One of my professors recently co-wrote an article about virtual school in the K-12 setting. Dr. Ferdig's article is a great help toward my goal of designing an online education program designed for students of exceptional education. It was nice to hear testimonials from the Michigan Virtual School (MVS). As reported in this article, it is difficult to find research that reports on the teachers' accounts of the research and results. I like how Dr. Ferdig and his associates focused on the importance of interaction between the educator, the designer and the students. This article quoted "The selection and coordination of pedagogy, technology, and content is a primary task for teachers in order to provide students with quality online learning opportunities" (Kurtz, Beaudoin, & Sagee, 2004a; Olson & Wisher, 2002). I appreciated the easy to read chart, identifying behavior management needs in virtual school. Behavior/classroom management when it is a virtual class? Is that really necessary? I knew it would be with my kids (special needs) but I now realize it would be needed regardless of students' ages or ability levels. At the end of the article, a term was penned that I think better describes the program that I am trying to establish… hybrid. I would like to design a program that starts as face to face, using technology and the computer based learning within the classroom but moves toward a virtual classroom and distance education program that would allow me to work with my students throughout the summer, keeping them up to date with their studies, thus eliminating or drastically reducing the regression rate among exceptional education students. Thank you, Dr. Ferdig and thanks to your colleagues for making this article available to all of us.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Best Practices in Virtual Learning: Teacher View
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3 comments:
I teach an online class at a community college. Many of my students are ESOL. I find it very difficult at times to help them; between being new to the online learning environment and ESOL their drop out rate is higher than other traditional students. I have begun recommending students try and post on the discussion forum to see if anyone lives near them and they want to do a face-to-face study group. With the class sizes increasing to 38 next semester, classroom management and assisting students with more complex needs is becoming increasingly challenging.
KB
I love that you brought up the word hybrid. It seems that the most effective way of teaching is by using a mix of models. The school that I am trying to open will most definately be a hybrid as well.
Blended learning is how we describe this type of curriculum in the business sector. You mentioned the article indicated that behavior management is needed in a virtual classroom. I would have never thought about that. I guess children need direction regardless of the learning format. Great article.
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