Week 5 Reflections

I enjoyed taking the TPI assessment – I don’t think teachers are introspective enough about their own teaching strengths and weaknesses. I don’t mind taking a survey or two to force the issue. If the role of education includes teaching citizenship, then we are missing the boat. I chatted with the TPI creator (John Collins) and he said that less than 3% of the 100,000+ teachers who took the test were Social Reform dominant (including group 2). We have non-academic advisory and life skills at my school, but it has a fraction of time compared to major subjects.

Evaluating online teachers is different than evaluating teachers (f2f) in a brick-and-mortar environment, although it may be more thorough. F2f teachers are generally evaluated qualitatively through direct observation. Sometimes students surveys are conducted too. Online teachers operate in a highly transparent environment. There is lots of data on interactions with students. Data can be found in course management system logs, e-mail and discussion board logs, phone records, and shadow students. Other industries have long used data to improve their product/service and become more efficient. I am optimistic that this data will be beneficial to both students and teachers. Given the digital nature of the online learning environment and interactions, I am hopeful that schools can start to mke a direct connection between what teachers do and student achievement. New courses and teaching techniques could be tested to see if they improve student achievment. NACOL provides a comprehensive template for creating an evaluation of online teachers. It is a good starting point, although some of the questions are too specific to a technology (rather than a skill) and some questions don’t apply if teachers don’t have control over the curriculum.

I believe that professional development is an important component of great schools (online or f2f). Online school teachers have potentially more time to collaborate on students, pedagogy, and curriculum. By contrast, f2f teachers usually cite lack of time and their number one job dissatisfaction complaint. This collaboration can occur when teachers are geographically dispersed. If the teachers are physically located in the same place, then there is even greater collaboration potential. And, the possibility to build a common culture and teaching philosophy. Although culture seems like a minor intangible, the most successful businesses point to a common mission and culture as keys to their success.

Thank you to Alejandro Heyworth (link) for a post that stirred me to write a comment that lasted several paragraphs. One of Alejandro’s many excellent points was about teachers being actors if they had no involvement in the curriculum design. I think that online schools should have their own instructional designers and that teachers should be required to collaborate with them to make the courses better.

I continue to be very optimistic about the future of online, but the notion of a hybrid schools intrigues me more. Teacher evaluations should be based on observation of teaching skills, curriculum design (or collaboration with designers), responsiveness to students, commitment to continually improve (and help others), and student surveys.

Random Thoughts

1. I wonder if f2f instruction should be a prerequisite for online instruction?
2. At what age has a child socialize enough to be able to handle online interaction productively?

Week 4 Reflections

This week I learned that it is difficult to compare online schools. It is even more complicated to compare state-run schools and charter or for-profit schools. In all cases, the websites lack complete information. The information that is available is related to how they are marketing the school. It seems like the online curriculum and related tools should be a major factor in selecting a school. Yet, in many cases, there was not even a single lesson to demo. The charter and for-profit schools seem to be a little more responsive to potential students. Virtual Virginia (VV) has little information other than a course directory and some faculty information. Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School (PVCS) discussed their instructional strategy that includes the parents and socializing with other online students. The only area where I felt VV had an advantage over PVCS was in the online curriculum. PVCS uses courses from K12 Inc, which I felt were very lightweight. VV designs their own and uses some third-party providers (although I was not able to review them).

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important or interesting? I was disappointed at the general level of online course sophistication. The vast majority of online courses were no more than online versions of traditional textbooks. I would have expected more progressive pedagogy given the innovation occurring in the area of Web2.0 tools.

Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week? I believe that online classes hold great promise for individualization, investigation-based learning, and access to higher quality teachers. In addition to teachers, students can also gain access to experts. For example, it might be impractical for a school to have a doctor on staff, but an online doctor could be available for a few hours a week. The doctor could make teaching his full-time job and make enough money by working with several schools. As I mentioned above, the current generation of online schools are teaching 19th (or 18th) century skills instead of innovating to deliver 21st century skills.

Week 3 Reflections

The readings provided critical issues for online schools. I can see how people in education who are not in favor of reform are scared. Online schools call into question the number of days students should physically be in school, as well as, if a school day should be 8am to 3pm anymore. The promise of individualized instruction also calls into question if students should be grouped by age (vs ability). On the positive side, online courses and virtual schools are growing at an annual rate of 30%. I worry about naysayers slowing the growth of online schools. They certainly can call into question the effectiveness of online education given the mixed results from the huge investment in educational technology. Lastly, the readings identified issues related to administering virtual teachers and creating a school culture with virtual and f2f teachers.

This week also had lots of confusion for me. Online schools are a nascent branch of education. After reading about several online state and charter schools, I came away a bit confused. Schools use different terminology and provide different information about their mission and courses. There needs to be more standardization to make it easier to compare schools. Maybe we need a Barron's report on online schools. The confusion also spread to my work for this course. I am usually very organized, but I somehow fell behind.

I came away with a few questions:

1. About 12 percent of high school students have taken an online class versus about 1 percent for all K-12 students. Is this driven by AP courses? If not, how come online courses have not caught on in K-8?
2. Charter schools have embraced online classes more than public schools. Do we have data that shows online courses are beneficial? Is there enough data to determine what types of schools and school environments are best suited for online courses?
   

Week 2 Reflection

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important or interesting? Online courses create a few challenges. The first is that schools must thoroughly review them to make sure that they adhere to state standards. Selecting a new course if more difficult that simply selecting a new textbook. In fact, schools may ditch textbooks in favor of online courses. This will be a good step towards raising teaching standards, but textbook publishers will likely plan to protect their franchise. Some teachers may not be equipped to do this and so schools will need more curricular resources. Schools may elect to create their own online courses, which will require new resources. These new courses will need to be experienced in creating multimedia content, simulations, and games. The online courses will likely be developed without the teacher who will be teaching the course. I wonder about the following:

• How will this affect teachers and teaching?
• Will online courses be created by commercial firms or open-source consortia?
• What online skills should we be teaching students to prepare them for the next-generation of online courses?
• How will online teachers be evaluated?
  

Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week? I continue to be very enthusiastic about the potential for online schools. The increased transparency of course-related information will provide a better experience for students and the potential for teachers to improve their teaching practices. I have two pet projects that I am working on to test online courses. The first is to create an online supplement to my math class so I can ensure that students are proficient in basic math skills. I would also like to have offer several different computer electives or business electives simultaneously. I would be the f2f resource and students would choose from three alternative courses.