| What is Asynchronous Learning? What is its value and application? Who is responsible for making it happen? |
As with any
educational innovation, it is the individual who makes things happen. In my own
case, I work at the Laboratory School for Illinois State University and was involved in a
summer pilot of another software product. I was looking for something which would
allow me to construct test and quizzes online and I noticed the Mallard training was being
offered. Believing that knowledge is never wasted, I went to the training and saw
immediate possibilities for my department (an integrated team of ten) and our
students. In essence, I had the curiosity and the opportunity. Simply reading
this article puts you in the same place I was. Of course, it's always helpful if you can enlist the aid of others in your building when considering including an ALE as a teaching paradigm. Consider appealing first to your tech support personnel and the people with whom you work most closely. They will be your first line of support when you decide to pursue ALE's. Nationally, state legislatures are providing more support for asynchrnoous learning as Florida opened its Virtual High School two years ago, and Kentucky began work with its own project in January 2000 (State Legislatures). At the post-secondary level, The Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments (SCALE) was established at the University of Illinois in March 1995 to explore the restructuring of undergraduate courses to integrate various techniques associated with asynchronous learning networks. |