Summary of Week 3 Research into the Teaching of K-12 Online Learning

The research is abundant in the area of K-12 teaching as in applies to online learning. Students today are 21st Century learners, and teachers who did not grow up in this area are finding it hard to adjust their teaching style to accomodate this new style of learning. Professional development for teachers needs to do a better job of getting them the tools necessary to adapt. This lesson has a lot of research to back up the benefits of online instruction. Above everything else, the 2 videos that spoke no words and just held up signs, said it all!

Research into the Facilitation of K-12 Online Learning

The second lesson of week 3 in the Virtual School MOOC, dealt with research into the facilitation of K-12 online learning. The followup activity asked us, do you agree that facilitators play an important role in online learning? Why or why not? I think that facilitators are absolutely important. The reason is that we are still dealing with kids. Like it or not, kids will still try to get out of anything that they can and do as little as possible to get by. They still need someone to keep them in check with the expectations of the online class. Students are still learning the skills necessary to be successful, so a facilitator can aid in this process for the student. If the student isn't already self-motivated, without a facilitator they would fail in most cases.

Research into the Teaching of K-12 Online Learning

Week 3 of the Virtual School MOOC reviewed the research into the teaching of K-12 online learning. I had a hard time choosing which two resources to include in my blog. As I went through several of these, I did find the two that stuck out for me personally. First, I found that the Georgia Virtual School Teacher Education Research and Trends by Dr. Joe Cozart impressed me. The one thing that stood out was that educators can hold the students more accountable. They can see exactly how much time they are spending on the lessons. The correlations with how many discussion responses to the success in the class as it relates to grades. I feel that you can't sit in a class online and not participate. In the classroom, a student can hide in the back and not participate. The other resource that stood out to me was the North Carolina Virtual Public Schools: Transitioning from face-to-face to online instruction by Janice Silver. The three videos are very powerful. Absolutely nobody could watch these videos and not understand that we have to change the way we plan the lessons for our curriculum.

iNACOL National Standards for Quality Online Courses

After reviewing this weeks MOOC lessons, I was given the task to critique the iNACOL National Standards for Quality Online Courses. I'm  a novice in this area, therefore I found this to be a difficult task. These standards give good guidance to programs that offer online courses. It is a good way for others to measure those classes to make sure they are quality programs. I look forward to learning more in this MOOC, so I may be able to offer a better critique of these standards.



International Council for K-12 Online Learning. (2007). National standards for quality online courses. Vienna, VA: Author. Retrieved from http://www.inacol.org/resources/nationalstandards/NACOL%20Standards%20Quality%20Online%20Courses%202007.pdf

Summary of Research into K-12 Online Learning

While answering the blog question at the end of the report on Research into K-12 Online Learning, I covered the summary portion of this topic. In this blog I want to discuss the importance of this topic. The most important thing in this topic is for researchers to understand the direction that needs to be taken in regards to online learning. The fact that most of the past research has been asking is it successful, has only helped the critics case against online learning. We need to focus the research on what makes these programs successful or unsuccesful. We need to make those that fear this type of education understand that it is a means to aid the current way education is presented, as well that it is a way to reach those students that we are losing to things such as dropping out of school, falling behind, etc. In order to make current online programs better, teachers and students alike need to be trained for this type of education!

Research into K-12 Online Learning

This weeks topic in the Virtual School MOOC, is on reasearch into K-12 online learning. I gathered from this report, that much more research is needed in this area. However, the the current research has been asking the wrong question. The research moving forward needs to be what makes online learning successful or not successful. Also, educators look at online learning as a threat. They think that online learning is trying to replace teachers. This is simply not true. Online learning is a new means to the same outcome everyone is striving for--student success. These teachers need to be worried about getting the appropriate professional development in order to join the fight. We can reach a whole new group of learners in this format that were lost in their current style of education. It does not surprise me that it takes more skills to be an instructor in an online or blended environment. The one thing that this report confirmed for me was that there are successful online programs and unsuccessful programs, just as in the traditional brick and mortar environments. This will never change just as in won't in a face to face classroom. The thing that surprised me was the lack of research in the propler direction!

Summary of the History of K-12 Online Learning

The main thing that I take away from reading about the history of K-12 online learning, is that it's going to take time to get it where we want it. I didn't realize how far distance education dated back. I know that we are moving in the right direction for students, but we must stick it out in order to change education the way we know it. We are on the right path, but there are still several obstacles to overcome. Clark (2006, Clark, in press) described a number of these issues that we must overcome. The three big ones he discussed are policymakers, public attitude, and local schools. The fact that colleges and universities have embraced distance education, will force the hands of those people. Students must gain experience in this avenue before moving on to college.

Clark, T. (in press). The evolution of distance and online education in American schools. In M. G. Moore, (ed.), Handbook of Distance Education, 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.