Unit Plan: The Web-Enhanced Classroom

Link to Course and Design Documents (Located in the "Preface" section of the unit)

Annotation

Context and Conditions

“The Web-Enhanced Classroom” unit plan was completed in Fall 2007 as a self-instructional unit for teacher professional development under the supervision of Dr. Sue Jen-Chen as one requirement for MIT 512: Computer Applications in Education. The purpose of the unit was to assist teachers in enhancing their instruction through the use of web-tools and online learning communities

Scope

The goal of this inquiry-based module is for teachers to explore an online learning community in which they will collaborate and communicate, as well as researching and utilizing web-based applications. For this project, I developed both a website and utilized an online learning community that would be the eventual host of the content. The website allows the unit to be distributed on a variety of platforms and includes design information in the “unit information” and “unit structure” sections. The unit includes the use of reading material, discussion boards and learner activities. It also includes two job aids that assist learners in navigating the learning community and a basic tutorial on constructing their own. I used Captivate to develop these job aids. This unit was designed and developed for the teachers in Pender County Schools, where I served as the Instructional Technology Coordinator, as a professional development unit to be included in the “Future-Ready Students for the 21st Century” initiative – focusing on the use of “21st Century Tools” for delivery and assessment of content.

Role

For this project, I served as instructional designer, developer and subject-matter expert since it was an individual project. I designed the objectives and strategies and developed the course website, Captivate job aids and the Digication online learning community site.

Reflection

I feel that, through this project, I improved my development skills in the areas of web design and multimedia development. I also gained a much better understanding of “inquiry-based learning,” as it required a few revisions to develop a unit in this manner. For this unit, I was able to step out of my comfort zone and develop a unit where learners are free to explore a number of concepts with very little instructor interaction.