Changes in attitudes towards online schools

Reviewing your previous blog posts, what, if anything, has changed in your attitude toward online schools and online schooling over the past 15 weeks?

Going into this course, I did not have too many preconceived notions about online leaning for K-12.  I can't say my attitude towards online schooling has changed too much, but I was surprised or at least intrigued by the following:

That online learning is so prevalant is some places (especially FL) while not being as common place in other geographic reasons.

The role of for profit institutions regarding online learning

The need for research and/or modifications to make K-12 online learning effective. 

I think there is a lot of thinking/planning that needs to go into finding a blended role to introduce online learning to a new generation.  This is a very interesting topic that I want to pay close attention to as an educator.

Researching Credit Recovery Difficulties

What was the most difficult aspect of researching this topic?

Credit recovery seems like such a hot button issue to me right now.  I was surprised that I could not find many journal articles or more reflections and insights from academia.  Perhaps it was my searching skills but I could not find many studies or articles that looked at the success or value of credit recovery through a more critical lens.  I was also surprised to not find many specific articles about Algebra I or math credit recovery.

It was interesting to see some general articles about the genesis and development of credit recovery programs.  The jury is still out, but it will be interesting to see how this issue develops in the near future as schools implement these programs to increase graduation rates and provides students a greater variety of learning opportinities.

Researching Online Programs_New Thoughts About Virtual Schools

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

My attention to the subject matter this week slowly drifted away from the challenges of researching online programs to really the more interesting philisophical question of "re"searching something that is relatively new by definition.  We always want to compare new programs to existing programs (in this case online to f2f) but online learning is inherently a paradigm shift.  It shouldn't look like a f2f program.

We need to be creative in how we even define what quality looks like.  I think we do need to go back to some normed ideas of assessment scores and more commonly use measurement tools.  However, I think learning should be more interesting and deep.  I think with more types and modes of media and communication it can definitely be more interesting and collaborative.

However, I have to be honest that the whole movement, not just online education, but towards virtual interaction concerns me deeply.  We talk from an education standpoint about the importance of inflection, timing and being able to think on your feet as an educator.  If the paradigm shifts too far to favor "asynchronous" and instantaneus by brief modes of communication and learning thinking we kind of lose a human quality education and just in general.

New thoughts on Virtual Schools

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

I was encouraged after reading some of the research studies regarding virtual Algebra I classes that some key pieces that I consider important are being implemented in virtual courses.  I read some great attitudinal data about students feeling more confident about using technology  in general.  Excited to use the graphing calculator as part of their course work and having student to student interaction regarding authentic math applications (the Dwyer study reported that the students in online courses reported a higher amount of positive experinces working with other students on real-world problems compared to the f2f comparison group.

I have recently been back on a graphing calculator kick in my classroom and love tying the learning of concepts into the modes of learning:  Algebraic, graphical, numerical, and verbal.  I could really see a well-crafted virtual course taking advantage of these "views" or points of entry and having student work together with actual data graphs, etc.

I also feel more adamant about the movement of the common core standards in mathematics being such a high priority and that it should be treated with an even greater sense of urgency.

Regarding the research studies, it is clear that it is hard to compare virtual to f2f but in reality, it is even hard to compare any courses district to district, state to state, etc. because there so many different curricula.

The end measurable pieces should be easier to set in stone (at least for math) and then we can use data to figure out how student best arrive at that goal.  I am not saying that simple standardized tests are the only measure of deep math knowledge, but they are a very relevant starting place, and we need to get those data points and begin to measure knowledge using other tools to build off the foundations (standards).

A platform to launch off of...

Having just finished our online curriculum unit on quadratic function, I was happy about organizing and sharing some of my brick and mortar materials into one google document.  It was great to become more familiar with google documents and learn how to collaborate.

I do like the kind of open-ended lay out of google documents and the comfort in knowing that I can easily "share" my document with anyone who has web access basically.   I also feel that I am often drawn to and tempted to use the spreadsheet format of a document.  But an even better starting place I found again was http://www.mywebspiration.com/ that I could kind of brainstorm using a concept map mentality and that can actually by saved as or transferred to a google document to create a more linear outline.

Those were things that I learned and practiced in the process.  What I see in other unit plans and would like to improve on is a more polished final product.  Having looked at the linear functions unit plan which is organized on moodle, it is so much more impressive and easy to follow.

Our unit had all the right "parts" but it needed to be laid out in a more user-friendly manner on to a platform (if I am using the right word) like moodle.  Also, the links and visuals were so much more easy to follow.

I guess I feel like I am always in search of a "template" to put all my ideas, however, I get frustrated because the application of the day always seems to change.  I have spent a lot of time trying to improve my faculty website at our school districts website.  However,  it is just too clunky.  I have a lot to share but the process is just too tedious and limiting.  I know just enough to be dangerous in a lot of different arenas but don't have a home base to organize my thoughts, unit plans, lesson ideas, etc.

Not to bring it full circle or contradict my original message board post this week about open-source applications, but I would be happy to pay a reasonable fee to have a template and flexible application to share my materials with my students and collegues if it avoided roadblocks and constant changes.


However, after seeing

Embarking on our Virtual Course Adventure...

As Jung and I begin our curriculum unit on  quadratic functions, I am most concerned about figuring out the appropriate tools and sequencing to "deliver" the material.  Integral to quality teaching are well sequenced lesson plans with appropriate content and the modeling of the material by a teacher that has good questioning techniques, wait time, and is great at listening to his or her students.

The sequencing and quality lesson materials will be transferable to an extent, but good tools to model new material will be challenging to find and determining how to account for that real-time teacher questioning will definitely be a tough task.

Looking forward to it though.

Student-Student Interaction in its infancy stage

With the theme of this week being student-student interaction, I found myself generally shifting my school of interest, a k12 school, a little more to the center.  I gave it a little more credit about being "blended" than I had originally after making a phone call.

Originally, the k12 school in MA I looked at, and k12 in general seemed to me to be homeschoolers paradise, mostly asynchronous and self-paced in nature.  However, there is some more f2f time built in and what sounds to me to be an attempt at student-student interaction more in the form of community building.  There are students interacting through k-mail, students posting questions to a real live teacher that would be addressed, thus making it student-student interaction at least indirectly.   Finally, there seemed to be attempts at coordinated field trips and outings.

I call it student-student interaction in its infacy stage, because I still don't quite hear or see evidence of a movement towards true facilitated dialogue or interaction between students.

I have kind of a vision in mind being a math teacher of posted summary questions that students would answer and interact with, or perhaps open-ended problems that students could solve using different strategies and interacting/learning from each other.  I don't quite seeing that done, but perhaps I have not  dug deep enough yet.  

I hope to investigate these ideas with my project, but already think it is easier said than done.




I found myself shifting many