But, teachers should ignore this "never gonna happen" nonsense; or, just ask the basic question, "How old do learners have to be before computers and online teacher substitutes become effective?" Or, as the corollary question, "If school districts cannot afford the technology infrastructure (computers refreshed at least every three years, high speed data backbone, redundant and failsafe server farm, one IT staff member for each 66 computers) for a one-computer classroom, how will a computer for every student become affordable?"
Advice: Ignore this debate and find a more productive focus for your time and energy.
Online Learning is a Teacher's Friend
Online learning is a teacher's friend because online content represents the only place that teachers can learn the survival skills that they need for the modern teaching world.
College classrooms and district-sponsored in-service programs fail to target the "need-to-know now, must improve my skills of..." that comprise the day-to-day needs of teachers.
Mandated school district training, if it targets anything useful, targets school district problems.
But, how likely is it that the school district's challenge matches a teacher's need? Most often, the school districts problems are either…
- Bureaucratic snafus that teachers are being blamed for
- Problems related to one or two teachers, that all teachers (not only the offending ones) have to suffer for
- The result of long-term mismanagement and inept decision-making. (More of the same, applied to in-service training, will fail as well
So, expect little from school district-sponsored training, and you won't be disappointed.
How Teachers Really Learn - and Improve
Sitting on the receiving end of an avalanche of "pearls of wisdom" during a training program has failed to demonstrate positive application outcomes for teachers. In other words, teachers learn something, but find nothing useful in most in-service training programs.
The reason that seat-time training is the myopic bureaucrat's "solution" of choice is that the "pay once, document that many teachers were given a boost in skills" approach creates the illusion that the district is "addressing student outcome shortcomings" by shoring up "teacher shortcomings."
Of course, teacher shortcomings are seldom the cause for the effect that these strategies are supposed to allay. (Telling teachers about a new theory or strategy doesn't boost student learning.)
But, talk is cheap, and bringing in an "expert" to pontificate is the cheapest "pseudo-remedy" that has a modicum of face validity.
But, online learning faces no competition from "politically connected consultants, even though online strategies connect authentically with real teacher needs.
The reason: School district officials seldom wish to pay for online learning. In fact, teachers seem to resent paying for online learning, too.
Sidebar
It is a curious bit of irony that the very folks who hold to the mistaken notion that online learning can replace teachers are the same folks who are so reluctant to pay for online learning for teachers. Go figure…
What about In-House Online Training
Creating online training in-house is costly. Those pesky trainers want to be paid before they do the creation, and they are not even in front of trainees. So, this downtime (when the trainers are developing, rather than training) seems like a waste.
And, developing an entire course is a waste because teachers are busy, and teaches seldom wade through the entire course. Teachers only want to extract usable segments of the training and skip the rest.
How Adults Learn: Especially How to Apply Skills and Habits
Adults waste their time if they slog through information that they already apply skillfully. But, repeat information that is not applied is intellectual-only ballast that only adds "drag" to any progress that the teacher makes in improving application and skill.
If a school district wants to improve the skill sets of teachers, then folks in charge need to figure out how adults learn. And the fact that usable adult learning is global, holistic, non-sequential is important. These folks must also figure out that application of a skill by one teacher will take a different time track and application focus than for other teachers.
Navigating a sailboat provides an analogy for the complexity of improving instruction for teachers. Different skills are required to navigate during the day than after dark, different skills are use in northern seas than in tropical currents; and navigation during storms differs from navigation during periods of intense calm. And procedures change in patrolled coastal waters compared to what must be done on lawless seas where pirates ply their barbaric trade with impunity.
A sailor might be soothing sunburned skin one day and bailing storm water from the bilge the next day, and fixing the bilge pump the day after.
Nice, orderly, sequential jaunts through a training curriculum with the leisure of a Sunday excursion in the park; as though the sojourn is a self-guided tour…neatly labeled, all interesting and pertinent facts researched…well planned, nothing out of place. Let's get real
Online learning must be…
- Modular
- Interactive
- Focused on real-world teaching needs
- Friendly
- Confidential
- Competent
If these word fail to describe any online course that you know, than you have experienced courses that are designed to earn course credit. These courses are great for meeting certification and job advancement needs. But, these models of academic design are useless for practical, day-by-day, what teachers need to know how to do now, teaching.
Enough "Gloom and Doom" Description of the Status Quo! Tell us "What Works!"
Requisites for online training include:
- Confidentiality: The teacher must be assured that supervisors and upper echelon school district management cannot discover that the teacher is communicating, asking for, exploring, examining. All interaction that the teacher makes with the online system must be secret. Otherwise, teachers are not free to direct inquiries toward their real needs
- Personalized: The online instructors must know the teacher, know them intimately, and be able to devote an hour or two, that day; to each teacher's specific learning needs. If this means that someone must employ lots of online experts, that is correct. A body of knowledge, even with an artificial intelligence front end is still "stupid" when compared to human intervention.
- Online Trainers with Real-World Experience: Hot-shot theorists who avoided classroom "boot camp and special forces" training by an academic charade are ill equipped to teach, let alone advise teachers. Colleges and universities my still employ these idea-oriented researchers, but Real-World units, such as classrooms in real schools are no place for them (or their influence)
- Ad Hoc: On call, no wait for helping response. Answers to today's questions tomorrow means a missed window of opportunity.
- Information Storage and Retrieval System: The online learning system learns from the experiences of others, and offers case studies (with confidentiality maintained) and best practices.
- Follow-Up until Resolved System: The online learning system needs a "no stop until forbid or opt-out" mechanism. This means that once an teacher enters a skill-development challenge, the online system is relentless (and unrelenting) in providing support for learning that skill…until clear mastery is achieved…and the teacher has resolved the issue
- Tested Focus and Referral System: A system cannot be all things to all people, and issues that are beyond the scope, expertise or legal mandates must be referred to other agencies. For example, a teacher may focus upon improving personal-supervisor relationships when criminal abuse, negligence or misfeasance becomes apparent. In such a case, the system must direct the teacher to the appropriate crime unit or whistle blower infrastructure. In other cases, it may become evident that a teacher needs psychiatric or mental health services, rather than improved instructional skills. The system must be able to deal with such issues
But, it is fantasy to expect that school districts develop an insightful and intricate online training system. And, legal issues and the cost of talented staff appear to be obstacles that would prevent a private organization from developing such a program without contract guarantees and retainer fees.
So, teachers teachers will continue to get their training "catch-as-catch-can, piecemeal, and on-the-fly" as they have always done.
Sure, school district employers have an obligation to their students and their community to provide superior training and focused help for their teachers.
But, most haven't provided anything of value to their teachers, yet. So, it is delusion to expect that they have the wherewithal (or the intention) of starting now.
