Course Takeaways

I have enjoyed the blended and online instruction course over the past couple of months. It has been difficult at times to find the time to accomplish everything, but I have learned many things that will impact my teaching going forward. I realize now that I too often use substitution or augmentation as a way to implement technology, simply using technology to replace an existing lesson idea. It really challenged my thinking to hear a video in which an educator talked about his daughter learning the piano through youtube videos. I have done the same thing. His point....students don't need teachers to learn information. They can get it more easily through the Internet. Our job is to curate resources for them and create lessons that challenge them to apply their learning. I learned that we need to give students more ownership and choice over their own learning, and that collaboration is critical to learning in a digital environment.

I have discovered some good resources, such as symbaloo, popplet, screencast-o-matic, and bubbl.us (already have used bubbl.us in class and students loved it).

I thought that I was fairly competent in my use of technology in the classroom, but now I realize that I can be doing so much more with my students.

Social Media In the Classroom

Earlier this year, I decided to do some live tweeting during parent teacher conference down time as a way to engage students. I simply made silly remarks about the ins and outs of meeting with parents. Many of my students enjoy following my twitter. I think it's a good way to connect with students. Having said that, I have heard a lot of negative things about how students use social media. I have a Facebook, but don't really use it, and I have never 'friended' a student. Many teachers do, but I feel like they are taking a big risk to charter into those waters.

I would consider using social media in the classroom if I could figure out what kind of educational value it might have. Certainly, a teacher could set up his/her own page as a way for students to keep up to date about what is going on in class. If social media is used just for the sake of collaboration, then I think tools should be used that have a strictly educational purpose. I am not sure that we can get students to shift their focus at this point and use twitter or facebook as a tool in the classroom. Too many potential distractions.

SpicyNodes

In my classrooms, I have students create a lot of webs. For instance, we do one in Personal Finance in which students think of strategies for getting out of debt. I would use the web site, SpicyNodes, in two ways. One thing I would like to do is present notes to students in this format as a way to engage them and give them logical thought patterns for understanding the content. I would also like to have students use the web site to create their own mind maps. I have not used Spicy Nodes, but I will be trying it out in the near future.

SpicyNodes could work great in the business classroom for....

• Creating Business Ideas
• Doing a SWOT analysis
• Analyzing an annual report
• Comparing different types of competition
• Comparing different types of economic systems
• Understanding the insurance process (Application, Policy, Claims)

Online Instruction Course Concepts

I have enjoyed taking the course on Online Instruction. One thing that I feel will be beneficial down the road is the TPACK framework. I teach business, economics, and computer courses at a high school. The interaction of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge is one that I need to be aware of as I begin teaching Web Design next year. It is a good reminder that I need to stay sharp in all of these areas to be an effective teacher.

I also was impacted by a video that discussed giving students Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. So much of the work done in today's classrooms has little meaning outside of the school walls. Giving students autonomy allows them to learn about something they're passionate about. This will help them achieve mastery and give purpose to their education. We would then see more engaged students and higher performance.

When it comes to students using technology, I feel I am usually at the adaptation level. I am able to pull tools into the classroom and gives students the chance to create projects that a designed around maximizing the technology.  I do a better job at infusion of technology when students are collaborating because I feel it is necessary in a group setting to give students more choice and see how they work together with their peers. Peer interactions become limited when teachers give too much instruction to students. Set the stage by giving students a task/problem and then direct them to some tools that might help. Let them figure it out and also learn how to work with others.

One use of technology I should try to do better with is using technology to set goals and self-assess. Students need to be self-assessing, but I am not aware of technology that would make that easier. I created a simple chart that students rank how much they think they know on five concepts per unit. We assess at the beginning of the unit and at the end.

Barriers as they related to Online and Blended Instruction

The implementation of online and blended instruction in schools across America will certainly create some new problems that need to be dealt with, but there will also be many educational barriers that could be overcome through this strategy. One that comes to mind is the issue of time. Many students struggle to find the time to do their homework or attend class on a regular basis. The concept of asynchronous learning gives us an opportunity to create meaningful learning opportunities and assessments that can be done by the student when time allows.

Using blended/online instruction could also help educate students about digital citizenship and how to make good choices on the Internet. Creating a good Acceptable Use Policy would be critical to the success of any school that is using Online instruction.

I think the biggest key to the success of an online course is to create learning objects that can capture the attention of students (prezi, voki, toondoo, etc.) and allow them to engage content in a new way.