Week+5+Reflection

• What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning? • The flexibility to create activities and the ability to interact with students on a 24;7 basis is extremely important for teachers and students. Any teacher could appreciate being able to design a course in her/his own time, and have the ability to create activities as they see the need. Also, the ability to keep records of students’ usage and participation can be very beneficial for record keeping. The world is changing, and education is changing too. We all expect a prompt response for any issue we have, and students are looking for the flexibility of online learning and the ability to reach teachers when it is needed. Teachers can also see this as the potential of reaching a lot of young minds that could not be reached before. In a professional aspect, it is very rewarding to be able to expand your career opportunities by being able to learn a new skill that is very desirable in the current market. I could see myself using this resource with current and future students. • How will you professionally use your course that you designed? • At first, I could only think on how to use the course I created with students. Since I looked at the grade-level data, I chose to create a course about main idea. I thought that the students could benefit from having a different point of view and activities of the same TEKS. Late I realized that the data reflected an issue for all students and teachers. I plan to share my course with other teachers around my grade level and school. Since it is such a general topic, I could see third to fifth grade teachers being able to use the documents and activities stored in the course. I plan to add them as students too, so they can see the course from the students’ point of view. I believe this would be very beneficial for teachers since they can share resources and view the questions that other students may be asking. • Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer? • I would really like to integrate online learning as a teacher and for staff development. I am still concerned about the issue of access. I work at a title 1 school and we have many programs that are required for students to use at school. Currently my students are using programs such as Achieve 3000, First in Math, and Compass Odyssey just to mention some. I am concerned about the time restraints. Only about 30% of my students have computers with internet access at home, so unfortunately to expect from them right now to be part of this additional program would be difficult. On the other hand, on the area of professional development I see a lot of potential on this resource. Most professionals currently struggle with schedule conflicts, specially trying to plan professional development during the summer. I think this online environment provides the flexibility and interaction with others that many of us are looking for. • What questions do you still have about online learning? • My major question and concern about online learning is the integrity of the grades. Most adults understand the lack of purpose on having another person completing assignments or tests. Unfortunately, I fear that some students may not see the consequence on having an older sibling or friend complete an online test for them. I wonder what kind of checkpoint or policies can put into place to prevent this from happening. I am aware that for us there is a risk of exclusion from the program, but we are all paying to learn and there is not point for cheating. I do not know if younger students will feel the same way about it. I still have questions on how districts will integrate this to the current curriculum, and how they will decide what classes will be offered this way. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">• <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What will you do with this new learning? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">• <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This has been a very interesting course. I plan to continue learning more about the creation of online courses, and to utilize other programs that have the same purpose of Schoology to see what other options are available. I would like to work on a professional development course to share with other teachers at my school during the summer. I would also like to create mini-lessons utilizing this delivery method for my students next year. I have seen my students very excited about the social networking aspect of learning this way. Although they are only fourth graders I can see that they see the value of talking and helping each other during the learning process. Many students that will not raise their hand in class are willing to post a question on a discussion board or to send a message to a teacher on this online environment. I plan to take advantage of that. Type in the content of your page here.