550 Week 6- Final Reflection

As this class comes to a close, I'm thankful for the opportunity to look at the tools we've had a chance to use in the context of an online class.  As we've learned these strategies, I've thought about them in my current classroom.  We've talked plenty about how we think schools will look like in the near and distant future, but it was always hypothetical.  I liked having the chance to plan that online lesson, short as it was.  It gave me a chance to look at those same tools in this new context- to see which strategies can be directly translated, and which would need to be adjusted.

I'm excited about the potential for teaching a full online class at some point.  I mentioned in my last post how it seems like the time is right for schools to jump on the online-class bandwagon, and perhaps I can encourage my district to dip its toe in the water.

550 Week 5 and the Crystal Ball

Being in a program like this, I feel most of use are probably a little more optimistic when it comes to the future of online learning.  For my colleagues, on the list of about 100 things they are trying to think about in regards to education's future, it clocks in at about 99, or maybe a bit further down.  That said, with my best attempt to remove my own bias, I really think the stars are aligning for online education.

First of all, the technology is getting there.  There are more and more collaborative web 2.0 tools released every year, all of them with their own unique features.  The more technologically advanced we get, the less it feels like a separate type of class, and more like an alternate way to get the same experience.  Bandwidth still seems to be an issue, as we cannot all share video at the same time in our Collaborate classroom, but that will be something that will advance as well in the coming years.  I could see an entire class all streaming video at the same time in the not too distant future.

Common Core will also help us avoid a political fight.  The idea of an online classroom has been pitched to us as "Kids can take their classes from the best teachers in the country!"  Of course, then we get into charter schools and vouchers and "Are the kids that need help the most getting it if a few teachers are teaching groups of 6,000?"  Not to mention "Can these 'best' teachers in the country effectively handle their class sizes?"  The fact that we'll all be teaching the same curriculum puts us closer to equal ground.  Yes, some teachers will present those ideas better than others, but with a common curriculum, students can choose the type of classroom that fits them best.  They can choose to be in a face-to-face direct instruction classroom, or an online constructivist classroom or anything in between.  And we can use benchmark assessments to measure whether or not those types of learning are actually working for those students.

If the current model of education is, as many have said, a "factory", then I feel the schools of the future will be more like shopping malls.  Students will be able to try out many different types of learning.  The difference will be that we will be able to give them advice about their "purchases".  Hopefully online learning can gain some more attention in the near future, because it does fit nicely with the current focus in education.

550 Week 4- Formative Assessment

A very simple Web 2.0 formative assessment would be some sort of survey. Whether it be through a service like Survey Monkey or Poll Everywhere, or through Google Forms, students could take short, regular quizzes. Any questions they do not answer correctly could be met with a short video on the topic, an activity, and a follow-up quiz. It could be self-paced, and may very well be an effective way to address learning needs that do not relate directly to curricular materials. For example, it is not easy to connect common and proper nouns to A Christmas Carol in an authentic way. This would be useful, but would really only engage students at the Applying level of Bloom's Taxonomy, at best. Another interesting possibility for formative assessment would be using social networks like Twitter. Over the course of a unit or a project, students would occasionally tweet something about their progress or what they are learning. The instructor could respond with additional questions or suggestions. Based on the student response, the instructor gets a better idea of whether or not the student is really grasping the concepts of the lesson, or is simply repeating information read elsewhere. Students could also communicate with each other- asking questions purely out of curiosity, or also finding ways in which their particular projects connect. This moves discourse up to the Evaluating level of Bloom's Taxonomy, with the Creating level covered in the project itself.

550 Week 3- Roles of an Online Teacher

Here is my mind map of some goals I would have to meet to be an effective online teacher.  Some of these also apply to a traditional classroom, but are more important in an online environment.