Thomas Miller's List: aps_Curriculum-and-Instruction

• Whenever possible, the curriculum should provide students with opportunities to  learn through real-world contexts including the use of practical applications,  real data and numbers, and information encountered in all subject areas, the  work place and daily life.

• A standards-based approach to curriculum is one in which open and public  statements are apparent about what students should be able to do in academic  subjects at key points in their education. Akron Public Schools’ approach to the  development of the curriculum is a process which is based on the following  premises:

   
   
  • The curriculum should enable the students to achieve excellence in learning.  
   
  • Success influences self-concept; self-concept influences learning and  behavior.
   
  • The instructional process can be adapted to improve learning.
   
  • Schools can maximize the learning conditions for all students through  clearly stated objectives, high expectations for all students and continuous  assessment of student learning.
   
  • Successful student learning must be based on providing appropriate  educational experiences at the appropriate level of challenge in order to ensure  maximum student achievement.

• 9. Some faculty members  are resisting technological course delivery.

   

  As long as distance  education contributions are not considered in tenure and promotion decisions,  and as long as professors have their own, traditional ways of delivering their  courses, many faculty members will be reluctant to participate in online courses  (Oravec, 2003). Concerning this reluctance, Dunn has predicted that many faculty  members will revolt against technological course delivery and the emerging  expectations their institutions will have of faculty members. Dunn forecast that  some of the resistance will even be manifest through unionization and strikes  (Dunn, 2000). Some have suggested the labor-intensive and time-consuming demands  required to develop online modules as reasons for faculty resistance (Brogden,  2002).

• 10. Faculty members who  participate in distance education courses develop better attitudes toward  distance education and technology.

   

  Despite some resistance,  the results of a four-year study by McGraw-Hill showed a strong increase in  overall faculty support for technology in education, with only 22% viewing it as  important in 1999 and 57% in 2003. Instructors feel that Web-based technology is  helping them achieve their teaching objectives (McGraw-Hill Ryerson,  2003).

   

  A 2002 study similarly  showed that “most teachers (85%) were not philosophically opposed to distance  education” (Lindner, 2002, p. 5). Further, teaching at a distance improves  perceptions of distance education factors: “Faculty members who had not taught  distance education courses perceived the level of support as lower than those  who had” (Lindner, 2002, p. 5). Carr (2000) found similar results: 72% of those  who had taught distance-learning courses were favorable, compared with 51% who  had not taught at a distance.

• 16. Instruction is  becoming more learner-centered, non-linear, and self-directed.

   

  Instructional approaches  are becoming more learner-centered: “recursive and non-linear, engaging,  self-directed, and meaningful from the learner’s perspective” (McCombs, 2000, p.  1). Whereas in the past, most instructors followed a “transmission” or  lecture-style approach to teaching, more instructional diversity is occurring  among teachers who are trying a larger variety of approaches (Eckert, 2003). A  pedagogical shift is likewise occurring within distance education, moving from a  transmission model to constructivist, sociocultural and metacognitive models.  These models use computer-mediated communication and emphasize students’  responsibility for their own learning (Rumble, 2001; Miller, 2001).

   

  Stated differently,  “Distance education can be seen to be evolving from an essentially modernist  (bureaucratic or Fordist) form of education into a post-modernist phenomenon  with a focus on the student as consumer, on flexibility and global reach”  (Rumble, 2001, p. 31). With this transition, there is also a shift toward  increased accessibility for those who are disabled. “Many feel that eLearning  holds great promise…for learners with physical and mental challenges”  (Frydenberg, 2002, p. 7).

• 26. Funding challenges  are the top IT concern for many.

   

  While distance learning is  a potential solution to decreasing resources and rising demand, the issue is far  from being resolved. A study from the Colorado Department of Education reported  that “the cost per student of a high-quality online learning program is the same  as or greater than the per-student cost of physical school [i.e., traditional]  education” (Branigan, 2003, p. 1). The study also explained that most costs in  education are for staffing. EDUCAUSE reported similar results: “IT Funding  Challenges has become the number-one IT-related issue in terms of its strategic  importance to the institution, its potential to become even more significant,  and its capture of IT leaders’ time” (Crawford et al., 2003, p. 12).

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