Engaging Teachers in a Digital Learner-Centered Approach to Support Understanding Foundational Literacy

This chapter describes a graduate level course that is required for the state's reading endorsement and is offered entirely online. The course emphasizes recent research, issues, teaching methods, and new materials in reading at the K-12 level and was intentionally designed as a learner-centered environment using the Technology Integration Planning Cycle. Students in the course (n = 38) were practicing teachers at the elementary, middle, or high school level in a wide range of urban, suburban, or rural settings. The instructor's use of the Technology Integration Planning Cycle to create a learner-centered environment and the teachers' work samples throughout the course are described. Finally, implications for teacher education are discussed.

Capturing Educator Voices

According to Albert Einstein, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” This quote illustrates my online teaching philosophy as I work to mentor graduate-level educators, deepening their knowledge of how to best facilitate their students' abilities to tackle twenty-first century literacy demands. Through designing and teaching online courses for a fully online Reading Specialist M.Ed. program as well as for students pursuing an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education or a Reading Endorsement, I have evolved as an online educator committed to inspire student success. This chapter will present the reader with strategies to create an online learning environment where students are provided with authentic opportunities to apply research-based approaches and modes of developing their pupils' literacy, communication, and critical thinking skills through innovative means.