Educ 5414

Today we had Al Barnicle come into class and tell us about his experience as an online educator. He was a perfect fit because just yesterday we discussed some behavioral theories involving stimuli, the multiple intelligences, Bloom’s taxonomy and the world becoming “flat� (Friedman, 2007), which we tried to connect with online education. Viewing the online instruction software I instantly noticed that there are major differences in how students learn online. Live instructions, when the teacher was actually talking and showing the students new material in real time, were done in a chat room setting with a window for a PowerPoint or live desktop of the teacher. The students could watch Al’s presentation and give their status in the form of thumbs up or down to tell him how they were doing.

One of the first things that came into my mind was that the process of students learning and communicating in this online setting was just like Friedman’s story of India’s massive outsourcing center. Chatting online while using PowerPoint and other interactive lessons to keep the students involved, Al could have easily been a teacher in India. The class field trips are probably the only thing standing in the way of an outsourced teacher. I was also worried that students would not get the opportunity to learn from each other (which is one major way students can learn according to Vygotsky), but Al proved that groups could communicate on projects well using blogs and live chat. I still believe that students in this online school will not develop socially the same as students in a more traditionally school. There are some experiences I could have lived without having in traditional school, as Al also shared was the case with him as well, but I also believe that other experiences helped me develop strong interpersonal skills that I could not achieve in an online environment.

Our class had an incredible amount of questions for Al, as online learning was new to many of us, and somewhat controversial. My main questions for him were:
What technology do you use?
How do you ensure students are doing their own work?
How do you manage attendance?

Al responded by telling us that his classroom uses mostly computers paired with the online software to educate these students. He also occasionally calls the students’ parents at home to let them know how the student is doing. This technology and way of delivery is cutting edge and a great opportunity for students, but provoked me to ask him about the balance of curriculum. Al informed me that students could not take band or many other electives, and that for physical education students only had to log hours of exercise. In my opinion it is nice to teach students to work out individually as I didn’t get much of that in traditional PE, but these kids aren’t learning traditional American sports. Granted they could join a community or church team if they want to learn, but these sports are a major part of American culture and a great social environment for them to make friends.

To solve the question if a student is really performing their own work he may call them to ask them about recent material, or even in extreme cases make a home visit. His answer to attendance was that it was automatic with logins and completion of material. If a student is inactive for too long they are asked to leave. He made the comment that if a student doesn’t like to attend a normal school and has issues with attendance then they most likely will still have issues with the online education.

I really feel like I could write an endless blog about this, but I’d rather just give my recommendations and go to sleep! My major recommendation would be that traditional schools and online schools merge more together. If I had a child I would want them to have experiences from both environments. I believe for an online education to be more beneficial that more in person interaction would be necessary. On the same note traditional schools could learn from this online model to educate students with the proper aid of technology. The experiences that students would gain from this learning environment would help them in our flattening world.