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.