R/D7

According to the 2003 ASTD benchmarking study discussed on page 180 of the textbook, 74% of the technology-based training offered by large companies was delivered via the Internet. This statistic was a higher percentage than I would have guessed but it is not surprising. Internet-based instruction has the advantage of giving trainees flexibility in when they participate and does not require that the training time be taken out of the normal work hours.

I would like to see Internet-based training used more in the CEU programs provided by the state department of education and my school district. Currently my school district does not have any online CEU programs. Teachers often complain about a lack of flexibility in CEU dates and how it is hard to get a spot in many of the courses, which are often offered only one time during the year. The courses are also usually broken into two five hour sessions that follow right after school. That makes for a couple workdays that last from about 7:30 am until 9:00 pm!

What I hope to do in the future is to help the district develop Moodle-based (similar to Blackboard) CEU courses. Obviously, there is a benefit of flexibility. Teachers, many of whom have children to take care of at home, would have less constraint on what courses they can sign up for if the courses were hosted on an instructional delivery tool that features asynchronous communication. I also believe that when teachers are exposed to instructional content at their own pace rather than a lecturer/trainer’s pace, they are more likely to absorb it. My mind often wanders during presentations so it would be nice to be able to rewind to an earlier part that I missed. Another benefit is that having the course materials online also makes it easy for teachers to share that material with other teachers in the school. It would be a lot easier for me to show another teacher a video clip of the trainer, an excerpt from an online article, or a new idea from a discussion board post than to try to reexplain it while retaining the original quality. Finally, I do not think that those extra benefits would come at much, if any, extra cost. In fact, it may even save money since teaching the course online would eliminate the cost of having to provide dinner for the teachers.

The textbook also talked about the need to save time in instructional delivery by using more sophisticated evaluation techniques to ensure training effectiveness. I think that just about every teacher in a state-tested subject wishes they had more time to effectively teach all of the objectives outlined in the state curriculum. I am envious of the sixth grade teachers in my school that get to spend two hours of instruction on math rather than just one. But since we are confined to the state’s instructional schedule, we need to use effective evaluation to make sure that we do not spend more time than we need to on a topic nor go through a topic before students have a good understanding of the material.

To maximize efficiency, classroom response systems (CRS) or “clickers” can be used to provide real-time data on how each individual is performing. An alternative to CRS is using SMS polling. With SMS polling websites such as polleverywhere.com, students can text message their answers to a multiple choice question and the website will tally responses. The teacher can then use this instant data to more accurately determine whether or not it is necessary to devote additional instructional time to the topic being assessed. While SMS polling may not be available in some K-12 schools due to district policies, it could definitely be used at the post-secondary level.