At the beginning of the class, I had a skeptical view of online schooling and what it had to offer. There is a lot of hype on the subject in conferences, journals and even in the popular news. Also, as a teacher I value the physical classroom and its ability to give me an interesting place to work and a way to make my living. I don't want to teach at home in my pajamas, like going to a physical place and I really feel strongly that kids need face to face interactions in order to grow up and be sensible, functioning human beings.
After going through this course and seeing the many options that online schooling has to offer, I am still skeptical, a little less afraid, more open to teach in my pajamas, but still holding to the idea that kids need physical contact in order to develop. A number of different uses of online schooling make really basic sense to me. Using online schooling for the underachieving who need to make work up and the over achieving who want to take things beyond what a normal school has to offer makes sense and we have seen several instances where that is working ( and several where it is not). I can see the "home school kid" fitting in really well to many of the good online schools that we looked at. I can even see where online schooling can make a difference in a regular face-to-face school where scheduling can be difficult in order to deliver what kids want or need.
The most evident thing that I found after this course is that online schooling offers some nice hard data on how kids are really doing on a more objective basis than one teacher in one classroom. I think this will lead to a more efficient education. So many new reform efforts are geared toward cramming stuff - new curriculum, new methods, etc. - into the classroom. Online education can be a way to unpack the classroom. Having more input from different people to assist kids. I can also see if we were able to deliver some courses such as math, on more of an online asynchronous basis, we could have kids progress through course more at their own speed rather than the average speed of all the learners in the room. I see many opportunities for using blended instruction to maximize good face-to-face time. Overall, we are still in the early stages of online schooling and more research needs to be done.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
What was the most difficult aspect of researching this topic?
One of the hardest aspects of researching my topic was to define it. Blended learning is also called hybrid learning, computer assisted learning, and so many other things that basically meant joining "traditional" learning with something else, most with technology enabling it. This meant that you had to define "traditional" learning and distill everything that has been going on in the classroom since the introduction of computers to the classroom. I have been teaching with a Moodle course that is a companion to my face-to-face course for years. Does that mean I am using blended learning? If I use a Smartboard in class and then post my notebook file on my Moodle page in a forum to add feedback I am blended, but if I don't post it, I am not using blended learning.
I guess what I became comfortable with as a definition is if the learning for the class is facilitated inside the classroom AND outside of the classroom (physical classroom), it is blended, but if it all takes place in just one of the two then it is traditional learning or online learning. As for "facilitated", I am talking about something that is beyond "homework" and assigned readings. For outside the classroom, I am talking about discussion forums, chats, or anything that makes up the "meat" of an online course. For inside the classroom, it could be anything you do in a classroom. The blended really becomes a question of location.
The problem is after going through a bunch of articles on "blended" learning, many people were really only speaking about doing stuff in the classroom, in a different way they normally did, but with computers. In other articles, the broader different of types of learning, experiential learning with regular classroom learning or synchronous online learning with asynchronous. The term blended got tossed around in many different contexts. Ultimately, I went with location and found two teachers that had blended experiences with online experiences blended with face to face meetings.
I guess what I became comfortable with as a definition is if the learning for the class is facilitated inside the classroom AND outside of the classroom (physical classroom), it is blended, but if it all takes place in just one of the two then it is traditional learning or online learning. As for "facilitated", I am talking about something that is beyond "homework" and assigned readings. For outside the classroom, I am talking about discussion forums, chats, or anything that makes up the "meat" of an online course. For inside the classroom, it could be anything you do in a classroom. The blended really becomes a question of location.
The problem is after going through a bunch of articles on "blended" learning, many people were really only speaking about doing stuff in the classroom, in a different way they normally did, but with computers. In other articles, the broader different of types of learning, experiential learning with regular classroom learning or synchronous online learning with asynchronous. The term blended got tossed around in many different contexts. Ultimately, I went with location and found two teachers that had blended experiences with online experiences blended with face to face meetings.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)