Rich Lewis - Instructional Technology Specialist Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD

1. How to Prepare Teachers and Students for the Advent of the LMS in K-12 Schools Rich Lewis - Instructional Technology Specialist Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Technology Services Division Universal Access Group 2009-2010

2. The C-FB Universal Access Group • We provide and support online courses for acceleration and to enhance course availability. • We support tools for use by traditional classroom teachers to extend educational opportunities to their students beyond the four-walls of the classroom. • Finally, we strive to research and implement “disruptive innovations” to evolve our schools and support the needs of today’s students.

3. Online Technology Acceptance • In the K-12 environment, we are now embracing Online technology as a tool to support student achievement. • Our approach is to integrate time-honored teaching strategies with the latest available technologies. • It is imperative to remember that while technology allows us to make learning opportunities available beyond the traditional school day, K-12 students require rich interaction (student-content, student-student, student-teacher) and ongoing instructor support to be successful in the online environment.

4. The Fundamental Question… • How do we make engaging and collaborative learning opportunities available to students beyond the four-walls of the 50-minute class period? • Web 2.0 applications are not new to school districts. • There are a plethora of solutions, but they are all separate. How can we bring everything together into one “class”?

5. Enter the Learning Management System (LMS) • Used to organize an online learning environment. • Provides the means to track users, assess performance, deploy content, and access general administrative functions such as management of users records. • Some enable the creation of learning content, and others require the use of a front end application such as authorware to create that content.

6. Why use an LMS in K-12? • Access to resources outside of class • Continue collaboration beyond the bell • Supplemental assessment • Adaptive / Differentiated Lessons • Cross-Class/Campus/District collaboration • Uninterrupted instruction in case of school closures (inclement weather, H1N1, etc.) • 92% of higher education institutions have standardized on a single LMS product for the entire campus, with 55% of classes making some use of an LMS Data from the 2009 Campus Computing Survey as cited in Inside Higher Ed, “LMS 3.0” by Kenneth C. Green, Nov 4, 2009

7. C-FB’s LMS Choice: • Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). • Introduced to the district via staff at our Alternative High School. • Identified as a solution for making content and learning activities available to students who struggle with traditional high school environments. • We saw possibilities beyond serving more than just the “non-traditional” students – to meet all students where they are… the Internet.

8. “High Tech, High Touch” Vision Dr. Andrew Berning – C-FB Chief Technology & Information Officer • It is our vision that all teachers will make their course resources available online. • Further, we envision teachers utilizing the evolving online tools available to them to increase the learning opportunities for their students. • Want to create learning opportunities that reach beyond the classroom and that are available 24/7/365. …. so how do we get there?

9. Implementing the LMS into our environment • After prototyping the LMS hosted in-district, we decided to pursue an ASP-hosted solution. • LDAP integration with our ActiveDirectory service was a priority. • Set up our domain so that the LMS site was the site for “virtual campus” activities in the district.

10. Preparing Teachers: Recommendation 1 (indirect)Prepare yourselves first and don’t re-invent the wheel. • Three issues to address • Learning the platform • Lewisville ISD (Moodle users for several years prior) came out for a one-day initial training-the-trainer session with select Technology Division staff. • From that we began designing our own face-to-face “Introduction to Using Moodle” trainings.

11. Preparing Teachers: Recommendation 2 (indirect)Establish your Evangelist(s) • You should have at least one staff member be the go-to person for the LMS. • The best way for this individual to prepare him/herself is to dive in with a project.

12. Preparing Teachers: Recommendation 3 (direct) Develop a functional demo course • You will want to have a robust example of the capabilities of the LMS. • More than a “proof-of-concept”, but hopefully an example that has been used with students. • This can coincide with your evangelists learning the platform.

13. Preparing Teachers: Recommendation 4 (direct) Take a grassroots approach • Develop training for staff. • Focus on basic course construction and the features that offer the most “bang for the buck” for teachers. These include delivery of content, online chat, discussion boards, wiki’s, quizzes. • Offer training to volunteer early adopters. • Our rationale was that the best promotion would be to seek out tech savvy teachers who would voluntarily experiment with integrating Moodle into their classrooms. • Teachers take more note of what works for other teachers than what the technology groups says will work for them. Don’t mandate the use until the produce has “buzz”.

14. Preparing Teachers: Recommendation 5 (indirect)Get campus administration buy-in • Demonstrate to principals that a LMS is just as valid for building campus (student and/or faculty) community as it is for building student/class community.

15. Preparing Teachers: Recommendation 6 (direct) Create an online LMS Community for district staff • C-FB Moodle University • Online, on-demand source for all things Moodle. • Takes all of the face-to-face training materials and puts them online of 24/7 access. • Concepts demonstrated in multiple formats (text, audio, video). • District Q&A • Best Practices Podcast

16. Preparing Teachers: Recommendation 7 (direct) Use the LMS to deliver Staff Professional Development courses • We have enhanced MooU beyond resources and content online to now contain interactive and collaborative activities that will allow district staff to formally learn how to use Moodle in a moderated, guided environment. • Our Professional Development Division as formally endorsed the course for staff development credit. • Give teachers and opportunity to experience the LMS as learners; they will immediately see the opportunities for their students.

17. Preparing Teachers: Recommendation 8 (indirect)Get Support from C & I! • Curriculum & Instruction holds the reigns of not only what is taught in the classroom, but often how it is taught as well. • Needless to say, if they see the benefit of using the LMS, they will see to it that it is integrated into the curriculum. • Imagine the entire curriculum for a course, being built in the LMS, so that teachers have access to the directions for instruction, and students have anywhere/anytime access to content and activities… and it’s all re-usable year-over-year.

18. Preparing your students to use an LMS • We surveyed our most prolific Moodle users and asked the following questions. • What did you do, if anything, to prepare your students to use our LMS? • What were the barriers that your students faced to being successful in using our LMS? • What, if anything, surprised you about your students’ adaptation to our LMS? • If you could do it over again, what would you do differently in your approach to preparing your students to use the LMS?

19. Preparing Students: Survey ResultsTeacher preparation of students • Basic handouts (some culled from the teacher’s training for using Moodle). • URL’s, login information, step-sheets • Demonstration in class • Discussion and modeling of basic etiquette in discussion forums. • Take students to a computer lab to work get exposure to the online activities.

20. Preparing Students: Survey ResultsBarriers to student success with the LMS • Students following directions • Computer and/or Internet access outside of school • lack of motivation…if its not happening “in class”, its not happening • Platform independence… use .pdf and Flash • Uploading files

21. Preparing Students: Survey ResultsIn hindsight… what teachers would do differently • Set the expectation that participation is required (although, see next slide) • Design and teach a lesson just to show students how to navigate, save, store, upload, etc. • Do not make assumptions that because students are active with “social media” sites, that they are prepared to successfully participate in an educational LMS community.

22. General Observations • In general, students understand the technology. That isn’t the issue. • The issue is motivation. • Just putting content online is not the solution! • Unless we use the technology to… • adapt to the students’ varied learning styles and • give them a sense of some ownership in their learning, • ..they won’t flock to your LMS like a Facebook or MySpace. • Use the LMS to create an educational community that students can be a part of.

23. In conclusion… • C-FB has made significant progress in implementing an LMS in our district. • We have taken, and recommend, a grassroots approach. • We are at the precipice of mass adoption due to three factors. • Our online resources and community of LMS users. • Making Professional Development available via the LMS. • We now are getting the attention of C&I. They’re recognizing the benefits and LMS can provide.

24. Rich Lewis Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Technology Services Division lewisri@cfbisd.edu Thank you!!!