CEDO 550 - Week 6

The final week of comes to a close on CEDO 550 aka Online Facilitation: Taming the World of Online Learning.  The course has been challenging in so many ways but mainly that it has helped me wrap my head around specific strategies and best practices for online learning.  The course has provided insights into how Virtual Charter schools are changing the educational landscape in Wisconsin.  No longer the wave of the future, the online learning Tsunami has already washed over the state and all of the stakeholders in education have to adapt - sink or swim.

Although my teaching up until this time has been mainly with adult learners, my trainees are gaining 21st century skills by utilizing the office automation and collaborative technologies  all around them.  My role as a company trainer shifts to being one of a learning facilitator.  I still create courses but my instructional design plans for employee-to-employee interaction.  Company wiki, discussion boards open to the client community and rapid prototyping of products and services using brain storming sessions.  The 21st century skills our schools foster in young students are just what the business world uses today.   Funny, but calling myself a 'Trainer' sounds so regimented.  I have become an eLearning and Collaborative Technology Professional.  

I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am concerned/excited about the impact it will have on local control of curriculum.  Virtual schools are licensing online curriculum from third parties.  Although textbooks have come to be dominated by other states, it is likely that as online learning matures that 1 or 2 big players will emerge dominating online curriculum. Economics dictate that as the industry matures, it will become less competitive and products will be less innovative and responsive to customer needs. 

The Madison Metropolitan School District's  involvement in online learning includes the Madison Virtual Campus (MVC)  and participation in the Wisconsin eSchool Network.   MMSD offers  11 categories with 115 courses for students which can be found in the online MVC Student Online Course Listing.  Breaking it down further one can see the distribution of courses by category.

I spoke with 2 Madison MSD teachers and they were amazed at the number of online offerings for students.  I looked at the MMSD Technology Plan and they intend to expand online learning opportunities for both students and teachers.

During the module I was excited to learn about the current offerings of online learning in my school district.  The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) offers 3 different portals for special content in addition to participation in the Wisconsin e-School Network.   If you were to ask most parents with children or teachers in Madison about these offerings they would not have a clue.  That being said, my examination this week of the MMSD's current and future use of online learning has been most enlightening.  I have a better sense of what is happening in my own backyard and it will be fascinating to see how online learning progresses in the coming years.