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INTRODUCTION

Tools and the Master Craftsman

We wrote this book to help educators enhance student learning in the digital age. We recognize that the technology tools that teachers have at their fingertips today are transformational; however, let’s be clear, it’s not about the new tools. It never will be. It’s about teachers finding and choosing new tools, and then learning to skillfully use them. When the teacher learns to use these tools, the tools then become an expression of his or her teaching craft. Over time, the teacher transforms his or her approach to supporting the learning process.

We chose the title Creating the Anywhere, Anytime Classroom because, over the last several years, it has become clear to us that distance learning approaches have created viable alternatives to many traditional classrooms. Perhaps even more important is that we realize the benefits and opportunities associated with distance learning for transforming the traditional classroom in dynamic ways. Indeed, the master craftsmen who are teaching our students today have the tools to create viable learning experiences anywhere and anytime. To help put these amorphous new learning opportunities in context, let’s examine what we mean by traditional learning, online learning, and blended learning.

Traditional Learning, Online Learning, and Blended Learning—A Monstrous Mash

There are some simple definitions that will help you understand the similarities and differences between the following instructional archetypes.

■ Traditional learning: For the purposes of this book, traditional learning refers to flesh-and-bone, face-to-face teaching and learning experiences that most of us grew up with in K–12 education. They are synchronous in that everyone has to be in the same room at the same time to make the learning experience happen for everyone (Al-Qahtani & Higgins, 2012).

■ Online learning: Online learning refers to learning experiences that are hosted on a digital platform (Al-Qahtani & Higgins, 2012). If you attend Stanford Online High School (https://ohs.stanford.edu), all of your classes are hosted in a digital platform. Much of your interaction is asynchronous, meaning that interactions don’t have to occur all at the same place or at the same time. The teacher posts content, video lectures, and so on, and learners engage with one another in asynchronous, threaded discussion questions. This high school also has synchronous meetings wherein teachers and students all connect on Skype at an agreed-on time each day and hold class, with the teachers leading synchronous conversations and activities. The differentiator is that the learning experiences are online.

■ Blended learning: A blended learning approach is one wherein teachers deliver instruction in a traditional setting with ongoing, robust learning opportunities simultaneously taking place, with the same group of students, in a digital, online environment. Stanford Online High School holds weeklong, in-person seminars throughout the year. Although the main element of instruction is delivered online, technically the inclusion of these face-to-face learning opportunities makes it a blended learning experience (Picciano & Seaman, 2009).

As you think about your own teaching and learning situation you may recognize that the lines between traditional and online learning are increasingly blurry. Many traditional classrooms today have established parallel, digital learning spaces that allow teachers to post content, stay connected, ask questions, and even create a dialogue with students. The significant advancements in video capacity allow even the most asynchronous digital learning experiences to use a camera to make a personal connection and host an online learning event.

What does this mean for teachers? What does it mean for the profession? In a word—opportunity! The strategies we discuss in this book are designed to meet this wonderfully exciting, amorphous mash of opportunity at our fingertips, and to learn to better understand and harness this amazing power. To do so, we use this book to put these opportunities into an appropriate context. Let’s begin by defining digitally enhanced learning.

Digitally Enhanced Learning

There has been quite an evolution in the verbiage educators and students use regarding digital learning. Unfortunately, many of the past phrases don’t help us to ascend to our highest aspirations. The phrase teaching online speaks to the actions of the instructor and references a ubiquitous teaching platform. Distance learning is a phrase that correctly puts the focus on learning, but by emphasizing the word distance, it suggests that this is a method of learning that exists only as a simple, convenient alternative to traditional live classroom instruction. It also has the side effect of leaving blended classrooms out of the equation.

Digital learning, an increasingly accepted term in the teaching community, represents the strategic application of an endless array of technological tools to support the learning process (Selwyn, 2011). This could include online platforms, apps, and other web-based assets (Kong et al., 2014). Note that although there are assistive digital tools, including a variety of learning apps, designed to function offline in a physical classroom, in this book we focus specifically on digital tools that help facilitate learning while online.

Throughout this book, we use the term digitally enhanced learning (DEL) to describe the strategic use of digital tools and various virtual learning platforms to support and enhance the online learning process. We use this term in our work because we need to take this evolution in our thinking about the online learning process one step further. Digitizing the learning experience is of little value if educators aren’t first and foremost using digital tools to pursue significant pedagogical advancements. Some well-intended technophiles salivate over the latest innovation online, or on their smartphones, without focusing on the added effectiveness they intend to create. This is like handing a gardener a better shovel and focusing on the shovel rather than how it helps the gardener make the garden flourish. Focusing on that flourishing garden of using digital technology to enhance the online learning of K–12 students is the true intention of this book. To help flesh out what DEL is all about, let’s address some essential observations about this concept.

Eliminate Physical Distance as a Barrier to Learning

Contrary to the old perceptions regarding distance learning, DEL is not just about overcoming the inability to meet face to face. In many cases, it is about the ability to make distance either irrelevant or at least less important to the learning process. It is about connecting students with previously unavailable learning opportunities, thoughtful instructors, dynamic resources, and engaging classmates in a platform of connectivity that produces a morphing cauldron of creative, new learning. It also creates more opportunities for classroom-based teachers and students to connect with each other outside of the classroom. To that end, the modern web-connected laptop has the power to bring learners the richest, most dynamic, and diverse learning experiences in human history.

Signal the Emergence of Learning- and Learner-Centered Facilitation

In a webinar, we invited Louisville, Kentucky, professor and pedagogy expert, Terrence M. Scott, to address an audience of teachers regarding approaches to creating highly engaging learning environments. During this live session, he presented several recommended classroom configurations designed to strategically maximize student engagement. Interestingly, each of his recommended configurations was designed to maximize learner-to-learner interaction and to try to create conditions where the teacher is the facilitator with learning at the center of what he or she does.

What we have found in a digital learning environment is that the platform itself serves to challenge the entire teacher-centric approach to education. Where traditional classrooms setups, with seats facing the instructor, are based on the premise of the class hinging on the facilitator’s actions, modern-day learning platforms are constructed primarily around the content. Furthermore, although learning platforms aren’t all the same, we have found that most of these learning platforms offer easy access for opportunities to dialogue with fellow classmates, encouraging connections.

Additionally, with powerful online platforms, educators can facilitate learning experiences by demanding much higher levels of learner engagement. These platforms and approaches to distance learning allow for greater degrees of personalization and opportunities for a teacher to intervene when the learner is struggling (Huang, Liang, Su, & Chen, 2012). They also allow for advanced levels of study once a student reaches basic competency. Using Khan Academy as an example, a mathematics teacher could provide virtual observations and interventions with a class full of students, each of them accessing different digital tutorials. While each student either seeks to reinforce learning by achieving prescribed competencies, or seeks advanced applications to promote even deeper learning, the teacher emerges as a facilitator for this process. As such, the teacher can use multiple tools to formatively assess students on a continuous basis to prescribe practice, resources, and other learning opportunities for students to meaningfully engage with content at their own pace and with earnest motivation to absorb the new learning. The mere fact that there are so many tools and opportunities available to diagnose learners and their needs makes DEL a must-use feature in traditional classrooms and gives it an advantage over traditional classrooms.

Provide Unlimited Learner Choice and Personalization

Giving learners a choice and opportunity to personalize their learning environment is an effective way to maintain student engagement. In many cases these choices or approaches to personalization come down to the student’s preferred learning method and learning conditions (Spector 2013).

The learning method typically refers to the type of experience that stimulates student engagement in the learning. For example, a lesson that requires hands-on activities or is entirely visual has very different methodologies for instruction. For example, some methods might include the use of audio files or some type of simulation. Whenever possible, the choice in methodology allows learners to pick an approach that represents some unique novelty, perhaps in comparison to what they have been doing recently. The choice often represents a preferred way of processing information. Some learners for example, learn best by one or more of these approaches, or a blend of several at once.

Learning conditions refer to elements like the time of day, the length of engagement, and perhaps even details such as room temperature, body position, and so on. Many of you reading this book probably remember scheduling college classes and trying to pick learning opportunities that coincided with times of the day that met with your emotional and learning priorities. Indeed, some of us do like morning classes!

This discussion of methods and learning conditions is important because the allowances of technology provide learners the opportunity to put themselves in the situation where they can pick and choose their preferred learning method and condition. For example, a lesson may be posted in written form, with audio and video support, while simultaneously requiring some type of hands-on experience or experiment. In this case, the learner would engage in that activity and pick an approach that was most consistent with his or her preferred learning style. In terms of learning conditions, some students may find themselves logging in at the time of day when their energy is at its peak and can take breaks at a pace consistent with their personal levels of engagement. Clearly, allowing students to make these choices prepares them to be engaged with their own learning trajectory and capabilities.

To further illustrate this, we, your authors, use ourselves to reflect on the degree to which DEL provides each of us with options to personalize our own ongoing learning. Crystal Guiler is a digital native. When she seeks to learn something new, she first finds a blog on the topic and reads it to ascertain context. She then reads contributor feedback and may immediately post a question. After interacting in that space, she finds and listens to a posted lecture, followed by diving into the course readings, if applicable. Lisa Reason prefers to read the text first, then experience the noise of learner interaction on a discussion board or blog. Casey Reason would much rather listen to a lecture or debate, read the book, and then jump right in and participate in an asynchronous discussion.

Of course, there are many other routes a learner could choose on his or her way to digesting the content. Up until the era of DEL, K–12 learners had to largely rely on the dexterity of their instructor to provide learning opportunities commensurate with their natural, hardwired learning preferences. Think about how much more our students could learn if they could more seamlessly and strategically identify and make use of their learning preferences, thanks to the availability of varied digital learning opportunities.

In addition to giving learners more choice, DEL gives facilitators even greater opportunities to personalize the learning and individually prescribe activities for learners that allow for remediation and extra support as well as acceleration, if proficiency is already established. In a traditional classroom, the teacher is always playing “beat the clock,” facilitating instruction and hoping an opportunity to personalize will manifest. Many DEL opportunities simply expand what’s possible, minimizing the challenge of eroding time and maximizing the focus on finding the best set of activities and engagements for the learners who need them.

Offer the Advantage of Timeless, Asynchronous Learning

One of the loftiest aspirations we have for this book is to shine a huge spotlight on what we believe to be the underestimated and largely underutilized advantage of asynchronous (or cyber-asynchronous) learning, the ability to participate in the learning process at any given time. Tech advocates champion asynchronous learning as being transformational due to its convenience (Ge, 2012). However, the true gift of timeless, asynchronous learning is in the degree to which it aligns with the natural learning rhythms of human beings. With technology and strategically constructed asynchronous learning experiences, learners can participate and engage in learning and reflecting experiences in a much more flexible time frame, potentially leading to deeper learning and engagement (Koutsabasis, Stavrakis, Spyrou, & Darzentas, 2011). For example, a teacher could post a trigonometry problem online for the entire class and open it up to student debate in relation to possible approaches and resolution. In a brick-and-mortar, real-time class, a quieter and perhaps more contemplative learner may take longer to respond and, thus, not speak up at all. However, in an asynchronous learning environment, with additional time to reflect, his or her insights may be altogether different and his or her willingness to participate significantly enhanced.

In addition, given a digital, asynchronous learning opportunity, the learner is more likely to feel comfortable providing a thoughtful and measured response (Nandi, Hamilton, & Harland, 2012). This is because the student not only has more time to think about the discussion but also to look up information and resources to support his or her perspective. Virtual, asynchronous learning also levels the playing field in terms of participation. In an asynchronous learning space, learners emerge and contribute with no regard to gender, height, voice, ethnicity, or relative vivaciousness. Strategically facilitated, asynchronous learning creates a condition where the quality of one’s ideas becomes the ultimate measuring stick.

Invisible geographical boundaries, increased learner engagement, personalization, and asynchronous learning—these are all significant benefits of DEL that we explore in this book. Of these, asynchronous learning deserves special attention before we dive into the deep end of the DEL pool.

Advantages of Asynchronous Learning

Think about how important ongoing dialogue and thoughtful verbal exchanges are to the learning process. Meaningful dialogue and dialogue-driven learning activities likely power your classroom. It powered you in college when you stayed up all night reflecting on newly formed adult values. Dialogue or communication in one form or another clearly informed Neanderthals as they scrambled to survive the northern latitudes during the cold phases of the Pleistocene Era, or the Ice Age. We are a species that works well when engaging in continuous conversation. It drives our innovations and stimulates natural learning rhythms. Technology, however, has provided us with asynchronous opportunities to communicate that may actually allow us to expand and improve this natural learning propensity.

The Ice Age notwithstanding, does a loud lecture in a room of twenty or two hundred students provide the optimal environment for communication and collaboration? Does sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a room with inconsistent sound levels and visual accessibility truly represent the most superior method of learning? How many times have you listened to a real-time lecture and wished you could ask the speaker to repeat him- or herself? In an asynchronous learning environment, each learner can play a recorded lecture back, read a classmate’s statement several times to consider its meaning, and expand his or her view if the learner missed the message. These things aren’t possible for students steering a classroom blackboard. Let us look at some advantages asynchronous learning offers students.

Asynchronous Learning and the Brain

Our brains require an indeterminate amount of time for a process called consolidation. Consolidation is literally the process of sorting out the utility or meaning behind any new learning experience (Harris, 2014; Steiner, 2009). After engaging in a science experiment, your brain releases the memory of the color of your teacher’s tie because it’s irrelevant. Your brain, however, will revisit and more deeply reflect on the frothy burst of energy you observed when you mixed calcium carbonate with hydrochloric acid.

This process of taking in new information and going through consolidation to sort out the meaningful from the meaningless doesn’t happen for everyone in the same way or in the same time. Some of us need to observe the same phenomenon several times to help us to capture its importance and remember the correct elements of either the process or the outcome (de Jong, 2010).

Furthermore, what’s also interesting about this process is that our brains rely on retrieval to bring forward memories or stored learning elements at times when that learning is relevant. Thus, students with varying speeds of retrieval power drive our classrooms. In traditional, synchronous classrooms, students who are fast retrievers tend to be rewarded. In teacher-centric learning environments, where the teacher moves from respondent to respondent very quickly, without the opportunity to explore answers in depth, will find that students who retrieve information quickly are oftentimes perceived as having superior learning power. Learning theorists have found that this ability to quickly retrieve is no demarcation of intelligence. In fact, slower retrieving students may be calling on a deeper and more comprehensive reservoir of stored, contextual learning before formulating a response (de Jong, 2010).

What does all of this mean for asynchronous digital learning? Asynchronous learning activities allow students to control content intake, listening and observing multiple times or rereading key elements for the sake of understanding. Furthermore, when dialoguing with one another in an asynchronous environment, students who are slow retrievers are given an opportunity to participate in a time frame that is comfortable for them (Magistro et al., 2015). Their reflections may be even deeper than some of their fast-retrieving counterparts and, as a result, their input may be richer and deeper (de Jong, 2010). Despite its digital visage, asynchronous online learning may allow us to learn and engage our brains in a far more natural and organic way than ever before (Harris, 2014; Steiner, 2009). As if these benefits are not enough, it also leads to more thoughtful communication.

Asynchronicity and Thoughtful Communication

One more often-ignored advantage of the asynchronous nature of the DEL environment revolves around the realization that every asynchronous comment hangs in virtual abeyance—waiting for random or directed consumption. This effect is different for an online classroom where there are consequences, than it is for people posting to some random website under anonymous pseudonyms. This is a powerful distinction because whatever documentation or commentary we provide in a digital learning environment must withstand the potential scrutiny of careful observation and analysis.

How many smooth-talking businesspeople and politicians struggle mightily when confronted with a word-for-word transcription of exactly what they said—unable to hide what might be a shallow or misguided message behind their velvet delivery or handsome visage? Learning in a digital environment requires participants to think more carefully about how they contribute, the words they choose, how to formulate their thoughts, and how to respond to others who do the same. If the words we speak face to face in real time were to hang in this virtual abeyance, we’d all probably be more careful about what we say and how we say it. Thus, asynchronous communication with DEL creates the right conditions for superior quality work.

This does not mean toxicity cannot creep in, of course. An important element related to the successful facilitation of distance learning revolves around the prevention and the appropriate response to toxic or inappropriate behaviors online. In an era when the challenges associated with cyberbullying and other attempts to threaten, dominate, and otherwise inhibit learning in a digital learning environment are rising, we will be focusing our attention on strategies that you can implement that will help you avoid these scenarios altogether by creating engaging learning experiences. Intervening when necessary is important; however, just as we have learned in the best examples of face-to-face pedagogy, the best way to avoid a classroom with off-task behaviors is to create an engaging learning environment where students are wrapped up in their work and don’t have time to throw spitballs, cyber or otherwise.

Given online, asynchronous approaches’ advantages, we believe the best modality for learning is one that strives to achieve balance or a blend between traditional (synchronous) and online (asynchronous) learning modalities.

Blended Asynchronicity

Blending both asynchronous and synchronous modalities gives students the opportunity to directly interact with the facilitator, ask questions, and develop a greater sense of connection to the facilitator, other students, and the content. The classroom’s cyber-asynchronous components enable learners to work at their own pace, and eliminate time and work condition constraints that cyber-synchronous components demand (Ge, 2012).

Is it all exactly this simple? No. It never is. That is why we wrote this book, to give you a guide to facilitating learning online.

Goals for This Book

Technology has transformed more quickly than have our attitudes, assumptions, and instructional strategies. Many K–12 teachers still have very little experience with online learning or facilitating digital learning experiences. Furthermore, those who have begun to experiment with DEL, in many cases, do not feel entirely confident that the digital learning experience is as effective as they would like it to be (Li & Choi, 2014). This book is written with those educators in mind.

HOW POPULAR IS ONLINE LEARNING?

Five U.S. states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia) require K–12 learners to take at least one online class or learning experience or have the online learning experience incorporated into each course of the required curriculum, and North Carolina is testing such a requirement (Watson, Pape, Murin, Gemin, & Vashaw, 2014).

To better prepare these educators for the challenges and opportunities available in teaching online, we provide two things. First, we provide a philosophical overview in relationship to what is possible with DEL and how educators need to think about applying tools within the realm of technology to support online learning. Second, we provide direct guidance on the specific steps educators must take to set up, manage, and facilitate state-of-the-art online digital learning opportunities. To accomplish this, we address the following topics.

■ Reflecting on the myriad of DEL applications available and the influences that shape our thinking about them

■ Understanding the importance of a guaranteed and viable curriculum in designing, delivering, and assessing digital learning

■ Understanding and applying best-practice strategies in setting up and initiating a digital learning experience

■ Learning and applying practical strategies for designing engaging digital lessons and keeping the learners engaged throughout the learning experience

■ Identifying best-practice recommendations in facilitating learner interactions and dealing with potentially disruptive or toxic learner interactions

In breaking down these topics into concise, manageable chunks, each chapter of this book establishes specific key questions that you will be able to answer upon completion of the chapter.

Finally, we hope this work provides a strong, philosophical framework to undergird the work of educators now and in the future—because we know that the landscape in digital learning will continue to change. We want this book to make you Monday-morning ready for these challenges and arm you with a mindset and philosophy that allow you to make good judgments as tectonic shifts in technology continue to occur.

To that end, throughout this book we offer educators a number of specific suggestions and examples related to pedagogical practices associated with digital learning. However, to ensure the material is delivered in a succinct manner, we do not necessarily differentiate these illustrations and examples by various K–12 levels of application. This is purposeful. The knowledge you gain in this book will support your instructional practices involving digital learning at whatever level you teach. Digital learning modalities are simply tools that help you deliver your own best-practice-driven, grade-level or content-specific learning opportunities.

Therefore, this book is designed to assist you in your work to develop an online presence with your students that will extend learning well beyond the confines of a traditional classroom. If you work in a traditional setting, the suggestions in this book are designed to assist you in taking your class outside the bounds of time and space, and helping learners connect to subject matter in a more dynamic and meaningful way. If you are an online teacher, this book will assist you in creating more powerful, and personalized synchronous and asynchronous interactions that will assist learners to more dynamically connect with the content.

We hope this introduction challenges some paradigms and opens your eyes to the morphing possibilities in front of you. We designed this book to be more than just a theoretical intellectual exercise; it is also a guide to help you implement DEL in a consistent and effective way in your school. So let’s break some paradigms, reframe, and get to work!