Abstract: Despite a large increase in the number of students enrolled in online courses, published research on student experiences in these environments is minimal. This article reports the narrative analysis of a series of interviews conducted with a female student at a brick-and-mortar school enrolled in a single virtual school course. Her narratives describe a student who often struggled with the content in her online course and was reluctant to interact with her online teacher. When she interacted with people online, it was using text, because she was shy and the hardware often did not work. Darlene’s experiences, likely typical of many K-12 online students, highlight a system in need of better strategies for the design and delivery of its educational opportunities.
Note that for the past three years, half of my teaching responsibilities have been in the area of qualitative research. As such, I have adapted some of my scholarship to focus on methodological issues (such as this narrative analysis piece).
Abstract This qualitative study examined a Canadian virtual school learning experience for students and the kinds of support and assistance most frequently used and valued by students learning in a virtual environment. Students were interviewed and observed during their virtual school classes. In-school teachers were also interviewed and online teachers were also observed. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Findings indicated that during their scheduled asynchronous class time students were often assigned seatwork or provided time to work on assignments, however, students rarely used this time to complete virtual schoolwork. It was during their synchronous class time that both the students and the online teachers were most productive. Students sought assistance from local classmates before turning to their online teacher or in-school teachers, and did not use the other support systems provided by the virtual school.
Résumé Cette étude qualitative a porté sur une expérience canadienne d’apprentissage pour les élèves en école virtuelle ainsi que les types de soutien et d’aide les plus couramment utilisés et prisés par les étudiants qui font des apprentissages dans un environnement virtuel. Les étudiants ont été interviewés et observés pendant leur cours virtuels. Des enseignants travaillant à l’école ont également été interviewés et des enseignants travaillant en ligne ont aussi été observés. Les données recueillies ont été analysées à l’aide de la méthode comparative constante. Les résultats démontrent que pendant leur temps de class asynchrone déterminé, les étudiants se faisaient souvent donner du travail individuel ou donner du temps pour travailler à leurs devoirs. Toutefois, les étudiants utilisaient rarement ce temps pour effectuer des travaux scolaires virtuels. C’était durant leur temps de classe synchrone qu’à la fois les étudiants et les enseignants en ligne étaient les plus productifs. Les étudiants faisaient appel à l’aide de leurs pairs locaux avant de recourir à leur enseignant en ligne ou aux enseignants travaillant à l’école et ils n’utilisaient pas les autres systèmes de soutien fournis par l’école virtuelle.
This is the long awaited overview article from my dissertation. This is actually the second article from my dissertation, as I added a context chapter that was published prior to the submission of my dissertation. In addition, I hope to craft a specific manuscript from each of the three research questions over the next few months. I also have one article in press, one manuscript under review, and one manuscript under revising from data taken from the four participants that I had to exclude from my dissertation study due to incomplete data sets. So I am hoping that in the end my dissertation will result in eight different articles.
It has actually been a good thirty days for me, as since 11 June – including this article – I have had four that have made it into print:
In an attempt to “create and publish a post that includes one embedded piece of media… [and] try to engage your audience by including a discussion question after you have embedded the media,” as was the task for the Day 4 – 7 Days To A Better EduBlog, I wanted to discuss one of the videos posted by Elizabeth Murphy related to her work on K-12 online teaching.
Can you teach music over the Internet? How? Can you teach with Youtube? Nirvana? Piczo? Audacity? Billboard? Newsfeeds? Can you teach in a way that is engaging for the learner?
What does it mean to be a learner-centered teacher of music in a technology-mediated context? I created this video to answer this question. The video is a knowledge mobilization outcome that is part of of a collaborative inquiry in which Andrew Mercer(the teacher profiled in the video) and Andrea Rose, School of Music, Memorial University are participating.
In listening to the music teacher, Andrew Mercer, talk about how he uses technology to engage his students in the online environment I was impressed by the range of tools being used beyond the virtual classroom and the course management system – from Piczo to RSS feeds to podcasting to YouTube. However, what I didn’t hear was much beyond the typical notion that teachers need to be where the students are already. I find this idea that we need to meet the students where they live an interesting one, because it assumes that somehow the environment they inhabit is one that is better for learning or that it is better for teachers to teach in their world than for the teacher to expect them to learn in “our world” (and I put “our world” in quotes because somehow the world of the teacher has become an old, antiquated and even useless space). My good friend Darren has made several videos focused solely upon this premise – that teachers need to inhabit (or at least teach from) the world’s their students inhabit (see Top Education Videos of 2009-2010 for some recent examples).
I often discuss with my colleagues – both teachers who are proficient with technology and with other educational technology faculty – why technology has had so little impact upon education. Some would argue that it is because many school’s haven’t had access to technology, although I think the work of Larry Cuban has called that notion into question. Others have argued that it is because teacher’s haven’t been trained to integrate technology effectively into the classroom, but that would essentially means that all of the technology integrations courses in all of the teacher education programs across Canada and the United States were ineffective (which I’d suggest was highly unlikely). More have argued that it is the older teachers that don’t use technology and influence novice teachers into following the same patterns, but the recent research from Walden University seems to blow that myth out of the water.
So there are two questions here in my opinion… Should teachers make the effort to teach using the technology today’s students are using? If so, how are we going to get them to do that? Some will say that the nature of today’s student demands that we do. I’d remind those folks that the vast majority of research points to the fact that generational differences are largely overstated – and the ones related to technology and how students think or learn are total fabrications.
I know that there has been a persistent argument within the K-12 online learning field about the need for online learning because of the students’ pervasive access to and use of technology. If you’ve ever heard one of the opening address that Susan Patrick has given at any of the last three or four Virtual School Symposiums, than you’ve heard that line of reasoning. Personally, I believe in what the research tells me. The research indicates that students don’t learn differently today than they have in previous generations. The research is also fairly consistent in telling me that computer-assisted instruction (from technology integration to online learning) has minimal effects on student achievement. The research has shown that teacher effects can have a significant impact, which means that a good teacher – with or without technology – can have a meaningful affect on their students.
Some time ago, I attended a conference on teaching and learning held at the University of Windsor. One of the staff at their Centre for Teaching and Learning gave me a button that read: “Pedagogy before technology.“ And that is something I fear we have lost in this quest to teach where the students live.
At about the four minute mark, Andrew says, “I’m not interested in incorporating technology into my teaching practice unless there is a valid, pedagogical use for it.“ For me, this is the question we should be asking – not “Should teachers make the effort to teach using the technology today’s students are using? If so, how are we going to get them to do that?” What is the pedagogical value of using that shining object?
But that’s just me. What do you think? As you watch this video, what are your first impressions? After you’ve had a chance to sit back and mull it over, what about the video touched you the most? Why?
An article I wrote with my long-time collaborator Dr. Dennis Sharpe, titled An Examination of Rural Secondary Students’ Post-Secondary Education Decisions, has been published in the Winter 2010 issue of the Canadian Journal of Career Development. The abstract:
Canadian post-secondary education policies are increasingly oriented toward increasing the educational participation and attainment levels of under-represented groups such as rural populations. To better understand how rural students’ post-secondary education decisions are influenced, this study utilized logistic regression analyses in an examination of survey data from 1,169 graduating rural students at 72 rural schools across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We observed that rural students’ decisions to continue education at the post-secondary level are strongly influenced by academic factors, and that first-generation students and students who do not consider student loans to be a funding option for them are at a particular disadvantage. The results also suggested that the choice between university and non-university studies is significantly impacted by academic factors, gender, and after school activities, but less dependent on rural students’ sources of financial support.
While I haven’t had a chance to read the blog, in my interactions with Dale he has indicated that one of the variables they considered was whether the student had completed an online course through the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation, the province’s virtual high school.
I forgot to post notice of this article when it was first published.
A colleague of mine, back on Saturday, alerted me to the fact that this article had finally been published on 
