In his blog post, "An Aggravating and Energizing Hypothetical,"Dan Meyer responds to the claim that an effective online course could eliminate the demand for face-to-face classes. He acknowledges that online courses are useful for lecture videos and machine-scored tests (e.g., the type of courses offered by Thinkwell and many other vendors), but they lack important features that can only be found in a classroom. Specifically, he writes that the Internet does not do well with "student-student and teacher-student relationships, arguments, open problems, performance tasks, projects, modeling, and rich assessments." I have heard these criticisms before, but what of them?
What happens when online learning is your only option? What if you are interested in a subject that isn't offered locally as a face-to-face class? What if you work odd hours and can't fit a formal course into your schedule? What if you are a parent who feels compelled to homeschool your child (because she consistently fails to learn in a traditional school setting or suffers from emotional issues, physical ailments, or behavioral problems that worsen at school)? I have met parents who were not particularly eager to take on the role of home educator—they were simply desperate for an alternative for their child. They are the ones who motivate me to work on improving the quality of online learning.
The Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS) is an online virtual high school. In-state high school students can take classes free of charge. Those who meet the entrance requirements can enroll full-time and earn a diploma. In addition to online course material, students are assigned to a teacher who is available at certain times of the week to answer questions by phone or video chat (using Skype or a similar tool). I would have to describe the courses my son has taken thru VLACS as adequate, but not exceptional. I know we can do better.
My question is: exactly how do we make the online learning experience better, especially for those who have no other options? Can we find ways to "get [and] build relationships, and build technologies that drive towards open problems and rich assessments"?
When I enrolled in an online graduate writing program, I was able to develop fairly satisfying student-student and teacher-student relationships through in-depth online discussions. The instructor, acting as a facilitator, posed interesting open-ended questions, which helped. Perhaps because written self-expression was not an obstacle for the participants, everyone was able to respond freely in forums. Together we explored our thoughts and feelings about online learning, the use of new media, ethical concerns and much more. As for rich assessments: we received feedback from the instructor; gave and received detailed peer reviews on multiple drafts; and created several electronic portfolios with reflective journals on the entire process (see my post on "Taking a Course, Receiving an Education"). Although we all agreed that face-to-face learning has some advantages, none of us would have been able to participate in the classes if they had not been offered online. Most likely, we would not have been able to enjoy the diversity of the class, either, as the participants were logging in from all over the country.
The talent of the teacher, the level of student engagement, and the effectiveness of the curriculum are all factors that contribute (or detract) from the educational experience in a course, regardless of the format. My hope is that we will get better at training teachers to be good at facilitating online courses, better at preparing students to take full advantage of what is available to them, and better at designing online materials for every style of learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment