Wicked Problem Project

 Part A

The important educational need is the graduation requirement in Michigan schools that requires that a student has at least one online course experience before graduation. I feel there is a need for online class development at my high school.  My school offers a basic technology class but I do not feel this class is adequate for the students to be familiar with online classes by the time they graduate or that it prepares them for a college level class. I took a poll in one of my classes to get feedback on the experience the students received in the class that is already developed at De La Salle. The feedback was not good, the student’s comments were, “it was not worth it,” “it was so easy they could have finished it in one day”, and “it was not beneficial.”

We need to keep our students up to par with other schools and the fast advances of technology. If students are absent a lot due to illness or have other obligations will benefit from this class. This will help students that might be homebound or students that are falling behind. The freedom for the student to work freely at their own pace and to complete work in other locations rather then a traditional classroom could be beneficial. An online class provides differentiated instruction for all grade levels. My focus is on high school students. Online classes will engage students in technology and independence. This will allow students to blend high school and secondary education and will allow for flexibility for the students and teachers.

A large amount of our students may absent due to illness, retreats, sports and other events that arise. I feel that an online class will benefit a vast amount of our students. The flexibility will prepare the students for the transition between high school and college.

I plan to target the educational issue with technology by doing my research on the Michigan online requirement for an online learning experience. My research will be on how to develop an online class for my students at De La Salle. This will allow students to participate in an online experience if they desire. Online classes offer students the flexibility, utilize technological tools and could offer a larger selection of classes I have never developed or taught an online class, this projects focus is to research training available for teachers, course management systems and the steps that need to be taken to develop an online class.

The scope of this project is to research what kind of training is available for teachers, I spoke with my administration and they are very excited and looking forward to the results of this research and I have their full permission to implement parts (survey of students, a lesson where the students experience the class online rather then in a traditional classroom) of the research into my class this year. I will be researching different types of course management systems, Moodle and Rcampus are free course management systems.

I will be using the internet to do my research. The site that I like the best is iNACOL.org, Moodle, Rcampus, edline, edutopia.org, mel.org along with input from other websites and teachers that have implemented some sort of online experiences into their classes.  One of our teachers here was using Moodle for parts of her class she found Moodle easier then Edline which is the system that our school is using.  Another teacher here teaches our online class http://nroc.careerforward.org it is a 4 to 6 week/20 hour class that can be used as a supplement to a class or used as a full online experience. He uses some of the material but also adds his own twist to assignments. This course is free and available to middle and high school aged students.

  

I plan to research which course management system I would like to experiment with, create a lesson plan for my computer programming class. My pre/post test and video will be posted on edline. Edline is our schools course management system. This will be given   to my students that are already enrolled in my traditional classroom. I will implement this lesson into my class within the next week. I have already practiced using edline added a test and video. I was able to take the test to make sure it was typed and presented correctly. I checked to make sure the video was linked so the students will not have any problems. First, I plan to enroll into some online training classes. I plan to continue to add material to this project until I can design a full semester class online. I know this will take sometime but it will be beneficial to the success of the class.

I will be able to measure the success of this by the student’s feedback and the by reviewing the pre and post test. I will discuss with my students what they liked and did not like about taking the quizzes online and watching a video rather than the traditional classroom activities. I will ask, if they liked doing the work on their own time better then being in the classroom? Was it easy to navigate around in edline? Were there any problems connecting to the video link? Do you want to do more lessons online? I will have my students answer these questions in the discussion forum.