Creating & Sharing What I’ve Learned

As I started to create the final project for my inquiry, I began to re-think my audience.  Of course, my instructor and classmates will view my final project, but one of the potential outcomes of an inquiry is that it may lead to action.  Who, then, might this inquiry motivate into action?  Well, for one, it will hopefully motivate me as I re-evaluate the delivery of the curriculum.  As well, though, I’m hoping to reach a wider audience: my administrator and my colleagues. 

Although I see and collaborate with my DL Administrator and colleagues regularly, I hope that this product of inquiry might be something concrete from which we can spring into action.  I chose this topic of inquiry because it’s an area I am genuinely concerned about.  If I can see room for improvement, it’s hard to ignore.  And, as a growing DL school, I think the issue raised in my inquiry, the need to provide our students with opportunities to interact with their peers, is a valid concern. 

With them in mind, my inquiry has become more meaningful.  At the very least, I hope my inquiry gets us thinking about and acting collaboratively on the best learning environment for our DL students.  

Processing It All!

When I first started my research, I wasn’t sure I was going to find what I was looking for.  I was pleasantly surprised, though, when I started to find articles that were relevant to my inquiry.  However, my inquiry is almost too specific, perhaps too unique.  I haven’t found EXACTLY what I’m looking for, but I’ve found enough to validate what I was feeling before I started this inquiry, and enough to get me started in the right direction with my online students.

As I’ve been reading up on my topic, I’ve been thinking about my inquiry from two perspectives: as an online learner myself and as an online teacher.  I hope this gives me a better insight into my topic, and a better understanding of how to best serve my students.

Right now, I’m looking forward to putting all of this research into an accessible format that will, hopefully, not only inform me, but help inform others interested in online teaching and learning.

Retrieving more than I expected!

Yesterday, I had another interesting meeting.  This time, I met with Mark Hawkes who is the DL Unit Representative for the Ministry of Education in B.C.  He wanted to know what I thought quality instruction looked like via DL.  As part of my response, I stressed the importance of interaction between students and instructor and between students and their classmates.  Unfortunately, although I feel this is really important, I don’t think there is enough interaction between myself and my students and there is virtually no interaction between my students and their peers.

Ironically, before starting my position as a DL instructor, I was using online discussion boards and blogs in my “bricks and mortar” classroom to facilitate more interaction between all said parties.  As a DL instructor, however, I have not found the same use for these web 2.0 technologies.  Sure, each student could maintain a blog, but who is going to read it?  Of couse, I would, but is that a big enough audience?

Because Mark has been traveling around, visiting other DL centres, he had a great suggestion for me.  He recently met with another DL English teacher.  He suggested that we get together to collaborate and share students.  That way, I might be able to widen the audience for my current students.  Not only would we be able to broaden our horizons, we could also get together to collaborate on the delivery of instruction, as this was another concern of mine regarding quality instruction.

Although high school English courses are being offered online, the content of the courses is still very much traditional in that students are often asked to read and answer questions.  I would like to structure the curriculum so that it incorporates more of a constructivist approach to learning. 

Again, Mark had some fascinating suggestions, and I thought I would share them because they are too good to keep to myself!  First, he suggested that I look at www.machinima.com.  This site offers people the opportunity to explore and make movies in virtual worlds.  He recommended “Second Life.” This is one of the many virtual worlds already created.  Although this is an adult version, there’s a teen version as well.  Students could get together to create 3-dimensional movies.   Although this would certainly transform the traditional approach to learning the curriculum, it still doesn’t solve my dilemma of having students working at different paces throughout the course.

The last morsel of enlightment he offered was to check out www.activeworlds.com. Active Worlds lets users visit and/or create 3D worlds.  Users can visit these worlds and chat with other users visiting.  Again, the creation of a 3D world would lend itself nicely to group collaboration.  I can just see the assignment now: create a day in the life of Shakespeare…

My time with Mark was short, but I think it will have a big impact on the way I think about DL instruction.  I was happy to hear that Mark will be presenting a workshop on virtual worlds at the BC Education Online Conference on April 22nd.  I can’t wait to go!        

Retrieving Information for My Inquiry

As a good teacher-librarian in training, I have been using the database, Proquest, to find articles relevant to my unique inquiry.  To date, I haven’t had a lot of success finding articles that specifically refer to my particular question: how do I effectively engage and support my distance learning students with inquiry-based learning projects without the support and interaction of their peers?  And, although I haven’t found the answer to my question, I did have a very interesting conversation today that might lead me in the right direction.

W– W–, an active DL administrator, visited our school today and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to “pick his brain” for about an hour.  What a luxury!  During that conversation, we discussed ways in which I might be able to make inquiry-based learning part of my online curriculum and support the process in an effective and meaningful way. 

In an earlier post, I may have mentioned that students work through courses at their own pace.  For students, this is one of the perks of taking an online course; however, it is not condusive to forming “cohorts.”  Therefore, students rarely get the opportunity to interact with other students.  After expressing my concerns to  W–W–, he suggested that I try creating a curriculum that lends itself nicely to at least one topic and/or theme.  For example, “ambition” may be a recurrent topic/theme in the stort stories, the novel study, and the Shakespearen play chosen for a particular course.  If the content of the course is linked by a common topic/theme, then the inquiry-based unit could also be based on this same topic/theme.  That way, it wouldn’t matter when students started their research projects, other students could still be a part of the process because of the familiarity of the topic.

It’s not that I’ve found the “answer” to my question, but I’ve found some direction.  I’m very eager to explore this possibility further.  

I’m really glad that I found someone with whom to collaborate.  He was able to address my specific needs, unlike the articles that I’m reading!

Planning my Inquiry-Based Learning Project

In the very near future, I would like to create a unit of inquiry-based learning for my online, English 8 – 12, students.

Before I can begin to design this unit of inquiry, however, I need to answer a fundamental question: “How can I effectively support my online students with inquiry-based learning without the support of other classmates?“  After reading through “Focus on Inquiry: a teacher’s guide to implementing inquiry-based learning,” (Alberta Learning 2004), I realized that many of the phases of inquiry involve or would be enhanced by peer interaction and support.  In my current online teaching position, however, students do not work through the courses with any type of cohort.  They work independently at their own pace.  Without the support of other classmates, can a student experience an authentic inquiry-based learning experience that is just as effective?  How so?  These are the questions I am going to attempt to answer throughout my own inquiry-based learning experience.

As I work through the planning phase of my inquiry, I feel focused, but uncertain as to whether or not I will find the answers to my questions.  I’m really hoping, though, that I will be able to find suitable alternatives for my online students.