Teaching+and+Learning+Critical+Questions

and allow teachers to enhance learning in other ways? || Helps students to be engaged differently. Enables teachers to provide information, activities beyond classroom, textbook. (PL)Allows students and teachers to both access a larger array of teaching materials including multi-media resources and 2.0 utilities. || All courses potentially would have some blended component. [JE: Why? Are we sure that all courses would be improved by this? We need to avoid piling on of another demand on teachers unless it is really important and other adjustments are made, with regard to other obligations, etc] Enables teachers to provide information, activities beyond classroom, textbook. Allows more direct connection to teachers and peer networks beyond the classroom. More experiences in different subject areas & evaluation from teachers,students and parents regarding impact and effectiveness (XX) || need to deliver an online course? || (PL)There are currently no firm guidlelines for qualifications per se. (PL) Institutional professional development days are structured into the calendar to support web 2.0 tools. (PL) || Appropriate professional development; technology support person. (PL) Guidelines are established for criteria for ideal blended/online course. [JE: Different technologies will be suitable in different degrees to different subject matters and student age/maturity levels. It will be expensive and time consuming to develop our institutional ability to define this well.] [JE: Given how quickly the technologies are advancing, any guidelines we adopt are likely to be out of date quickly.] (PL) Demonstrated experience and familiarity with expected technology that will be implemented with course. (Skype, Googledocs, Wikki, etc) (PL) Normal standards for qualifications in subject area as for any other WFS coursework. [JE: Why aren't we asking what administrative resources we need to do this? I pointed out that I had to spend hours of my time just registering my students to use different tools, and asked for the Tech department to do this on behalf of all teachers, for just the most well-established Web tools, but was turned down.] What is our school's definition about PLN in a school domain? Are we going to experiment and benefit from all of them - wikis, webinars, nings, blogs, social networking, etc? (XX) || (PL) Student participation was need-based rather than proactive and assumed that kids had the skills or would develop them. || (PL) Student should be able to demonstrate a familiarity with technology or perhaps take a **basic skills test or questionnaire** before being permitted to enroll or pursue an on-line course. For in-house kids this should be fairly straightforward. We need to **ensure that they have the requisite skills** to access, download or upload documents, skype, view video etc. [JE: We may need to develop a way to test and track publicly student's abilities in using new tech tools as the students enter our school and as they progress through our curriculum. Maybe a system like Scout Merit Badges could work.] Are students going to have some trainings similar to teachers' before the course starts to make sure that teachers and students are on the same page or should that be part of our online course's objectives?(XX) || how can these skills be supported by online learning? ||  || (PL) Students should be aware of their 'on-line identity' and be able to manage documents both locally on their home PCs as well as access shared resources on the cloud. (PL) Part of establishing a pre-requisite skill-set (see above) will establish a base-line expectation for digital literacy. Coursework in a blended or on-line environment will ensure a refinement and increased literacy in this area both for the instuctor and the students. (PL)Digital literacy should also include evaluative skills to be able to discern reliable on-line sources (Wikipedia or propaganda vs. 'reliable' or 'credible' sources). [JE: Many of these skills have a strong technical component. We probably need to rely on a specialized technical expert to help us define our skill requirements, and to keep these up to date through periodic updating. On the other hand, the decisions cannot be simply outsourced, as the key issues are educational ones, and for WFS to decide based primarily on pedagogical criteria.] Are foreign language skills also be considered during the process of digital literacy skills acquisition? For example, in China we often use Baidu instead of Google, Taobao instead of E-bay and Xinlang microblogging site instead of Twitter. (XX) || courses respond to the continual and rapid development of internet tools? || (PL)We have offered some courses in responce to a scheduling need. (PL) We have formed this committee to determine needs and best practices. || (PL) On-line courses will need to be fluid in response to available emerging resources. If new technology becomes available and is implementable using the technology we have, we should try to adapt the coursework in order to incorporate it. || schools and borders, and open up opportunities for collaborative experiences? ||  || (PL) This type of course may provide students with the opportunity to connect with other students (in other countries, demographic areas, etc) to be able to compare perspectives and opinions. (PL) Collaborations with other schools, learners, etc to accomplish parallel tasks is realistically achievable. To what extent the collaborative experience should take place? What is teacher's role in this process? What kind of pre-work we need to do such as establishing the relationships with schools and students in other countries ahead of time? (XX) || a broad range of learning styles, needs, motivations and student groupings? ||  || (PL) Good teaching practices should incorporate methods that reach all types of learners. Activities, exercises, and assignments within the course should strive to address them as well. [JE: To begin to work practically to realize this goal, teachers will require more time set aside for learning the new technologies and how to apply them in an educational setting, and also for integrating them into their curriculum.] How to keep the online learning attractive(online unique resources and tools), flexible(schedule), and interactive (teacher to student, student to student, teacher-parent, student- parent)? (XX) || college level impact how the school prepares students? || (PL)There is no active strategy currently. WFS doesn't overtly or actively prepare students for this type of coursework though we do effectively provide them with the tools that they will require to participate in them. || (PL)Should we have this as a goal? Should WFS's decision regarding implementation of On-line or blended learning be driven by this? I think, if [JE: If we define our school as college prep school, then students should also be prepared for the growing online learning needs at the college level to make sure that they feel comfortable during the online study in college. (XX) ||
 * **Critical Questions:** || **What we do now:** || **What we would do :** ||
 * How will online learning impact the traditional classroom
 * What preparation or qualifications does a teacher
 * What preparation does a student need to take an online course? || (PL)We do not have any pre-qualifications or criteria that define student qualifications.
 * What digital literacy skills are critical for all students and
 * How will the instructional design of the school’s online
 * How will online learning engage students across
 * How will teachers design online learning that serves
 * How does the growth of online learning at the