Has your view of the schools you chose to research changed from the first week you looked at them? If so, how?
My views of Virtual Virginia (link, wiki) and Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School (link, wiki) have been consistent. They are medium-quality schools (compared to other wiki entries) and suffer from a dearth of available information. VV and PVCS both use asynchronous learning, and teachers assist students in a supportive role. Both schools use curriculum developed by third-parties and the sample courses were disappointing. I believe that schools need to develop their own online curriculum and have teachers assist the instructional designers to continually improve them. Technology is evolving rapidly and courses need to adapt to use the most popular and productive social networking technologies. The class forum discussions this week highlighted that managing online discussions is tricky. Online discussions are challenging to organize well, maintain organization, keep on track, and grade. This makes me worry about the teachers at VV and PVCS with respect to how well they are trained to manage their online classrooms - even in a supportive role. VV was more encouraging than PVCS with professional development. Before teaching an online class, teachers take a seven-week online training course, and a week-long f2f workshop.
Miscellaneous
I have a wish list of two items after this week. The first is that there is a new generation of open source discussion software that is highly configurable. The second is that there are better online courses and that the first few lessons can be taken for free. I think about Amazon.com, which lets people preview the table of contents and some of the book before purchase.
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John, I see from your wiki that you say you have a contact at the school for information. Can I be that contact going forward? I am the Executive Director of Communications. I can get you any information you need. Email me at jlyons@pavcsk12.org . Thank you, Joe Lyons
ReplyDeleteWow, look at that post! Someone is watching us, or you!!
ReplyDeleteThe issue of trial runs is interesting. From my experience with the IB courses, and to a certain extent from this course, is that have a long Add/Drop period is very problematic. True, you are talking about a long Drop period only, but even that is difficult because students who are not enamored of a course don't participate--and I think that the first few weeks are really important in setting the tone and expectations.
When you say discussion software, are you talking about threaded discussions like those found in our posts?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100% about previewing courses. Or better yet, offer everything, but without feedback/interactivity.
Would this class be as interesting if we didn't have the community to go along with it?
APH: IMO, the community is the most engaging part of this course. We have excellent weekly discussions. Imagine if we had our "dream" discussion boards, how much MORE people would post. In particular, I would like to post (and receive posts) a few weeks after the initial discussions. I feel like a "know" lots more each week and want to revisit posts. Sadly, I don't have the time.
ReplyDeleteProf Lowes: This is the magic of online dicssions. You create a larger digital footprint and more potential "toughpoints" with others. I am going to follow up with Joe, since he is not the contact I have. On a side note, he may have found me. I am an active Tweeter and have more educational followers than Kim Kardashian has paparazzi following her account. Not autographs, please. :-)