Going the Distance

This action research study was focused on how two middle school science teachers at the American International School in Israel (AIS-I) addressed strategies to develop projects in which their students could learn at a distance but not from a distance. The idea was not to develop course curriculum to be taught online for students who were not physically located on the campus, but rather for those students to be empowered to construct their own learning on campus and off through thoughtful use of e-technologies and the innovational use of those technologies. The research questions and methodology followed a modified version of a model called the Integrated Technology Adoption and Diffusion Model—ITADM (Sherry, Billig, Tavalin, & Gibson, 2000). This model was developed to help teachers evaluate their learning processes and future trajectory in using DL technology. The model evolved during the research study and was renamed Relate, Create, Evaluate, and Donate when a second middle school science teacher had difficulty finding short-term successes from the original model. The study found that the middle school science teacher must be flexible in constantly shifting between instructor, facilitator, and consultant roles. This shift in teaching roles called for new strategies to be developed to meet the role change in a new DL reality. In addition, dynamic distance learning communities (DDLC) must be assembled according to the tasks involved and available talent and interests of the teachers.