Researching Online Learning

It is amazing to think that the incredible technologies we posses today did not exist just a few short years ago. These technologies have greatly impacted every industry in the United States including education. Technology has revolutionized the way learn and the way we teach. As educators we need to either embrace this technology or get out of the way as it passes through.  One of the great milestones in technology developed for education is online learning. Online education is constantly changing and improving how it functions. It is important to keep up to date on current events in this field. Other things to take into account when thinking about online learning include the history of online learning in the K-12 environment, how online learning is currently being used K-12 settings, and the advantages versus the disadvantages of K-12 online education as opposed to traditional schools.

            The type of learning we do online today began long before Bill Gates and the Internet came about. In 1840 Isaac Pitman began offering courses through the mail. He went on to later create correspondence colleges. In 1930 the Wisconsin School of the Air began broadcasting educational radio programming, closely followed by the University of Iowa broadcasting educational television programs in 1933. In the 1930s and 1940s the military used video lessons to train soldiers on how to operate specific kinds of equipment. Stanford and Illinois began doing experiments with the concept of K-12 computer based learning in 1965 and 1966.

            After 1966, many strides in technology development were made to allow us to get to the online learning we know today. In the 1970s, telephone networks were popping up in schools. Email came about in the 1980s, as well as audio and computer conferencing to be used in educational settings. The World Wide Web began to make its debut via Timothy Berners-Lee in 1989. By the early 2000’s, technology had advanced so much that many of the previously mentioned technologies, including video conferencing, were no longer being developed and had become superfluous.

            The most basic version of the online learning we know today started in school districts in California in 1993. This was followed by the eSchool in Utah in 1994. In 1997 the Florida Virtual School began along with the Virtual School Global Consortium. Michigan revolutionized the movement of online education by being the first state to require online learning experience in order to graduate from high school.  In 2011 more than a million students were enrolled in K-12 online education. Currently, 31 states have statewide, full time, online schools. It has been predicted that more than 10 million students ranging from pre-k to 12^th grade will attend online classes by the year 2014. This graphic (Nagel, 2009) shows some of the history of online learning:

            Massive Online Open Courses, or MOOCs, are becoming very popular distance learning outlets nowadays. These courses contain traditional materials like videos, readings, and problems to work. They also include interactive forums for discussion and build a greater community among students online. MOOCs are available to many different age groups, not just K-12 students. The New York Times even named 2012 “the year of the MOOC.”

            Khan Academy is an informal online learning environment. This is not an organized school, but it does offer free online learning content. The site was created by a graduate student in 2006 and since then has delivered over 260 million lessons. It began with just instruction in math, but is branching out to other topics as well. These videos are licensed under a creative commons.

There are many different ways online learning is being used in the United States today. Different Internet schools have different purposes based on why they were created in the first place. Some of these reasons include students needing to learn at their own pace, not enough teachers, crowded school buildings, and not having enough differentiated classes available. There are also many different categories of online schools that dictate how the online learning environment is being used. Cavanaugh explains Clark’s seven different categories of online schools (Cavanaugh, 2009.) First of all, there are state-sanctioned schools that operate all across a specific state. Secondly, some colleges have created and sponsored online K-12 schools. One of these schools is the University of California College Prep Online, or UCCP. Next, there are consortium online schools run by a group of schools or even a school district. Then, there are Internet schools operated by a single school or district that are local education agency based. Virtual charter schools have become very popular as in the example of Connections Academy. There are also private virtual schools that run very much the same as traditional private schools. Lastly, there are some for-profit online schools that come through companies as vendors and deliver the courses and materials to students. These are very general categories, and there are a great variety of online schools out there and available to seeking students. The central defining characteristic of all these schools, as well as other types of distance learning, is that the teacher and the student are separated.

Research on theses different types of Internet learning is not quite complete since the concept of virtual school is quite new. This makes many people question how effective the schools are at educating students, and what the effective components of online school actually are. The longer we experiment with these schools, the more data we will have to work with. Much more data has become available in just the past few years.

Fully online programs are not the only way for students to learn virtually. Blended classrooms, flipped classrooms, and flat classrooms are becoming more and more popular in the education world. The core of Blended classrooms are multiple modalities. Blended classrooms take place mostly in an actual classroom, but students and teachers are fully utilizing technology to further the learning going on. This allows for a great amount of differentiation in the instruction each student is receiving. Students generally work at their own pace. This blending of instruction and technology can be taken home with the students for homework as well. This blended learning movement is growing rapidly in schools all over the country. Technology has nowhere to go but forward and technology is the future of our country.

Flipped classrooms take advantage of technology at home and live teacher interaction in the classroom during the day. Teachers create content for students to view online for homework each night. Then the students come into class having already heard the lesson portion of the topic. This allows the teacher to do many different activities during the class period and differentiate for their students. Students also complete what is traditionally known as homework, or practice, during the class when they can get help from the teacher and their peers. It makes much more sense to do instruction this way, with the lesson delivered in a distraction free environment, and with the actual work being done in class.

Flat classrooms are a rather new concept in the education world. Flat classrooms “remove the walls” of a school and thus make it “flat.” This allows the students to collaborate virtually with teachers and students that live all over the world. Students in other countries receive instruction virtually from teachers in the United States and students here learn from teachers all over the world. This initiative is trying to get students to be more globally and technologically minded while learning and creating strong bonds with kids of other cultures. This is also getting students to be more open-minded and be considerate of people other than themselves.

            There are many benefits of online education over traditional school. Because it occurs online there is a higher level of motivation. Combining anything with technology automatically better engages students. Students need to be engaged in what they are learning. We compare it to the metaphor that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Students need to want to learn. There is only so much teachers can do.

It also gives students access to educational opportunities they would not otherwise have. Depending on their program, they might have a wide array of specialized classes available to them. Some districts have technical schools for student to attend to take specialized classes such as auto shop, carpentry, aerospace engineering, graphic design, multimedia, and video production. However, many school districts do not have such a luxury. Online, students can take classes like these as well as foreign languages and more specified classes that may interest them.

Online learning is also great for students who are often sick, or who live rurally nowhere near a school. In many communities with few school age children or harsh weather conditions, online learning is the only option for those students to have a full educational experience.

Because online learning is greatly individualized, it is beneficial for many students. No two students learn the same way or at the same pace. Online learning environments allow for flexibility for students. Children who are gifted have the ability in online learning environments to breeze through work that is easy for them in order to complete higher level thinking activities and projects. These extensions are very difficult for classroom teachers to implement with their talented and gifted students while the teachers have a whole class full of students to accommodate for. This also works the same way with students who have learning disabilities or developmental issues that prevent them from accessing the curriculum at a traditional school. The curriculum can be specified for that specific student and they can receive individual assistance every step of the way.

Another benefit to online school is the life skills that are taught with it. Study skills, self-motivation, and time management are necessary to success in online school. If a child has no desire to learn, they are not going to get their work done. They must be diligent and motivated to work. They also need to manage their time wisely because they do not have a teacher standing over their shoulder saying “keep going” or “you have ten more minutes.” These life skills are needed in the real world, and while children can acquire them at traditional school, an emphasis is placed on those skills in an online environment.

            There are also many disadvantages to virtual education. Even though there are many opportunities available online that are not available in traditional school, there are also many opportunities available in traditional school and not online. Primarily this comes into play in elective classes. Hands on classes are especially difficult. Physical education is hard to maintain on the Internet, as well as art and music. You cannot be in an orchestra over the Internet. Even if you were to “Skype” into an orchestra program it would still not have the same feel. Some online schools allow students to go into public traditional school for classes such as these, but for other children that is not an option, and they are missing out on valuable opportunities.

 Because there is no face-to-face contact in online education, it can be difficult for teachers to “read” their students and determine what their students have learned and still need to learn. It is easy for a teacher to glance around the room and see which of their students are working and which are off task. They can also glance around the room and gauge which children understand and which need further explanation. This is not possible online and students need to learn to advocate for themselves and ask questions when they don’t understand a concept.

Online education also removes a much needed socialization aspect of traditional school. So much of what elementary students learn at school is how to interact with their peers, work in groups, and resolve conflict. If students are learning by themselves online they are not gaining those valuable life skills.

            All in all, online education has an interesting history. This format of learning will become more and more popular as the years pass and as technology continues to become more prevalent in our society. There are many advantages and disadvantages to online learning environments. It is impossible to say that one is better than the other because they are so different. It depends entirely on the specific student and which learning option is a better fit for them. Students and their parents should weigh the pros and cons of each type of learning carefully before making a decision one way or the other. One thing is for sure: technology is education will continue to grow. 

  

Compare and Contrast

This was a difficult compare and contrast table to complete because of all the different kinds of traditional schools and the different kinds of online schools. I put characteristics into categories based on generalizations about each kind of learning environment. There are many exceptions, however.

Traditional Learning Environments	Both Online and Traditional	Online Learning Environments
-Face to face time with students and teachers -Rigid structure -Socialization with peers -Programming greatly affected because of budget cuts   -Has been successful in the past	-Receive similar curriculum -Free public school options -All content areas are covered -Standardized state testing required	-More flexible schedule -Students learn at their own pace -Less distractions than at a school building -Students need to be more self motivated -Programs are rapidly growing -Technology is necessary

Bibliography

Archambault, L., & Crippen, K. (2009). Examining TPACK among k-12 online distance educators in the United States. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 71-88.

Barbour, M. (2010, February 1). The history or k-12 online education [Blog post]. Retrieved from Virtual School Meanderings website: http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/the-history-of-k-12-online-education/ 

Cavanaugh, C. (2009). Research and practice in k-12 online learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 

Clark, T. (2013). Virtual schooling MOOC. Retrieved August 13, 2013, from

http://virtualschoolmooc.wikispaces.com/history

Gabriel, T. (2011, April 6). More pupils are learning online, fueling debate on quality. The New York Times, Education, p. A1. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/education/06online.html?pagewanted=all 

Nagel, D. (2009). 10.5 million prek-12 students will attend classes online by 2014. Transforming Education Through Technology. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/10/28/10.5-million-prek-12-students-will-attend-classes-online-by-2014.aspx 

Online learning: The pros and cons of k-12 computer courses. (2011, June 11). Huffington Post, Education. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/ 04/12/online-learning-pros-and-cons_n_848362.html

Experiencing Free Online Courses

I decided for my online course to attend a webinar. The webinar I attended was through the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and it was designed for teachers. It was called Memory in the Classroom. I have never previously attended a webinar and it was a very interesting experience. I like how I can be in my PJs in the comfort of my own home, but still learning. I also like how it is interactive and I can type a question to have the presenter answer. However, other than the ability to ask questions, it doesn’t seem that much different than watching a video. I have been doing a lot of research about flipped classrooms lately and this seems comparable. The downside to a webinar versus a video is that you have to be watching at a specific time. Videos are available whenever you want to watch them. I think that I am still much more likely to attend a professional development session through a webinar or a video rather than having to go somewhere.

I do not think my third graders would respond well to instruction delivered in this way. I found myself multi tasking and getting distracted during the presentation. I could imagine that my students would get distracted as well. Unless you make them take a quiz or do some kind of response there is no accountability for paying attention and learning. Also, the webinar format is mimicking actual direct instruction in a classroom minus the human contact. My students do not do well when I am talking at them for any length of time. I think that they need the human contact of me walking around and checking in on them. I also think that this kind of instruction is for the school day. Making them attend a webinar after school would just be adding to their school day. It would be different if it were a flipped classroom situation and the direct instruction were done at home and the practice and small groups were done in school.

            I learned a lot of really interesting things from this webinar. They gave us several strategies to help increase our students’ focus and memory. The instructor emphasized the importance of making lessons emotionally meaningful for the students. We learned some brain anatomy and how the hippocampus helps us keep memories. When we are stressed out, we do not store memories at all! So the presenter gave us ways to stop the build of stress. Some of these include yoga, deep breathing, laughter, reading, and music. Getting up and moving will help improve memory as well as increase focus. These are all tactics that I would like to try with my students.

            While listening to and watching the presentation I was reading along with the chat of all the teachers attending the webinar. One was saying that she had an antsy kiddo in her math class that she couldn’t deal with. So she challenged the kid to jump throughout the whole lesson. And they had to jump as long as they possibly could while still listening to the instruction and paying attention. My first reaction is that my kids wouldn’t pay attention if they were jumping, but now I really want to try it.  

I think that I would definitely attend a webinar again. It is a really great way for teachers with a limited amount of time and money to gain new knowledge and continue to be life-long-learners. There are so many free webinars out there for us to take advantage of. When I was looking for a webinar to do this assignment on, I found several others that I signed up for, just to learn something new.  I will continue to seek out webinars as a source of new information to help myself become a better teacher.

Evaluation of Technology Assessment Tools

In this day and age, there are many assessment tools available to educators. Assessment has become such a huge component of teaching and the technology behind it has needed to stay up to date in order to be effective. Assessment used to be quite simply teaching something then testing for retention of information. This is no longer the case. We still have summative, formal assessments to ensure that our students are retaining the information we are presenting to them. But we also want to see that students can apply that information and think for themselves. We have also additionally added formative, informal assessment. This is a quick check to make sure that students are on the right track to be successful on the final test. Our assessment tools have needed to change in order to accommodate the different kinds of testing. We also need to take student learning styles into account when we are planning assessment of learning. These assessment tools are not the end-all be-all and teachers need to be able to analyze assessments for applicability and effectiveness of accurate information portrayal. Teachers have so many assessment options and it is best practice to compare and contrast several available assessment tools before choosing which tool is appropriate for a specific class.

            Two informal, formative assessment technology tools currently being used in classrooms are Edmodo and Google Forms. These sites have many similarities. Both tools give teachers a lot of control over what goes on the assessments and most everything on both is customizable. For example, on Edmodo and Google forms a teacher can create an informal assessment to check for student understanding by posing a series of short answer questions that students have to answer. This can be considered an “exit ticket” kind of assessment. Students are just doing a quick one-question quiz to show their understanding. Both of these tools are available on the Internet. So teachers can create these informal quizzes on any device with Wi-Fi. Students can also take quizzes on both these tools on any devices with Wi-Fi. Both of these assessment tools are very easy to manipulate, create content, and take said content. The biggest difficulty in using both tools in the classroom is having enough devices for students to use. While having three iPads in a classroom is very helpful, it would be quite difficult and time consuming trying to give an exit ticket quiz on Edmodo or Google Forms on just these three devices. It can definitely be done, but would require some creative planning on the teacher’s part. Having these quick understanding checks done for homework is an easy fix to this problem, as long as all of the students in the class have Internet access at home. Another use for both these tools is polling. On both sites the teacher can post a question, such as what read aloud book the class should do next, and then give multiple-choice answers for the students to choose from. Giving students choice is a really great way to get them involved in their own learning.

            Google Forms and Edmodo also have several differences in how they function as technology assessment tools. Edmodo is a student social network in that students are able to respond to one another and see each other’s responses. It works very well for having class discussions where the students are interacting. One way to use this is by posting controversial topics and asking students to post their thoughts and respond to one another. Another way to use it is to create small groups within the class group and have students discuss books they are reading in book club. Edmodo is more social and collaborative discussion assessment tool. On the other hand, Google Forms is a more independent assessment tool. Students can pull up the form the teacher has created, take the quiz, and then submit it. They cannot see anyone else’s work and once the content has been submitted, students are finished with the assessment. The way teachers are able to view student data is also different in both these tools. On Edmodo there is a gradebook where you can give students individual grades for each discussion post or question they answer. So you can view data for an individual student. You can also pull up one specific assignment and see all the students’ answers for one question. The Google Form has data very nicely laid out for the teacher. When a student submits the form, all the data is automatically plugged into a Google Doc. So all student data is on one page for easy analysis.

            Because teachers need to be taking students’ learning styles into account when planning assessment, having students create projects as a formal assessment is a very good option. Two formal and summative assessment technology tools that students can use to create final projects are Microsoft Office Powerpoint and wikis. These two assessment options have many similar qualities. Both allow students quite a bit of freedom in how they want to display the information they have learned. These both promote higher level thinking and higher level Bloom’s because students need to analyze and synthesize information as well as apply the information into a new format. Students showing application of gleaned knowledge really shows a deep understanding. Being able to regurgitate memorized facts shows little, if any, understanding of the content. Powerpoints and wikis also both allow students to work together collaboratively or independently to demonstrate their understanding. Both assessment tools allow for other technology media to be embedded in the final product. A student creating a wiki or powerpoint on comets, for example, could put a video of a comet, or photos of comets, or links to other websites about comets right into their project.

            While both are great options for project based learning assessment, there are many differences between using Powerpoints for assessment and using wikis for assessment. Powerpoints by design are very linear. They are good for oral presentations because they progress from one slide to the next. Wikis are rather non-linear with links allowing the explorer to click on different sub-topics in any order they choose. In both formats the information is delivered, just in a different way. While both wikis and Powerpoints can be created collaboratively, wikis are designed to be collaborative tools. Multiple people could be accessing and editing the wiki from different locations. It is very convenient that a student could view and edit the wiki from any device with Wi-Fi. Students working on a Powerpoint need to be in the same room on the same computer simultaneously, unless they are using a sharing device like dropbox. Even in this instance, edits made on different copies would need to be manually merged at a later time. Because wikis are online, there is also the option of people commenting on the wiki itself. This is not an option with Powerpoints, unless they are somehow posted online. Wikis are a beneficial tool, especially while collaborating, however, they require more web design and computer knowledge to create. Powerpoints are designed to be user friendly and all you really have to do is point and click and drop to create a presentation. Having students create presentations for their assessments is a really great demonstration of understanding that does not involve the stress usually related to taking traditional pencil and paper tests.  Powerpoint and wikis are different tools, but each has a specific purpose that will be helpful for different kinds of assessments. It is up to the teacher, as always, to determine which tool is the most appropriate for their students.

No two teachers give assessments in exactly the same way using the exact same tools. All students learn differently and educators need to be aware of this so we can differentiate our assessment strategies to allow all our students to show what they know in a way that works for them to be the most successful. With the wide array of technology assessment tools available to us, it is easier than ever for teachers to meet the needs of their students. However, teachers still need to be cognicent of the best possible tool for their students, which is why analysis and comparison of technology tools is a best practice much worth the time.

Technology Assessment Tools

One of the technology assessment tools I have found is called Edmodo. Edmodo is a social networking site designed for school use and because of this it is a very secure website. This assessment tool can be used for formal or informal assessments. The teacher can post a question (or multiple questions) and then delineate how they want the students to respond. The options include multiple-choice questions, short answer, paragraph/ essay, or even a poll/ survey question. These different tools can be used for a variety of assessments. This website could be used for exit tickets/ checking for understanding, survey questions (which book shall we read next?) Or even end of unit tests with multiple choice and short answer questions. This tool is very easy to use and reliable. It is Internet based, so you have access to the site from any device with Wi-Fi. This tool can definitely be used in most classrooms. The main constraint is availability to devices. If you have a computer lab that you could use weekly, or a set of iPads this could be done easily. I have four iPads for my classroom, so I will be mostly using Edmodo for my students as homework.

Another technology assessment tool I have come across in my research is Google Forms. This is a Google product and thus extremely reliable. In a Google Form the teacher can set up a test/ quiz with the questions and there are many different forms the questions can take. Some of these include multiple choice, short answer or paragraph answer. This can be used for informal checks for understanding, or even big tests with short answer questions. If there are devices prevalent this tool can definitely be accessed in lots of classrooms. I do not have a class set of devices to allow my students to use, so I will be using the forms as a teacher. I will create a form that I fill out when I am doing writing conferencing with my students. Whenever you use a Google Form you can choose to have the form collect all the information and organize it on a Google Doc for easy analysis. These forms are completely customizable and you can do a variety of things with them.

Both of these tools are extremely versatile and if you have the devices you can do so much with both of them. They can be used for formal or informal assessments with students as young as kinders and as old as college and beyond. It all depends on what you do with the tools and how you differentiate them for your setting and students.

Bibliography

Anthony, P. R. (2013, March 25). Using formative assessment to improve instruction. Retrieved July 30, 2013, from Suite 101 website: http://suite101.com/article/ using-formative-assessment-to-improve-instruction-a411400 

Deneau, B. (2012, November 19). Easy exit slip assessment [Blog post]. Retrieved from Technology That Actually Works website: http://itechbob.blogspot.com/2012/11/easy-exit-slip-assessment-using.html

Skibba, C. (2012, February 28). Making assessment meaningful [Blog post]. Retrieved from iPads at Burley website: http://ipadsatburley.blogspot.com/ 2012/02/making-assessment-meaningful.html?m=1 

District Technology Assessment Tools

There are no technology assessment tools that my district is currently requierning teachers to use in their classrooms. While I am using some tools such as Wordle, Edmodo, and Google Forms, that is a personal choice that many other teachers are not also choosing. The technology assessment I will review is a district test, not necessarily tool, one not used in the classrooms specifically.

Assessment Tool	Current Methods of Use	Other Ideas for Use
NWEA MAPS Testing North West Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress	All our students in grades K-8 take MAPS testing at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. This is a test done on computers. Teachers are given very specific feedback on their students’ abilities.	This is a very specific testing program (not a tool) and it does not have other uses. I could, however, brainstorm other uses for the data the testing provides me with.