Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24assignment papers electron- ically. “For me personally it changed my teaching style so that I had to be less the sage on the stage,” says Claussen. “I would begin to do projects that really engaged [students] into going outside of the textbook.” Computer technology offered other advantages as well, such as timely content and an opportu- nity to teach responsible digital citizenship. “We were able to work on current issues that they had researched” through online sources, Claussen said, rather than relying on a traditional textbook vulnerable to becoming dated or even obsolete. “For instance, right now we’re doing a lot of work on racism and violence. With computers we can go out into the Internet and really teach kids how to critically think about what’s out there and how do you distinguish between this kind of website and this one—really guide them in how to use the Internet.” Claussen continued: “I see critical thinking, collaboration, and con- tent—all of that kind of coming. I feel like we can be more creative if we use the tools of technology in a way that the kids are enjoy- ing but we are also seeing them going beyond that more left-brain thinking that we’re used to.” ROLE OF THE TEACHER IN ELEARNING Claussen described her experi- ence using the new Saint Mary’s Press eLearning course offering, Understanding Catholicism. “I was absent the other day and it was easy to just say work your way through module 5. Now let’s see how far you get, or I would expect you to get this far. Then I can go back and say, ‘Alright you’ve downloaded these images. Let’s talk about it and let’s see what that means.’ I have to make some connections for them.” Claussen is excited about the ways eLearning courses impact her classroom in ways that textbooks and e-text- books can’t. She knows that an eLearning course might change her role as a teacher, but it can never be replaced. She notes, “I’m really delighted that I’ve not become obsolete, that we really do have a role to play in helping them make the connections.” “But I think even older adolescents” and other students as they “be- come more used to a course like this, I think it really does change the way that we interact with them, at least it has for me. It’s been a great joy to do that. I feel like a lot of the planning has been done for me so I can work with what’s there. And then I can decide how much do I want to supplement or what kinds of activities [to use].” With eLearning, face-to-face interaction between the teach- er and student is strengthened, not reduced. Teachers often still augment course content by adding their expertise, guiding student reading, and otherwise supplementing digital content as necessary in a particular class. ELearning also provides an ex- cellent opportunity for exercising the “flipped classroom” approach, with students working through the eLearning modules independently or in small groups, then recon- vening with the teacher in the classroom “to engage [as a large group] with the module. Because it’s the speed with which they go through it that’s both great but also slow down! There’s some stuff here that we need to focus on,” Claussen will tell the class. CUSTOMER SUPPORT TO THE RESCUE! Claussen has become an eLearn- ing enthusiast as one of the first schools in the country to use the Saint Mary’s Press course. While doing so, she has offered sugges- tions for improvement, such as building more background and teacher notes into the modules (especially useful for more novice instructors, she said). Saint Mary’s Press eLearning team is continu- ously improving the courses and platform based on real-time feed- back from teachers, like Claussen, and students using the course. Claussen noted that Saint Mary’s Press has been fully available to help with any question or concern she’s had in using the SMP digital products. “I appreciate the fact With eLearning, face-to- face interaction between the teacher and student is strengthened, not reduced. SPARK // SMP.ORG/ELEARNING // 11 10 // SMP.ORG/ELEARNING // SPARK