Virtual Schooling Group Presentation

Online Learning

All of these scenarios have many variables and many possible solutions. 

 

• You're a rural district with only a few hundred students total. A child wants to take courses like calculus, but they cannot feasibly be offered by your high school.
  For a high school student, this would be an excellent opportunity to enroll in a virtual class, perhaps offered by a larger district. Because the student is in high school, they could also feasibly take calculus as an independent study course. Another option when I was in high school was to take a course at the local community college. Perhaps this could be an opportunity for dual enrollment in an online course.  
  
• You're a principal of a school. An overbearing parent comes to you. Their first son had Mr. Siko for chemistry and hated him. He's the only chemistry teacher, and now their younger son has him. They want to pull him out and have him take it online. Can you prevent this? Should you prevent this?
  Personally, I don't know why you would want to prevent this. If the student/parent determine they will be more successful in an online class, then let them do it. Sometimes teachers and students don't mesh well, and if there is already an online option in place, then let the student utilize that. If the district is investing resources in providing online courses, then students should be able to take advantage of this option regardless of the motivation.
  
• A child comes into your class, having transferred from a 'cyberschool'. It is clear the quality was subpar. Any of this child's standardized test scores this year are tied to your performance evaluation under the new teacher evaluation guidelines.
  This scenario might occur whether the student came from an online school or simply another school where their education was not as rigorous. As a teacher, all you can do in this situation is try to work with the student to get them caught up. This might mean providing them with additional individual instruction or pointing them towards a tutor or other academic services.
  
• I am a teacher whose district is embracing online learning. It is attracting many students from other districts, and this generates extra revenue (students = $$). I am asked to be a 'facilitator' for these students, who are not required to attend during the school day. I am not given extra release time for this.
  
• I am a 12th grade student who was diagnosed with leukemia the summer before my senior year. I am unable to attend a full day of school while receiving treatment. I want to graduate on time with my friends. 
  This student might be eligible for a seat time waiver. This would allow the student to complete their required course work online without actually being in the physical school building (except on count day as required). This way the student would be able to graduate with their friends. 

Do you think schools are equipped to handle these changes?  Has your school/district been public about any changes they've made to curriculum and instruction, or have any changes gone unnoticed?  How is your school handling this (consider asking your administrator to see how s/he is imagining the larger picture)?  

I work at a K-8 school that currently does not offer any online courses. However, after reviewing the video and documents, I think these changes will be very difficult for schools to handle. Most schools are already on tight budgets with limited staff. The guideline for virtual school programs are complicated and could easily be mixed up by a tired educator who has this duty added to their already hectic job. I'm sure many schools are giving this additional duty to technology teachers or counselors. It seems like managing online education (especially for a large district) could be a full-time job, and I highly doubt many schools have added this position. 

Virtual Schools: Post 2

After completing this week's articles, I feel much more informed about virtual schools. Most of the information in my initial post was not necessarily inaccurate but did not fully encompass all the nuances and varieties of virtual schools. 

I was surprised to learn that virtual schools have their roots in the pre-internet technology (Computer Assisted Instruction), and I didn't realize that virtual schooling has been around essentially since the birth of the web. I was interested to discover that my school actually utilizes some of the Pearson materials named in the Keeping Pace Report which evolved from some of the earliest CAI programs. 

I was also surprised to learn that many online courses are actually completed by a student who does attend brick and mortar schools. I was under the impression it was online school or brick and mortar with no in between. This makes sense though as a way to offer a much wider variety of courses to students with varying abilities. 

I was also struck by the sheer variety of types of online schools. It seems like an overwhelming job to ensure state standards are being met with some many variations. I was particularly interested in the information in Barbour's article comparing the asynchronous and synchronous models. I once took a training course for a job that would be considered a synchronous model, and I absolutely hated it. To me, one of the benefits of online school is the flexibility of being able to work at any time at your own pace. 

I found the myth that online teachers have easy jobs to be absolutely ridiculous. I can't believe anyone would think that. I can't imagine the time it would take to prepare all the information I deliver to my students every day for presentation online. The amount of writing, lessons and feedback, must be enormous.

Virtual Schooling

As a K-12 educator, I'm embarrassed to say I know almost nothing about virtual schooling. In both my undergrad and graduate program, I have taken MANY online courses. I enjoy the flexibility to work at my own pace when it is convenient for me. I would imagine that for K-12 parents and students this is also the appeal. Due to my lack of knowledge, I will respond to the prompt questions with what I think virtual schools are like. 

What does it look like? / How is it done?

I assume there is an online platform, something like BlackBoard, where students can read content, complete practice activities, and complete assessments. I would hope there is also a feature to chat (text or video) with an actual teacher. I would also wager there is a great deal of variation in the platform between different virtual schools. 

Where is it done?

Much like my own online classes, I'm sure a lot of the work is done at home. I could see some brick and mortar schools having some virtual/distance learning classes to for specialized subjects or advanced courses. The great thing about an online class is that generally you can do it from anywhere. 

What kind of students take it? 

There are many reasons why students/parents might need an online school. Students who suffer from certain diseases or disabilities might find it more convenient to complete their education at home. Advanced students might benefit from a wider range of courses or the faster pace of an online school. Parents might enjoy the option for more supervision/control over their child's education. 

What courses are offered? 

I think that more courses are probably available online than in traditional schools. Since students can work independently or with non-local teachers, there are probably many more options to individualize education. However, more hands on classes, such as wood shop or auto shop, and physical education classes may be more difficult or impossible to conduct for a virtual school. 

Wikipedia

Full Disclosure: I am a heavy Wikipedia user. While my biggest use of it is often looking up the height or age of a celebrity, many times I have also used it as a jumping-off point for research. If I need to learn about a new unfamiliar topic, Wikipedia is the best place to start for a quick summary of any topic. I think the key to using Wikipedia for research is to simply use it as a starting place and not the absolute authority on any topic.  

As Terdiman’s article points out, Wikipedia does have some issues with accuracy. I was intrigued to find out, however, that its average errors per page is not significantly higher than Encyclopedia Britannica. What I like about Wikipedia is how quickly the information is updated (usually). Wikipedia also features citations at the bottom of each article, so it is possible to see where the info is coming from and further evaluate its accuracy. For this post, I took a look at the Britannica site for the first time. There are no citations. I don’t actually know where their information is coming from beyond being able to see which editor added the information and when. Additionally, I prefer Wikipedia’s simple layout- there aren’t as many photos and links unrelated to the article topic as there are on Britannica's site.

Listening to the podcast about the gender of Wikipedia editors still did not deter me from thinking it is a valuable tool. I was surprised to learn that so few women are editing articles. However, just because women are not editing the articles doesn’t mean they can’t. As a man, I even find the cutthroat practice of deleting other’s information to be turn off. However, as the podcast describes, the ethos of these editors is to make the articles as high quality as possible. I am not sure what the solution is to getting more women on Wikipedia- perhaps just awareness and everyone generally being more kind in online spaces.

Wikipedia can be a valuable tool for students when they are taught how to use it correctly. I will be attempting my first research-based project with 7th grades in the next month, and I know that this issue is going to come up. My goal is going to be to teach the students how to use Wikipedia as a place to start, but then use the citations in Wikipedia or a Google search to verify any information they find. With all the talk about fake news in the media, I think this is an excellent time for teachers to be instructing students of all ages how to find good information and be able to verify its legitimacy.

Blogs & Tweets

Three New Blogs

The first new blog I am following this week is Middle School Matters. The content of this blog varies from instructional ideas to content. I am now teaching middle school, but most of my previous teaching experience has been with older students. I like that I can read about all different topics related to middle school in order to assist in fine tuning my skills in working with this age group.

My next new blog follow is Hunger Games Lessons. My 7th-grade classes are currently reading the Hunger Games in my class. I am using the novel to teach lessons on theme, vocabulary, and figurative language & literary devices. This blog will be a great resource over the next month for supplemental material and additional ideas.

Finally, I started following the Grammar Girl Blog. Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl, hosts one of my favorite podcast about language. She frequently mentions her blog on the podcast, but I have never read it before. It looks like there is more in-depth coverage of issues discussed in the podcast as well as tons of other articles. I'm looking forward to skimming through this one.

Five New Twitter Follows

1. @friEdTechnology Amy Mayer- Mayer is a Google Certified Teacher who frequently tweets about issues related to technology and education. 

2. @UKShakespeare Shakespeare Magazine- Frequent tweets obviously about all things Shakespeare. Hopefully, this could be a resource for teaching ideas or articles. 

3. @nhaschools NHA Schools- This is the twitter feed for the company that owns the school where I am working. 

4. @mieducation Michigan Dpt. of Education- This is all information related to education in Michigan. It looks like they have posted some interesting links and info over the past few weeks. 

5. @johngreen John Green- I'm actually surprised I wasn't already following one of my favorite authors. In addition to writing great books, John Green produces tons of education related content (see 'Crash Course' on YouTube). 

Reflection 

Since our last assignment, I have not looked at any of the blogs I followed. While many of them look interesting, with how busy I have been this semester, perusing blogs, unfortunately, gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. Twitter is something I used fairly frequently before this class. When I began my student teaching, I deleted my personal twitter (so that students could not find it) and started a new professional twitter. This class was actually a great way for me to beef up my feed with some new education-related content. I don't tweet very much myself, but I do look through my feed quite a bit. In the future, I would like to get better about actually tweeting and interacting with people on twitter instead of just being a passive and unengaged user.

Web 2.0 & R.A.T.

I am currently working as a substitute, but next week I will begin a full-time position teaching 7th-grade language arts. Previously, for my student teaching experience, I have taught 10th and 11th grade English and 12th grade AP literature.

The acronym RAT, in relation to technology in the classroom, stands for replacement, amplification, and transformation. There are many different Web 2.0 tools that could be used to accomplish these three goals.

Firstly, to replace the traditional poster board presentation or even the traditional PowerPoint presentation, students can use Prezi. I prefer Prezi for presentations because the animations are much more interesting and dynamic. Also, Prezi is web-based for easy access from any computer as well as flash based so it can easily be inserted onto a website or blog. Last semester, my AP lit students used Prezi for their ‘Bible Pageant’ group presentation. Because so much of English literature makes reference to the Bible, my cooperating teacher and I thought it would be a good idea for all the students to have a basic understanding of some of the most important Bible stories. Each group was assigned a Bible story, and they used Prezi to present to the class. In past years, my cooperating teacher had all the group make poster boards, but I suggested we use Prezi. The presentations turned out great with most of the group producing dynamic and interesting presentations that were enhanced with animations and many many images.

Secondly, in the future, I would like to use Wordpress to amplify class journals. By requiring students to keep their journal on their own Wordpress blog, they are able to not only communicate their ideas to me, but also to an actual global audience. I will encourage them to use tag their entries so that other can find and comment on their blog. I think that writing knowing that there will be an actual audience besides just the teacher is very exciting. I was required to keep a Wordpress blog for a class I took a few semesters ago, and when people I didn’t know were reading and commenting, it really got me excited about writing it. I ended up creating another blog the following summer when I was traveling around Europe and blogging about that experience.

Finally, one Web 2.0 tool that could transform learning in my classroom is Twitter. I really want to try teaching a novel and having the students each create a Twitter account to tweet as a character from the novel. I think this would be a great way to get the students thinking about characterization, plot, themes, etc. Instead of just writing about the character, they are writing as the character. Granted it's only 140 characters of writing at a time, but it is a platform that many of the students already use and enjoy. I think it would also be fun to have each student choose a famous author and to have them tweet and interact with each other as those authors. Could you imagine a heated twitter debate between Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde? This could really transform the way students learn about aspects of characterization or about famous authors and their lives and times.

Generation Edge

Whenever I read anything about generations and their differences, I find myself both fascinated and annoyed. Understanding how the technology and culture of a particular time influences people is very interesting to me. However, I find the broad and general descriptions of a group of people based only on when they were born to be very limiting and short sighted. I see the value in trying to understand our students and how they world they grown up in influences their learning styles, however not all students will fit all the prescribed characteristics of the millennial or edge generations.

Despite my hesitations at applying generalizations to students, I do notice some of my students exhibiting the characteristics that researchers have attributed to the edge generation. In Sarah Fudin’s article, she mentions that one of the most striking differences between the edge generation and previous generations is their ability to multitask. When I first began working in high schools three years ago, this was something I immediately noticed. I observe students working on school work, listening to music, responding to text messages, and chatting with friends (in class) all the at same time. At first, I thought this was impossible and would be detrimental to their work. However, many students do seem able to multitask and still be successful. This is something that I personally cannot do. When I am reading or writing, I need to focus on the task at hand. I find music and my phone to be distractions, however, most of my students have had a phone (or ipad or similar device) essentially since birth. They seem to have integrated the use of this technology into everything they do.

Another characteristic of the edge student that is mentioned in Amy Lynch’s article is their desire for more privacy online than the previous millennial generation. Most of my students seems to use more one-on-one forms of social media such as SnapChat or Instagram Stories. Many of them do not have a Facebook at all (or if they do it is seldom used). Instead of broadcasting their actions and whereabouts to the world, they seem to be happier using social media to communicate one on one with smaller groups of friends. This also fits in with the Southern Connecticut State University article which states :

“GenEdgers may be able to create authentic, meaningful relationships with people via Skype and other technological devices in which people can see each other, even though they may be physically a long distance away from each other.”

My students are obsessed with taking pictures, SnapChat, and FaceTime. They stay in contact and form relationships through screens. This is totally normal to them, since as I previously stated, this technology has been in use for their entire lives. My students actually asked me last semester if I would create a SnapChat account for the class where I could post homework assignment reminders into the story.

Finally, in the Research Live article, the authors mention that Gen Edgers are much less likely to be influenced by brands. I can also see some truth in that. I myself am a millennial, and when I was in high school brands were all that mattered in clothing, accessories, cars, media etc. However, my students today seem much less interested and influenced by brands. They are more skeptical about the intentions of companies. I think it will be very interesting to see how brands adapt their marketing strategies over the next decade in order to reach a more skeptical and private consumer.

Introductory Post

My name is Ryan Kleven, and I am a graduate student in the MAT program at Wayne. My major is English and minor is speech. I completed my student teaching last semester at Stevenson High School, and after my last two classes this semester, I will be graduating! Currently, I am working as a substitute teacher in several districts across the metro area, and I also work as a private phonics tutor several evenings each week. I have just accepted a long term sub assignment that will begin in mid-February. I am hoping this temporary position will lead to something permanent with the district. Prior to going back to school for my masters, I worked in retail merchandising and construction management first for Pottery Barn and eventually for Lady Jane’s Haircuts for Men at the corporate office. While I enjoyed some aspects of these jobs, overall I have found teaching to be much more fun and rewarding, and I am very much looking forward to having my own classroom in the near future!

One of my biggest passion is travel. In 2016, I visited 9 countries (Canada, Colombia, Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, the Netherlands, Germany, the U.K, and Austria). My summer was spent teaching in Italy at a summer camp program designed to immerse Italian kids in the English language. I spent two weeks in each city and stayed with Italian host families- it was an epic and amazing experience! In 2015, I visited Tanzania as part of the African Democracy Project with Wayne State. In addition to being an accredited international observer of the Tanzanian presidential election, I also completed a research project on language education in secondary school. If you’re interested in either of my trips, I kept blogs for both which can be found here: https://englishtutoritaly.wordpress.com/   

https://exploringeducationintanzania.wordpress.com/

A group of students I interviewed in Tanzania

Me and some of my fellow teachers in Cesena, Italy

I’m looking forward to a great semester!