Virtual High School Meanderings

November 5, 2009

Poll: Best Practices In Online Teaching Case Studies

Continuing the monthly polling feature, I want to use the next two months as a way to generate some data that will assist in a project that I am currently preparing.  A few years back, Iowa State University and a series of partners received some funding to create the Good Practice to Inform Iowa Learning Online’ case studies.  My understanding of the purpose of these case studies was to outline specific issues related to teaching online that virtual school teachers could use as a reference.  If you look at the list of topics, you’ll note that they are very science and very lab-based.  The project that I am outlining would take a more general approach to online teaching and I am wondering what issues related to online teaching you would like to see address.

As such, I would ask that you respond to the poll below.  Please note that PollDaddy requires at least two responses, so I included two general issues related to online teaching that I could think of, but I am more interested in having folks use the “Other” box to make additional suggestions.

This month (and next) we’ll have a two part poll.  About half way through the month I’ll take everyone’s responses and create a new poll to see how popular each of your suggestions are.  Thanks for participating…

September 26, 2009

Virtual School Teaching Internships

flvs_logoI guess this is kind of a Florida Virtual School (FLVS) themed few days.  As I was exploring the FLVS website yesterday for the FLVS: Completed Research Projects entry, I came across a page marked “University Partnerships“.

http://www.flvs.net/areas/aboutus/Pages/UniversityPartnerships.aspx

The page itself describes FLVS’s openness to partnerships with universities and states:

These collaborations include grant partnerships, research opportunities, professional development for teachers and pre-service teacher observation/internship opportunities in our virtual classrooms.

What is interesting is that immediately following that statement is a section that is specifically devoted to:

Pre-Service Teacher Program
The demand for online education is growing and FLVS’s pre-service teacher program is the most innovative in education today. There is no other place where education majors can work in an online classroom. According to NACOL ‘s “Keeping Pace” report, 44 states have online learning programs. A Sloan Consortium report estimated 1,030,000 students engaged in online courses. This was a 47% increase from 2005-2006. Faced with the fast-paced expansion of online education, FLVS decided to open this school in an effort to help education majors prepare for the 21st century classroom.

We offer opportunities for students to complete their observation requirements in our classrooms along with internship placement up to 14 weeks in the classroom of a clinically-trained, supervising teacher. Please click here to see pre-service teachers’ work and reflections of their time spent in our classrooms.

The presentation is worth the 5 to 8 minutes to takes to watch.  Anyway, this got me wondering how many other virtual school programs have relationships with teacher education programs where they are allowing pre-service teacher education students to complete their student teaching or teaching internships (whichever terms you happen to use) in a virtual school.  And when I use these terms I am not thinking about a teaching practicum that often comes earlier in the program to give students some exposure to the classroom (brick-and-mortar or virtual), maybe even teach a lesson.  I’m thinking of situations where the students spend a full semester doing nothing other than being in a classroom to teach (and in theory be mentored into that role in some systematic way).

I’m going to assume that the FLVS example has something to do with the University of Central Florida program that I last discussed in the entry Student Teaching Online.  And I know that the Teacher Education Goes into Virtual Schooling (TEGIVS) program at Iowa State University also has an internship component (and it dawns on me that when I examine the TEGIVS tag for this blog I have never written an entry totally devoted to the TEGIVS program, so I’m going to have to change that).  In addition, I do know of a number of other programs that do have the practicum components where students get exposed to virtual schooling, its environment and have some limited opportunities to teach.

So, are there other university programs or virtual schools out there that do similar kinds of student teaching or teaching internship program?

August 22, 2009

Article – Learning to Teach Online: What Works for Pre-service Teachers

jecrI saw this in my RSS feed yesterday – Journal of Educational Computing Research – New Issue Alert from Educational Research Journals.  One of the articles listed in the latest issue was:

Journal of Educational Computing Research
Issue: Volume 40, Number 3 / 2009
Pages: 357 – 376

Learning to Teach Online: What Works for Pre-service Teachers

Heather E. Duncan, University of Wyoming
John Barnett, University of Western Ontario

Abstract: While opportunities for online learning are increasing in K-12 education, few teacher education programs include courses on online teaching and learning. Using Garrison and Anderson’s (2003) Community of Inquiry framework, this qualitative study explored the educational experiences of pre-service teachers in an experiential online course designed to teach about online teaching. Students explored aspects of online education and created a multi-media teaching module. The study highlighted the need for pre-service teacher education programs to design learning experiences that equip the next generation of teachers with the skills required to teach 21st century students in a variety of media that accommodate a diversity of learning styles.

I took a quick look in my library’s online holdings and was able to access the article right away.  The “Purpose of the Study” section on page 359 reads:

This empirical study followed a unique, experiential, online course for pre-service educators, the objective of which was to introduce them to online teaching. Using a social constructivist approach to teaching and learning with technology, the aim was to create a community of inquiry that focused on engagement of participants in the educational experience through interaction, collaboration, and reflection.

The purpose of this study was first to explore the educational experience of pre-service student teacher participants as they learned about teaching and learning online. The focus was in three areas using Garrison and Anderson’s Community of Inquiry framework: these areas were the cognitive domain, the social domain, and the teaching domain (Garrison & Anderson, 2003; Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). The second objective was to dialogue and reflect with students on how to improve the online educational experience, and thus contribute to the ongoing conversation on effective online pedagogy.

The research questions guiding this study were:

  1. What are the educational experiences of pre-service teachers in an online course on online teaching?
  2. What can instructors do to enhance the online learning experience for students?

Looks to be interesting and fairly unique.  The only major research that had been done in this area to date has been the work by Teacher Education Goes into Virtual Schooling folks.

July 15, 2009

Online Education Technology Degree Opportunities

This showed up in my inbox yesterday and I don’t know much about it, nor do I endorse the specific programs they have listed below.  Having said that,it appears that for those folks who may be interested MindStreams will pay the application fees and graduation fees of any teacher who may be interested in completing a degree programs from one of their partners.  All you have to do is attend one of the two webinars listed below.

As I know that may of my readers are online teachers, I felt that I should pass this opportunity on and let those individuals who are interested and attend the webinar make the decision about quality of the particular degree programs on their own.  Note that I do not endorse any of these programs and caanot speak to the quality (or lack thereof) for any specific program, that is for you to determine!

I just wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on a legitimate opportunity, particularly one that could save them money, because they didn’t know about it.

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Here is an example of some of the newly added online degree programs that can help propel your career in the Education field and emerge you as a leader with K-12 technology integration.

  • Master of Education in e-Learning Technology and Design
  • Master of Education in K-12 Instructional Technology Master of Education in K-12 Instructional Technology: Teacher Licensure
  • Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction: Technology
  • Master of Science Technology Management

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Click Here to sign up for more information or if you have any questions

image Mind Streams

March 6, 2009

SITE 2009: The Chester Area Cyber School: How Innovative Technology Has Transformed High School Completion For Hutterite Students

The final session that I thought was relevant to my K-12 online learning audience (see SITE 2009: K-12 Online Learning Presentations – Friday, 06 March) for both today and for the conference was:

The Chester Area Cyber School: How Innovative Technology has Transformed High School Completion for Hutterite Students

Authors:
Allen Whitlatch, South Dakota State University, USA
Maren Fischer, Chester Area School, USA

Abstract:
The Hutterites are a communal branch of the Anabaptists, and like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to 1528 and the radical reformation of the 16th Century. Though the Hutterites still separate themselves from contemporary American or Canadian life; within their communities usage of modern technology is proliferating, particularly in South Dakota. The Hutterite Colonies in South Dakota had previously educated their children to the 8th grade level as common practice. Now, in conjunction with the Chester Area School of Chester South Dakota, students in 25 of the 54 colonies in South Dakota are receiving a high school education, aligned to the South Dakota State Standards, via WebCT 6 and tightly controlled intranet. Prevailing over considerable barriers along the way, Chester Area Cyber School will graduate its first class of Hutterite seniors in May of 2009.

View PowerPoint Presentation

The Chester Area Cyber School began in 2005, beginning with English 1, Pre-Algebra, Computer 1, and Physical Science.  Currently 250 students across 25 Hutteries colonies across the eastern side of South Dakota, with about a half dozen teachers working at the cyber school.  The Hutterites have “survived well over four centuries as a radical experiment in communal living described as ‘community of goods’”.  The first language of the students is Hutterish (and I may have spelled this wrong), which is a common combination of German and Swiss – so English is a second language for them and they only begin to learn English when they begin Kindgarten in the communal school (although they continue to take one hour of German school until the age of 16).

As a community, there is a total separation of church and state, they refuse to bear arms or participate in existing social or political institutions.  They are currently educated in brick-and-mortar community schools from K-8.  They are primarily farmers and have become known for their incorporation of technology into their farming industry, so the cyber school to provide education was seen as a logic extension of that innovation technology use.

The program is run on an Intranet (not Internet) using WebCT.  WebCT e-mail was used initially, but it allowed students to communicate with fellow students from other colonies, so the elders changed the system to only allow students to e-mail their teachers.  Being run on an Intranet, students do not have access to the Internet, which hinders some of the capability of the online program.

The students take their cyber school courses in a lab-style environment within each of the colonies.  Each “lab” has a full-time site facilitator or site mentor.  The colonies are encompassed within a four hour drive radius.

The first class will graduate this June (June 2009) and will have 27 students.  In their initial in-take years, they had a number of adult students who have enrolled.  So, some classes have students that range in age from 14 years old to 40 years old.

A truely unique program…

Addendum: Allen called Maren for me after the presentation and I had a chance to follow-up on some of these items with her.  Not all of the sites have full-time site facilitators.  Actually, only 8 have full-time folks and most of these indviduals have some education background.  At some of the sites one of the elemntary school teachers acts as the site facilitator during the evenings.

In terms of locations, the cyber school students’ “lab” is located in a variety of locations, depending on the colony.  Some are located in the elementary school, some are located in another public building, while some are located in an old house on the colony.

The teachers are all based in Chester, teaching both from a single location (i.e., the school headquarters) and often from home.  Teachers visit the various colony sites on a regular basis.

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