Week 15: Reflections

Reviewing your previous blog posts, what, if anything, has changed in your attitude toward online schools and online schooling over the past 15 weeks?


I think one of the things I have changed my mind about was how effective and engaging the discussion forum could be. The key difference was our experience in this course with being required to come back and revisit the discussions every few days, and to comment on the comments others made to what we posted. It definitely kept conversation more like an ongoing discussion and debates, instead of merely "spouting" -- saying your piece, but not necessarily having much interaction with what others had to say.

Reflections Week 14: Research Project

What was the most difficult aspect of researching this topic?

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this research project. It was energizing, as odd as that may sound. As far as what was most difficult...it is something I really have to think about.

I loved the challenge of collecting and studying the data, of evaluating and making recommendations, but did find it a bit frustrating to deal with incongruities -- when the survey respondents in good faith gave information I knew to be incorrect. I had to reconcile that by just reporting the answers and responses that they provided, and making a note when I knew they were reporting something that was erroneous.

Another difficulty: wanting more participants for the survey, but not wanting to nag candidates so that they became resistant or responded under duress. I didn't send repeat e-requests about the survey to avoid getting an unnecessary negative response, (I didn't want to hound students or pester ones who had responded already) but it could have impacted the number of responses I got. Would I have gotten more if I had "nagged" or would that have backfired and reflected unfavorably in their responses if they approached a survey under compulsion?

Still one more difficulty: trying to be as complete and accurate as possible while fully aware that I was lacking information and knowing that what I was doing is not high on the priority list of others I needed help from. I am a stickler for detail, especially when it comes to research and data, but not everyone ascribes the same importance to minutiae. Sometimes people balk a it when pressed for the most complete information, because it just isn't quite so important to them. In some cases, sources I sought for key information (ie. complete listing of all the students enrolled in online learning at my school over the past three years) were not as detail oriented, or perhaps didn't realize that the information they provided was incomplete, which meant after seeking help a couple of times, and being provided with partial lists both times, I still had to branch out to gather from other sources as well. It still bothers me that I didn't have an official list, and even when I was finished, I sensed there were probably more online students I didn't have a record of. I only learned after I had completed my project that there were still another five names I did not have at the time of research, who may or may not have even received the information to participate in the survey. Again, the fact that my list was a compilation, and was as accurate a rendering as I was able to assemble, was noted in my research.

Week 11 Reflection

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

I began by reading the Florida TaxWatch study, and followed it with Zucker. While reading Zucker, I saw a reference to Haavind's work that caught my attention and motivated me to read Haavind as my third paper for the week's assignment. The quote (from a different study by Haavind - "A Study of Factors that Affect Content-based Student-to-Student Dialogue Online", and not the one that we were assigned to read) that piqued my interest: "Higher interactivity occurs when instructors avoid public praise or negative evaluations in the discussion area." (p.18) Haavind herself reiterated this in the Key Factors study, "Higher interactivity was associated with instructors who avoided entering public discussions primarily to praise or negatively evaluate students." (p.17)

I never had given that thought before, but it caused a few pieces of learning to come together for me, and provide another mental guideline for my own online instructional design. It seemed obvious that negative evaluations in the discussion area might discourage depth of interaction, but it hadn't occurred to me that positive praise that singles out an individual in the asynchronous discussion might be disruptive to the process. In pondering that, it occurred to me, that drawing attention to the process could be disruptive to the flow as it can make individuals too self-aware, and/or make others feel jealous or bad if they sense they don't measure up. One of the demonstrated characteristics of an instructor who was successful at encouraging effective collaborative dialogue among students therefore was one who could let it happen without drawing attention to it. I did note that another successful strategy for instructors looking to foster great asynchronous collaborative dialogue was making those positive and constructive comments to students individually but in private An instructor who joins the dialogue to help redirect, or as an earlier study we read (Garrison and Arbaugh) suggested "facilitating discourse requires the instructor to review and comment on student responses, raise questions and make observations to move discussions in a desired direction" (164), especially as suggested by Rose and Smith in yet another early reading though the use of landscape posts. (p.155). I am still pondering application of this...

Week 9 Reflection

Now that you have seen what other people did in creating their units, is there anything that you might do differently if you were to redesign your own unit?

I think that I would add more graphics to the presentation of the material to make it visually more appealing, and embed some of the video instead of relying on links entirely. I think I would also incorporate more graphic organizer tool use, (like webspiration or notely) and have students create something that has visual appeal, as Heather and Melissa did having their students create something in museum box. The virtual course by nature has so much text built into it, and so much reading and typing that I could see students losing interest, without something eye-catching and creative to do.

Week 7

What are you most concerned about as you embark on creating a curriculum unit?

I think I am most concerned about pacing. It is easy to plan a unit, but very often hard to accurately predict how much time things will actually take. In a traditional classroom where you can pick up the pace or slow things down depending on how quickly or slowly students learn. If more reinforcement is needed on a particular concept, or an extra day is needed to finish an activity, it is easy to adapt in a traditional classroom. If the unit is set in "e-cement", I am nervous about how it can be adapted if needed.

Though I am looking forward to working with my teammate, Richard, I think I am nervous too, about coordinating schedules for collaboration. The temptation is great to just say, "Why don't we meet at TC in Russell 2nd floor, or at Everett Lounge to plan." but that is a no-no. :) The restriction of no f2f provides opportunity to be creative with how to most effectively communicate and collaborate without the f2f option.

Week 6 -- Further Reflection on the Google Spreadsheet posts

Did you change anything in the Google spreadsheet? If so, what? Has your view of the schools you chose to research changed from the first week you looked at them? If so, how?

I would have to say that my view of FLVS has changed somewhat from what I picked up in that first week of pouring over the website. Initially, I understood FLVS to be more virtual classroom oriented and less virtual course oriented, but some of the readings, and comments made during discussions have impressed me that it seems to be more the other way around. I also moved placement from "both collaborative/class paced" to the "independent, self-paced" column. This also is primarily due to comments made during the discussions and in articles we have read, where FLVS was mentioned. I can't say my view of Commonwealth Connections Academy (PA)has changed in these subsequent weeks.

TPI Results

Did the results of your TPI fit your image of yourself as a teacher? Do you think the TPI results are different for the same person teaching online and face-to-face?

I found my TPI results interesting. I scored between 31 and 39 in all areas with Apprenticeship (39) and Developmental (37) being the highest and Social Reform (31) and Transmission (33) the lowest. Even though this meant I had one dominant (Apprenticeship) an one recessive (Social Reform) but nothing veered to the extreme high or low in one direction or another.

I am not sure what I think of the results and if it fit my image of myself as a teacher. Years of one-on-one music lesson teaching has always been a side job for me, no matter what else I was teaching (including every elementary grade from Preschool through fifth grade, instrumental music grades 4-12, high school ESL, high school and adult music theory, high school music appreciation, sixth grade Information Literacy, or Library K-6 at some point or another) and that requires teaching of practical skills and preparing students for public performance using those skills so I see a correlation to the dominance in apprenticeship. In my early teaching training I was mentored in a developmental approach and it has deeply impacted my thinking so that score showing up a bit higher also seems to make sense.

My only real internal discrepancies (disagreement between belief, intention, and action) occurred in social reform and transmission. I think I felt the most cautious and conflicted when I answered those questions in the inventory. Regarding social reform, I do feel a caution in using the classroom as a platform for lobbying for some political or social ideology because there is so much room for well-intentioned and misguided energy. There is a degree of subjectivity, and slant even in news reporting. I do agree we need to teach students to think, but to also do their homework and research the facts from all angles. I personally am cautious about jumping on any political or social reform bandwagon. Part of that is because I am old enough to have seen some social movements turn out to be based on incorrect or incomplete information. That no doubt influences my teaching. About transmission also, I felt a little conflicted answering those questions as well, because though I have had many times in my life where I have taught subjects I had a high degree of expertise in, I have also found myself in positions of teaching subjects I was not expert in simply because it was a need (ie. the year I started 8 beginner violinists when I had not spent any time learning the violin myself and had to stay a few lessons ahead of my students all along the way, or becoming an ESL tutor because I had had the experience of living in a foreign culture and trying to learn another language and could identify even though I had no coursework in ESL).

I really would be inclined to think the TPI results for a teacher online and in a traditional classroom would be the same. I think your core image of what is important to good teaching will be transmitted in all your teaching regardless of the environment.

Blog Post for Week 3

How has your thinking about online schools and online schooling changed since the first week?

I am pleasantly surprised to find that the concept of virtual schooling, specifically how to manage virtual schools and what they should be expected to accomplish is getting a fair amount of intelligent consideration. Some of the concerns I had that first week -- that I know to be concerns of others -- are things that are being accounted for in at least some sectors of the virtual school community. One of these is the question of academic integrity. It gives me more confidence to know that there are virtual schools that require some phone contact, and face-to-face contact, through webcam, and/or through random or regular proctored testing. I am glad to read too, that learning styles and effective strategies are being incorporated and there are more options on the K-12 level than just courses where students are reading pages and pages of text and left on their own to understand what they are required to learn with little to no help from an on-line instructor. I appreciate that there are those who are thinking through the process of authorizing virtual schools, and not blindly making decisions apart from the realities of how students learn and what is needed by LEAs and SEAs to be more effective in reaching students who are in need of credit recovery or a school day that doesn't require them to sit in a brick and mortar classroom from 8-3 pm five days a week. I was pleasantly surprised that the needs of students with disabilities are being discussed, and how to make online schooling a viable option for those Special Education students that might want it. I am also pleasantly surprised to consider that the online schooling option allows that a teacher may be able to give more one-to-one attention than in a traditional classroom. From before week 1 I was sold on virtual schooling as having tremendous potential, and the more I learn, the more convinced, yea, enthusiastic I become about it.

Tweet - from a High School student perspective

I want courses on interesting subjects, w/great graphics, easy-to-access-tech support & extra help. Want to learn alot & have fun doing it!

Week 1 Reflection

Ugh! Somehow in my attention to everything else I missed the rather important detail that we were responsible to post a reflection on week 1. I think that may be my one frustration with this -- my inbox gets inundated with various threads of conversation and the subsequent comments for each. In paying attention to so many details I have found that it is all too easy to miss something important, as I managed to do this week. Without the use of much audio as in a traditional classroom, one must rely on their eyes almost entirely to pick up everything necessary to be successful in the course. I imagine that auditory learners might find this format more frustrating than visual learners. In Michelle Davis' article from Education Week I appreciated the list of Dos and Don'ts and can see the importance of using multiple points of entry for materials -- text, video, and audio as well as wikis, blogs, message boards and chat rooms and not sticking to large amounts of text for students to read on their own.

I am actually enjoying the readings immensely. Since I decided to create an online course for my graduate project, I am taking notes with two purposes in mind -- completing assignments and doing research for my project. In response to question #1 - The thing I found most surprising: I had no idea there were so many online school programs out there, and that they have been around for so long (since 1997 for the Florida Virtual School). I find it encouraging that there is a wealth of information and sources for best practices.

It has been interesting to read the blogs created by my classmates and to glean ideas and information from the experience of others. There is so much to be gained from the experience others have had in their use of online courses in the schools where they work. I look forward to tapping this gold mine!

And question #2 -The biggest question I am left with by the end of week 1: with so many options of ways to do online courses, how does one decide what is the most effective format and tools to teach their subject matter to the targeted group of students who will be taking the course? More personally, how am I going to narrow things down to come up with the best format for the course I am seeking to create?

Assignment 1 - Introduction

Hi. I'm Tricia Gleason, an MA Candidate in the Intensive Technology and Education program. My educational background is on the bottom right of the blog page if you are interested to see it. After more than 20 years of working in the fields of music and elementary education, as both an instrumental music teacher (band and strings) and an elementary classroom teacher (PS-6) I came to TC in 2007 to begin the program in CCTE to learn to better integrate technology into my classroom teaching and curriculum development. In the past few years, this has led in a sort of round about way, to work in Library Media, and I currently am the library media specialist at Smithtown Christian School on Long Island, and because of my coursework at TC found myself becoming the unofficial webmaster for my school websites, which are being upgraded. In addition to the website work, my library duties, (and private music lessons, which I teach on the side) I also manage the staff e-mail accounts and work with several others in administrating the facebook and twitter accounts for our school.

• What made [me] interested in this course?

After four years in the program, I am finally nearing the finish line, as this is my last course. My graduate project is to create an online course for high school students that would provide them with experience using options that go beyond their default of using a regular search engine for doing research. Because of that, I am curious as to what is going on the field of online learning for K-12 students, and so this course very much caught my eye. I am looking forward to what we will learn.

• What experience do [I] have with online learning (if any)? Was it positive or negative and why? I have taken two online courses at TC and a few work-related webinars online. My own experience has been mostly positive but a bit mixed. I didn't enjoy my first online graduate course too well; it was a course on GoGoEd.com that was asynchronous and text-based only, consisting entirely of articles and notes that my classmates and I had to read and study at our own pace, which meant we could all be working on different lessons at the same time, and our evaluation was a series of multiple choice quizzes based on the readings. Even though there was a discussion board, and the interaction was often stimulating and allowed for thoughtful response, I found the time-factor frustrating. It took a long time to type a response that could be spoken in a short amount of time. With discussion taking place over the course of a week or a period of weeks, the time lag made it akin to having a discussion where others enter a room at different times and say their piece and then leave and miss the rest of the discussion. The last one to post on the discussion forum got to say his/her piece to an "empty room".

The second on-line course I took was outstanding. We had the option of taking the course synchronously or asynchronously, as there was a regularly scheduled class meeting time. My classmates and I connected remotely from all over the world using Adobe Connect, and saw our instructor and his powerpoint presenting live via webcam. We had the option of using our own webcams too, but generally didn't use them, but we had live audio and could either speak or chime in via chat to ask questions or add to the discussion. There was a feature that allowed for private discussion while the instruction was going on, so those of us who needed technical assistance to fix an audio problem could privately ask the TA for help without interrupting the instructor. There was a way for the instructor to post short polls or surveys and tabulate responses during class time, and even option for breaking the class up into small groups for discussion during class time. If a student couldn't login at the time of the session, the sessions were recorded and we were provided with links that allowed us to view the entire presentation at a later date, including all the chat and discussion that went on during the session. It also meant that even if we attended the session we had the link to listen to the entire presentation again to review or reinforce learning. That particular online learning experience allowed me to see great potentiality for online courses as vehicles to keep students engaged and facilitate depth of learning.