Running head: REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION

Reflective Practice in Action My Experience in OLTD 503 Carla M Wilson Vancouver Island University

Author Note Nelson, BC,

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION Reflective Practice in Action My Experience in OLTD 503

There is, has been, and will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. Its made up of all those whove consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imaginationTheir work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. ~Wislawa Szymborska, 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature Lecture I find both teaching and learning a continuous adventure with challenges and surprises around every corner. OLTD 5031 is no exception. It has given me a broader perspective of online learning and teaching, stretched my imagination and challenged my beliefs. In my first major assignment for OLTD 503, I outlined my personal philosophies of online facilitation and learning. I reflected on my experiences and beliefs at the time and connected them to the learning theories that I felt best fit my philosophy. I shared my perspectives of online facilitation and the importance of communication in community building as well as what I feel to be my greater purpose in the field of education. This paper will expand on the initial thoughts and ideas in my first paper and reflect on how my experiences in this course have strengthened some of my beliefs and philosophies surrounding online education and caused me to modify others. The final part of my paper will reflect on the student led seminars and what I have taken away as a result of the experience. Mission and Philosophy Throughout this course, I spent considerable time focusing and reflecting on my beliefs and practices as a distributed learning (DL) teacher. Through my readings and class discussions, I came to the conclusion that professional learning and reflection lead to changes in educator knowledge and skills and this can lead to changes in how we practice. As Korthagan (2003) stresses, as teachers we must ask ourselves what deeply moves us to do what we do in order to
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http://www.viu.ca/education/oltd/courses

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION move ahead in our professional development. In its simplest terms, we need to define our mission within our practice. It is only through a better understanding of what we believe to be our purpose, that we can provide better learning environments for our students and enable them to attain greater success in their studies. In pondering the greater purpose to which I feel connected in my teaching practice I concluded, like Laverty (2006), that the ultimate goal of education is to assist individuals at becoming competent learners and to take responsibility for their own thinking. I also concurred with Korthagen (2003) that education should aim at developing great human beings, who are valuable contributors to society. With this aim in mind, we should focus on developing in our students, qualities such as self-worth, deep feelings of love and respect for all people and an insatiable hunger for truth and knowledge. Identifying my greater mission within the field of education, helped me define my personal philosophy of online teaching and learning. I wish to teach in such a way as to spark curiosity and wonder; allow for exploration and discovery; encourage engagement with content; create opportunities for collaboration and connection

between students; facilitate deeper understandings; and help students to embrace new challenges all within a safe environment. Learning Theories Once I had better defined my personal educational philosophy, I took a fresh look at which learning theories best fit my beliefs. Laverty (2006) argues, to be effective in teaching it is essential to identify and evaluate what one believes and determine the practical implications of our beliefs and commitments so as to evaluate them and develop practices reflective of them. Looking back on OLTD 503, the first time I was asked to reflect upon which learning theories best fit my philosophy of learning, I had not yet formed strong convictions of where I stood. I

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION strongly resonated with Andersons (2008) thoughts that we need to be asking not how students learn, but how they learn what. I, like many teachers, question what I want each child to be able

to do once an activity is complete. Based on my answer, I determine the most appropriate type of learning activity, be it feedback and practice, graduated tasks, explanation and question, imitation, roleplaying, reflection, problem solving or some other type of activity. I try to vary the types of activities I use with my students to keep interest high and boredom low. But looking at an individual activity is very different than looking at it in the context of a whole lesson or whole unit. Likewise, while trying to identify with learning theories, I needed to take a step back and look and my whole practice and the beliefs that guide it. Learning theories tend to evolve rather than replace each other (Kear 2011). As a result, there are aspects of many theories with which I can identify. Like Korthagen (2004), I view the role of teachers as having shifted from someone transferring knowledge to someone guiding students. In this way, my views are very much in line with the tenets of constructivism where self-discovery is part of the learning and the teachers role is more of a facilitator providing support to start and gradually reducing support as students competences and abilities increase. These beliefs align with Andersons (2008) observation that a skillful e-teacher needs to provide the scaffolding on which students can grow their own knowledge and discipline-centered discoveries. To explain further, students need to have the space to explore, test new theories and, if need be, fail without the fear of penalization while they are constructing new knowledge. Teachers have a responsibility to take students from where they are, and help them connect their prior and current experiences to construct new theories and expand their understandings. Role of Community in Online Learning

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION Community also plays a significant role in the learning process and needs careful consideration in the context of online education. Kear (2011) suggests that in an online learning community, members are connected to each other and interact on some kind of common, shared basis and that there is potential for mutual support, shared working and shared learning. To give

this topic due consideration, I need to highlight my teaching history and how it has brought me to my present conclusions. I have been a distributed learning teacher since 2008. When I started, I didnt have any training or experience in facilitating and delivering online courses although I did have significant face to face classroom experience. In my face to face practice, student discussion and interaction played a significant role in the learning process. When I arrived at DESK (Distance Education School of the Kootenays2), the school was just beginning their transition from paper based correspondence courses to online courses. All our courses were offered asynchronously with continuous enrollment, and at the time, I worked with the courses that I had inherited. Many of these courses were duplicates of the correspondence courses we had offered that had simply been transferred into portable document format (PDF) and put online. Although there was interaction between student and teacher and student and content, there were no opportunities for students to interact with each other. Put more bluntly, our courses did not offer the opportunity for learning communities to develop. A pivotal moment of professional growth for me occurred when my school participated in the Ministry of Education Quality Review Process3. Before that, I had noticed that, as Anderson (2008) states, distance education often attracts students who value the freedom from constraints of time and place and who enjoy the opportunity to be able to move at their own pace. http://desk.sd8.bc.ca/
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/dist_learning/quality_review.htm

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REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION Unfortunately, our school, like many DL schools in BC, also experienced low completion rates.

In our quality review report, the Ministry highlighted that one of our weaknesses was our lack of opportunity for students to interact with each other and develop online learning communities. Rovai (2002) speculates that the physical separation of students in online programs may contribute to higher dropout rates as it has a tendency to reduce the sense of community and give rise to feelings of disconnection. I began to wonder if increased opportunities for student to student interaction would lead to increased engagement in our courses and to increased completion rates. I spent considerable time pondering the challenges that online learners face and the role I needed to play in mitigating those challenges. I began reviewing the learning activities in my courses and modifying them, where possible, to increase opportunities for students to interact with and learn from each other using tools such as discussion forums. Despite my efforts and some improvement in completion rates, my experiences also confirmed my suspicions that human interaction does not always happen naturally in online courses. Schwier (2009) says, unless the invitation to participate is explicit and the boundaries of acceptable behavior are shared and understood, people will not be as likely to take risks in their communication with other members of the community. Kear (2011) mentions the importance of the teacher setting the tone of interactions early in the course and providing some guidelines around netiquette. Rovai (2002) further suggests that course participation should not only be a course requirement, but a graded component. My experiences within the OLTD program support all the above suggestions. Netiquette was covered in our first Collaborate session in 501 and helped to set the tone of all communication from that point on. Participation has been a graded component of all our courses thus far and I find my cohort quick to add their thoughts to discussion forums and engage in thoughtful discourse with their peers. I have found these

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION exchanges useful in helping me both challenge and solidify my own understandings. Further, since the start of this program, I have noticed our group evolve and become much more supportive and encouraging towards each other. This kind of support can help overcome the

feelings of disconnection that contribute to lack of engagement and higher dropout rates in online courses. This kind of interaction can help seed the beginnings of online learning communities. Unfortunately, within my school district, teachers in recent years have been actively discouraged from including participation as a graded component of our courses. I see the need for some thoughtful discourse with administrators around the benefits of including participation marks as a strategy to encourage engagement and build learning communities online. Experiential Learning Learning is strengthened when it is taken beyond the theoretical and physically experienced. McLeod (2013) explains the four stage cycle of Kolbs experiential learning theory as having concrete experiences, reflecting on that experience, forming conclusions and then using them to test the hypothesis in future situations. In OLTD 503, our cohort was given the reins to explore and make decisions about our learning through the student led seminars. Each seminar focused on a different chapter in Karen Kears Online and Social Networking Communities: A Best Practice Guide for Educators. The seminars were: tools for online communication; benefits and problems of online learning communities; information overload; building virtual communities; and supporting online learning. Through these activities, we were encouraged to explore, connect, share and find our own learning paths. What follows are some of my reflections and conclusions about this experience. Although each learning seminar focused on a different topic, what we were really doing was testing out various online tools and exploring different ways to communicate and build

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION online learning communities. Rather than analyze each seminar individually, I wish to reflect on the big ideas I have taken away with me and how they fit into my view of online education. Every group started out their week with an informational newsletter that announced the weeks activities and prepared us for what was to come. These newsletters were emailed to us with the weekly OLTD bulletin. I found the newsletters a helpful way to prepare us for the week without inducing information overload. Group 5s newsletter sticks out as being particularly effective. This newsletter was different in that the group had used images and a template that added a splash of colour. Use of various font sizes and bolding titles also helped to highlight information. What I particularly liked, however, was the profile pictures and blurbs about the facilitators. This simple addition created a sense of warmth and communicated that there were friendly faces behind the planning of the activities. I instantly felt welcomed and curious as to what was in store for the week. I teach asynchronous classes, so I am not yet sure how a weekly

newsletter would fit into my program, however, I intend to experiment with the concept even if it is only a welcome letter sent to students at the beginning of my course. Each of the five student led seminar groups chose different learning management systems and one even used the social media platform of Facebook for housing content and encouraging communication amongst participants. My conclusions from these experiences are that the learning management system is secondary. I have my preferences of which management systems I prefer, but regardless of which system is used, teachers still need to ensure that the content and learning activities are interesting and engaging. As Fullan (2014) notes, technology used without powerful teaching strategies (and deep learning tasks) does not get us very far. Kear (2011) goes on to say that the teachers role is to provide learning experiences that fulfill students intellectual and social needs, and help develop a positive and open attitude to learning. Fulfilling this role

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION requires thoughtfully prepared learning activities. All groups succeeded in providing engaging activities which furthered our understandings regardless of the platforms used. Another outcome was the difference that establishing social presence in learning communities makes. Wilcoxon (2011) describes social presence as the ability of participants to identify with the group in a trusting environment and to develop social relationships by way of expressing their individuality. He argues that social presence is the most foundational to a functional learning community. When planning our weeks facilitation on Building Virtual Communities, my group felt it would be far more profound for our cohort to experience the growth of a learning community than simply study the theory behind making it happen. We relied heavily on Kears (2011) suggestions to plan our activities, particularly the use of

icebreakers. The positive reception of and enthusiastic participation in our icebreakers somewhat surprised me. I expected the activity would be well received, but what I did not expect was that the conversations would continue well after our week was up with over two-hundred interactions. In addition, a number of cohort members shared that they now felt more connected to our group because of this activity and that they were going to explore using icebreakers in their own practice. Because of this experience, I will make developing social presence among my students a much higher priority. I am in the process of incorporating icebreakers into my own courses and look forward to seeing how my students respond. Although there is much more I could say about my experiences with the student led seminars, I will wrap up by mentioning the variety of web 2.0 tools explored by each group. Each seminar group made good use of both asynchronous and synchronous web tools. Synchronous and asynchronous tools support online learning, communicating and community building in different ways. Asynchronous tools can easily address issues of separation in distance

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and time. They give the learner time to respond, which can be encouraging for shy students and can help facilitate deeper thinking. Synchronous tools are helpful for building social presence and community but dont allow learners a lot of time to think about their response. As a result, synchronous tools such as Collaborate work best when students have been given questions to reflect on or readings ahead of time. It also works well for distributing information and making presentations. I see the value in using a variety of tools and activities to enhance student engagement. At the same time, one must be careful to not overwhelm students or make technology a barrier. As Schwier (2009) acknowledges, in virtual communities, participants are not just connecting with technology, but through it. Anything in the system that emphasizes technology or makes it a hurdle in the system is less likely to succeed. I deeply appreciate the opportunity we were given to explore different online tools and modes of communication so that we will be better able to choose what will work with in our own courses. In conclusion, OLTD 503 has taught me many lessons that I will reflect upon far beyond the end of this course. It has helped me to realize that my teaching philosophies align best with the learning theories of constructivism (both social and cognitive). It has given me the opportunity to interact with and learn from other members of my cohort. It has helped me see the importance of communication and developing social presence when growing online learning communities and it has given me the tools I need to provide a better learning environment for my students which will hopefully contribute to their success and satisfaction in their studies with me.

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ACTION References

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Anderson, T. (2008) The theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton: AU Press. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/99Z_Anderson_2008Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf Fullan, M., & Langworthy, M. (2014). A rich seam: How new pedagogies find deep learning. Retrieved from http://www.michaelfullan.ca/wp content/uploads/2014/01/3897.Rich_Seam_web.pdf Kear, K. (2011). Online and social networking communities: A best practice guide for educators. New York: Routledge. Kihlstrom, J. F. (2011). How students learn and how we can help them. Retrieved from http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/GSI_2011.htm

Kolb, D. A., Boyatzis, R. E., Mainemelis, C., & (1999, August 31). Experiential learning theory: Previous research and new directions. Retrieved from https://www.d.umn.edu/~kgilbert/educ5165-731/Readings/experiential-learningtheory.pdf Korthagen, F. A. J. (2004). In search of the essence of a good teacher: towards a more holistic approach in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 77-97. Retrieved from www.elsevier.com/locate/tate

Mcleod, S. (2013). Kolb - Learning Styles. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html Meijer, P. C., Korthagen, F. A. J., & Vasalos, A. (2009). Supporting presence in teacher education: The connection between the personal and professional aspects of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(2), 297-308. Retrieved from www.elsevier.com/locate/tate Rovai, A.P. (2002). Building a sense of community at a distance. The International Review of Open and Distance Learning, 3(1), Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/79/152 Salmon, G. (2000). Gilly salmon's five stage model of elearning. Retrieved from http://www.sddu.leeds.ac.uk/sddu-salmon-five-stage-model-alternative-version.html

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Schonwetter, D. J. (2002). Teaching philosophies reconsidered: A conceptual model for the development and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements. The International Journal for Academic Development, Retrieved from http://www.kuleuven.be/duo/_pdf/JournalClubs/Schonwetter_Sokal_Friesen_Taylor_200 2_Teaching_Philosophies_Reconsidered.pdf Schwier, R. (2009). Pursuing the elusive metaphor of community in virtual learning environments. Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 2009, Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education, Honolulu, Hawaii. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/16646998/Pursuing-the-elusive-metaphor-of-community-invirtual-learning-environments

Wilcoxon, K. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/761/buildingan-online-learning-community

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