This post was originally written in Fall 2020 as most P12 schools remained closed during the pandemic. Updates were made on August 26, 2022 to reflect the current situation in schools while reflecting on the past.
This week in EDIT 760, we tackle the question, "What is the Online Learning Movement?" Never before has that question been so relevant and important than today as we continue to face the challenges of teaching and learning during a pandemic. Our goal in EDIT 760 is to develop your understanding of online learning, but also, we need to make some sense out of what is currently happening in schools due to Covid-19.
There was a lot of debate in the beginning months of school closure (March 2020) about what to call this Covid-19 learning. Early news reports from here and around the world focused on online learning. While I wasn't sure what to call it, I knew from being an online designer and teacher, whatever was actually happening in school divisions was not, could not be, online learning.
One of my favorite opinions on the topic came early on from two University of Georgia professors who stated, "What we're doing today is teaching and learning to be in Covid-19... . This is not business as usual and it is unethical to act as if it could be." Gosh, I wish I had written that!
Five months later, there were still references and news reports describing the return to school in Fall 2020 as online learning. To designate those Fall openings amid Covid-19 as online learning, dilutes the practice and everything many educators and researchers have worked toward to elevate alternative environments and showcase affordances.
The progress made to promote online learning as a viable learning option is at risk.
If you look up the definition of online learning, you will get many possibilities (I know! This is how I spent much of 2008 as I was formulating my dissertation). The definition that continues to be most complete to me came from my colleagues, Dabbagh and Bannan-Ritland (2005):
Online learning is an open and distributed learning environment that uses pedagogical tools, enabled by Internet and Web-based technologies, to facilitate learning and knowledge building through [*]meaningful action and interaction. (p. 15)
To me, this definition makes the complexities of online learning explicit and visible. Moving content, pedagogy, technologies, and interactions from in-person learning to online learning requires reimagining content, pedagogy, technologies, and interactions. Reimagining takes time and skill.
No wonder educators have felt overwhelmed and stressed since March! There has not been time to reimagine.
You are in a unique position as teacher-learners in EDIT 760. Module 2 focuses on The Online Learning Movement in K12 schools. Most K12 teachers started the 2020 school year in virtual environments as a result of this pandemic. The present situation is very instructive as you have the opportunity to compare what the literature says about online learning and what had happened
in schools. As you read this week's resources on online learning in Module 2, consider the following:
How do you characterize the type of teaching you did during the pandemic? How would you characterize the type of learning your students did during the pandemic? How does this compare to what you are reading in Module 2?
(News articles or even research that supports your understanding would be great links and additions to your Module 2 Blog).
How did you feel about teaching and learning as you began the school year in Fall 2020 and Fall 2021? What are the message and expectations you are heard from school leaders and what are the message and expectations you wanted to hear?
You might even consider using the above questions to guide your Module 2 Blog Reflection (suggestion only).
Reference:
Dabbagh, N., & Bannan-Ritland, B. (2005). Online learning: Concepts, strategies, and application. Pearson Education, Inc.
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