Online Learning Through Troubling Times

The scholarly article that I found for Mrs. Cosgriff is Transformation through expeditionary change using online
learning and competence-building technologies by Donald M. Morris and Paul Lefrere.  The purpose of the scholarly article is to demonstrate a model of the usage of technology for expeditionary learning and how technology is involved with teaching currently. I believe that this article will be good for Mrs. Cosgriff and her fifth grade classroom as they navigate online learning and the struggles that come along with it. I imagine that this is tough for the fifth grade students to go from a expeditionary based learning environment on immigration to distant online schooling. The struggles that Mrs. Cosgriff will have to deal with are non cooperative parents as well as lack of technology in certain households. This article will give some insight how she will be able to maintain a expeditionary learning teaching style while doing online classes.

From the start of the article I noticed that Morris and Lefrere are focused on “higher education” and employability of the students. The article’s focus on expeditionary learning through an online venue is focused on higher education not primary education. This is great to focus on overall but is not applicable for Mrs. Cosgriff. Morris and Lefrere state that teachers should “replicate courses and curriculum practices in an online mode, adjusting for differences between online and face-to-face experiences. ” This would be a great way for Mrs. Cosgriff to translate the course work she was doing in the classroom before the Covid-19 pandemic to now. Joe and I received and email about the struggles that Mrs. Cosgriff was already enduring with the first few weeks of preparing for a possible school shutdown and getting a course schedule ready for it. Though I think this article will be insightful, I am not sure it focuses on the challenges that will come up with implementing an online course in a rural community. In the conclusion, Morris and Lefrere harps that the important aspect of this article is for the teachers and educational community to “focus on outcomes and value, not processes and quality.” Overall, I believe this article will help with some aspects as Mrs. Cosgriff transitions from face-to-face learning to online.

Work Cited:

Donald M. Norris & Paul Lefrere (2011) Transformation through Expeditionary Change Using Online Learning and Competence-building Technologies, Research in Learning Technology, 19:1, 61-72, DOI: 10.1080/09687769.2010.549205

One thought on “Online Learning Through Troubling Times

  1. Liz,

    What a helpful tangent this article offers after getting that note from Ms Cosgriff! Your choice of article seems like a productive springboard for hearing more from Ms. Cosgriff about her experiences with online learning/teaching, and whether she feels her students benefit from these tools, or get more out of their face-to-face classroom. You’ve noted the potential challenges of this transition–what does the article offer as specific evidence for how to replicate curriculum practices in order to transform learning? What technologies do they mention? What “values and outcomes” do they note as best practices that can be transferred, and if they fall short of offering specifics, then use the shortcomings of the article to pose more direct questions to Ms Cosgriff. Consider starting your review with this current situation in classrooms due to the pandemic. After that intro, segue to your choice of the article as opportunity to share her experience, concerns about the transition. . Could you then finish write this review as if you were speaking to teachers like her about it?

    Those would be my recommendations for revision-reorganize a bit, offer more specific evidence, claims from the article, and then see if you can shift your address in the review to include her in the conversation. We hope to send these as part of a conversation “package” the week of April 20.

    Let me know if you have any questions about revisions-I’ll begin grading this Monday.

    Best, MAJ Hodde

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