Virtual Learning Group Presentation

Online Learning: Scenario Reflection

For the past century education has remained largely unchanged in our society - the traditional classroom is in a brick and mortar building, closed off from the outside world, with one teacher and between 25-30 students at a time.  However, in recent years, the standards have begun to change with the advent of online learning.  No longer are students bound to traditional pencil, paper, and textbooks of the past.  Today, there are a multitude of learning environments and choices for a less traditional approach to the educational experience.  Unfortunately, with change comes new challenges that we must consider as well when creating the ideal learning environment for our students, below I attempt to answer some common scenarios facing teachers and administrators in the online educational experience today.

Scenario 1:

• You're a rural district with only a few hundred students total. A child wants to take courses like calculus, but they cannot feasibly be offered by your high school.

Whether they are in rural or urban settings today, Michigan has put provisions in place that require schools to offer courses to students online when they cannot be offered in the classroom.  My school is equipped to handle these changes, however I question if every school is currently able to handle this problem.  Unfortunately not all schools have access to the same level of resources and updated equipment to provide students to access the materials they would need to take an online course on their own such as this.  In general, I think the school should do everything in their power to ensure that a student in this scenario is able to take the advanced course rather than to sit and lose interest in material they are already comfortable with.  The other concern we must consider is whether the school can find a staff member to support the learner in their independent journey.  Since schools should help all of their learners succeed, this should be a primary focus for a school that encounters this issue, and the administration should do everything in their power to support a young learner.

• You're a principal of a school. An overbearing parent comes to you. Their first son had Mr. Siko for chemistry and hated him. He's the only chemistry teacher, and now their younger son has him. They want to pull him out and have him take it online. Can you prevent this? Should you prevent this?

I would support my teacher and deny the parent access to an online course in this circumstance.  As a principal, I would do my best to explain that learning is a different experience for everyone, even within the same family, and that we will do everything in our power to support the incoming student and to help them find success.  However, there is no requirement for the school to pay for a separate class if a seat is available in a currently held class by a certified instructor.

• A child comes into your class, having transferred from a 'cyberschool'. It is clear the quality was subpar. Any of this child's standardized test scores this year are tied to your performance evaluation under the new teacher evaluation guidelines.

I would do my best to identify my new student's strengths and needs, and I would then attempt to bring instruction to their level by offering supports along the way to help them to succeed.  I would work closely with the parents and my support staff to ensure that the new learner was engaged in class and able to complete the work, and I would work hard to support their progress, regardless of the grade they would cost me later.  Teaching can never be about some points on a scoresheet for our success or we will never reach the child anyway, we need to show that we care and do our best to support our learners and everything will work itself out.

• I am a teacher whose district is embracing online learning. It is attracting many students from other districts, and this generates extra revenue (students = $$). I am asked to be a 'facilitator' for these students, who are not required to attend during the school day. I am not given extra release time for this. 

This would be difficult as a teacher to attempt to maintain my current workload as well as to teach additional students beyond the traditional school environment.  I would likely first work to adapt my instruction so that every student taking my class in-person or online could have a similar experience in my classroom.  Next, I would develop a plan with my online learners that would involve significant lessons to encourage them to participate and buy-in to my content.  Once I had a good control on my situation, I would refer to my union manual and probably talk with administration about what is acceptable under my current contract and we would develop a plan together on how to make my role most effective for the students I teach, inside and outside of the classroom.

• I am a 12th grade student who was diagnosed with leukemia the summer before my senior year. I am unable to attend a full day of school while receiving treatment. I want to graduate on time with my friends.

Students have every right to still take classes and learn, whether they are able to physically enter the building or not.  The school would provide an online learning program as well as a support system for a teacher to check-in on the student's work and a counselor to keep apprised of their progress and to further organize and develop the system of check-ins and support.  Equivocal classes would be offered compared to the typical content, in order to ensure that the student was able to learn and graduate successfully from our school district.

Do you think schools are equipped to handle these changes?  Has your school/district been public about any changes they've made to curriculum and instruction, or have any changes gone unnoticed?  How is your school handling this (consider asking your administrator to see how s/he is imagining the larger picture)?  

I do not think that all schools are equipped to handle these changes, but I think that the majority of schools today are prepared for these circumstances to some level.  It is important for our legislature to consider these new learning environments, and to appropriately fund school districts in order to accommodate some of the additional costs that might arise from these unique circumstances.  Our school district has not been public about online learning, most likely because we are currently a very successful district, and it would feel counter-intuitive to support a system of learning that we do not currently need to offer on a grand scale.  This is mostly because we still have enough financial health to still offer the vast majority of classes that a student may be interested in pursuing.  However, on a case-by-case basis, our district has opened up to new opportunities offered to students who wish to pursue a course not traditionally offered in our buildings.  After talking with my administrator, it was confirmed that the current belief is that to make this public would only lead to further headaches and challenges they are not interested in pursuing on a larger scale.

Upon Further Review...Virtual Schooling 2.0

Upon Further Review...

Separating Myths from Facts About Virtual Schooling

After completing this week's readings, I still feel that I did a decent job describing the role of online school in K-12 education today.  However, there were some interesting things I learned more about from the readings, and I do feel like I got a better understanding of online education as a whole.  So below I am including my thoughts on the various systems that exist today to help a student learn beyond the traditional classroom setting.

In the North American Council for Online Learning article on "Top Ten Myths", I found a few things to be interesting.  First, there are a lot of students taking online courses today in K-12 education- with over 500,000 across all 50 states, this is clearly an important and growing trend that administrators and politicians have to consider going forward.  It also appears that virtual learning schools have to comply with the same rigorous state standards when they deliver instruction, meaning that a student who is taking the course should expect a similar level of rigor compared to a typical classroom.

One thing I disagreed with from the same article was that online courses do not represent an add-on to a burdened school system.  This article was written from the perspective of a council that represents online education, and at least in my experience, this definitely stretches schools further when delivering instruction.  I was already aware that most online learners go to a traditional school and may only take 1-2 courses online.  However, in our building, I know how difficult that can look when students take these courses during traditional instructional hours.  On the positive side, students can take the classes at any time during our school day since they are typically asynchronous in nature.  However, because online learning requires a certified adult to check-in with students on their progress and support their education, we have had to assign this task to a Special Education teacher in our building as well as a counselor to take time out each day to interact with these students.  This creates larger workloads for teachers and support staff, and also means that they are losing time somewhere else in order to help these students.  Another positive is that online learning offers students to take courses that may not be offered in a particular school.  Unfortunately with this increased choice also comes a price, as our school has to pay for these courses out of our budget as the student is still enrolled in our school.

One thing that I did not consider before reading the articles, and taking this course, is that online learning can actually be more interactive for a student than a traditional classroom.  I particularly liked the idea that it offers students who don't "think well on their feet" to respond at their own pace, and it leads to greater levels of individual interaction between teachers and their students as well as with classmates when working on group activities.  Before this course, I would argue against that, but I think when it is properly set up, students can still watch videos from their instructor online, they can read and learn at their own pace, and they can definitely have a larger voice in the classroom when they have time to respond to their level of comfort as well.

Lastly, in the Barbour report (2009) it described several learning options that I was not familiar with prior to reading.  For instance, a student can learn entirely through online content, or for a only a few classes, but they can also learn in a live model as well as at home with a teacher who supervises the course, but the parent takes the reigns more as the traditional facilitator of instruction with their child.  This last one in particular was interesting because it seems to follow more of the traditional home-school approach, and I was not aware that this was an option offered to students.  The great thing about each of these varied approaches is that parents really have multiple options to consider when determining the best learning environment for their student.  I would agree with the author, however, that I would like to see more valid studies on whether online learning produces the same or better results for students overall.  One of the things that they mentioned in the report was that numbers could be skewed because previous studies did not take into account all of the students who dropped out of the courses prior to completion.

After reading all of the materials, it is clear that online learning is not going away.  More importantly, as our technology continues to improve, it is very feasible in the near-future to see online training as a mandatory part of instructional courses for teachers.  We need to be able to reach our students in whatever method is most effective for their learning.  And it looks more and more apparent that as costs of buildings and materials continue to rise, the future of instruction may not involve a classroom at all.

Virtual Schooling

Learning for a Better Tomorrow, Today:

The Inside Scoop on Online Education

K-12 online learning, or virtual schooling, is another option for education that is offered throughout our country.  Families can sign up students for individual courses or an entire educational experience, depending on their interests and motivations.

How it works

Students can either take virtual learning courses for 1 or 2 specific subjects that may not be offered at their schools, or they may take an entire courseload through the programs.

Teachers who run classrooms in virtual learning environments are typically still certified and must meet specific requirements in order to teach the class.

Students can learn through module-based programs, where they progress individually based on performance.  This is usually accompanied by a mentor teacher or paraprofessional who checks in with them on their progress and helps them to set goals and correct mistakes.

An alternative model is that students either login at the same time daily online and meet in an online classroom where they interact with fellow virtual learners and a teacher instructs them in a live format.  There are also online learning centers that some students attend where they come in on a routine basis similar to a school environment in order to access computers and instruction.

Who is taking it

Subject Specific:

Any student can take online learning courses based on personal preference and circumstance.  A student might also take only one or two classes if they cover a particular subject that they wish to pursue, but their school may not traditionally offer.

Far, Far Away:

It is also a great option for students in rural communities who may have difficulty getting to school every day.  Online learning can take place at the home, where students either log in at the same time every day, or in modules where they progress through assessments and work at their own pace.

School at Home:

Students might also pursue it as an alternative to home schooling, where the student can still get great quality instruction from state-certified instructors without having to go to a traditional classroom environment.  This is also useful for students with severe health ailments who may not be able to thrive in a traditional school environment.

Travel:

If students are involved in high-level competitive athletics or touring theatrical productions and the like, virtual learning may offer a great alternative to the typical 8-3 timeframe that some students can't meet due to the demands of their schedules.

Conclusion

As we move forward and our technological resources and access continue to improve, it is no surprise that online instruction continues to gain influence, acceptance, and importance in the educational realm.  Students lives are more busy than ever, and the need for individualized opportunities to learn will be the next major paradigm shift in education.  Whether students are able to attend school or not, the educator of the future will be expected to deliver lessons through technology that supports individualized learning and allows students to catch up when they miss, and to work at their own pace during class instruction.  The teacher will then take on the role of facilitator, and it is likely that expectations will change dramatically as to the amount of students and requirements of classrooms may someday evolve in order to address this shift.

To Wiki, or not to Wiki?

To Wiki, or not to Wiki?  That is the Question.

Wikipedia and YouTube have always been strange bedfellows for educators:

Wikipedia

Today I find that Wikipedia is one of the best sources of information out there for students looking to get started on research.  However, just because it is a great starting point, one has to be smart about how they allow it to be utilized in student research projects.  As I teach middle school students, the first thing I do with every lesson is to model my expectations for the activity.  I believe that Wikipedia is a great tool to begin research on a topic, so I direct students to use it to get background information on a topic and identify key words.  However, if a student wants to use it for evidence, they must follow the footnote links to the actual source in order to cite it properly.  In this way, students can show that a proven author has given the information rather than a potentially unverifiable resource.

YouTube

For YouTube, I do like to use the videos to aid my instruction, and a lot of Education 2.0 tools allow the use of YouTube exclusively for students to include video media inside of their presentations.  The danger of this resource is that anyone can also post anything on YouTube, and as an educator I always struggle to ensure that my students aren't exposed to inappropriate material while I either show a video in class, or students use it to find supporting materials.  Luckily, there are ways to combat this- for instance, I can use a resource like Quietube to block out suggested other videos and advertisements from my feed.  However for my students, there is nothing I can do beyond hoping that they use appropriate judgment during their research.

Gender Gap

For educators using these resources today, there is another largely unknown factor to consider when determining their validity- the gender gap in online posting.  According to the Freakonomics Podcast "Women are Not Men",  though women actually outnumber men in online gaming and social media use, they are massively underrepresented in Wikipedia.  The speakers argue that this is likely due to the fact that men and women have "different appetites for conflict", and that women may take rejection of their work by editors of a site like Wikipedia more personally than men would.  Regardless of the reason, this has serious consequences depending on the topic of interest someone may peruse on the site.  If predominantly (as high as 80%) of the editors on the website are men, than many topics that should have a woman's voice present (ie: women's rights, abortion) could be solely relayed by a male-bias.  If a reader then comes across the text and treats it legitimately, there can be real concerns about the content and whether or not it is fair to the topic at hand.

I had never considered this issue prior to listening to this webcast (transcript available here) and it really made me question whether I can continue to use Wikipedia as an educational tool in any respect.  However, if students are properly educated about these issues, and are taught how to properly use Wikipedia as more of a search engine than a factual website, they can prove the trustworthiness of the article simply by following the footnote and verifying the legitimacy of the original articles.  In that vein, it is we must teach our students about the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that any online resource presents before we allow their usage in our classrooms.

Identifying Inspiration: Seeking Out the Best in Social Media Today

No one ever wants to be behind the times in the world of education.  Therefore, it is important from time-to-time to check our social media sources, and to seek out new vehicles for thought.  With that idea in mind, today I scoured the interweb to try and identify new sources for information and inspiration in the education world.  Below I have included some of the best I discovered in my online journey.

Boggling Blogging:

Doing Social Studies
https://doingsocialstudies.com/

This is a blog from the Kansas City Council for Social Studies.  They select different blog posts from teachers from around the state of Kansas on Social Studies instruction and different, engaging ideas for the classroom.  I like it because it includes a number of new ideas for my content area and teachers (usually very important ones) share insight into new apps they like and how they are using them to change their classroom.

World History Teachers Blog
http://worldhistoryeducatorsblog.blogspot.com/

This is a website maintained by history teachers, for history teachers, but it doesn't indicate where they hail from.  Though it is designed for High School teachers, I love that it covers my content areas- there are way too many blogs about American history and so far I've had an incredibly difficult time finding blogs based on my topics.  What particularly caught my eye were some great resources in the first few posts related to Eastern religions of the world and current event articles and lesson plan ideas around topics of interest in my classroom.

The History Channel This is Not
https://nkogan.wordpress.com/

Nate Kogan seems to have a great sense of humor, which makes his posts interesting and entertaining when I am digging the web for new content.  He also offers a lot of great ideas that could be used to inspire me for assessments, I like the idea around designing a quick-grade rubric and activity around unit vocabulary and plan on using it in this coming week with my students.

Enter the Twitterverse:

Here are some new teachers that I am following on Twitter this week - 

Wendy Kopp (@wendykopp)
Founder of Teach for America - I am curious to learn more about her views.  Though I am vehemently against the concept of Teach for America, it is always good to have dissenting and alternative ideas in our media as well.  Too many people today are guilty of only following/reading things they agree with.

PrincipalJ (@PrincipalJ)co-moderates #educoach chats on twitter, seems quirky and always discussing the latest trends in education.

Amy Mayer (@friEdTechnology)
Technologically innovative teacher from Texas who pushes innovation and creativity using technology.

Josh Stumpenhorst (@stumpteacher)
2012 Illinois teacher of the year- tweets very frequently and teaches about the same subjects and grade levels that I do!  Basically a better version of myself.

Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
He started the #edchat hashtag!  Interesting and creative personality, veteran teacher of over 40 years who asks really great questions on Twitter to inspire debate and discussion.  Recently good stuff on bias in the media and good critical thinking skills.


Overall, in my hunt to make my social media apps great again, I did find some really fun and interesting people to follow today to pique my interest in both social technology mediums.  However, I definitely find myself using Twitter on a more frequent basis- primarily because the blurbs are fast, change constantly, and it is far easier to follow someone on Twitter in my opinion than to seek out their blog through a search engine.  Great leaders don't just write about the latest trends and ideas, they find materials and share them with others.  Twitter is an awesome resource which I find myself pulling 5-6 articles daily about relevant topics.  That being said however, today I did a better job at narrowing beyond edtech into my actual curriculum coverage as well.  Hopefully this, too, will pay off in the long run.

RAT: Integrating technology into instruction

Technology integration in classroom instruction has been a highly debated topic for the past half century of educational theory.  However, as technology improved at an exponential rate, systematic change has struggled to keep up with the pace.

I have had the privilege to teach Language Arts, Social Studies, and technology courses to middle school students for seven years now, and even in that short time, I have witnessed monumental changes to the quality and availability of instructional technology.  In order to best prepare our students for the future, we need to best harness these resources in order for them to reach their full potential.

One of the pushes today regarding educational technology is to utilize Web 2.0 tools to improve and modernize traditional classroom instruction.  If used properly, these resources can create more authentic learning opportunities for students to engage in learning.  It is also quite possible, however, to simply try to replace what we are doing currently with something that sounds better, but in actuality brings little if any improvement to the educational setting.  One way to make sure that we are truly using technology to improve our teaching is to consider the RAT method when designing instruction.  Below, I will talk further about the RAT technique and how I use each opportunity in my classroom setting.

RAT stands for:
REPLACE
AMPLIFY
TRANSFORM

Replace: to replace current teaching practices with new technology, but without any significant change or improvement

One way that I have used technology in my classroom to replace current activities is having students type their major essays rather than handwriting them.  We often use this interchangeably, and though this improves opportunities for students with severe handwriting impairments (or poor handwriting), it doesn't really alter the learning in a significant way.  Our school system offers 1-1 iPads for our students, so that all children have access to technology in our district regardless of personal circumstances.  Though this could be transformative, currently the trend seems to encourage students to replace traditional activities, ie: reading and writing, with their iPads, more than to actually change the way we are teaching in my building.

Amplify: productivity and efficiency is improved without truly changing fundamental instruction

An example of using technology to augment instruction is having a digital textbook or magazine subscription, where students can read either from the physical resource in class or at home.  Many programs will read the words out loud to students, so that struggling readers can better follow along with the resource.  Also, my Social Studies class text book allows students to access additional content, including videos and primary source documents that can supplement their learning.  My class website is also a helpful augmented experience for students, as they can access lessons and resources online if they are home sick.  Finally, a digital plan book and grade book are great augmented resources for teachers, as they help me to quickly calculate and input grades from anywhere.  Online plan books are also great tools to collaborate with multiple instructors- allowing all of us to interact at the same time, and to have one calendar where all work, lesson plans and significant dates can be input.

Transform: technology offers a new way of teaching and learning that was previously impossible

Google Drive is an exceptional example of transformative technology in education.  We are now a Google School, and this allows students to each have their own e-mail address and Drive account.  This enables students to do so many things that weren't available previously:
 1) Have a safe e-mail address monitored through the school district when many are under age to do so otherwise, as the current age restriction is 13.
2) Collaborate online through a Google Doc or slides presentation, on separate devices, at the same time, even if they aren't in the same building as one another.  Teachers aren't using this enough yet to collaborate with other classrooms around the world in a safe and inclusive setting.
3) Save school work at home or in school without losing anything.  Students can create digital binders online through an effective folder system to help them better manage the content from their various classes.
4) Apps and Add-ons are a growing expansion of Drive that allows educators to rethink online learning with students.  For example, I use Google Forms to conduct quick surveys or to collect data from students more efficiently, but I can also use it to host quick quizzes to check-in on content. Further Add-ons such as Flubaroo allow me to automatically grade each quiz, or I can look to a resource like Gubric to allow me to grade longer writing assignments more efficiently and thoroughly than ever before.

Though these are just a few examples of the RAT framework, it provides a great deal of structure to how we are really using our technology currently to improve the educational opportunities of our students.

So the question remains- how are YOU using technology to promote student learning and engagement?  While the future of education is uncertain, it is clear that technology will have a transformative role in our classroom if we put in the effort to rethink our instruction.