Online teacher identity and pedagogic approaches

This time I have familiarized to different pedagogic approaches. I see that there is no single answer how to do multicultural online teaching. In fact there are several approaches. One thing which I think is sure, the role of the teacher is changing. Focus changes from teacher-centered to student-centered education. Teacher´s new role can be more like a facilitator role or even the same as student role is.

Especially in the e-learning environment where different cultures and learning styles meet more and more, the teacher´s new role needs to be understood. Role will be different from the traditional teacher role and it needs to be more flexible based on student´s needs. Learners’ diversity will grow, and that needs to be understood when designing an education. And addition to teacher, also education needs to be flexible to meet the different needs. Support for the students also changes, learners can get support also from other instances than just teachers e.g. from other students or experts.

From the connectivism point of view, even the teacher´s facilitator role is not the right change. Teachers need to take part to a course like students. Teachers are creating and working in the same place and with the same content as students do. Teacher creates a community together with the students by participating and engaging similarly. Universal design method also emphasizes diversity and flexibility. Teacher´s support is needed in many different ways for different learners.

I´m very interested about the idea of connectivism and a teacher´s role there. It is demanding but at the same time a very rewarding role. Teacher is there a learner all the time too. I wonder if that is a bit extreme shift if changing directly from a teacher centered role. Maybe it would be better first to change a teacher role to a facilitator role where a student is a center. Then I universal design could help in in practice to take into account as many different learners as possible when designing a course.  After a successful facilitator implementation, as a next step could consider emerging the roles of the teacher and the student to a one learner role. That possibly depends from the learners too.

Comparision of two pedagogic models

In this mindmap I have compared two pedagogic models that have been developed to support multicultural e-learning. I have used the following questions in my reflection: How do the models support multiculturally culturally sensitive delivery of e-learning? What does the pedagogic viewpoint in question bring to multicultural e-learning? What are the development needs? Is there evidence-based empirical documentation of their applicability? I chose connectivism and universal design to my comparision. 

According to connectivism learning occurs as a distributed process in a network. The learning process is influenced by the four elements of the semantic condition (diversity, autonomy, openness, connectedness). The main idea of universal design is that products and environment should be usable at the very beginning by all people. This is done with the help of three main components of Universal Design Language (UDL), Dynamic Instructional Design (DID) and the learning types.

Reflection on my development task from a multicultural perspective

Here I have reflected my development task that how cultural issues are evident in my sustainability course and how the cultural issues should be taken into consideration. In my reflection I have used design principles (McLoughlin and Oliver 2000) that emphasize the importance of minimizing cultural misunderstanding among teaching and learning groups.

Design principles for a culturally inclusive curriculum for online learners Principles	My reflection
Adopt an epistemology that is consistent with, and supportive of constructivist learning and acceptance of multiple perspectives.	I think that epistemology in sustainability course is authentic learning, and that should support constructivist learning and accept multiple perspectives. I think that sustainability as a task almost demands multiple perspectives.
Design authentic learning activities that build on existing knowledge, values and skills of all learning groups in the learning community. Create flexible tasks and tools for knowledge sharing to enable the notion of online learning. These tools include shared workspaces, discussion forums and other web-collaborative tools for study and social interaction.	Sustainability course aims to gain the skills and knowledge which can be applied to own personal life in order to make sustainable choices. Aim is to keep the course content flexible. Students can plan to work themselves. Students can choose the topics they want to work with and decide the working order. Tools planned for knowledge sharing in online learning are online discussion forums for working groups and blogs for writing the diary.
Establish responsive student roles and responsibilities to provide a sense of autonomy and ownership for students. This includes creating self-direction tasks and having methods that encourage students to take charge of their own learning paths.	Purpose is that work is done in self directing groups. Students plan themselves how the work is done. Roles and responsibilities in groups are agreed and they are also changing between the members. Group members will be positively dependent on each other.
Provide different forms of support, both within and outside of the learning community. This includes online help tools or provision for students to contact one another using web-based tools as well as providing flexible tutoring and mentoring roles. Another way is to provide various access means to different resources to promote students’ efforts to obtain information from multiple sources and perspectives.	There are student available for coaching who have already passed the course. Teacher is available also to provide support. Accesses to expert support is provided e.g. with online discussions. Groups have also online discussion forums and the blogs they are writing will be commented by other groups. Also the public presentations are arranged in common discussions online.
Provide flexibility in learning goals, outcomes and assessment modes. Using learner contracts with mature students or guidance.	The product will be a refined article to the magazine. Assessment will be integrated with the activity; there will be no separate testing. There are multiple measures of learning during the course, e.g. collaboration and article.