Davis, N. (2011). Online and blended learning rolling into New Zealand Schools. Computers in New Zealand Schools: Learning, teaching, technology. Vol 23. No1. pp 101-107

Online and blended learning rolling into New Zealand schools  

Niki Davis ([email protected]) University of Canterbury College of Education e-learning Lab

As I write my Virtual Schooling column for Computers In New Zealand Schools in April 2011 the governance group of the government’s Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) project is being reconstituted to reflect an increasing understanding of the complexity of change with digital technologies, and I have been appointed to the UFB Board. Anne Jackson mentioned to me recently when we she interviewed me in the Ministry of Education that working to support the recovery of schools in Christchurch had improved her understanding of the many intertwined factors that impact schools ability to make use of the UFB including the buildings and digital infrastructure as well as professional and organisational development. In addition, the earthquake continues to prompt extraordinary innovations such as the sharing of one school campus by two schools with the consequent need to support students’ learning when off the school premises. Virtual Schooling, with online learning blended to provide ongoing access to the resources and support of peers and teachers, is one of the strategies being employed. The Greater Christchurch Schools Network is supporting the recovery, with workshops and online resources including Moodle 2 classrooms and support for teachers. My colleague, Susan Tull, has provided access to her Moodle course designed to support teachers to adopt this mode of teaching (see http://www.gcsn.school.nz/learningcentre/professional-learning/tutorials/susan-tulls-educational-design-classroom-moodle-19) and others have negotiated complementary access to courses built in North America by the National Repository of Online Courses’ Hippocampus (see http://www.hippocampus.org/ and an outstanding Virtual School in recognition of Christchurch’s needs at this time.

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The second edition of the VLN Handbook, Learning Communities Online, was launched at the Learning@School conference in February. Led by Derek Wenmoth of Core Education with support from leading e-Principals, the new version of the handbook provides guidance on the setting up and ongoing management of clusters of schools sharing courses and elearning. The handbook contains a matrix that shows the maturation processes (see figure 1). Derek Wenmoth and I are working with Michael Barbour to gather and start to populate an online version of matrix with link to examples. That research and development is the results of a small grant to the Distance Education Association of New Zealand (see http://www.deanz.org) from the Ministry of Education. Our goal is to inform a variety of practices to emerge so educators and learners will be able to adapt relevant effective strategies to suit their needs and circumstances and the diverse ecologies of this bicultural nation. Readers may be interested to note that we are seeking out illustrations with help from Te Kura, TCS and several eLearning clusters including : •

Cantanet & Aorakinet – Darren Sudlow and Trevor Storr

•

Farnet – Carolyn Bennett

•

Otagonet – Lynda Walsh-Pasco

•

Taranet – Rachel Roberts

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Figure 1. Learning Communities Online matrix that will be seeded with examples of practice in the DEANZ VLN project during 2011. LCO Handbook http://www.vln.school.nz/pg/groups/2644/lco-handbook/

Virtual Schooling in New Zealand was brought to the SITE international conference in March by Keryn Pratt (2011) who has completed her TLRI-funded project on the experience of OtagoNet students who are learning online at a distance. Her findings largely agree with those of Bolstad and Lin (2009). In addition Pratt emphasises that students are increasingly taking subjects in multiple formats from multiple providers and this provides new opportunities and challenges: “While students would have preferred a traditional style of learning, they were generally successful at managing this blended learning, gaining in learning skills as they did so.” These are important lifelong learning skills being developed

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in authentic contexts. Keryn and I also had the benefit of critique of our papers at an International Federation of Information Processing workshop before SITE, where my VS research plus that of my Masters student Kerry Stevens into the role of the New Zealand ePrincipal was well received. Our research into leadership of online learning highlights the importance of professional development for VLN teachers, supervisors and coherent leadership of these modes of learning by school leaders at the local, cluster and national levels. It is also important to note that there is an increasing demand for school principals and other leaders to step up to play their part in eLearning worldwide as can be seen in Scott McLeod’s Blog Dangerously Irrelevant, which is in the top 10 of educational blogs worldwide). To address the need for professional development of school leaders the South Central Divide blended learning project (http://wikieducator.org/SCD) funded by the Ministry of Education as a regional eLearning cluster held a meeting for school principals in Ashburton College on 4th November. The four keynotes raised the awareness of around 30 school leaders: •

Dr Scott McLeod, Canterbury Fellow, hosted by me and the University of Canterbury College of Education eLearning Lab gave a presentation on the changing information and economic landscapes and the resulting new demands for school leadership to remain relevant in the 21st century (see a recording of Scott’s Core Edtalk on this topic at http://edtalks.org/video/two-big-shifts-and-one-bigproblem)

•

Marg Mcleod provided an update on the government’s ultrafast broadband initiative and urged schools to play their role in supporting their regions and students. Marg Mcleod is currently Acting Group Manager of the Curriculum Teaching and Learning Implementation division of the Schooling Group in the New Zealand Ministry of Education.

•

Mark Osbourne, Deputy Principal at Albany Senior High School in Wellington, presented on his school’s exemplary adoption of MyPortfolio for student-centred

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learning, which includes one day a week on student-led projects that serve the community and link well with assessment. •

Dr Michael Barbour provided and overview of Virtual Schooling and related research worldwide Michael’s current research interests focus on the effective design and delivery of online learning to K-12 students in virtual school environments, particularly those in rural jurisdictions including research and development in Newfoundland, Michigan and New Zealand.

Michael directed the schools to scenarios that we have produced to illustrate the new practices that evolve with VS. In addition to the Teacher Education Goes into Virtual Schooling scenarios that I led in the USA and mentioned in a previous column (see http://ctlt.iastate.edu/~tegivs/TEGIVS/VSLab/all%20scenarios.html), we recommend that you

review

the

later

ones

that

he

has

led

for

Michigan

(see

http://itlab2.coe.wayne.edu/it6230/michigan/ ), see Figure 2. As noted above we aim to produce some scenarios for New Zealand linked to the Pedagogy line in the matrix shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2. Scenarios of VS designed for educators in Michigan led by Michael Barbour.

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Michael highlighted the role of the school facilitator or supervisor for online and VLN courses. Drawing on his work and mine (e.g. Davis & Niederhauser, 2007) he noted that school staff must: •

Serve as the local “eyes and ears” for the online instructor

•

Track student progress

•

Communicate with the online instructor, school administration and parents

•

Address any concerns to staff and the help desk

•

Assign final grade to the student after the percentile score is submitted by the online instructor

•

Help student stay on track and successfully progress through the course.

The SCD event for principals also included some of the teachers who are the emerging “stars” of the Blended Learning Project, which has adopted an emergent design to fits the fast developing professional development needs of the teachers and their schools. Vicki Smith, then ePrincipal for WestNet named our approach the “Star Trek” PD, to boldly go where schools had not dared to go before. The emerging stars’ blended learning projects show us what is possible and that we have only just started our journey. I plan to illustrate our achievements in a future column as their practice spreads within and across schools. We hope that many more educators will join us in this journey, including the national leaders whose vision and support is critical for New Zealand to reap the benefits of ultrafast broadband, particularly in relation to virtual schooling.

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References Bolstad, R. & Lin, M. (2009). Students’ experiences of learning in virtual classrooms. Wellington:

NZCER.

Retrieved

September

15,

2010,

from

http://www.nzcer.org.nz/pdfs/students-experiences-learning-virtual-classrooms.pdf Davis, N.E. (2011, submitted). Leadership for online learning within and across secondary schools: An ecological perspective on change theories. ALT-J. Learning communities online handbook (LCO Handbook): Available for download at http://www.vln.school.nz/pg/groups/2644/lco-handbook/ Pratt, K. (2011). New Zealand students' perceptions of blended learning. Presentation to SITE conference, Nashville, March 2011.

This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/nz/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.

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