Week 10: Virtual Schooling/Distance Education

Virtual school and distance education I think are tricky subjects to tackle.  I speak from personal experience when I say I know the pros and cons of both.  I took two online distance learning courses to fulfill general college requirements at UVA.  While we're looking at VS/DE for younger students, I will briefly tell about some of my own experiences.  

I took these courses because they were general classes that just needed to be fulfilled.  They were much cheaper than taking summer courses at UVA and as they came off the pre-approved list, there was no worry about the credits transferring and the grades would not be factored into my overall gpa either.  They were also convenient as all I needed was a computer and some time to complete my assignments.  I was able to work full time and take these courses at the same time without a problem.  If you take a summer course at UVA, four hours straight in the middle of the day everyday of the week is taken up by that class.  

Those are some of the benefits of VS/DE at the college level.  I'm sure some of those are similar for certain options of VS/DE in primary and secondary school as well.  There were some cons, though.  I missed having the information presented to me via lecture or (dare I say?) powerpoint.  There's something nice about being to hear the information from someone else rather than only reading it to yourself out of a book.  It was also difficult to communicate with the teachers at times.  Technology has a wonderful way of failing me, so posting to discussion boards did not always happen when it should have happened.  At last (for now), I'm a huge procrastinator, so I'd be faced with the dilemma of having to teach myself a chapter and completing the work on it all within one evening.  Needless to say I stressed myself out more than usual.  At least when you attend a lecture you're able to absorb some of the information without needing to do the reading.  Overall, I did fine and fulfilled the necessary requirements, but sometimes the frustration was so high that I wondered if it was worth it.

With other forms of VS/DE I really like the aspect of working with schools in other places directly or helping keep kids on track in their studies when they are unable to attend school.  In some cases where homeschooling may have been necessary, I think VS can take some stress off parents who aren't sure how to teach their homebound kids or don't have the ability to not work so that they can.  Also, with VS, students are able to work when they have the time and still receive feedback from their teachers.  Their grades are logged so if they are able to, they can join right back in at the school when the time comes.  

Working with schools in other locations has so many possibilities it's hard to name them all.  Basically, the value in learning about a place from the people who live there and experience it on a daily basis is incredible.  Students also relate well to other students and want to make friends with new people in new places, so the novelty and excitement is there in these types of projects.  Also, I believe that these projects can really allow kids to take ownership of their work and what they are doing which is also important in teaching.  Kids can connect with other schools in different places or if you have students from around the world, they can head up the project on a specific country and feel proud of from where they come.  The benefits really are there if technology is used appropriately and consistently.  

Week 6: Podcasting

• Implementing projects like this can be a real challenge for teachers. Based on your experience creating a group podcast, what do you perceive are the greatest challenges to successfully completing a project like this with students?
• What are some things a teacher could do ahead of time, during the project and after the students have recorded to make this process more efficient in class?
• If doing a podcast in class is not an option, what are some other ways you could give interested students the experience of making a podcast in school?

I think there could possibly be many challenges to creating a podcast with a group of students. Student organization is always tricky. If students are doing it in a similar manner to ours, being assured that all students will create their script at home and not let down their teammates is a big one. If this does happen, what does the rest of the team do to ensure their grades are not extremely diminished? These kinds of things must be planned for in advance.
I think that just working with technology in general can be very confusing, so making sure that students are very familiar with the program before they begin to put the podcast together is very important.

I think the most important thing that a teacher can do ahead of time is prepare students for this project by fully explaining the technology being used and the expectations for this project. Give an in-depth tutorial and provide students with a rubric so that they know and understand the expectations explicitly. If a student becomes confused during this project with the technology or what they should be doing, it may take the teacher away from the rest of the class because one on one help would be necessary. During the project there will of course by small problems. The teacher needs to be prepared to be actively involved while students are working on the project. After the project, the teacher may want to take the time to post the podcasts rather than having the students do this. S/he may also want to convert them. Unless it's a class like ours, the content will most likely be more important than the small technical issues and with younger students, it may be too much.

Students can most likely create a podcast in school with a little extra help from the teacher. If they have the topic and the information, the teacher can facilitate the project without taking class time to do it. The student can use a digital voice recorder that is not the computer and complete the audio portion at home. Once transferred to the computer, the student can do the majority of the work on his/her own after school or during freetime. I think as long as the teacher is there to act as a facilitator and the student is taking ownership of the project, it is completely plausible to complete a podcast. The student can even create one for a project by downloading all the programs to his/her home computer.