Final Questions... for this course at least..

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Date:  13 August 

What five adjectives do you feel best describe your participation in this course? What metaphor might you use to describe yourself as an online learner?  

Interested - I did enjoy the opportunity to read as much as I did in this course.  Writing the annotated bibliography in the middle was a great way to force us to read in preparation for the final research project.  I have a whole lot of material I'd still like to read as time permits..

Hesitant  - even though I enjoyed the class a lot,  I felt like the standard of the comments on the discussion board were high and that made me feel like what I had to post was perhaps less interesting - or maybe the thought that I was the only one really interested in the k12 arena made me hesitate to write exactly what I wanted as I felt a little "off" from the rest of the class.  As I got toward the end of the class, I felt a little more confident but that's also normal for me.  It's takes  while for me to fit the little pictures into one big picture and I often don't get it until the last few weeks of class - that's when the AHA moments start happening. 

Enlightened:  obviously some of the learning theories were already known to me but the review is always good, especially with the input from other students who had completely different perspectives.   Also, there were some new theories that I didn't know about and the concept of 'connectivism" really sent me off on a reading trail.  I'm not sure if that was simply because it was new, or because it really tapped into what I believe about learning and libraries.   Also - I did enjoy the websites you posted in the webliography - I had no idea there were so many learning theories out there and enjoyed reading the summaries.

Inspired:  I ended up being quite active in a few professional discussion boards with AASL and iNACOL while looking for information on librarians in virtual K12 schools.  I'm now in touch with a few other like minded individuals as a result of that search....

Questioning:  When I was growing up - my dad always said that a good course/teacher should inspire more questions than it answered.  I think that this course really made me think deeply about a lot of things and although I did find the answers to some questions, there are so many more things that I now have on my list to read/peruse and ponder.  Perhaps I veered off into my own topic of librarianship and DE at the K12 level - but there really are more questions that I want to read about.  I know now that  I'm not the only one asking the question about librarians at the K12 level in online schools - but I want to know how we're going to get the first librarian and how research can be done that will positively impact the question.  I also barely scratched the surface with the discussion of how to use web 2.0 tools in the online classroom. there are so many ways to use web 2.o tools in the classroom and I'd like to spend more time looking at how to incorporate what we are allowed to use in the online classrooms.  So many things are "banned" in the K12 arena. 

What strength(s) do you feel that you brought to this course?  How/when were those strengths exhibited?

My strengths - I know that I was challenged in this course.   I think perhaps one of my strengths is to imagine how things might be but I need to concentrate more on what is/ has been proven.  With the discussion on Augmented reality - I can really see, if given the opportunity to use it, what a great tool this might be.   I have always seen the usefulness of tools ahead of time.  I had to really fight to be able to set up a wiki 6 years ago and had my hands slapped for setting up a web site for our family support group in 2003 when the guys went off to war.   Now, the Army uses facebook.. what a change.  I always seemed to have "off the wall" questions but I'm not sure if that's a strength, a weakness or if it's just a reflection that my area of interest was so different from everyone else's?

What area(s) of weakness, if any, did you discover in your own learning?

I definitely need to be more organized with my time.  Some weeks, I managed to get to the reading quite quickly but mostly it was the weekend, which is a little late to be adding to the discussion.  I spent a lot of time reading and enjoying it but wasn't as focussed as I could have been - which meant that I ended up doing last minute work. I like to sometimes stick to the way of doing things that works.   I practiced daily writing but not on the computer - I have an old fashioned journal and write for about 10 minutes each day.  Perhaps it's better to do the journal on the computer each week but I find it better to write just as the thoughts come to my brain and then reflect on them at a later date. The reflection isn't a weakness - for me it's a necessity.  It does take longer to do it this way, but I get more out of it.  I also need to learn to write more succinctly.  I'm a very verbal person but it's important to remember that posts need to be kept very short.  It's just hard sometimes to describe what's on my mind. 

Describe one thing that you learned about yourself as an online learner through your participation.

I learned that I really enjoy the discussions when I feel like I have something to contribute.  I don't like having to write something just for the sake of having to write something as I don't want people to think I don't know what I"m talking about.  I'd much rather just read on those weeks.   I do take a long time to read about topics, not as a slow reader but because I inevitably get sidetracked looking up other articles mentioned in the first article.  

Develop a self-improvement plan for the rest of your MDE program.  

Interesting.  When I first decided to take some classes,  I signed up for the 4 class certificate program - and this should be the last of my 4 classes.  I guess it's a good comment on the classes that I am actually going to go for the full MDE, rather than be done with studying.  I do think that the 2nd Master's degree will ultimately be useful, and perhaps more so that the PhD.. which is an interesting twist.  

1.  Develop a plan to have more time for reading.  Even 30 minutes a day would help.  It shouldn't be difficult to set aside 30 minutes of uninterrupted time each day to simply read the "asides" that I tend to get lost in.

2.  Develop a plan to write for at least 30 minutes a day.   I prefer to journal with a pen and paper but that daily note-taking this semester really did help when it came to writing this journal.    Those daily reflections helped to clarify my thoughts. Actually, I had attended a "how to journal"  workshop just a few months ago and had developed the habit of daily journal writing first thing each morning with my coffee and it has really helped to keep my thoughts straight this semester.  I need to expand that from just journaling about general thoughts into a 30 minute journal about the specific courses that I'm taking.  I'm not sure I'll ever journal online -but the concept of keeping a journal in some form is definitely beneficial. 

3.  I'd like to look into Action Research in the online classroom more deeply.  If there really is a lack of research, perhaps I can start where I can.. in my own online classroom.  Developing higher level thinking skills for my students is definitely on my mind as I work on developing a new German curriculum at work. I'm also interested in how we are going to connect museums and online schools. Obviously, field trips for online schools aren't always an option (although some online schools do actually do an annual field trip) but museums can still be part of the online experience.  If our community is spending money on libraries, museums and schools, they should all be fully utilized  and there has to be a way of bringing them together in the virtual world. 

4.  Continue to develop my own professional networks within iNACOL, AASL and Linked in groups.   I found that pushing myself into new professional areas was fun and interesting.  It was good to find out that I'm not the only one interested in the area of DE and librarianship at the K12 level.  

Individualized education

how does f2f and online learning compare?
What about blended learning?
best practices in online learning
conditions

This report is interesting from the librarian point of view.  I was not able to find much research about K12 librarians.  In fact, if anything I found more reports lamenting the lack of research into K12 education.  Even in the AASL forums and the iNACOL forumes on linked in or on their sites, there was little to be found abou the issues of online librarians at the K12 level.   Is this just because there is no specific research on the concept of online librarians for K12?   Most online schools don't employ librarians and since education doesn't really make a decision unless it's based on research, we're hardly likely to move forward in this area. It's not even a topic for most people in online administration.  The answer I got in informal conversations was that most online students were not full time and therefore had access to a school librarian with a collection centered around the general curriculum.
It was interesting to see that the DOE also found that too little research had been done.  Perhaps a report like this will free up some funding and we'll see more research done into K12 online education.

If 43/50 studies showed that online learners did better than f2f, "if they were older"  does that mean that elementary online studies were not done or does it mean that elementary online teaching is not as effective?  Or does it mean that there are simply too few online elementary students to really figure it out?  If students spend more time on task to learn more in the online environment, what does this really mean?  Is the online environment more challenging - and therefore more successful?  Is it that f2f classrooms don't spend enough time on a topic to really require learning?

Online education has been around for a while, and it's growing exponentially. There is definitely room for research into this area.   Traditionally, action research is a way of gathering information from classrooms yet we're not seeing much action research coming out of online schools.   Part of this is simply because teachers at the k12 level are not full time, may teach only one course online in addition to a full time job and do not have the time/energy/resources or the push from administration to get involved in action research.

Studies indicate that "self monitoring of understanding are effective" - reflection works in the f2f classroom as well.  Is this better or more effective in online learning?  This didn't seem to compare it with the f2f efforts at reflection.
The authors do point out that it's possible that what works for older students /adult learners may differ from what works for K12 - which leads us back to the real necessity for more research to be done in this area.

"policy makers will lack scientific evidence of the effectiveness of these emerging alternatives to f2f instruction"   In an industry that is research driven- there's no way that new policies will be emplaced without more research.

As I think about this report - I realize that I can possibly do some action research in my own online classroom..  I'm sure that it's possible. After all, learning about teaching is something that we do each day... and documenting what works and what isn't working is good practice for any classroom.  

The Sloan Survey

This was an interesting week, discussing various things about DE as outlined in the Sloan Survey.

1.  It's obvious that DE is still considered by many to be "not the real thing" when it comes to education.   I wonder why we think that education can only take place in the classroom with a teacher?  Maybe that's the way it was earlier - but just because we had a teacher at school in the 60's didn't mean that was the only place we learned.. We talked with friends, went to the library, discussed assignments etc.   I think a lot of people dismiss DE because they have never really looked at it and it is different to what they grew up with.


Reading this survey brought up some interesting questions for me.  Why do so few institutions require formal training before putting their teachers online?   We require so much training for a k12 teacher, yet the switch to online is on average a 5 week online class.  Certainly, a classroom teacher already has a large background in learning theory etc, but even then, 5 weeks is barely enough time to scratch the surface.   My real question is more about how training for online teachers will look in the future.  There will be an increase in demand for teachers (and hopefully for librarians) as more and more states begin to require online classes at the K12 level as part of the graduation requirements.  So how will they be trained.  There are three possibilities that I see, and it will be interesting to see which one eventually takes over

a.  teachers can become classroom certified and then do a CE class on how to teach online.  This is the current format and, in my opinion, it's not that effective.   Teachers see it as an easy way to make some extra money - it's not a full time job.

b.  Teachers will be required to get an online certification - in the same way that we now get a certificate to teach a specific subject.   So I would train for and get a certification as an online teacher.    This is possible in TX in 2 different ways.  Once you have a certification as a teacher, you can take the test for another subject.  So if you are certified to teach German but you also speak Spanish, you can simply take the exam for the Spanish Certificate.  If you're already a certified classroom teacher, you could study on your own, or with a variety of CE courses and then take the exam and become a certified online teacher. This would then require a certain number of hours of CE every 5 years to maintain the certificate.

c.  When a teacher is in college and training/learning to be a teacher, then they would decide if they wanted to become an online or classroom teacher.  At the moment, they choose whether they want to teach elementary or secondary and their classes revolve around what /where they plan on teaching.  Education schools will eventually offer online certification classes for each level.  After all, elementary level classes online are very different to high school classes.


Hopefully, online teaching will eventually be considered as a full time position - maybe a district position rather than a job with a specific school .  At the moment, many online instructors are contracted by the semester and receive no benefits.  For teachers in the classroom full time, this is seen as a way to make extra money but it's not a good full time job for those that need benefits.

Until there is a chance to be fully employed, not many student teachers would be likely to select an option that would limit them to only online positions.  Of course, school districts also see online learning, paying only for students taking the class as a viable alternative to keep costs down.  After all, why employ a full time teacher for a few students and pay benefits to the teacher?


I'd never thought about what schools plan to do in the event of mass disaster?   H1N1 is (was?) an issue but who knew that schools thought they could simply go online to keep going in the event of a natural catastrophe?  That's hardly helpful for those who would have to use the library computer in a time of massive flu outbreaks...

Student retention:
It's probably a good idea for students to take a challenging online class in high school to break the perception that it's an easy option.  The problem is that without good teacher training, there probably won't be enough good courses to really challenge every high school student if they all took a course or two.

Analytics etc.

July 28th

The Horizon Report

Analytics -what are they and how will they help us teach in the future?

Analyzing data has always been helpful in the classroom.   If all my students get a test question wrong, that's a clear indicator that I need to reteach.  If one or two students get it wrong, then I can work with those students to approach the topic from a different angle.  Using classroom data clearly can direct the teaching that takes place.  However, the analytics that are possible today go far beyond the basics that I have used in the classroom to this point.

How far can we go with analytics is obviously not the right question.  It is unfortunate that we now have the ability to collect all sorts of information on what students are doing.  The right question is more about whether or not we should even think about using the information that it is possible to collect.
However, when I think about the way retailers such as amazon/google gather information about my habits, and then suggest new books/products  that I might not otherwise have come across, I can see a tantalizing possibility out there.  If we could suggest books and possible articles to students, based on what they are reading at the moment, is that helpful?  Or is it  unethical?   Or maybe it's just plain annoying to the student.  I have to admit that I like amazon when it suggests books during a book search, but find it irritating that they send me e-mail suggestions based on books that I have purchased...

I wonder if librarians could come up with some way of saying ""if you enjoyed articles by this author, you should try reading  author XXX.  Would that reduce the frustration level of students actively seeking more information?  But is that really different to the bibliography at the end of an article. Doesn't that point stuents in the right direction (as do the subject guides, to a certain extent).  Maybe it's not quite as effective as a personalized approach based on what you just looked at, but it is still an effective way of guiding students to appropriate info and it keeps their searching skills in practice. After all, if you're continuously offered  information that's relevant, you'll stop looking on your own. Sometimes the search is part of the educational journey.   Whatever we feel, there should still be some privacy about our reading and study habits.

Augmented reality - Will this really be possible in the future for our students?  Some of the things in the Horizon report were really amazing.  I think that this type of technology will open up a lot of doors for students.  I love the concept of being able to "experience" something as if you were really there.   The one possibility of being able to look at a city such as Sydney, the way it was 100 years ago by simply using an app on your smartphone is amazing.   As usual, the librarian's take is on how to make sure that type of info is available to everyone, and not just those who are rich.

If we currently have libraries as public "information stores"  whether that information is available digitally or in print, and we have museums that store artefacts and items from the past - where will this type of information belong?  Seeing a city as it was 100 years ago in digital format brings together libraries and museums in a way that is new, and if we can use this type of augmented reality (AR) to make information available in schools but also to the general public, it would be wonderful.  It's almost a shame to have something that is obviously going to be costly available to students during the school day but not have it be used during the evening or weekends.  Surely something like this could be made available to the schools during the day, but also be available to the public on weekends/evenings.    For some reason, the concept of bringing together museums, libraries and online learning is in my brain. As a community, we spend a lot of money on libraries and museums and also on schools - can we make better financial decisions about expensive software - things like Augmented Reality by having a center for Augmented Reality that could be used all day, rather than just  a portion of the day by school members?
http://www.howstuffworks.com/augmented-reality.htm   This is a link to a really interesting explanatory website.  I don't always understand how things work, but this was a good explanation.  If we spend money on this type of thing for online or offline learners - it should be made accessible to everyone rather than just one group of students.

http://augmentedrealityevent.com/  It seems like there's a convention out there for just about anything.  This would have been interesting to attend but this is definitely going to be big business in the future.... of course, that means it's not going to be inexpensive... which brings me back to my original concerns.

Games:  Games have always been popular and certainly can be educational.  Will we begin to use games more in the classroom as technology develops?   I think the potential is there but using games in the online asynchronous classroom might be difficult unless assigned as a homework or extra curricular activity.  I also think that cost will play a role.   It's not inexpensive to create a full graphic game and site licenses for a University might be prohibitive.  On the other hand, we have some very creative app designers out there and some apps are incredibly useful learning tools and are free or less than $5 - affordable for most students.  This is a form of gaming that's already here, familiar to most students and affordable.



The Horizon Report - I had no idea this existed but went back and looked at a copy from a different year.  It will be interesting to go and read them all and see how close they were with their predictions...

More about best practices in the online classroom.

Notes from July 23

Best Practices and the big picture.


First - feedback - what is this and why is it so necessary in the online classroom?

Feedback can be in the form of a grade but it's not really helpful to most students.  At the k12 level,  it's more important to use feedback to guide the student - and to help them understand exactly what they can do to improve.  This means some form of written feedback is necessary, and obviously the feedback needs to be given frequently, so that the student can use it to improve.  Simply assigning a grade at the end of the class isn't helpful.

We're reading that feedback is necessary...  but how, and in what form.  In the f2f classroom, a smile or a nod when a student is on the right track is good enough in many cases.  In the DE classroom, feedback is going to be written.  It could be in the form of a quick message, an e-mail or simply a written comment on a graded paper.  It doesn't have to be lengthy, but it does have to be honest and it does have to be timely.

And back to lurking and promoting collaboration/

If a student lurks, there is probably a reason for it.  If it's because the student doesn't feel comfortable with other students because of lack of knowledge of the topic, then the interaction between the student and the technology and the student and the instructor is also important.  Getting the student to understand the material so that they feel comfortable contributing to the discussion can be achieved via good student to content interaction.

Support
One thing that I'm learning more about (and hadn't really considered prior to this) is the necessity for student support at the classroom and the institutional level.

Making sure that students have access to something like a library class or a writing center is obviously very important for every student. So this shouldn't necessarily be something that a teacher takes care of, but something that the institution provides.  The teacher can play a role in this by ensuring that the students are aware not only of the fact that these things exist, but sharing what they can do for the student.   Encouraging students to seek answers, but making sure the links are there for them to find the answers is a good solution. It's very easy at the k12 level to try and do everything for the student, but if they will need to be more independent at college, then it's good to start developing those skills in high school.  Perhaps, creating a webliography of useful links with a quick description of what will be found there (an annotated webliography) or use of a diigo/delicious social bookmarking site will encourage students to go hunt out the answers rather than simply giving them a link.  An FAQ page is also a good idea for immediate classroom support.

Learning outcomes

A basic even in the f2f classroom is to state the course goal/learning objective.  I think that a good instructor is always going to refer back constantly to the objective throughout the course.   It's easy to get lost in the minutiae of the conferences and readings,  so it's important to come back to the reason for the readings every now and again.  

http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/principles-of-effective-online-teaching-best-practices-in-distance-education/

As I was browsing, this is one of the better sites I came across.  I liked the list format.  It made so much sense after the reading we have done.  #1 - show up and teach was interesting as there does seem to be a lot  of people out there who think that there is no teacher in the online classroom, or that the teacher is somehow less important.  The more I read, the more I realize that the only thing that's missing in the online classroom is the walls - everything else is delivered in a different format but it is still there.  The teacher is the most important (along with the curriculum designer if it's someone different)  but the discussion and the working together towards a solution along with the desperate need for feedback is really not that much different to the online classroom.
I also liked #7 - Help maintain forward progress.  I think that it is the role of the teacher to keep the ball rolling.  Not only do we have to have good lesson plans in place, we have to be present and make sure that we prod the students when necessary to keep them moving in the right direction.

How to create a sense of community?

Week f July 10-16

What is a community?   How can we promote it?  Should we worry about it?

For me, a community in this sense is a group of people that work together to learn. Wilson defines a community as a group that has made a commitment to a certain class, that has a common goal in learning.

 In a f2f classroom, creating a sense of community may be quite easy, although not as intuitive as one might think. The students are there and can see each other as well as be seen by the teacher.  Creating a group may be as easy as moving a few desks and then observing the interaction, intervening as necessary.   In an online classroom, it's obviously more difficult.  The first problem is that students are not all there at the same time.   Even if you have a synchronous classroom or instant messaging, it may not be used.  This is another aspect of having the technology available to do a job, but if it's not well thought out, then it won't be used appropriately.  Simply giving students access to a wiki won't mean that you'll end up with a creative wiki.  It may mean you'll end up with a bunch of confused students unless you give instructions on how to use the wiki and clear expectations of what  is expected to be in there.  Scaffolding for technological competence is just as important as scaffolding for content.
You can monitor discussion or wiki creation to see that work is being done - but community seems to be more than just posting responses to a discussion board or contributing to a wiki.   Even if everyone posts something, then it doesn't mean that there is a community -there's a level of communication that shows interaction in a community.  You could have 30 students all post a response, and those responses may be relevant to each student's learning but if there's no give and take in the responses, there's no sense of community.

Is being part of a community vital for all students?  Does the fact that some students don't feel like they are part of a community prevent them from learning?   For some people, not being part of a group may be more desirable and being able to work alone may seem preferable.  If the instructor believes that it is beneficial for students to be part of a group, then it's the instructors responsibility to address the issue in such a way that the student understands the benefits of group work.  This can be tough as many students may already have a poor impression of group work after unsuccessful experiences.   However, just giving a student a grade and requiring the work will not promote the benefit of group work for all students.

If students who feel isolated tend not to finish the course as a result of feeling isolated, that's obviously a problem. Being part of a group where one students feels as if they are the only ones working is also disheartening and can be discouraging.   So how do you resolve the issue of group work, yet still help students feel like they are part of a learning community?


Given that creating a sense of community among students does seem to be important in helping the students feel connected and in improving the learning, then how can an instructor or designer affect that?  If group grading is an issue, and it does often seem to the the grading that's  the issue, not the working together, then how do you resolve that?

1.  If the discussion board is going to be part of the grading system, and it normally is, then a really good question has to be the basis.  If the question promotes thinking, then the students are more likely to respond and that's how the discussion can start.  If it's a poorly thought out question, students will either respond with a rote answer or not at all.  Monica pointed out in the DB this week that each students insight into the issue will bring forth a different side of the conversation which will ultimately benefit all students who  read the discussion posts.  This is exactly why a good question, especially in an online higher education class is so important.  Students at the college level all have a wide variety of work experiences and/or life experiences that will come out in a discussion once it's ongoingThe instructor is integral to success in this aspect of creating a community.

2. Group formation.  It's probably a good idea to have students write a group "mission statement" so that everyone knows exactly what is expected of them and they have committed to it.  Create small enough groups to allow for more personal interaction.  Having a really large group can be intimidating for many students.

3.  Encourage group interaction but grade individual projects.  How can this be done?  One possibility could be to have students work on a wiki or group document/presentation that will then form the basis of their study notes in preparation for a final exam.  If they work well, they'll have good study notes that they will probably not need as much if they worked on it.  If they don't actively participate in the group work, they will still have good study notes but will have to apply themselves to studying alone if they are to do well in a final exam.
4.  If you're going to use a wiki, a blog or a journal  or some other unfamiliar web 2.0 tool,  the student should understand clearly what is expected. A clear rubric is obviously necessary but additional instruction on how to work in a wiki may be necessary before the project gets underway.

Note
One of the things required at the k12 level (at least where I teach) is a 3 day orientation to the classroom.  This involves teaching students how to send a message, use instant messaging and completing an online  scavenger hunt to find answers from the various tutorials etc.  Each day has a checklist of activities to be completed and there is a grade for each day.   The result is that when students sit down to do content work, they are already familiar with the classroom and where to find various items such as how to create a voice board for the speaking assignments.   Creating a pre-week of orientation activities for those who want them might be a good idea.  Most students can access the online classroom during the week prior to the class.  For some students, a class may be their first online experience; for others it may not be.  The pre-week would be a good week for the teacher to get to know who is in an online class for the first time.   We've already learned that where the student starts, as far as content, is a necessary piece of information for the instructor so that material can be scaffolded.  In fact, our readings have shown us that this is perhaps more important even than the way the material is presented.   Perhaps we also need to look at where the student is starting as far as the online experience, rather than just the content.  An orientation module could be easily prepared for all classes and then inserted into pre-week automatically.  At the college level, it need not be for a grade, but just be available for new students, or students who are transferring in from other colleges but may not be familiar with web tycho.  If left available, it may also be a great resource for students who realize that they don't know how to do something and need a refresher.  The UMUC library does have some great tutorials, but perhaps a few well placed links in the webliography to tutorials on how to do APA citations etc will point students in the right direction as they find that they need the information.  Just in time tutorials can be very helpful but the key is pointing the student in the right direction at the right time.

An awareness that they are obviously not the only student who needs a quick review of something prior to starting a task should also help to reduce the sense of being the only one who needs something.  Having a list of  "how to" tutorials can really help the students feel more like they can help themselves when they need to, but not waste their time if they don't need it.

The role of the instructor in building community and social presence is important.  Students, especially at the K12 level will probably not guide themselves to where they need to be.  Teachers have to create interesting, well structured assignments that will promote real conversation, not just rote responses.    

One of the things that caught my attention in this week's reading


Learning communities can serve as a bridge between school and work environments 

My first thought here was that this was applicable to adult learners who work and go to school at the same time.  However, I then realized that it could be also applicable to high school students but in a slightly different way.  Of course, the  community in a high school doesn't generally work - but that doesn't mean that you can't invite guest speakers who do work full time to become part of the community for a day or a week of the course.  Its important for K12 students to be aware of the businesses in the communities around them and sometimes it might be possible to bridge the gap  by incorporating a guest speaker each week.


http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB7102d.pdf

This was also an interesting book/chapter on facilitating community. Although she's not writing about DE specifically, there are many similarities to our class reading.  The importance of community in education is not just important in DE but we do have to look at it differently to achieve the same goals.

Best Practices

Week of  3-9 July

Best Practices in Online teaching

Interesting question:  What does the excellent online instructor look like?  And perhaps more importantly, are the best practices for K12 different than best practices for college?  After all, high school students have no choice about being in the classroom so engaging the student is vital.  At least in higher education, the student has probably selected the course (although in all fairness, this may not be the case for general studies courses which are required.)

how can a teacher help the student to interact with one another?  how does a good teacher facilitate or ensure student to student communication.


So - a good instructor will (as outlined in the conference of week 6)

should provide clear guidelines for interaction with students; provide well-designed discussion assignments to promote cooperation among students; encourage students to present course projects to one another; provide prompt feedback of two types–information and acknowledgement; provide assignment deadlines; provide challenging tasks, sample cases, and praise for high-quality work to reinforce high expectations;allow students to choose project topics.

What does an instructor do to help students learn in an asynchronous discussion?  How does a teacher promote social presence as outlined in the COI framework and how does good design of a class promote social interaction?  Is that social interaction necessary for learning for all students.

Synchronous tools - wimba -

This can be an important tool for the K12 classroom, but seems to be used less frequently in graduate school.  I've had a few classes with live classroom sessions but they are never mandatory - although I always try to attend.  Mandating attendance doesn't make sense for online students.  Often, they are online because their schedule doesn't allow them to attend class at regular times. K12 students take online classes during the school day and may have a specific time assigned to do their online work.  Most students go to a lab and do their online classes under the supervision of a specific teacher.  Schools have to know where students are throughout the day.   Even if the students appreciated the concept of a synchronous class, it's unlikely they'd be able to attend at the same time. Of course, evening classes could be offered but again, it's difficult to decide at what time.  Class during dinnertime probably wouldn't be well attended.  Students may not even have access to a computer at home.

Asynchronous tools 
the Discussion board - most online classes tend to revolve around the discussion board as a means of student to student communication.   The big question with the discussion board is obviously how to get k12 students to do more than a simple post... this is one area that the teacher can make a huge difference.  The question is the key - something that provokes thinking.   This is not an easy thing, although probably easier for some topics than others.  

One idea - keep the discussion groups small.

I liked the article that Kathy posted

Conrad, Dianne. (2002) Inhibition, integrity and etiquette among online learner: The art of niceness

Teaching students about netiquette can make the discussion board a nicer, gentler place to be.  I think that ensuring that students feel safe to post their thoughts in a thoughtful manner without worrying about being laughed at is important, perhaps more so for the K12 learners.  Teaching netiquette as part  of the orientation week is a good idea.   Students who don't feel safe writing their comments won't write comments and that will destroy any sense of  community.
 

Lets discuss Lurking.  Should we be worried by students who read but don't respond?  How do instructors know when to intervene.  Sometimes a quick e-mail to a high school student is enough to prod the student into explaining why they are not completing assignments or to get them into gear so that they do the assignments.   I think experience helps with this question but there are some common sense ideas.  If a student does nothing in the first week, then a check that they understand what needs to be done makes sense.  If a student routinely does the work but misses a week, it may not be concern for a grade, but it makes sense to follow up.   In this respect, the K12 schools have a built -in advantage.  Each student is normally assigned an onsite liaison, or in the event that the student is a full time online student, then there is normally a parent who works with and takes responsibility for the student.   This is very different to the college level, but makes "lurking" less of an issue.  I personally feel that lurking is an unfortunate term as it sounds negative.  I learn by reading and  we know that many students learn by communicating with others.  Why, then, is it negative to listen to the conversation even if you don't  have anything to add at that moment in time?  



AHA moment - I read about the concept of putting students into a small group during the beginning week to promote discussion..It's less intimidating, especially for new students.   I like this idea and will add it to my classes..   K12 students rarely want to discuss.. and perhaps the size of the group will make a difference.

More reading to do this week - see if I can find anything about cohorts of students and the development of community as they have more and more classes with one another.  If community is important - is it better to be part of a cohort that goes through school together online in the same way that we do with regular f2f high school classes.  As an aside as a parent of a military child who changed schools more times than most (8 schools in 12 years) then is it important to feel like part of a community for just the course, or for the whole school experience.