Please remember that I am posting a topic once every 2 weeks, but I expect students to post every week, once to respond to the posting and once to respond to other students.
In lesson 3 you read two articles on distance education; 'Distance Education, An Overview', and 'Why Teach at a Distance'. These articles discuss different modes of distance teaching-not just a online like this class. What experiences have you had or have seen in your school re one of these modes (such as interactive television). If you have had no experiences, from these readings, what do you think of this mode of teaching? Search the internet and see if you can come across any studies which gauge the educational value of distance education versus traditional education? If so give us the web address.
An interesting site that comes close to face-to-face online is
http://voicethread.com/
Check out some of the class examples and tell us what you think.
I have actually developed a sort of distance learning myself before that I have tested in the classroom and had it work quite well. During my student teaching I used it (incorrectly) as a simple powerpoint for the whole class and it worked great. There were a number of students that were absent that day which was beneficial because I was able to test it on them.
ReplyDeleteI emailed each of them the powerpoint which is a self lead computer lesson. Instead of the common powerpoint, this one attempts at keeping the users attention while also teaching the lesson, in this case George Washington.
The students that were absent learned the lesson just as well as the students in the class.
This shows that if the distance learning lesson is built correctly it can be very effective.
I wanted to attach the powerpoint but I don't see a way of doing it here.
Thank you Jorge! You can upload your PPT on "Drive" through your Keangoogle. They give you a link that you can copy, paste and share with others. That is a way you can share a PPT here
DeleteThank you for sharing Jorge. I will have to try this when I have my own classroom. My field is mathematics. What I would do to help my students out is send them PPT to reemphasize the lesson that was taught or just give them a further understanding about the topic
DeleteI haven't experienced a lot of distance learning myself, but I have observed teachers who have. One of the teachers that I observed in South Orange, NJ uses this kind of online data base called ed moto. It was amazing because it was like an educational facebook. Students had their own profiles and could interact with the teacher at all times because you could even log in on your phone. This program allowed the students who were absent to log in and see what lesson was taught. If students forgot to jot down the homework for the night they would also be able to see what it was.
ReplyDeleteNow my field is math and most math teachers always assign homework for the reinforcement of what was just learned. The program like I said has features similar to facebook, so she told me her students would ed moto her while doing their homework if they had any questions. That is an excellent feature because while students are completing their homework the teacher could clear up any misconceptions that they might have with the topic. They would do things like that or sometimes they would simply say hello. She explained to me that the best thing to do with your students is to find a connection with them and they will learn, listen, and love knowledge. Ed moto allowed her to form a bond with her students while providing a distance education without the students even knowing it.
Do you mean Edmodo? http://www.edmodo.com/
DeleteThanks so much for this resource. I will check it out. I too would like connecting with my students and forming a bond with them.
Yes and Bernadette I kid you not the teacher had this amazing bond with her students. They loved coming to her class and she kept them engage on topics at all times.
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ReplyDeleteI am a big proponent of distance learning. As I have stated in a previous post, I have taken online classes with great success. I find that distance education promotes self-motivation and independence. As the student, I am responsible for completing assignments in a timely manner, performing research, and sharing information with classmates. In a distance learning-environment, these tasks require the student to be conscious of his/her calendar (schedule) and competent his/her time management.
ReplyDeleteIn a 2000, “A Survey of Traditional and Distance Learning Higher Education Members” commissioned by the National Education Association found (among other things) that a majority of both traditional and distance educators, individually and collectively, had positive attitudes towards distance education. Educators believe that distance education offers individuals, who might not ordinarily be able to avail themselves of formal learning, opportunities to participate. “A large percentage of both distance learning and traditional faculty tell us that it is extremely or very likely that distance learning will reach many students who could not take traditional college courses (df 70%; tf 55%, Figure 25).” (NEA p. 36)
Overall, the study was more positive than I had suspected. However, the traditionalist in education did express concern about doing more for the same compensation. The contend that “faculty will be responsible for more students, that there will be more work for the same amount of pay, and that faculty will not be fairly compensated for their intellectual property (Figure 29).” (NEA p. 39)
Reference:
https://docs.google.com/a/kean.edu/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Fi12z_HrpQcJ:www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/DistanceLearningFacultyPoll.pdf+distance+education+vs+traditional+education+study&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShL_34dVZYRozVkFGQUE9s2HjwME9H9jCTf-E-dMSwTNbX_u-sNduwJhPgODJTll1Sk-lWc6lD_w1eW0Q-6UYAHKIQpcGCTG1oRIFwps_IEJLOSPoYm-4zn-AERakMrgEiUAkgh&sig=AHIEtbQAjxu64mfg_ZYZ4g-U0joVfVvEjw
This is my first time taking an online course and so far so good. To be honest, I was nervous about taking this course because I enjoy going to lectures and having that peer and teacher interaction. It is what I know and I know that I do well in these parameters. Other than taking this on-line course, I have no experience with distance education. I am not a teacher yet and I will be doing student teaching next semester.
ReplyDeleteDistance Education as the reading states reaches a wider student audience, it meets the needs of students who are unable to attend on-campus links students from all backgrounds/locations and more. It is a broader way to teach and I like that I can be comfortable in my own home. Being that I will be teaching Middle School Math, I initially didn’t think this mode of teaching applies to the grade level I will be teaching. Perhaps there is a mixture of on-line distance education (homework) and in-class learning but I would not ever do a full-time on-line course in math for my middle school students.
After reading Jorge and Jarred’s comments, I now understand that distance education can be used for my level of students and for those who missed the class.
I think teachers need to be on-top of their middle school students. As stated in the reading, students require motivation, planning, an ability to analyze, and apply the instructional content taught. They have to be independent and as MLK pointed out, good “time management” is key. From my experience with substituting middle school students, they need constant reminders of what is due, etc. With that said, I believe Full-time distance education is for college level not middle school.
In my future math classroom, I would use a shared drive similar to SkyDrive (Microsoft/live.com) or “Drive” on (keangoogle) with my students. Homework assignments, solutions, and teaching/lesson documents, power points, etc. will be stored in the clouds for my students to access if they are absent or I can upload the lesson to my website.
RE:Search the internet for Traditional Learning Vs. Online Learning...
I have searched the internet – particularly the Kean University library under Articles & More through database and I found in the Academic Journal a study which gauge the educational value of Traditional Learning versus Online learning. The title is “E-Learning: Paradigm shift in Education.” (2008) I saved the PDF to my “Drive” on KeanGoogle: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0qL4VeEx0o4UktOWXpyd3U3V0U/edit?usp=sharing
As stated in the conclusion, "the web holds several advantages over traditional learning." "The growth and access to the internet has taken non-traditional education to a new level with the vast availability of web-based courses in higher education."
References.
Desai, M. S., Hart, J., & Richards, T. C. (2008). E-LEARNING: PARADIGM SHIFT IN EDUCATION. Education, 129(2), 327-334.
RE:VoiceThread
What a great resource! I checked out a class that was working on a project. All group members were accessing the files – photo, video, document and where able to edit, and publish their work. Distance learning could incorporate collaborating with your peers, for example, research project. What I love about this program is that it is very secure and for only educators and students alike. This program allows user to communicate, collaborate, connect and all learners can be educated through this program including those with disability.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByzHxm3fJooYT3JjbGl5S25vQVU/edit?usp=sharing
ReplyDeleteAbove is the link to my Washington Presentation. To get the idea of how it can work as a distance learning you have to download it and run the slideshow from powerpoint. Let me know if it works.
Bernadette I have yet to try this on middle school aged students because i did my student teaching in high school. High School aged students seem somewhat receptive to distance learning, not as much as college students but definitely still receptive. Middle school does seem like it will be a challenge to implement distance learning, I just got a teaching position for 6th grade and it is a struggle to get them to do anything on their own without direct teacher guidance.
Jorge, Congrats on your 6th grade teaching position! That's great! Thank you for sharing your presentation. I will check it out soon. Please make sure you share the PPT with all. In other words, change "who has access" under
Deleteshare setting to "anyone with link." I wasn't able to open.
Bernadette, thanks for the congratulations! I believe I changed the sharing setting so all can view. If theres a problem with it let me know.
DeleteYes! I was able to view. Great job with the PPT…very colorful and engaging. I bet the students enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteI agree excellent job. I too understand that getting the students to think for themselves is quit the challenge. I believe that all students are capable of thinking for themselves but we just have to try them to do so. One teacher I know likes to have do-now's as soon as class starts and its up on the board. They read it and sit down and are not able to ask questions. The teacher does not grade them on right or wrong answers but instead the steps they are trying to take to get the answer.
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