Education Blog Purpose Statement

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DiPietro, Ferdig, Black and Preston (2008) claim that, "The skills needed for teaching in an online learning environment support a teacher's function as a point of intersection for pedagogy, technology, and content (Russel, 2004; Savery, 2005)". Advancing the art of blending and balancing the concerns of pedagogy, technology, and content is an urgent task for all teachers at EBI. Pedagogy, technology, and content are three key pillars of all good education. When one or several of these are ignored, missing, or underdeveloped, student learning suffers. 

The teaching style at EBI is often didactic, and our pedagogy is overtly religious. We spiritualize learning and have embraced educational theories and philosophies that support overly simplistic conclusions about how education works. One example: At times we present too much information in a course (or program). We even use the metaphor "drinking from a fire hose" to describe this phenomenon. Sometimes we acknowledge the problem but in the next breath we tell students to “pray“ or “ask God for strength“ to help them understand and learn the material. 

My blog is designed to demonstrate and promulgate the latest research in online course design, blended course design, best practices in online education, educational psychology, and the latest trends in education in order to show that students learn best when course material is carefully designed with learner needs in mind. That is, when the material is selected, sequenced, and chunked appropriately based on learner needs and and then learning is measured against predetermined learning objectives. We should respect students by carefully studying concepts such as information load, course development standards, evaluation, learning objectives, and the latest trends in adult education.

Indoctrination and Intellectual Abuse

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Indoctrination and intellectual abuse can and do happen anywhere, even in secular institutions. Iona and Crasner (2016) describe the difference between education and indoctrination by stating, "Education means critical thinking with regards to the content of ... received information. Indoctrination is intended to influence targets to believe in what they are told without questioning the veracity or authenticity of the conveyed information." The authors go on to relate the dangers of religious indoctrination particularly in the Muslim faith in the Middle East.

Joshua D. Reichard (2013) wrote in the Journal of Education & Christian Belief, "'indoctrination' may be defined as deliberately teaching beliefs without supporting rationalization, deliberately falsifying evidence contrary to stated beliefs, censoring and omitting particular beliefs, or teaching beliefs coercively." He goes on to quote McDonough (2011),

"...indoctrination occurs when all aspects of learning are ‘overshadowed or subsumed by the assumption of a given set of truths’ and students are coerced to speak and act in only one way that is deemed ‘meaningful’” (McDonough, 2011, p. 708). 

This last definition is particularly relevant to our context as our “distinctives” and “core values” certainly overshadow all learning at EBI. Also, we exert overt and covert coercion in an attempt to get students to agree with a certain, narrow doctrinal perspective before they get “recommended on” to the one place that will accept all EBI credits toward a Bachelor’s degree.

Note that the definition of indoctrination from McDonough applies to the overall culture that educators foster as well as to the subject matter that they teach. The ways that students speak and act toward each other are, in many cases, the most important part of the indoctrination process. A general climate full of narrow-minded, bigoted, and opinionated students (as an example) will tend to perpetuate itself and contribute to the indoctrination of future groups of students.

A Historical Perspective

Academic Transformation

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A key issue in 2018 for academic institutions is the idea of institutional and educational transformation. Everyone agrees that higher education has changed permanently with the advent of technology, changing student demographics, and new research about how students learn best. But will the pace of change slow in the future? Gilbert, Crow, and Anderson write in the Stanford Innovation Review that, "We expect that in the coming years, long-standing models of higher education that prefer tradition and stability will be supplemented, if not displaced, by new models that embrace organizational innovation, responsivity, and adaptation."

Other educators and researchers see the same trends continuing and accelerating in the future. Emma Zone from Colorado Technical University says, "We must be nimble as we redefine the truths we have used as our foundation [in higher education]. At the intersection of this redefinition we find discussions of technology, data, and engagement." But how do we change? What does it mean to have a "nimble" and "innovative" organizational model? Both sources provide a few key recommendations that I will explore in this blog post.

10-Point Rubric for Online Education

What constitutes good online education? Consider my 10- point rubric as a starting point: 

1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. If a course does not inspire students to learn, it is a failure right out of the gate. I like to use the “guide on the side” model rather than the “sage on the stage“ model of teaching and learning.
   
2. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. To me, one of the most important skills that is developed in college is perspective taking and empathy. Students in my courses should learn to appreciate and value the contributions of each team member and to challenge their own assumptions about thinking and learning.
   
3. Ongoing, varied, and frequent assessments are conducted throughout the course to inform instruction. I believe that one of the most important components of learning is timely, accurate, and complete feedback. This feedback must be provided both to the teacher and to the students in order to inform learning. Formative and Summative assessment are integral parts of teaching and learning.
   
4. The course provides opportunities for students to engage in higher order thinking, critical reasoning activities, and thinking in increasingly complex ways. I believe in modeling and teaching the four C’s of 21st-century learning: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.
   
5. Course design reflects a clear understanding of all students’ needs and incorporates varied ways to learn and master the curriculum. I believe that varied learning and teaching styles promotes retention, transfer, and application to real life. Many of my favorite courses were varied and challenging.
   
6. The course learning objectives describe outcomes that are measurable and all learning objectives are clearly stated and written from the students perspective. Without clear learning objectives, teachers have no idea what they’re assessing and students have no idea what they were supposed to have learned. Developing and describing clear learning objectives should be one of the first steps in instructional design.
   
7. The instructional materials contribute to the achievement of the stated course and module/unit learning objectives. The purpose of instructional materials and how the materials are to be used for learning activities are clearly explained. I appreciate a well organized course and I always really like to know how to get an A. I owe that to my students as well.
   
8. Learning activities provide support for interaction that support active learning. I am a huge believer in active versus passive learning. I know for myself, when something is real to me and seems to make a real difference in my life I tend to pour myself into it. When I think about the best courses that I’ve ever taken in my life, I was in charge of my learning. I got out what I put into those classes. It may be easier to sit on the sidelines and watch someone else perform but I learn best when I am partly in control of the pace, depth, and sequence of my learning.
   
9. Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. It may be because I am young, but I really appreciate teachers who understand digital literacy and model best practices in the area of technological integration. Everything in my life is constantly being taken over by technology and learning is no different.
   
10. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support students access and innovation by modeling digital age work and learning. Too often we believe that good teaching consists of teachers creating their own original work. Good teaching, instead, is about using existing tools and collaborating with others in the community to support student innovation. We model what students will do for the rest of their lives: work with others in humility.

Works Cited:

• QM Rubric

• National Standards for Quality Online Courses - iNACOL

• iste nets-t