Course 305-735

Student Services and Diversity in Elementary and Secondary Education

Implemented on the DS-3 Network, Spring, 2001

Abstract

This case study features a graduate level school leader preparation course, taught via distance education along with a Web site component. Though I possessed very little technology expertise, I had three reasons for wanting to try videoconferencing. First, I wanted to challenge myself to learn more about technology. Second, I wanted to challenge the students in the course to learn more about technology to help them in turn to be able to efficiently and effectively use technology in their schools and districts. Third, I believe that the content of the course is important for all future school leaders, and I wanted the opportunity to expand the scope of that content to others across the state. In addition, I sought to find out, first hand, 1) Is it possible to develop and sustain meaningful classroom community with videoconferencing? 2) Is it possible to deal with personally and professionally challenging material like white privilege, meeting the needs of gay or lesbian students, or including students with disabilities in our schools with videoconferencing?

Introduction

I teach the graduate level course, Student Services and Diversity in Elementary and Secondary Education, in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The course is required for all students who are seeking school administration certifications in the state of Wisconsin and typically meets one evening a week for two hours and forty-five minutes. Nearly all the students who take the course are working as full time teachers in the schools and are returning to graduate school to obtain an administrator’s license. Typically, less than a fourth of the usual twenty-five class members live within twenty to thirty minutes of the campus. The rest drive one to three hours each week, one way, to take the course. I teach the course via the distance education network and I have developed a Web-based component to the course. In the Spring semester, 2001, the course was delivered to four sites in the state, including one high school and two regional education offices and in the fall semester, it was delivered to three sites in the state, including one high school and one regional education office.

I was a skeptical and hesitant learner of technology because I believed that it could impede positive human interactions and its use and misuse could counter deeper, spiritual ways of being in the world. In addition, I rarely lecture in my courses and instead rely on facilitating class discussions, role-plays, and other activities to engage student learning. I feared that successful videoconferencing would require me to lecture more and to be less creative in my teaching. At the same time, I did not want to be an arm-chair critic. I wanted to find out, first hand, 1) Is it possible to develop and sustain meaningful classroom community with videoconferencing? 2) Is it possible to deal with personally and professionally challenging material like white privilege, meeting the needs of gay or lesbian students or including students with disabilities in our schools with video-conferencing? 3) How does videoconferencing contribute to or detract from classroom community and developing anti-bias, proactive leaders?

In addition, I had three reasons for wanting to try videoconferencing that I will explain more fully in the results section of this case study. First, I wanted to challenge myself to learn more about technology. More students come to our graduate programs competent in various technologies than in the past. I wanted to keep my teaching expertise up-to-date and compatible for student needs. Technology is not my strong suit -it was not that long ago when I struggled with sending an attachment via e-mail and prior to using videoconferencing I did not know how to use Power Point. Second, I wanted to challenge the students in the course to learn more about technology to help them in turn to be able to efficiently and effectively use technology in their schools and districts. As could be expected, students come to the course with a wide range of technology expertise. Most of the students have been public school teachers for many years and have not been able to learn about technology in their work setting and are fearful of technology. Some students have to be taught how to attach a document to an e-mail. Perhaps one or two students in the class are quite technologically sophisticated. Many have distance education labs in their own schools/districts but have not accessed them, and they do not realize the opportunities available to their students from the distance education labs (i.e., offering college preparation courses, or a foreign language). Third, I believe that the content of the course is important for all future school leaders, and I wanted the opportunity to expand the scope of that content to others across the state.

Description of Process

I participated in a two-day training program on using video- conferencing almost a year prior to my using it the first time. This training was the most significant factor in the success of the course. In the training, I learned to use the equipment, developed a lesson using the technology, and learned many strategies and tips to enhance my success with distance teaching. To my surprise and best of all, I learned that my creative style of teaching and my use of detailed lesson plans fit perfectly with the demands of videoconferencing. I also skimmed through several books on integrating technology into teaching (see reference at end).

To prepare for the course, I expanded my lesson plan for each session to include which piece of equipment I would use for each segment of the session (i.e., document camera, power point slides, video clips). I also allowed a considerable amount of time in the first session to teach students how to engage in a distance learning classroom and reviewed this information again the second session (see Lesson Plan) This meant I needed to decrease the amount of content I expected to cover in the course, especially in the first two sessions. Distance teaching also required me to think through how students would interact with each other when they discussed ideas in dyads or small groups or engaged in role plays. At times, some sites had just one student or three to four students. I learned to use the telephone for the one student to engage in discussion with a student at another site. At times, I would also divide the host site class in half and send one group to another room for discussion, while the group in the classroom included the one student at the other site in their discussion.

Though I initially hesitated to include a Web site in the course, for fear I would be unable to learn and manage so much new technology at once, I decided a course Web site would be quite valuable for such a course. Fortunately, the Project Assistant who worked for me in my department had considerable technology expertise and he developed the site with the support of technology experts at the University. I learned in the training that I could no longer distribute last minute handouts to the class when I would not be able to also get the handouts to the other sites. Student access to required books and readings is also made more difficult with distance education. Hence,
I developed the course into a paperless class. That is, the syllabus is on the Web site, books are ordered on-line and mailed directly to students, all the readings are posted, all Power Points are posted, students submit all their work to me electronically, students discuss the readings prior to class on the Web board, and they weekly post class feedback on the Web board.

Results

I identified five benefits as a result of integrating technology into my teaching. First, my confidence in using technology, particularly in my teaching, has increased exponentially. I am comfortable using videoconferencing, including setting up the cameras for the room and instructor, using the document reader, incorporating Power Point slides, integrating videos and guest speakers into the course and facilitating classroom discussions and activities across sites. In addition, I have learned to use Web Board discussions; to receive, return and archive student work electronically; and to change the content of the web site using Dreamweaver.

Second, using videoconferencing has allowed students to learn how to use technology in their own learning and also to learn about technology options in their own schools and districts. Students have learned how rural schools use videoconferencing for professional development for their staff. By mid-semester, many students report that their confidence in using technology has greatly increased. For example, one student, a high school physics teacher for nearly twenty years reported, “At the beginning of the class, I felt really frustrated with getting into the Web site and all the technology, but I am amazed how much more I know now and how much more comfortable I am with it! It’s been great to be able to use technology for `real-life’ assignments.”

Third, videoconferencing has increased accessibility to the course content and to our department program for students. Over two semesters, ten students took the course, whom otherwise would not have taken the course because they live three and a half to four and a half hours from campus. Students near the off-campus sites appreciate the option of taking the course closer to their homes and schools. Several students point out how offering the course off campus saves them considerable time by being able to avoid driving, traffic and parking hassles.

In addition to achieving these three goals, two other unexpected benefits have accrued as a result of integrating technology into my teaching. First, teaching with video- conferencing has enhanced my relationships with educators in the field. Establishing course sites has required me to personally contact and have interaction with the school administrators at each of the sites. In addition, I rotated around and visited each of the sites on an equal basis throughout the semester. While at the sites, I spent additional time interacting with practitioners in each geographical area. For example, when I traveled to teach at one of the sites, I arrived early in the day, and spent the entire day visiting and touring schools and meeting with the school principals and the directors of students services and support persons and learning about their current special education/student services delivery challenges and opportunities. I also have established a practice of inviting the personnel in selected sites to participate in panel discussions and serving as guest speakers at their particular site, where they are then broadcast to all of the sites.

Second, videoconferencing has provided an opportunity to bring more diverse perspectives into the classroom and curriculum - an outcome I had not expected.

Students greatly benefit from hearing about the unique circumstances of schools and districts in other parts of the state. For example, students at the northern Wisconsin site shared that 100% of their students in some schools qualified for free/reduced price lunches, and they spoke about the influence of Native American culture on their schools. Students have been also fascinated about how state and federal policies are interpreted differently between their schools and districts, providing them with creative ideas for policy implementation.

I address my initial questions about building community and teaching difficult topics via videoconferencing in the next section on lessons learned and tips.

Lessons Learned and Tips

In this case, it was possible to develop and sustain

meaningful classroom community with videoconferencing - a critical prerequisite to dealing with difficult and controversial course content (see Palloff and Pratt, 1999, for a helpful resource). Strategies that contributed to course community within sites, across sites, and between me as an instructor and the students included:

In response to my second question I posed, yes, it is possible to teach about personally and professionally challenging and controversial material like white privilege, addressing the needs of gay or lesbian students in schools or including students with disabilities with videoconferencing. I did not alter my course content in terms of decreasing the controversial material. However, I did find that I had to work harder at developing relationships with the students to help them be open to my ideas and to be comfortable with challenging my ideas. A face-to-face class allows opportunity for me to interact with students before class, at break and after class on an informal basis where a trusting relationship can be formed with students. Thus, being sure I read and responded to student course feedback, read their Web postings and graded and returned work in a timely way were essential for relationship-building between me and the students. I changed the due dates for course assignments after the first semester I taught the course using videoconferencing, from assignments due weekly to assignments due at Mid-term, because I found I could not keep up with all the grading, preparing for class and reading their Web responses otherwise.

To summarize, in response to my third question, videoconferencing can definitely contribute to class community with students developing the strongest connections with those at their own sites. The strategies I have implemented to build and sustain community have counteracted any potential community distraction. I do find it a challenge to maintain a strong interpersonal connection with all students when I am rotating to four different sites. In addition, the use of WebBoard discussions of the readings prior to class time has greatly contributed to student willingness to grapple with the course content and ask difficult questions. I cannot think of any ways in which video- conferencing has detracted from developing anti-bias, proactive leaders. Student interactions across culturally different sites has contributed to this effort.

I close my case study with the following tips that I have found helpful:

1. Participate in any training offered on how to do videoconferencing.
2. Limit the number of students to each site to the number of chairs and microphones available. Otherwise, students who do not have easy access to a microphone will not participate.
3. When using Power Point, bring a back-up hard copy of the slides that can be used on the document reader.
4. Be sure to have phone access in each of the sites.
5. Allow extra time for everything. In videoconferencing, everything takes a little more time.
6. Have very clear written directions for students on how to submit work, complete assignments etc., and review these directions regularly. Allow time at the beginning of the class for student questions.
7. Be prepared to answer many technology questions at the beginning of the semester and have lots of patience and understanding for this. My Project Assistant fielded all the questions, which was a great help.
8. It’s ideal if the first time you teach the course with videoconferencing to use just two sites with a smaller group of students. The first time I used it, I had four sites with twenty-eight students across the sites. It all turned out to be fairly successful, but fewer students would have made it easier the first time.
9. Continue to develop your own teaching skills. Videoconferencing will not make mediocre teaching better, necessarily. The same skills that make for effective teaching in a typical classroom can be enriched in videoconferencing.
10. I do all the initial contacts for my course sites and develop and carry out all the marketing for them. Ideally, a department staff person should carry out this function to allow the instructor to focus on course content and delivery.

Reference:

Palloff, Rene M. & Pratt, Keith (1999). Building learning communities in cyberspace: Effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Lesson plan Course Overview & Perspectives
Session 1

Materials: lesson plans, a few markers, opening and closing ritual, name cards, paper and marker for document reader (for agenda and writing down norms and expectations), attendance sheet

Put Agenda on Power Point

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Last updated May, 2006