Goal-based scenarios for online teacher education

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Goal-based scenarios foronline teacher education

• Craig A. CunninghamAssociate Professor
• National-Louis UniversityChicago

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Agenda

• National-Louis Universitys online course Child,
  Family, and Community
• Goal-based scenarios in teacher education
• Delivery via Web CT
• Use of Second Life (?)
• Discussion

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NLUs Online Early Childhood Administration
Program

• Entire program is online department pays
  independent designer to develop courses is also
  developing a database of learning modules for the
  program
• Sample course Child, Family, and Community
• Course-level scenario Member of the Mayor of
  Sheridanvilles advisory board weekly policy
  recommendations individual and group assignments
• Instruction-level scenario write report on best
  ways to support a particular childs needs in an
  early childhood center

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Goal-based scenarios in teacher education

• Collaborative
• Problem-based
• Inquiry oriented
• Interactive
• Authentic
• Can be
• Engaging (fun, leading to enhanced
  participation)
• Complex (multidiscilinary, appealing to multiple
  learning styles)
• Evolve over time (modular courseware)

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Delivery of goal-based scenarios via WebCT

• PowerPoint
• Camtasia
• Some flash
• Word attachments
• Instructional strategies compatible with WebCT
  course tools

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Second Life

• Disclaimer we have not moved forward on these
  plans
• Second Life offers
• A sense of copresence (body language) and
  enhanced spatial representation
• Multiple forms of communication
• Powerful building/scripting tools
• (but platform has distracting elements and is
  not ready for prime time)
• What we envision
• Interactive, goal-based scenarios in a virtual
  representation of Sheridanville.
• Scripted avatars, who dispense case-related
  information
• Role-playing scenarios for both students and
  faculty

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Issues for discussion

• Why (not) use goal-based scenarios?
• Affordances of Second Life versus traditional LMS
  
• Assessment issues
• Imagining future possibilities