Text Messaging to Improve Social Presence in Online Learning

A  new generation of students are coming through today's colleges with far more experience with technology.  They rely on this technology to stay socially and academically connected.  Text messaging is considered one way to create an environment where students and instructors can become comfortable and interact with each other.  This article addresses the use of text messaging at the university level.  The university piloted web-software that could distribute campus alerts and distance education course updates.  Then they evaluated the effectiveness of integrating text message in an online environment.  The university sent out four types of messages; course updates, grade information, deadline information and weekly "hot" topics.  The university conducted a survey where at least 75% of the students agreed and had positive comments about the pilot.  In fact, most students were willing and anxious to experiment with the use of text messaging.  This study aimed to change the pedagogy in order to accommodate the mobile lifestyle of today's students.  The study found that using the text messaging tool, students and teachers became active participants in the learning process.  The field of education is typically slow to move forward and change its ways.  I think this article showcases educations shift into its willingness to change and advance with the times.  Since social presence has been linked to the satisfaction of the online learner I think the text messaging helps to keep students feeling connected and up-to-date within their community.


http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/TextMessagingtoImproveSocialPr/161829

The Learning Centered Principal

Ok, so, I guess I am on a DuFour kick.  I really just like his ideas and how they tie into what we are learning and reading about in class.  This article discusses the role of the principal within the learning community.  After going through educational leadership courses this topic is of high interest to me.  Everyone is aware that a principal must serve as an instructional leader for the school.  It is their responsibility to set an example and keep their school abreast on the most recent instructional strategies.  I think most principals want to help their teachers teach more effectively, but how?  In order for the shift to occur principals need to change their roles as well as teachers.  They are not just instructional leaders, but learning leaders.  The principal needs to be at the forefront of changing the school culture.  Along with initiating, facilitating, and sustaining the process of the shifting school mindset the principal must also support their teachers in all aspects of professional development including confronting staff members who are not fulfilling their obligations.  Principals, now need to put student and adult learning at the core of their priorities and serve as the lead learner.


http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/may02/vol59/num08/The_Learning-Centered_Principal.aspx

What is a Professional Learning Communtiy?

After the past two weeks of reading it got me really thinking about our first posting and the professional learning communities we have been involved in personally.  I discussed how my schools meetings use the Dufour model.  I have to admit I did not know much more about the DuFour than those three questions we use at our meetings.  That is why I decided to do my first posting on an article written by Richard DuFour - What is a "Professional Learning Community"?  I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn more about DuFour's professional learning community model.


The article was a more in depth look at the DuFour model.  This model focuses on the core mission of education shifting from students being taught to ensuring the fact that students are actually learning.  Every professional in the building must work together to keep exploring how they want students to learn, how they will know when they have learned, and how they will respond when students are experiencing difficulty?  The part of the article that really touched me was the standard scenario where a teacher teaches unit and by the end some students still have not mastered the skills and the teacher is left to make a decision to move forward or go back and review again.  I feel like this happens frequently and I do not know what the correct thing to do is.  However, using this model the team makes decisions and works together to help the student.  The article truly explains a great environment to learn and work I see some components of this model within my school district, but I also feel like they are just expecting it to happen by merely presenting teachers with questions, standards, and curriculum.  Our school seems to be suffering from the data rich/information poor syndrome.  I think this information is useful because it presented examples of successful schools that use this model.  After the various readings I have done I am interested in continuing to learn more about how true professional learning communities work and operate within the school setting.

http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/secondary_reading/el200405_dufour.html

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Thank you for coming to my blog.  The purpose of my blog is to discuss online community building.

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