What are you planning to do with your E-Learning Knowledge?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ian Carmichael on October 12, 2007 at 10:01pm

I need to unlock more resources. Given the Creative Commons arrangements for so much of the read/write space, this might be done in the first instance at least in an in-house environment such as SharePoint (Since much of our material is licensed for the College's use, not general publication). However, I'd like the resources to be used in more publicly accessible spaces, mounting distilled knowledge through wiki's, and exploring topics of interest through blogs. I want to drive these resources in a discussion direction - for two reasons. First, in a face to face classroom, some students are intimidated and find it hard to share their opinions; a discussion space which is open but a little more 'distant' should help them warm up. Second, in a face-to-face setting, I'm a hopeless discussion facilitator - since I'm deaf in one ear, I can't follow the faint-spoken, nor can I easily filter out the noise from the signal. In a discussion thread, I have much more hope of understanding and moderating digital chat.

Permalink Reply by Dennis O'Connor on October 12, 2007 at 10:35pm

Ian, asynchronous discussion is a wonderful thing. I've seen the shy bloom and become empowered. The chance to think before you speak, combined with the ease of hyperlinking to relevant materials makes this form of discourse a more deliberate way to connect than the quick flow of agile speach that often leaves many in the live classroom behind.

If you add to this the opportunity to talke with an international audience working online can be a very satisfying experience.

I will say that sometimes when I'm in a live meeting I have to throw a special switch to speed up enough to participate. I vastly prefer the online world (after 25 years in the live classroom) because the pace allows me to be more measured.

Are there opportunities to pursue this work in Tasmania? Of course the world is your oyster when you're working online!

Dennis (In San Diego California)

Permalink Reply by Ian Carmichael on October 12, 2007 at 11:36pm

Certainly there is much talk about online for specialist subjects with too few teachers. (I've recently returned from a conference of Australian Computer Studies teachers examining and sharing progress on this very topic. SiMERR is the acronym.) So, can we resource the struggling schools for Physics, Computer Science, and suchlike? There's not great scope in Tassy per se, but it does have momentum as an idea. One of the hiddens that our administrators might miss is the point made by a high-school practitioner that an on-line class of 10 is a full class, because of the additional communications required.
As always the idea that one guru can empower everybody else tuned into them without any extra support is a powerful, pervasive - and false idea!
My own work will be small-scale, because it will be an adjunct to my live classroom.

Permalink Reply by Dennis O'Connor on October 13, 2007 at 10:39am

Ian, It's a persistent myth that an online classroom can handle more students than a traditional one. I'd agree with you that a smaller group is the way to go. Creating a solid online class takes a huge amount of energy. I estimate about 400 hours to design a university class. A virtual high school class would likely be based on a text book and that might speed things up.

A blended design like you are thinking about is a good way to get the dynamics under control and begin to develop the teamwork concepts that could drive the class.

In so many ways working online requires more effort. You do begin to save some time back once the course is running smoothly... but then all of that time is then poured into actually connecting with the students and teaching the course.

On the bright side, you can polish and improve a class over time. It's deeply satisfying to build a sweet machine that helps people learn how to think.

If you've got a chance to follow this path, take it. It's an interesting journey.

Dennis

Permalink Reply by Scott McDaniel on January 5, 2009 at 1:50pm

I have been thinking of how best to introduce the use of blogging, wikis, etc to our classrooms. I want to explore how this facilitate educational gains as well as improve the engagement of students. What results have you seen regarding this kind of thing? I'd like to see an online high school class work around more than a text book, but extend beyond that to creative explorations of student learning. Ideas?

Permalink Reply by Ian Carmichael on January 5, 2009 at 2:00pm

Scott,
I can report that my experience was a little broken last year - by the time I got my students more or less connected I had to leave for some overseas study ( (; ), and no one really followed up from there. My intent this year is to get my students to build a wiki around their project research, and keep a ning discussion/blog platform for posting questions, thoughts and answers. Being senior students, working on projects in ethics in one unit, and science and religion in another, there is scope for good work and strong connections here. We shall see as the year unrolls!

Permalink Reply by Merle Hall on May 14, 2009 at 8:32pm

I have had good success with using ning to expand my classroom resources and get the students motivated to participate more in discussions. I have noticed that students who normally will not speak out in class will participate on the blog. I would like to do more but am limited by our tech policies. I can see future uses for producing online video, flash, programming, chat and podcast as ways to enhance the learning process. So far though I am only using the blog to enable students to communicate, discuss, get homework when absent from school, turn in homework, get help with assignments, communicate with parents and communicate with fellow staff.

Permalink Reply by Merle Hall on May 14, 2009 at 8:46pm

Wouldn't it be nice to have a world where free middle and highshool education world wide to anyone who has access to the internet is possible. I imagine this would include online and face to face students. I can foresee a classroom where students from around the world work together to learn about governments, histories, cultures. Where science classes can have guest speakers who are half a world away. Where hands on labs can be conducted virtually. Where knowledge is freely given without predjudice or strings. Right now the resources to do this in real and asynchronous time exist in but are not easily available. In my classes at Phoenix online I was able to get a taste of this. However, the expense for one degree is formidable. I wonder how far we are from having government funded online education for middle and high schools?

Permalink Reply by E.J. Hansen-Clay on October 10, 2009 at 1:15pm

I am new to learning about teaching online. You have some great ideas.

Permalink Reply by Carol E. Kubota on October 16, 2009 at 6:00am

Hello Merle,
I have also found that classes at Phoenix online are quite expensive. I live in Michigan and have a friend who teaches with Michigan Virtual. All of the students are High School students who are taking her online class in the computer labs of their home schools. As long as they are in High School, the classes are free to the students. Michigan is now requiring that High School graduates take at least one online class before they graduate.

Carol/Kalamazoo Michigan

Permalink Reply by E.J. Hansen-Clay on October 23, 2009 at 7:25pm

Hi Carol,
Having students take an online class is a great idea. When they get out in the world, they may not have anyone around to help them.
Elizabeth (E.J. Hansen-Clay)

Permalink Reply by Alline Sada on November 4, 2009 at 7:29pm

When I was younger, the biggest classroom at my school was probably the library. Today, a screen provides my students with the biggest space. I have my older students participating in blogs and wikis. Just knowing that the world can see it, they really strive for excellence in the writing, spelling and grammar. It's not the same thing when your classmates of 10+ years see your work than having the entire world as an audience!

There is this wonderful sense of sharing and common good among the educational communities online. Eventually one has to jump in an join SOMETHING, It's just inevitable. I had so many resources gathering dust in MY DOCUMENTS, that I ended up publishing them on the web. Immediately I began to see what a treasure online resources collections are to this "new breed of teachers"! Truly, we now live in a time of "if you build it, they will come".

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