This blog is a follow-up reading by Salmon (2002) and the focus of this blog is how teachers act like e-moderators to the children. This 5 Step Model, shown above, is the focus of the chapter and is one method of teaching online learning within the classroom.
For our VLE learning resource I believe the teacher using our resource will act as an e-moderator. The main basis of this is due to the young age of the children who will be completing the phonics programme. Most of the children will be starting at Stage 1 and building on their limited knowledge. As shown in the diagram, Stage 1 will have the e-moderator “Welcoming and encouraging”. Based on my experience of working with similarly aged children on my last BSE placement, most of the time technology is still new to them, meaning motivation should not be an issue. This is because they engage in a lot of playing time with technology such as tablets and laptops at home and when using them in school, have a great interest in using them.
Overall, when looking through the model I would suggest the teachers would be aiming to move the children onto Stage 2. The social constructivism approach Sian and I took will need children to be comfortable talking and commenting on each other’s work in the Google Classroom. As the children are young and only need to use technology for basic tasks, some children might be able to progress onto Stage 2 and work there co-dependently. However, as the Google Classroom is only 6 weeks of work, there are likely to be a few children who stay at Stage 1, but this is to be expected. And as the teacher I would not be rushing these children onto Stage 2 without the solid foundation of Stage 1. The role of the e-moderator for Stage 2 is to “familiarise and provide bridges between cultural, social and learning environments”, which means the teacher will be supporting the children create their online persona and how to safely communicate with others, including those from other cultures. For Sian and I, our resource at the moment is not going to be used or open to the world. Children and their teacher/s will be given logins which if the parents/carers too want to see the resource can login using their child’s details.