Middle Grades Research Journal – Special Issue – Virtual Middle Grades Teaching and Learning

The editors of this special issue emailed me this call and I promised that I would pass it along.

Greetings Dr. Barbour,

Our names are Nicole Miller and Brooke Eisenbach. We are middle level researchers and teacher educators who happened across your work related to virtual schooling. We are co-editing a special issue of the Middle Grades Research Journal that centers on research in effective middle level online teaching and learning.

After reviewing your work, we wanted to share the attached call for manuscripts and encourage you to submit a paper for consideration. This special issue will focus on a variety of topics that speak to contemporary research in the realm of middle level virtual education.

Please see the call for manuscripts attached. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at: MLERHandbook@gmail.com

Thank you,
Nicole C. Miller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Elementary and Middle Level Education
Mississippi State University

Brooke Eisenbach, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Middle and Secondary Education
Lesley University

Attachment: MGRJ Call for Manuscripts – Special Volume.docx.pdf

Invitation to submit Chapter Proposal

I received this just before the holiday break and held off posting it until I thought folks were watching again.

Greetings Dr. Barbour,

Our names are Brooke Eisenbach and Nicole Miller. We are middle level researchers and teacher educators who happened across your research and scholarship centered on k12 virtual education. As members of the American Education Research Association (AERA) Middle Level Sig, we are introducing a new Handbook of Research on Middle Level Education that centers on research in effective middle level online teaching and learning. 

After reviewing your work, we wanted to share the call for chapters and encourage you to submit a chapter proposal for consideration. This edited text will feature a variety of topics that speak to contemporary research in the realm of middle level virtual education. 

Please see the call for chapters here. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at: MLERHandbook@gmail.com

We also have a proposed chapter outline for authors. 

Thank you,
Brooke Eisenbach, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Middle and Secondary Education
Lesley University

Nicole C. Miller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Elementary and Middle Level Education
Mississippi State University

 

Attachments:

• Call – Virutal MG Classroom Hndbk [FINAL] (1).pdf
• Outline – Research Hndbk Chapter [FINAL] (1).pdf

Invitation to Contribute a Chapter – Handbook of Resources for Middle Level Education

See this call for chapters…

call-handbook-of-resources-mid-level-online-classroom

K-12 Online Learning In Middle Schools

A week or so ago I posted an entry entitled Advice About Online Teaching In K-12.  One of the folks who commented on that entry wrote:

I’m so glad you asked this question.  I’m trying to learn as much as I can about what works – especially for middle school students as I prepare to teach my first online middle school class.  After 3 “semesters”  of watching our school trying to ‘discover’ the best way to provide our students a chance to participate in online learning opportunities, I’m noticing that  many of the opportunities available to middle school students assume that the learning environment is similar to high school.   For example, in the K-8 environment that I teach in,  students do not have a “study” hall or “block of time” that can be designated each day as their “online line class”.  They don’t have scheduled ‘free time’.  The week is filled with such a variety of  active learning activities that are based around ‘learning communities” that it  almost takes more “executive function”  or “responsibility”  for a middle school students to figure out how to make
it work in their week, than it does a high school student who might schedule a “study hall” every day to work on an online class.   Also, there is a huge difference developmentally between a 7th grade boy and a 7th grade girl- so how do we structure online learning that takes into account that kids in middle school might be more diverse developmentally than you might expect.  I also think that a 15 week class is a LONG time for a middle school student to sustain the pace needed to successfully complete an online class.  It seems that 5 weeks would be a more realistics amount of time for an online learning module for that age group. I would love to hear how others are successfully implementing virtual learning in middle schools. We are having some great success stories, but  for every “success”  we have, we are learning at least 2 ways NOT to do it, and I worried  that a child’s identity as a learner is being shaped by both our “successes”  and “misses”.  Scouting for advice that will work for middle school kids (Grades 5-7)

At the time I promised that I would post an entry on this topic, to try and highlight it (and also to allow others to provide suggestions).  I’ll be honest and say that this is an area where there isn’t much research.  In fact, the research articles I can pull off the top of my head are:

Litke, C. D. (1998). Virtual schooling in the middle grades: A case study. Journal of Distance Education, 13(2), 33-50. Retrieved from http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/145

In addition to this research, there are also the following other articles:

Barbour, M. K. (2002). Online learning opportunities – The middle school challenge. Principal’s Electronic Desk. Retrieved from http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20050305132800/http://www.myped.net/wwwsite/sections/middle/2002-08-13-15-53-47_article.jhtml

Revenaugh, M. (2005-2006). K–8 virtual schools: A glimpse into the future. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 60-64. Retrieved from http://www.learningdomain.com/MEdHOME/SPECIALISATIONS/K-8_Virtual_Schools_–_A_Glimpse_into_the_Future_Revenaugh_M._.pdf

Are there ones you can contribute that  have missed?