Final Blog Post- Virtual Schooling and 21f

Online Learning is something that as we see in Michigan and everywhere is essential for students. As we see in Michigan it is something that is mandated. From, the research that I’ve learned I believe online learning is certainly beneficial for students.

Though the framework of 21f is rather complex; it seems that me that they are setting the students up to achieve and learn in greater depths through the use of online learning. Online learning gives students the option to be self-sufficient and to learn within their own pace. They have a guided instructor’s to help them entirely throughout the process. So online learning is certainly best geared toward meeting the demands of the student, for that purpose.

·         Scenario 1-If a student is residing within a rural area, being able to utilize online learning might save them time while enhancing their learning capacity. Many times, in certain Districts they have a set standard practice with regard to the classes that students can take. So being able to have the functionality of online learning is superior in this case.

·         Scenario 2- In this case if the student has an overbearing parent and who would like to enroll their son into an online classroom, it would be helping the student.  The purpose of a having a good teacher-student ratio is helping to provide the student with the best possible outcome in any given equation. So within this situation, is ensuring that we aren’t setting the student up for more failures. It seems in this case, having the practicality of online learning would be the best possible solution.

Though, I am not currently teaching. As I’ve mentioned in my earlier posts. I am very supportive of online learning or e learning as some might call it. It’s useful within any situation; because of the fact that it is always accessible.

Virtual Schooling Blog Post 2

To begin, I was absolutely aware that the emergence of online learning was becoming more & more substantial; however I was not aware of this. According to the National American Council of Online Learning, on the “Top Ten Myths About Virtual Schools,” I was shocked to find out the following: “There are more than 500,000 enrollments in online courses across the U.S, in schools and districts, meeting rigorous state academic standards as virtual schools provide courses to students inside schools.”

I would've never begun to even fathom these numbers. Per more research, (and as Gwen also mentioned on her own blog), I was also unaware that Michigan was the first state in the nation to pass an online learning provision. This was enacted when Former Michigan Governor, Jennifer Graholm was in office.

So, while I mentioned earlier that it was “more increasingly” schools in my state were utilizing methods of online learning. I had no idea that it was a requirement and that Michigan was actually the first state to enact this.

Another myth that I was intrigued to learn more about was “Myth 3” that Online courses lack interaction. It was really interesting to find the following:

Truth: Students typically have more one-on-one interactions with their teachers and fellow students in online courses, especially when team projects are assigned. Teachers report getting to know their students better, and students who are shy or do not think well “on their feet” tend to contribute more in online environments. Students are often actively interacting with both resources and others in online environments.

It is so profound to see Michigan leading such a national approach of online learning. Now, many other states have followed suit. According to Education Week in an article entitled “States Take Legislative Actions to Expand Virtual Ed.” Online and blended learning opportunities exist for at least some students in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the 2011 edition of "Keeping Pace With K-12 Online Learning."

Virtual Schooling Blog Post 1

Currently there is a big shift for virtual learning into the classroom, in my particular school region students do more primary focus of online learning. In fact, the school in which my very own niece attends in my district has somewhat done away with typical methods of learning, (i.e. textbooks) & supplemented that with online learning. This is in primarily in the high school learning environment. Side note: I was even more surprised to find out that they were eliminating paper report cards and utilizing the school’s online website for more traditional grading.

What motivates students to take these courses? Students are motivated to take these courses online by having easy access to these resources; it also allows them to fulfill their educational goals. It also allows them to take advance courses which they can essentially count toward college. Further, it attracts colleges and can count as a higher grading scale when calculating student admissions status.

Where is this done? Students utilize online learning after school as well as may work during the allotted “classroom” period. Additionally, they can also compile this with their primary coursework, so it can be supplemental as well.

How is this done? Reading materials are provided online. As well as the online version of textbooks, spread sheets. Again, as I mentioned earlier the school is more increasingly utilizing online methods for more in-depth learning taught online.

Wikipedia & YouTube

From a personal standpoint I have never viewed Wikipedia as being a reliable source of information because of the fact that the information gathered can be changed from seemingly anyone on the web. Coming from high school into college my teachers and professors would forbid me to use this site as a relative appropriate source of information.

With that sticking principle, I’ve always learned to never rely on anything from Wikipedia for educational purposes.  On a personal level, I absolutely love Wikipedia and YouTube. I think these sites are more practical approaches for obtaining a quick source of information at times.

Many times the information that is gained from these popular websites in is fact truthful of some sort, but you must always use caution.

 

More increasingly, it seems that these sites are the “go to” places for many people.

In this day and age, I would say that I might allow my students to use this site interchangeably with another. Meaning, I wouldn’t allow them to obtain information from Wikipedia and YouTube wholly. However, I would allow them to draw information from these sites to an extent. So, if my students found information they thought was useful or suitable to the learning environment, I would ask them to prove these facts by relying on notable fact-finding sites to obtain greater depths of information. More specifically: news sites .org sites and any other .edu sites.

Blogs & Twitter

The three blogs that I have selected are as follows: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/, http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/ as well as http://theorganizedclassroomblog.com. These three blogs are truly monumental when it comes to exploring the many benefits of how to properly educate your students. They all hold really insightful sources of information.

Blogs

1.  Lisa Nielsen’s “The Innovative Educator “is a blog that seemingly explores and lists effective learning strategies on teaching students the aspects of using social media. More succinctly, it talks about how to implement social media into the classroom. I thought that this blog sort of mirrored what we talked about earlier in the semester about adults getting on board with social media, and more specifically teaching the educators proper ways to use the technology.

2. I also chose the MindShift blog http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift because it adapts fun ways on how to teach students to learn strategies like math, reading and other subjects.  For instance, one of their most recent blogs talked about how guessing games helps students to solve math problems.  I thought to myself…what a unique way of learning. Check out more on that post here: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/02/how-guessing-games-help-kids-solve-math-problems/

3. The Organized Classroom is an interactive blog where educators gather to share their classroom experiences, and how to make the classroom environment stronger. They list things from Assessing Student Understanding, to Promoting Questions in the Classroom, and Ideas on How to Use a Math Menu.  If you wondering what a “Math Menu” is here is what the blog list as their definition: “It’s a list of choices that students can choose from when they finish their work. (A “menu” of math games and activities.) http://theorganizedclassroomblog.com

Twitter

@ justintarte – Dr. Justin Tarte is a Director of Curriculum & Support Services

@ Randi Weingarten - American Federation of Teachers president

@ drvickip Vicki Phillips - Former teacher, superintendent, secretary of education, and now Director of Education - College Ready at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Wendy Young,LMSW,BCD

@ Kidlutions

Child & Family Therapist/MH consultant. Helping parents, teachers and administrators. Founder of http://kidlutions.com . Co-author of Bloom.

Steve Mesler 

@ SteveMesler

President & CEO @ClassroomChamps, TED-Ed Educator, Speaker, 3xOlympian & Gold Medalist, writer, Gator. #Calgary http://classroomchampions.org  http://about.me/stevemesler

Reflection

This semester definitely getting more acclimated to blogging and the RSS reader has been what I’ve been working on. I did explore Twitter for a brief period of time but then I digressed on my usage. So, now it’s really interesting to immerse myself back onto the platform. Besides Twitter, blogging has been extremely helpful in correlating information that we talk about here on our personal blogs and learning about even suitable information on outside forums and blogs.