The Working Group Process
The Working Group Process and Flow
PAL Principles
Adhere to fundamental principles of good teaching
Be learner-centred and strive for the surfacing of teacher wisdom from front-line experience
Meet the instructors and the LBS field where they are when it comes to technology integration in a blended learning environment
Acknowledge adult learners from a strengths-based perspective and through a participatory lens
Be mindful of the differences in across LBS organizations—different delivery decisions; different learners; different hours of delivery; different goal path focus.
Strive for the practitioners’ and learners’ voices to inform the PAL resources
See to it that it is not a prescriptive endeavour but a means of supporting digital delivery through lesson planning strategies that engage learners with activities and digital tools for which learners are ready tackle.
The focus has been to foster dialogue around the challenges, opportunities and implications for integrating technology into our lesson planning.
It is a grassroots effort that seeks to strengthen lesson planning for the field by creating an online companion that will act a little like a virtual staffroom—a space from which to draw wonderful teaching nuggets.
—Olga Herrmann,
Project Lead
The Working Group's Flow of Activities—The PAL Process
Working group members brought their experience and creativity to the table, ultimately co-creating this PAL resource—the suite of flexible, non-prescriptive tools—that LBS practitioners would find useful and enduring.
As subject matter experts, the PAL working group:
Drew from front-line experience delivering LBS programming to identify and carefully articulate aspects of an engaging blended learning flow
Met monthly to robustly discuss front-line realities, commonalities, challenges and opportunities
Read and consulted research with respect to teaching with technology and completed monthly tasks that helped to enrich the concepts they felt were most salient for adult learners in LBS programs
Co-designed and co-developed resources and materials aimed at helping adult educators think about digital integration, proven engagement strategies for strengthening collaboration, reflection and problem-solving inherent in active learning
The PAL working group members purposefully engaged and collaborated in a space that felt a little like a 'virtual staffroom'
A MESSAGE FROM THE WORKING GROUP
"The chance to collaborate in this new way was satisfying and instructive. It is the intention of the PAL working group to bring a taste of that experience to LBS practitioners across Ontario!"
