Week 15: Final course reflections

After reflecting on my semester's worth of blog posts for this class, I realized many of my views about online schooling aspects have changed:

• How I viewed online schooling as a disruptive innovation has shifted. In week 1, I viewed online learning purely as a “shift in the learning platform” and as “an opportunity” (Christensen, Chp. 4, “Disruptively Deploying Computers”). By Week 14, I saw the effects of disruptive innovation in a more complex light, recognizing the value of a blended traditional and online schooling approach. (I wrote about this extensively in the class discussions forums).
  
• I am much more skeptical of for-profit virtual schools than I was at the start of the semester; I wasn't aware of the online schooling marketplace, its stakeholders, and the power many wield. With the resources some for-profits have, they're able to produce more professionally marketed web sites and can offer more multimedia in their courses. On many of the district virtual school sites, their sites look very “template-made” and they offer little in the way of multimedia; this less-professional look could put them at a disadvantage in the marketplace, even though their product may be equal or better than what is offered at for-profit outlets. (Sometimes these entities aren't in direct competition for the same students, however.)
  While I think for-profit virtual schools can offer a quality education, research we read definitely pointed to instances where, time and again, online schooling was used to either save money for a school district or make money for a for-profit company. This issue has stayed with me because in a for-profit world, if these schools ever stop making money and their investors decide they are too costly to continue operating, what will happen to the education they offer and the role they play in the school world (and marketplace)? Where will their students go if they close? I think that non-profit and not-for-profit models must be supported to provide stability in a rapidly changing and uncertain marketplace. (Could online schooling for-profits be experiencing some sort of bubble? I don't follow their stock prices -- I'm just curious about this based on other bubbles the U.S. economy has recently experienced.)

• After taking this class, I thoroughly know what virtual schooling is and how it will continue to play a huge role in every aspect of education, presently and increasingly in the future. I spoke to a representative from K12 on the phone, looked at many other virtual schools' web sites, read what other students in the class discovered, interviewed other online learners, and delved into the assigned studies and articles. I now have first-hand experience with the online school world outside of TC classes (which are the only online classes I've taken), and this knowledge has made me both an “educated consumer” and an “educated educator."

• The mid-term project creation, and review of other students' work, provided me with direct experience and a wide perspective of how different online curriculum must be from f2f/traditional curriculum in order to be successful. Online schools offer such amazing possibilities to support multimodal expression and learning.

• Student-to-student interaction, synchronous vs. asynchronous discussions, offering how-to-succeed in online class orientations vs. not offering them, credit recovery motives vs. extra enrichment reasons to take online classes, professional development to help new online instructors understand what world they're stepping into, accountability and assessment in online schooling with so many different course providers – all these issues are vitally important to understand, and I wasn't as aware of them at the class's start.

• While virtual schooling is a very strong educational platform, it is not appropriate for elementary and lower middle school grades. Before I took this class, I wasn't aware that anyone had even considered online schooling for younger children; I now know with more surety that this format isn't developmentally appropriate for all ages.

Overall, I am an even bigger supportive of online schooling now because I've learned how it can be made an optimal experience, the factors that can detract from quality, how popular this format is becoming, and how important it could be to guaranteeing more access and equity in education -- IF it is done in thoughtful, carefully designed ways with the priorities on quality education for all. In addition, more and more online schooling opportunities are being offered, of varying qualities and for many different reasons and student groups. Because of this, there are countless areas of research which need to be looked into as this new field grows.

Week 14: The most difficult aspect to researching final project

One of the most difficult aspects of the research was finding conclusions and answers to my research questions. MOOCs are a very new format of digital online learning (starting in 2008). Not many studies have been done about them. The few that exist are qualitative and rely on small sample sizes for data. Still, they have succeeded in capturing and confirming the difficulties of participating in a MOOC: primarily, its lack of structure and too much information to process; secondarily, if one isn't comfortable with the software and websites needed for participation, many barriers to deep engagement.

Ideally, I would like to have found out answers about how participants benefit from MOOCs, looking at the different participation levels at which they self-select and how they handle processing so much information and making sense of it. I think there are many research possibilities here: self-regulated learning (is this a skill that can be taught?), dealing with cognitive overload and lessening its effects, how design/tool usage can help people process information better. No studies have yet been done about these aspects.

I found the three levels of participation interesting and worthy of study, as it seems that participants are getting different benefits from all three. Lurking, which consists mostly of reading posts in discussion forums, is available to all. Being “memorably active”, which requires creating projects and offering them to the group for feedback, entails being fluent in any media creation software, time to make the project, and already having a fair amount of knowledge on the topic. I can assume that, as with all learning, MOOC participants “start where they are”; are there conditions, however, that should be met prior to participating in a MOOC which could optimize the benefits of it?

Running my own survey gave me answers that I needed in order to confirm my experience and to help me think about how to adapt MOOCs for middle and high school students. Through the generous idea sharing and anecdotes from the self-selected sample, I read about many helpful ideas and insights that I could use in developing a MOOC for younger students. At this point, it is still a lot of trial and error, as with many other parts of online learning. I'm seeing more clearly how, with a group working together on it, educators will eventually figure out best practices, models and designs.

Recommending that we do interviews was a great idea, as it provided me the opportunity to get information that I needed to learn more about the relatively new and quickly evolving field of online learning. In these conversations, via Skype and email, I was able to ask questions that helped me fill in gaps in my knowledge about the topic. They acted as supplements to the information found in the few studies. Since I think that well-done qualitative studies can be very useful, and these interviews could be the basis for doing a more in-depth set of interviews on the topic, they might point me in the right direction for some conclusive findings about how MOOCs work.

New questions:

-When a field is very new and there are few studies available, how are these initial studies viewed?
-What is the best way to conduct research on topics that have so many variables?

-When a topic has very few studies to orient researchers, what is the best way to approach research?

Week 11: More research is needed, quality traits are emerging

To figure out the benefits and weaknesses of online schooling, more research is needed. In order for that to happen, educational researchers need more funding, time and freedom to pursue the emerging frontrunners seen as crucial elements of online schooling. This week's readings highlighted the following three:

1. group discussions (text, audio, video) to facilitate "learning through dialogue" (A. Brown et al., 1998; A. L. Brown & Campione, 1994; Lea & Nicoll, 2002; Rogoff, 1994; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994 in Haavind, 2006)
2. student-student interaction
3. how courses are designed

The primary role of discussion seems an established norm of high-quality online schooling. Online school designs that put the teacher in the sage-on-stage role, possibly cutting into s-s interaction and discussion, should be avoided or at least minimized. Online curriculum designers need to not only keep the end user in mind, but also the optimal learning environment needed to promote in-depth discussion, metacognition, process learning, and asynchronous (allowing for time and reflection) meetings. Have online schooling design standards been established yet?

 After reading Zucker, I began to think more about how funding requirements and timeframe could affect study outcomes, and most probably do quite regularly. Ideally, they shouldn't, but the money/timeframe element will always be a part of how research is conducted. These constraints must be fully acknowledged in research findings when discussing study outcomes.

Week 10: Reflections on virtual schooling -- an effective learning format!

I've had a few grand realizations about what virtual schooling is this week. My views on online schools and schooling have definitely become more clear. Reading and discussing the three meta-analyses helped me realize that:

1. Virtual schooling has many strong features as a format on its own. Comparing it to f2f settings may provide some useful starting points to understanding how to improve both teaching formats; however, the comparison doesn't completely answer the question. It may be time for some well-funded, extensive qualitative studies on virtual school to really show their strengths, weaknesses and complexities. Are there some available? I've discovered this week how new this field of research is, especially compared to the amount of studies done on f2f schooling, which still has many weaknesses in need of solutions.

2. Virtual schooling, in its current format, will not serve elementary school students and their learning needs well. Its current strengths depend too much on students already having many levels of computer and digital literacy skills, including how to discern information online and read, analyze, synthesize information and comment to peers. In addition, young students don't yet have the developmental capacity to organize their time, their work, online resources, and the many interactions that take place online. Many cannot even read well or comprehend what they are reading.

3. A focus on process and allowing students to reflect on what they are learning (metacognition) is a very important part of online learning. If curriculum units leave this element out, the students' educational experiences may not be as optimal. Plus, regular access to metacognitive practice usually doesn't take place in a f2f classroom. I suppose that it could, but an instructor would have to get very creative and not short-change this activity if something else came up during very limited class times.

4. Could requiring students to take more online courses make them spend more time "in virtual class" and on school work? I don't think this is a bad thing, especially if it helps students learn more and even better (though no study has proven this yet). For those of us who love school, I think all of the extra activities and access to resources are wonderful. While policy makers occasionally propose lengthening the school year to provide extra skill practice, if it were shown that online schools actually provide that practice and time, could this be the solution instead? Instead of a longer school year, how about blended f2f & online schooling year round? What would this do to summer vacation schedules? Would nature camps have to provide wi-fi to campers so they could complete their required schoolwork? What if future studies show that online learning is the most effective, rewarding and enriching way to learn? The mind reels at the possibilities and problems at what could be a vast overhaul of the educational system as we know it.

5. I keep coming back to the access problem. If online schooling becomes the norm, how do we provide access -- really solid broadband+ access -- in areas not wired and with few computers and little current software and no teachers to teach? This fast push towards online schooling as a cost-cutting measure is completely misdirected in this financial aim, and may leave more students far behind their super-wired and technologically fluent peers.

On another note: Thinking about our curriculum units from last week, the team-based approach to creating them seemed vital to the process. When I think back on all of the email exchanges, Google doc sessions, and Skype calls that Deepa and I had, much important work happened in these digital conversations. Our collaboration and idea sharing made our unit better than if we had done them individually.

Week 9: Reflections on curriculum unit/Do differently next time

The many different curriculum units presented a multitude of new ideas in various contexts. Reading about new innovations, tools and website while they are being used in someone's project reveals much more about their full capabilities and the potential problems and issues that arise in implementing them. Following are a few examples which I found inspiring and effective:

• For the 6^th grade ecology unit, I liked that there was a separate page just to contact the instructor. As course designers, we shouldn't make assumptions about what our end users know. We should make information as easy and straight-forward to find as possible.

• For the Analyzing Linear Equations unit, I thought that the link to the Khan Academy video as a supplement was carefully chosen (not too much reliability on video, just at relevant points). I liked having discussion forums for math problems, where students have to write and articulate their views on math; this is good practice not only for writing but also for students to understand and reflect on their process (meta cognition). The creators used real-world examples in appropriate assignments; preparing an oral 5-minute presentation of the final project on population growth is also related to current events, which turns a math class into an interdisciplinary field. I had not heard of "We The People" app or the K2OALT Authentic Teaching and Learning site, so that was useful to discover. In addition, they used mindmap to figure out mathematical concepts. This really intrigued me, and I am interested in seeing what student mindmaps look like on this topic.

• For the virtual visit to the Met unit, the creators showed an innovative use of Slideshare, which made their curriculum accessible from anywhere without needing to log in. Their Survey Monkey survey to get feedback from students showed awareness and value of the end user. Currently, I'm taking an offline class where after every session, the instructors ask for feedback via an online form. They do this because it keeps them in touch with how they are doing and gives an opportunity to students to express anything they want to on a weekly (dependable) basis.

• The American revolution unit introduced me to some software and sites I'd never heard of before (specifically, Museum Box; Fodey.com, Newspaper Clipping Image Generator; and Notely.net, Organization tool for students).

• The Earthquake unit made great use of Canvas (also new to me), which ordered items like links and the calendar in a visually appealing format. I like how the discussion forums link off of the calendar and how instructors included the points value of the assignment right on the page. (I think it's important to make the grading criteria as clear as possible. It's a primary component of fairness.) I'd heard about Voicethread, and it was very helpful to see a use of it. I now know some experts I can go to if I have any questions on how to use it. (It is so interesting that students can record their answers right on the video and then send it to instructors for feedback.)

What I would do differently for the next online curriculum unit I co-create would depend on the subject. Certain tools seem more universally applicable than others (e.g., Voicethread could be used with any class, while Museum Box might be better suited for the arts/humanities).

For a refurbished 2-dimensional design and art online class, I would like to add mindmapping software (as seen in Canvas), a rubric (very generally focused to allow for maximum unfettered creativity or perhaps even generated by the class), a contact page (of not only the instructors' info but also fellow students), and an ongoing survey (able to be taken at any point during the course). This would emphasize a priority on process, discussion, analysis, some scaffolding, creative freedom and end-user input as foundations for a successful online course.

Week 7: Concerns about curriculum unit

My greatest concerns in creating an online curriculum unit are figuring out how to develop a unit which engages and challenges and then how to accurately assess student progress -- from a distance.

Elements of teaching 2Ddesign in a traditional classrooms include pencils, sketchpads, and a bulletin board for critiques. This can carry over to a digital format to benefit all students, if they have full access to necessary tools.

My primary concern relating to what I've expressed above is access to tools. How will students access scanners, digital cameras, web cams and all the associated illustrating and font software?

Students will be posting their work digitally. Will image quality be enough for me and other students to tell how well they are doing?

There may be a lot of time spent in the class acquainting students with the hardware and software. Everyone should post images at the same resolution for fair critique. All students must have access to the same tools for assessment to be equitable, also.

Week 6 blog posting: Google spreadsheet, View of schools changing

Q: Did you change anything in the Google spreadsheet? If so, what? Has your view of the schools you chose to research changed from the first week you looked at them? If so, how?

A: After reviewing what I included on the Google spreadsheet, I realize that I didn't need to change anything. The original facts that I included still stand.

I do have a new appreciation, however, for how difficult it can be to foster s-s interaction in online courses that either have students enrolling/ending at different times or just have one student as a member. (Based on the info from their website and from the research I did, the K12 system seems to have many of these students.)

Also, I think that the discussion forum is an incredibly important part of online learning. For many of the online charter schools that cater to self-paced learners, I cannot see how they can get online discussion as part of the curriculum, even though it could be very enriching to students. These schools have a quandry to deal with: How do they provide the benefits on s-s online discussion, which can do the following--

• hone writing skills
• provide time and space for thoughtful reflection
• acts as an equalizer for in-class participation
• be a space for multimodal expression and additional learning (through links)
• give students practice analyzing/considering other students' writing and then responding to it

Discussions in written forms which can accommodate multimedia provide practice in many literacy areas (foundational and "new"). If online schooling students can't access this, they are missing out on a lot.

In addition, I think ensuring that curriculum is created specifically for online schooling and that teachers are trained for online instruction are both significant components of successful online schooling. As I learn more throughout the semester, I'm seeing its unique characteristics more clearly; they require those knowledgeable about them to make sure that the schools are teaching at their best.

Week 5: TPI Results -- Thoughts

Q: Did the results of your TPI fit your image of yourself as a teacher? Do you think the TPI results are different for the same person teaching online and face-to-face?

A: Taking the Teaching Perspectives Profile revealed some interesting results.

• My dominant perspectives are Developmental (“Effective teaching must be planned and conducted 'from the learner's point of view.'”) and Nurturing (“Effective teaching assumes that long-term, hard, persistent effort to achieve comes from the heart, not the head.”) – both tied at 35.
• My back-up perspectives are Transmission (“Effective teaching requires a substantial commitment to the content or subject matter.”) at 34 and Apprenticeship (“Effective teaching is a process of socializing students into new behavioral norms and ways of working.”) at 33.
• My recessive perspective is Social Reform (“Effective teaching seeks to change society in substantive ways.”) at 32.

All scores are quite close to each other, at a similarly high level, which I interpret to mean that all perspectives are important to me. I was not surprised that the Developmental perspective rated as primary for me and that Nurturing was right with it. It also makes sense to me that Transmission followed just 1 point behind. What initially surprised me is that my Social Reform score was the lowest, as one of the reasons I became a teacher was to contribute to fairness and equity in society.

Upon further reflection, I know that I still hold this belief in primary way. How I think that good teaching contributes to the Social Reform perspective for me, however, is through focusing on the Developmental and Nurturing perspectives and their associated actions:

• The process of effective questioning and finding “bridging knowledge” is one of the challenges and rewards of teaching; I really enjoy the learning process, and modeling this for students helps them learn to find bridging knowledge with others. (Dev.)
• Showing understanding of my students' thought processes and struggles models empathy and understanding, which could influence students to be more fair and equitable in how they deal with others. (Dev.)
• ALL students are important and can succeed; difficult backgrounds, past failures, and challenging circumstances can sometimes be used as a springboard to make progress toward future goals. (Nur.)
• With effort and high expectations, students can take responsibility for their own learning and make substantial progress, becoming competent and empowered in their own lives and contributing to their wider community. (Nur.)

I've never taught online before, but I would imagine that any face-to-face teacher would bring similar perspectives from offline to online instructing. First of all, their guiding principles for being a teacher should be the same in any setting. Having been a student in online courses, I can see how instructors get to know their students and still direct a learning environment. Why would a teacher's perspectives change with the format? Their students are still people, whether they are seen in person or via video link, or that the teachers know their thought process by reading their writing instead of hearing their words.

Week 4: Online Course Design

Q: What did you learn about the design of online courses this week that will affect how you think about this form of instruction in the future?

A: Good online course design must focus on essentials. These include:

-- varying levels of interactivity

-- age appropriateness

-- thoughtful organization of material

-- orderly instructions

-- multimedia

-- offline and online activities blended when appropriate

-- optional activities for further enrichment

-- relevance to real-world goals

One class I saw that I rated as having poor design has stayed with me. It was a middle school keyboarding course, now featured online, but seeming like it was taken from a mid-20th century textbook geared toward secretaries preparing for careers in typing pools. The course objectives made incorrect assumptions about the learning goals for digital natives, 21st-century learners (imagine 12-14 year olds learning how to format business letters!). The outline of the materials seemed uninspired.

It is not enough for an online course to be interactive and multimedia. The content has to be relevant and interesting. It is the course designers' responsibilities not just to turn offline courses into online versions. There needs to be creation of the online course with knowledge of the learner group and with attention to what skills should be developed so learners can move forward and build on what they've learned.

Technology alone doesn't create a great online course. High-quality content must be primary. The design of the course is determined by the content and objectives.

Week 3: Tweet-length paper about online charter schools

For this tweet-length paper, I write from the parent's perspective.

I would look for the following in an online charter school, encapsulated in a tweet:

Vast course selection, independence, self-pacing, computer/materials provided, 1-1 support, accredited curriculum: THE online school choice.

It's exactly 140 characters. (Thanks, Twitter!)

Week 3: What do site design variations say about online schools?

Overall, professionalism and credibility were the focus of most sites. However, there were marked differences in visual appeal, wording and levels of interactivity:

• Some explained course offerings to students, some didn't.
• The language of some were friendlier and appealing to students, while others were more steeped in bureaucratic and legal wording.
• Some sites featured very plain, template-like design, while others had a much more colorful, current and eye-catching look.
• One site hosted a live chat, while other sites didn't present information clearly even in a text-based format.

A few factors most likely determine the dramatic variations in site design.

• Some online schools are new and haven't gotten their web sites past the beginning phase yet. Perhaps with more interaction and feedback from their stakeholders, their site will grow in response.
• Beginning online schools may not have the funding yet to invest in high-end design and site maintenance; more established online schools have a proven track record, and probably have more funding to invest in a more professional, functional site.
• Related to funding is deciding who designs the site. To save money, many school districts may use older web-design software and have an in-house individual or group design and maintain the site. Those districts who have more money to allocate to the site may have either more experienced web designers and/or programmers on staff or can pay to outsource their site's creation and maintenance to a marketing communications agency.

I noticed a few specific examples from the sites that everyone reviewed which support these opinions:

• The NCVPS (North Carolina) had videos, animation, and links out to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. They have 73,658 enrollments (2009-10). Contrast this to the Texas Virtual School Network site, has just over 8,000 enrollments (Spring 2011), and their site has a very simple site that doesn't present information clearly and seems more targeted to growing the program than to getting more enrollments. The Oregon Virtual Education Center, whose site was described as "pretty ordinary", uses open-source web design software for the site.

• There were varying levels of promotional elements on sites. One site, the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, had a "live chat feature" for anyone with questions to speak with representative about IDLA. That takes a lot of resources, training, and savvy to develop and staff.

• The Florida Virtual School has an organized site that presents information clearly to all stakeholders: students, parents and educators. It links to social media and has current-looking images and graphics. It even sells "FLVS gear" in an online school-spirit store. It is the U.S.'s "first state-wide Internet-based public high school system". With more than ten years of experience, this virtual school pioneer presents a knowledgeable, stable, and successful site.

Is this a chicken-and-egg situation? If a site spends money to have a powerful design, will it attract more enrollments than one that doesn't? If a well-designed site attracts more students compared to a poorly or plainly designed site, then the school with the better site may be more successful. On the other hand, in states where a consortium (possibly a monopoly) runs all online school programs, there may be no impetus to design an engaging site; if this is the students' only choice for online schooling, then investing what can be a lot of money into site design and maintenance may be a waste of precious resources.

Overall, the varying site designs could either reflect the current health of a state's online school system or at what stage in the online schools' development they have reached.

Tweet-length paper: Why a student would sign up for an online school

If I were a student looking for an online school, I would summarize my requirements in the following tweet:

Teacher-as-guide? Challenging, fun? Convenient? Relevant? Discussion w/ other students? Multimedia welcome? Time to think? If Y, sign me up!

BTW, I composed this in my Twitter window, so I know that it is exactly 140 characters.

Week 1 Reflections

This past week, I learned many things that surprised me:

1. Clayton Christensen's notion of disruption as beneficial and necessary. This quotation stayed with me (from Chp. 4 -- Disruptively Deploying Computers):

But this shift in the learning platform, if managed correctly--which means disruptively--is not a threat. It is an opportunity.

2. So many high schools are already offering online learning for their students (as discussed in many readings, including by Rose and Blomeyer and in the Education Week section).

3. Seeing how ideally online schooling can work for students with disabilities, but only if design criteria like UDL principles are followed.

4. Reading about the Idaho Digital Learning Academy's "high-level online courses that meet state standards" made me think that the spread of online schooling could resolve another educational issue: the standards debate. Could the creation of high-quality online classes lead to a more unified standard of what needs to be learned across the country? If state-sponsored online classes get adopted country-wide, it would be interesting to see if a country-wide unified curriculum (presumably high quality and very extensive, given its online nature) would eventually develop through a type of crowdsourcing or crowd-selection.

5. Even though I've taken 3 online classes, I hadn't before seen how well they help students express themselves in multimodal formats. This makes me appreciate the format more than ever.

The overarching question I've been left with this week came primarily out of the Rose and Blomeyer report and other reading I've done. They state:

A decade of experience with online learning has shown that it can be more personal than on-ground instruction and, as a result, the online teacher may be better acquainted and familiar with their students than are on-ground instructors.

This explains a key advantage of online learning. Imagine how disenfranchised students would feel if they actually got re-engaged in the school process. In order for this to happen and to reach all students, building access to tech infrastructure must be a priority. But is it? I don't hear or read about policy being created to get this instituted or about Congress passing laws to ensure that tech access is a right for all citizens (like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness).

What is being done to make technology access universal, and which groups/organizations are working on this?

Week 1 Blog Post-Introduction

I'm Kristin and am an Ed.D. student in Instructional Technology and Media. I am interested in studying literacies and technology, particularly helping students to write better, to become more media literate, and to utilize their social media practices for academic enrichment. I am also a research assistant on the STEPS to Literacy project, which is currently developing a web-based space to help emergent bilingual middle schoolers become better academic writers in English. I am a former teacher who is currently an occasional freelance writer and editor (time permitting).

While at TC, I have completed three online classes. Each time, I have learned an extensive amount. During my first online class, I was surprised at the depth of discussions held over days and open for contribution to at any time. I also liked the opportunities it provided for students to continually write and participate in class.

The popularity of online schooling will continue to increase. I would like to learn more about the online class structure in other settings in order to discover how best to create online classes that maximize learning for students. Do certain subjects lend themselves to an online course setting better than others? Can middle and high schoolers learn core subjects and become proficient in them through taking online classes? From what elements of online classes do students learn best? I have many questions.