning” as wholly distinct from “learning.” As we get better and better at using online tools to help learning happen, more and more learning will take place online. In other words, it'll stop being a separate kind of learning and just be learning.

Another interesting story to come out of the presentation was that the presenter was able to increase his class sizes without a drop in learning by using online units he'd designed using Moodle. This particular tool allows students to work with a variety of texts organized around a particular set of skills, get feedback on assessments of those skills, and advance through the teacher's pre-approved sequence of learning for the unit at their own pace.

Allowing students to pick units increases their buy-in at the beginning of the unit, and structuring the unit to give them a significant sense of progress early on turns that buy-in into positive momentum. For students who have struggled with more traditional classroom environments, this can be a major factor in keeping them learning.

This doesn't mean that teachers sit back and watch students stare at glowing screens. Instead, teachers move between the unit groups to provide context and push students to think deeper.

The bottom line for this presentation is that we're getting better at using technology to make learning happen, but that progress on this front requires teachers to rethink how they teach. Instead of replicating traditional lectures, packets, and worksheets, learning can now be about structuring the sequence of independent activities to build the desired skills. There's still a lot of work yet to do to realize the biggest dreams of the techno-advocates, but it's good to know it's not all about the shiny.

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