Week 3 - AHA moments

Interesting week of reading - and a lot of new material to grasp.  The concept of multiple intelligences has always intrigued me, and of course, the concept of learning styles made sense - and I accepted it without much thinking. Of course, we should present the material in a way that makes it easy for the student to grasp.  After all, our goal is for them to learn the material.    So, when presented with an alternative way of looking at this I needed time to reflect. Mayes' concept that it is more important to ensure the fit of the material with what the student already knows and then giving frequent feedback that is conducive to learning,  I do know that scaffolding is vital in the ESL class where the student may very well understand the concept but not have the language to share what he knows.  I also knew that in the language classroom at least, we should push the student to learn by giving them information that is just beyond what they already know so that they have to struggle a little, but not too much. Krashen's theories of i +1 make intuitive sense.  When I read a student's comments on the discussion board that her learning style varied - it suddenly clicked.  Her learning style wasn't varying - her need for additional feedback in the form of discussion and being shown the information multiple times was a manifestation of her lack of pre-existing knowledge. And then, what Mayes and Gabriel were saying made so much more sense.  A brilliantly designed lesson plan with multi media clips and engaging activities about calculus just won't make any sense to a 3rd grader struggling to grasp the concept of multiplication.   So how a student learns is less relevant than the level at which the material is presented to the student.  Mismatching - or using a style that is not specifically comfortable to the student might not be desirable all the time - but it might force the student to have to think about the material in a way that ensures his grasping the concept.

So- the big question in my mind as we leave this week (and this module) is how to incorporate an assessment of the K12 student's existing knowledge into the online classroom prior to the start of the class.  If the teacher is designing the lesson plan, that may be relatively easy.  If a team is designing a module that will be subsequently used over a period of years by multiple instructors, that may not be quite as easy.

Some suggestions that I'll be thinking about

KWL chart - Have the student share what they know, what they want to know and then, at the end what they learned.  (I'd also use Buzzeo's (2002) additional column on this.  Where I learned the information.  This would force the student to keep track of websites/books/page numbers etc - and allow the instructor to also assess research skills.  This exercise would allow the teacher to see where each student is starting from, but also give global learners a framework of reference for the whole semester.

Buzzeo, T. (2002) Collaborating to Meet Standards:  Teacher/Librarian partnerships for 7-12.  Linworth OH.   

Discussion Questions:  A well written discussion question could potentially allow students to share what they already know about the topic, allowing the teacher to guide/add/supplement as needed before going into the predesigned learning modules. This would encourage the building of a community of inquiry.

Journal:  Having the students fill out a weekly, private journal allows students to reflect on what they are learning and gives the instructor the opportunity to share.  This allows both assessment on the part of the teacher and the opportunity for feedback as well as reflective opportunities for those students who need this.

Mind Map:  Using bubbl.us or some other free concept mapping software, have the student create a mind map to show what they know and the connections or understanding.

Have the student create the outline for a website instead of a KWL chart.   The website could then be rounded out as the semester went by, with the final product being part of an ongoing digital portfolio.

The most difficult thing about assessment within a pre-designed online module is how to adapt when necessary.  High school students often come to a classroom with widely differing capabilities and understanding of the topic at hand so the well trained online instructor would have to be able to use the tools offered by the classroom and still have the flexibility to change up as necessary for advanced students or for those that require more pre-instruction or tutoring.

That then brings up the question of student support.  If tutoring is necessary - how will that be provided?  Who will decide when student tutoring is necessary - and how will the instructor and the tutor work together to assess the student's progress?  Or will they be one and the same person?   If scaffolding to existing knowledge is vital, then so is support for the student who is struggling..   Yet one more area to explore in the coming weeks.

End of week 2

As is usual in any class, there's been a lot of reading and wrapping my brain around new ideas as well as dusting off some old knowledge.

Teaching and Learning Online. 

Since I am in the middle of  a 5 week introduction to online teaching class for new, about to be, online teachers, this is a great time to be reflecting on the established educational philosophies and re-vamping my own personal philosophy towards online education as opposed to the regular classroom.  In addition to teaching a course that was designed by someone else, I'm  also playing the role of student, thinking about best practices for designing an online class.   At the same time, I'm  designing the German curriculum for the virtual high school, realizing that it truly is an opportunity to make a difference for the students.  My goal for that course is to create an atmosphere that is conducive and motivating to learning for all students. 

Reviewing educational philosophies.  Behavioral, Cognitive, Constructivist.  I was familiar with these three theories, but the Connectivist theory was new to me, although it made perfect sense when I began reading about it.  One of my goals during this course is to explore this theory more.   

Guiding question:  What is the point of a theory/philosophy in any teaching situation?

Answers:  As a teacher, I believe that it's important to be aware that we all learn differently, depending on learning styles and experience.  An awareness of how students learn can,and should dictate, at least to a certain extent, how the classroom experience is planned.  It is also important to understand that all teachers bring their own learning styles and preferences into the classroom.  Their philosophy of learning, whether clearly understood by the teacher or not, tends to dominate the lesson planning.   A good teacher in any circumstances should be able to reach all students.

AHA moment:  Learner centered is not learning centred  (Anderson)Oh how true.  We cannot keep everybody happy and people have to take a certain amount of responsibility for their own learning, no matter what we do.  Ensuring that the courses is set up in such a way that learning can take place is not the same as ensuring that everyone learns the same thing.  We all come with different backgrounds, different learning styles and different needs.