Josie talked about how new technology is always popping up. This echoed my thought exactly. New tech is popping up faster than we as teachers can explore. Josie talked of having time for staff to explore these resources. We simply just don't have the time to explore all that is out there. I know I have tried a lot of new things in my classroom. Some things stick and others don't. It is a cycle. She also talks about having quality training so that we can stay up to date with new advances in the tech field. PD for me has been a great source of learning out new technology. Sometimes it is the presenter and other times it is just by talking with other teachers that I walk away with a new idea for my classroom.
Dan talked about how trying something new is not always looked highly on by those from the outside. We are always told to try new things but if we do and that new thing fails we are blamed. This does not encourage people to try the new technology that is being developed. Also with trying new things there is always some extra instructional time that has to be given up to fully try the new thing. Learning that new thing though teaches a lot of skills that aren't assessed. It also gives students a chance to learn how to use technology that may be of benefit to them in the future. However, it is hard to convince some people of the benefits. This week I worked a lot to outline my class in canvas. However, I feel very far behind. I still need to come up with all of my assessments. I have the assessments ready for about the first 5 weeks out of the 17 I am planning to do. I have 18 weeks in a semester but want to only have 17 for a built in buffer week before grades are due. I think my first module is almost complete but that means I still have 8 to go.
0 Comments
This week Dan, Theresa and I hosted class. I believe we collaborated very well. I was not able to get to the reading right away but was able to contribute once I had the time to complete the reading. I think we divided up the presentation well. Theresa got the google slides set up very fast which was great. Dan came up with some extra resources that were top notch. I helped with some of the tech components like setting up the pre assessment and downloading our slides to paste onto blackboard. There was a lot of info to cover this week and I am happy with the way our presentation went.
Teresa commented on my blog with an example from Grey's Anatomy. This weeks episode challenged the attendings to teach by allowing the residents to get hands on experience. Some of the older ones were not happy with this and did not trust the residents. I believe this is a great example for education as well. Students learn by getting the hands on practice. They need real world examples to connect this practice to. If students start solving real world problems through hands on practice, I fully believe achievement will soar. This is easier done in a face-to-face classroom so in teaching distance education I will have to be mindful of how to incorporate this. I read Teresa's blog and I loved how she talked about Brazil's program, PROFORMACAO. This program educated 30,000 teachers in rural areas. Teresa was wondering if Alaska could do the same. We need Alaska native teachers to educate the native population. The native teachers are few and far between and some of this problem may be due to the lack of technology and internet access. We need a better system. The students at my school really listen to the teachers that are from Toksook or have moved here as a family. Our Yup'ik teacher is an excellent example. The students really respect her and go to her for guidance. We need more of these teachers in our school, even if that means I would no longer have a job. Bridget talked about how China has undergone many changes in their distance education system. It is great to see so many distance education programs become open. This allows higher ed to be accessible by so many more students. However this has also led to an increase in cost. So many programs can only be accessed if you have the funds to pay for them. Hopefully the future will bring more changes that allow more students to access any program they desire. As far as designing my course I feel so far behind. I have literally had no free time and am not expecting much free time until after Thanksgiving unfortunately. Between taking 2 classes, helping our seniors fundraise almost every weekend, trying to fit in robotics, and teaching I am at a lack of time. The seniors are up to about $6,500 so hopefully we can slow down on fundraising. However, I am excited about my online class. It is something I have wanted to look at for a while but have not had the time. Mariah and I both commented on the checklist from the University of Wisconsin. It is such a detailed and focused checklist that would be easy for anyone to follow. I work by lists and I think many teachers do so I would recommend this list to all instructors. Mariah also talked about how important interaction is. I believe this is very true. Interaction helps connect students and when they are connected they just tend to do better. If you know someone will comment back or ask you why you didn't do something you are more likely to do it. You don't want to let someone down. Now this isn't true for everyone, but I believe for the majority it is true. I think if I were to give one bit of advice to an instructor it would have to be interaction as well.
Bridget talked about how good questioning is key to bringing students in. She made a suggestion of asking students questions they know to build their confidence. I am in total agreement with this. This will help a student to build connection with the course and hopefully set them up for success. She also talked about how the instructor needs to know the content as well. In our district we use Gradpoint for students who don't fit into the schedule but need a particular class. Gradpoint is an online system of courses where a teacher at our school grades them. This is hard because there are so many classes and many times a teacher is just thrown in to be the instructor for the course. This instructor may not know the content and usually has no time to learn it. Our students tend to not do well in these courses. I think both the connection piece and that the instructor does not necessarily know the content are huge detriments to student success in these courses. Teresa commented on my blog about the hiring process. It happens every year that someone you talk with sounds really good but once they get started they quickly don't appear to be what you expected. This really made me think about what you could do as the course designer. I think stepping in an offering assistance or sending reminders to the instructors that you are available for help would be good start. Also emailing out suggestions or resources would be good too. Sometimes we get so bogged down with information to start we forget much of what was taught. I think as the instructor this would be good for documentation as well. If the instructor still does not change things I think that is where administration should step in. Most teachers want to do well and help students so your help would prevent the need for administrative assistance. Josie talked about the 3 phases: guiding, encouraging, and monitoring. I find these phases to be a vary could outline to any class whether online or face to face. First we need to make sure students are comfortable with the organization of the course, then we can work at encouraging them to dig deeper and learn more, finally we can monitor and see what students can do without as much support. This is a good reminder as I am creating the content for the class I am creating.
Dan talked about the need for students to be connected. I think many times this is missed becasue we are trying to create a course with the best content, and we forget to think about the people taking the course. The course is for them and we need to remember that above all else. We as educators get too wrapped up in standards and curriculum coverage. Unfortunately we have to get wrapped up because of our evaluations. However this does not mean that we cannot step back for a moment and consider the student as a whole. I will need to constantly keep this in my mind to create a worthwhile course for students. This week I encountered so many good tip on best online practices. So many ideas are running through my mind. I am first trying to create the course content for my class by creating a CK12 flexbook textbook. This is a very challenging task but I am finding it to be very encouraging. There is so much good material that I have missed out on and I need to to include it in my current classes. I am feeling a little better about creating this online course, but still feel there is an overwhelming amount of planning to do. This week Dan talked about running being like how we run our classrooms. Thinking about workouts you have a few different types of workouts that work different areas and then you rotate these workouts and vary them just a little. The same can be said in the classroom. You don't want to always use the technology to do the same thing over and over again. It would be really boring. My students are very good at letting me know when we have done the same activity too many times really close together. There is a happy medium of repeating things students are comfortable with while not adding too much.
Genevieve talked about how digital items have made things faster. I love digital resources in the classroom because for me it involves less stapling, hole punching, and printing of papers. Also students can't lose their work. They may not remember where to go for it but I never have to print a new copy. The only issue with digital is if they require internet. On occasion our internet goes down and more frequently the internet is too slow to do some of the activities I plan. This is problematic becasue I quickly have to go to plan B and there is no plan B usually set up. I am interested and a little worried about the final project. The task of designing a whole online course seems daunting. It is something that I have wanted to try with some of the current courses I teach that way students could work at their own pace and if students need a class that we aren't currently offering I could still facilitate it. It is hard on students when they have to take courses from other instructors. I can't always provide help because sometimes I am not sure what the student is supposed to do. This week Mariah, Bridget, and I hosted class. Mariah was the lead and had some great ideas to start with. I believe with all of us working together we made a great plan. I loved her idea of interviewing Lee for this topic. It was so helpful to hear from someone with practical experience.
Dan focused his post around the effects of a solidly designed course and he would need help in designing one. I am in total agreement. I love playing around with technology and trying new things but would need help to make a course that would meet the objectives I set out. There is so much knowledge when brains are combined instead of working in solidarity. He states that most of us get to where we are today in isolation, and I agree. I feel this even more so in a small village where my colleagues all teach different subjects and grades. It is hard to collaborate with others in our district due to the distance between sites. Also my schedule is so full I don't know how there would be a common time to collaborate. I wish working together was easier but from reading I know it is hard for anyone. Josie talked about how some argue that instructional design is not necessary. This was not something that I had come across but it makes some sense. I don't agree with it but I can see where they are coming from. Although it is possible to learn on your own, it is not easy. I know from experience how challenging it is because I start so many things that I don't finish. You also have to be highly motivated in having a desire to learn something new. I'm really glad Josie brought this up. It relates to my post in knowing why you are doing something. You can know how to do something, but you really need a reason to learn it. I am in total agreement with Josie that instructional design is very relevant. This week has been absolutely crazy!! At least I got the post done for this class on time.
Amy posted on my blog about feeling a connection. This really hit home. It made me think about this school year and last. I feel challenged because our staff doesn't seem to completely gel. It's not terrible but it doesn't seem like my first two years. It makes me want to take a step back. Then the students ask me about afterschool activities and are super excited. This makes me reconsider stopping activities. I know if I don't do it no one else will and the students will not have the opportunity. I do what I do for them. It is a great reminder. Just today my junior runner told me I needed to coach him next year otherwise he would suck. It really pulls at my heart and I feel connected. This is the reason I have been able to teach in rural Alaska for 5 years. Bridget talked about how using online tools we are constantly creating connections with others. I find this to be so true. I can't think of a time when I don't use online to connect or maintain some sort of human interaction. Even when I make lesson plans I use google to help me out. My favorite phase is "just Google it." I think the bigger dilemma is how to make meaningful connections online and how to create a group that forms knowledge. So many connections I make online are mindless. Theresa post a quote that really got my attention as well. “Indeed, one of the major breakthroughs to emerge was a growing acknowledgment that online learning, with attention to pedagogical design, could be not only as good as face-to-face classroom education but better” (Harasim 2012). I wasn't sure this could be true just as she stated. Then I realized how different each teacher is and that there can be good and bad teachers. If you have the right person to teach they could create an online environment that is more conducive to learning than someone else who creates a different learning environment in a face-to-face classroom. There is just so much variety in education. This is not necessarily a bad thing as long as best practices are used. Even though I had not heard of CoPs before this week they are very familiar to me. I just didn't realize there was a specific name for them. Theresa commented on my blog about how it is important to know how to find the answer we don't always have to have the answers in our brain. I feel like this is something I am constantly trying to teach my students. I don't want them to ask me everything. They need to know how to find some things for themselves and then ask me when they don't understand it. I always tell students to google things. It is probably one of my favorite sayings. Many times students get frustrated because they just want the answer and they don't want to have to work for it.
Josie talks about how technology has made higher education possible for her. This is a true statement for me as well. With being in bush Alaska I would have to wait until I moved somewhere closer to a university. I have been very surprised by how much discourse and collaboration are a part of classes. I was very leery of the idea of online classes at first but have now come to enjoy them. I am learning so much and I believe it is do to the communication and discourse we have with each other. I really liked how Bridget used this quote “There is a serious and persistent gap between how the digital youth of today learn in school and how they interact and work outside of school.” I too highlighted this quote, but then didn't use it in my blog post. It just didn't fit with everything else I was talking about. She supplemented this quote by using a personal example about a friends son who played video games. She wasn't sure that his skills would translate to the real world. I think she is right that video games and school are very separate. Even though they can provide many skills the challenge becomes the application. I want to include games in my classroom, but you have to carefully plan out your classes to be successful. I think it might have to be summer project for me. Dan commented on my blog about how students are forced to problem solve on their own when they are given tasks from a distance. This really made me think about my classroom and my beliefs for learning. I firmly believe that when you construct your own model or representation you will remember it. Most students remember the project they did on class not the fascinating lecture that I gave. They remember the interactions they had with others. This is something that I am trying to remember and focus on as I create my lessons.
Theresa commented on constructivism and behaviorism in her blog post this week. She made a great post and with her in that a lot of online courses are rooted in constructivism and behaviorism. She commented on grades as being behaviorist and this was one of my first thoughts this week. Grades determine the quality of work that is turned in. If we are unhappy with a grade we either work to resubmit or work harder on future assignments. Then she talked about constructivist because we have to construct our own learning because we are not physically present with others for most of the class. I think if our classes were more module based we would notice cognitivism, but this is not the case and I am thankful for that. I feel like the design of these classes is more conducive to my learning style. Mariah focused on the cognitivist theory. I had not thought about my resources and how many have the component of cognitivism embedded with other learning theories. Computer assisted curriculum has become very popular and beneficial to me. I can create so much and reuse what has already been created. I use a lot of things from EDpuzzle, actively learn, and Kahoot. These sites are all rooted in lessons with questions to help process information. These fit with all 3 learning theories but a prominent one is the cognitivist theory because of the question and answer process that is embedded. She also talked about and interesting method for teaching mathematics called the Moore method. I'm not quite sure I understand how it works but if it involves constructivism I would be very intrigued. I always think it is hard to incorporate constructivism into math. Anyway you can increases learning, but without as much direct teaching I think it would be hard to get all students to learn what is necessary. This week I hosted class with Genevieve and Dan. It is hard to collaborate from a distance and Dan's microphone wasn't working on Blackboard. Even without his microphone Dan was able to figure out ways around this. It was not the easiest but it worked. I think next time would be a little easier. I am not used to using Kahoot with people who aren't in the same room as me. This made it challenging. I think the suggestion of putting a timer on would be good in the future. Overall I feel good about our lesson and I had fun presenting. Josie talked about how grades in distance classes have been about the same as those in face-to-face classes. I remember reading this and found it interesting. It made me wonder if the difficulty level was the same for both classes. There are some things that are hard to do when you are working remotely versus students who attend a face-to-face class. However Josie does point out that she has found distance classes to involve a lot more work. I find this to be true in that the work seems to be more productive and I find myself reading more and more and I dig deeper into the content. This was not the same in a face-to-face class because all content was given by the teacher so I didn't explore extra. Josie also talks about how grades are more reflective of the work you do in distance classes whereas in face-to-face classes your grade is partly showing up and participating as well as a grade of the work you do.
Genevieve also talked about transactional distance just as I did. We both found this theory to be the most applicable to our teaching. For me transactional distance seemed bizarre that it could be in both a traditional classroom and a distance one. The more I read the more it made sense. Just because you are physically present with your students does not mean that you have the dialogue and structure present to keep students connected. It really made me consider the structure of my classroom and how I could better assist students in feeling more connected to my class. |
Virtual Learning & TeachingCategories |