Alison Hancox
Alberta Teacher of the Year
The Argyll Centre (serving the province of Alberta)
Grades 1-12, Home Education, Distance Education

My teaching philosophy
As a teacher with the Argyll Centre, I support the choice to educate children in a home-based and community-based learning community. I assist parents and establish a learning partnership with parents and students where I can provide the role of guide on the side, and support for home- based education plans for children.

My philosophy in action
I embrace the mission, vision and values established by our learning community at Argyll. The Argyll Centre is a centre of choice, serving and advocating for individuals and families who are responsible for determining the optimal location, direction and environment for their learning and education. We are committed to a process that empowers all individuals to achieve success, based on a diverse definition of learning. We are a locally and internationally recognized educational centre, dedicated to upholding educational choice. Personal commitment, trust, and respect are the cornerstones of our learning community.

My greatest teaching accomplishment
My grade four students’ most notable learning moment was at our Celebration of Learning and electronic portfolio presentation - a student-led E-live event accessed by my students, other teachers and EPS classes, parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles from across Canada. The students demonstrated an outstanding ability to connect and celebrate with each other, share their learning with families pursuing at-home learning. E-live provides these students with regular social interactions and opportunities to showcase their educational experiences and accomplishments in a safe and healthy learning community.

The students are currently part of a cyber Science Fair, an integrated unit of Language Arts, Science and Math, conducting experiments with plants across the province and building a group electronic portfolio in the e-live learning community. Students will be celebrating their Science Fair results in June with a panel of cyber judges!

The most critical issues facing educators today
Building a healthy virtual learning community, or “learning landscape” (Tosh & Werdmuller, 2004) is a critical factor in supporting student learning in the online environment.

(Tosh, D., Werdmuller, B. (2004b)) Creation of a learning landscape: weblogging and social networking in the context of e-portfolios. Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://www.eradc.org/papers/Learning_landscape.pdf)

Ways to resolve this issue
Supporting student learning in a virtual landscape requires students to assert a healthy social presence in a safe, caring and healthy community.(Gunawardena, C., & Zittle, R., 1996) Teacher training must evolve to include teacher understanding of the issues and skills required to support
the development of online social presence.

Gunawardena, C., & Zittle, R. (1996). An examination of teaching and learning processes in distance education and implications for designing instruction. In M. Beaudoin (Ed.), Distance education symposium 3: Instruction, ACSDE Research Monograph. No. 12 (pp. 51–63).

One thought to inspire teachers to succeed
Laurillard reminds us that “the aim of teaching is to make student learning possible” and I remind myself that this is true on or offline. Good pedagogy is good pedagogy whether it is on or offline.

Beaudoin states “our task (in online teaching ) is not to replicate what occurs in the classroom but rather to create the conditions and dynamics that will optimize the teaching/learning process most appropriate to that particular situation”.

Prepare the “learnster” (Porter, 1999) - a student prepared for the future - whether the student learns on- or off-line, he is one equipped with thinking skills across curriculum, one supported through authentic assessment who succeeds and demonstrates excellence in his or her individual program of study.

Beaudoin, M. F. (1998). A new professoriate for the new millennium. DEOSNEWS, 8(5).

Laurillard, D. (1996). Teaching as mediating learning. Rethinking University Teaching. London: Routledge.

Porter, D. (1999). Object lessons from the web: Implications for instructional development Retrieved June 15, 2005, from http://www.col.org/virtualed/virtual2pdfs/v2_chapter4.pdf

One lesson every student should learn
In my practice, I focus on guiding students to develop an enduring understanding of life long learning. I hope that students learn the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to be successful life long learners in a digital landscape or in a face to face learning community. Ultimately I hope students learn the love of learning in my learning and teaching community.

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