Distance education and teachers’ practical training: Creating a sense of presence for remote supervision

by Matthieu Petit, Ph. D.Université de Sherbrooke

/CATE Working Conference 2013

October 31 – November 2Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

2

Change and progress in Canadian Teacher Education

• #4: What drives change in teacher education, and what factors influence the capacity of teacher education programs to make relevant changes?

3

Remote supervision: why? How?

4

Technological tools for supervision

• Syncronous or asyncronous videos of intern’s teaching

• Heavy file-sharing (Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer…)

• Videoconference• Electronic forums• Blogs• E-Portfolio• …

As the supervisor wants to « be there » for his interns, he or she tries to createa sense of presence among them.

5

The being there for the online learner model

From Lehmanet Conceição (2010)

6

FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGNING ONLINE COURSE WITH A SENSE OF PRESENCE

INSTRUCTOR

DETERMINANTS

OF PRESENCE

1- CONTENT

2- FORMAT

3- STRATEGIES

4- INSTRUCTORROLE

5- TECHNOLOGY

6- SUPPORT

From Lehman et Conceição (2010)

7

Remote supervision of students teachers in a distance education program

Maîtrise qualifianteen enseignement au secondaire :An online master program for teachers who need a «teaching certificate» - 2 practica

- 1st: hybrid supervision- 2nd: remote only

- 7 supervisors since year 1- Interviews with 5 of them

- 135 interns in 2012-2013- Online survey (this fall)

8

Interviews

• Strategies• Constraints• Advantages• Distance/Presence• Evaluation• New technologies• Collegues– Mentors, school principals…

9

Model and Framework for Designing and Researching Online Supervision of Teaching

Routier & Otis-Wilborn (2013)

10

CoI theoretical framework

Garrison, Anderson& Archer (2000)

11

Discussion• With the possibilities of remote monitoring, this part of

distant education requires adjustement in teacher education programs, particularly with regards to the skills supervisors need to acquire.

• In addition, opening the door to hybrid supervision means that even the practica taking place near campus can benefit from a technological update. • Despite some inevitable limits of distant education, does

the future of teacher training implicate an optimization of the hybrid model of supervision?