Week 15: Final Reflections

Final blog reflection due by Tuesday
Reviewing your previous blog posts, what, if anything, has changed in your attitude toward online schools and online schooling over the past 15 weeks?

A lot has certainly changed over the past weeks. I will highlight two main changes below.

First, I used to believe that it is important to study the effectiveness of online schooling; whether they are better than traditional schools or lacking. This course has showed me that that this study might not be straightforward after all. In fact, it might be more beneficial to study what works in online schooling and apply that to traditional environment. In my interview with Dr Brian Woodfield from Brigham Young University, I took the chance to ask this question again and his reply was, “ That’s a good question? But against what?”. There are no simple benchmark targets and variables might be too many to make the comparison effective. It has taught me that instead of just focusing on the comparisons, we should perhaps think about the processes that work better for each media.

Also, I used to think that online schooling is a lonely and boring process, without the face-to-face interaction found in traditional classrooms. To a certain extent, I still think it is true but I realized that the younger generation nowadays might be as comfortable in an online environment as in a traditional one. In fact, with the explosion of social media, interaction has taken an entire different form and many face-to-face environment are tapping on its appeal to engage young learners. With the overwhelming number of online tools to enhance the social presence of students nowadays, some might argue that online learning is actually more collaborative and exciting than traditional classrooms.

Week 13: Difficult aspect of researching for final project

What was the most difficult aspect of researching this topic?

The most difficult part was finding out the design considerations of online science labs. Most of the literature was confined to studies on implementation and effectiveness of program; and not much was be found on design consideration. As a Physics teacher, I was curious to find out how designers of online science labs view virtual learning and the outcomes that was focused on during planning.

I had the privilege to interview Dr Brian Woodfield, Professor at Brigham Young University (with help from Dr Lowes). From our conversation, we talked about bringing principles that make video games successful into virtual science labs. The interview certainly opened my eyes to the world of online wet labs, gave us insights that would be difficult to gather on our own.

Week 11: Research on Virtual Schools and Virtual Schooling

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

This week, as I read through the reports, I am struck by the repeated cautions made by authors on the causality between variables and outcomes tested. For example, in IESD, Comprehensive Technical Report 2009 Evaluation of social skills of fulltime online public school students, self-assessments of the socialization skills of online students are not found to be lower than f2f students. The author further his claims that this does not mean online schools made them sociable; in this study, there was no pretesting done so students might have a active social life right from the start. The articles this week made me realized that it is easy to jump into causality, and we should practise caution when looking at these results.

Week 10: Online vs face-to-face

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

This week’s activity has set me thinking about the measurement of effectiveness of virtual schools. I used to think that measurement is straightforward and now realized that comparisons are sometimes irrelevant since there are too many variables in the first place. It has taught me that we should perhaps play more attention to what makes a system successful in the first place, rather than focus on the minor differences.

Week 9: Unit Creation

Blog: Now that you have seen what other people did in creating their units, is there anything that you might do differently if you were to redesign your own unit?

I particularly like the online survey that Adrienne and Tiffany included at the end of their course unit. It made me wonder on the importance of listening to the needs of our target, the students. I am taking a course at TC right now, called mobile phone learning. Speakers are invited to give a presentation on their niche areas every week, and we are invited to fill up a survey on the effectiveness of the session and ways that can be improved after the session. Knowing the needs of our students is important and doing so at a regular basis, instead of at the end of the course, lets the instructional designer alter the course material if necessary. In fact, this might be even more important since it is an online course where facial cues are not available. I would definitely consider including one when designing a course next time.

Week 7: Designing a unit

What are you most concerned about as you embark on creating a curriculum unit?

As a teacher and a instructional designer, I feel that it is important to identify the learning outcomes before the tools itself. As this is an online class, we might feel pressurized to whip up all the fancy web2.0 tools and use them at random in our curriculum design. As a user myself, I know that learners might not be comfortable if they have to dabble in too many online tools or deal with too many logins for one unit. It is important to identify an appropriate tool or two that facilitates and improve the learning experience of learners and utilize the potential to these tools. I believe that it is crucial to delve deep rather than dabble briefly in many things.

Week 6: Student-Student Interaction

Did you change anything in the Google spreadsheet? If so, what? Has your view of the schools you chose to research changed from the first week you looked at them? If so, how?

I have been researching for a number of schools since the first week, and K12 International Academy is one of them. In K12 International Academy, it is self-paced for K-8 and class-paced for high school. That said, little is said about the type of student-student interaction on the website. It would be interesting to observe the social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence (Garrison, 2007) in these 2 differently paced settings, for different age groups.

My views on online schools have certainly changed, in Robyler (2009), the combined perspectives of experienced virtual teachers shed light on the factors of successful online schooling. Firstly, students can be prepared to succeed, and general ability may not be as critical in determining success as some studies would seem to indicate. Secondly, the environment can be arranged to promote success; pre-course counselling and orientation can be arranged to get students ready for online schooling and to prevent misconceptions about online requirements. These are factors that can be easily overlooked, but play a critical role in facilitating student-student interaction, and successful online schooling experience.

Week 5: Teaching Perspectives Inventory

Did the results of your TPI fit your image of yourself as a teacher? Do you think the TPI results are different for the same person teaching online and face-to-face?

First of all, I would like to give some background on my Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) score.

My scores for Transmission, Apprenticeship and Nurturing are equal (33), with Developmental (31) and Social Reform (29) not far behind.

As I read more about the description of the domain, I can’t help but to agree that Developmental and Social Reform are less dominant in me. In Developmental, one needs “(1) effective questioning that challenges learners to move from relatively simple to more complex forms of thinking, and (2) 'bridging knowledge' which provides examples that are meaningful to the learner.” This is an area that teachers should and need to work on, especially when we are leaning more and more towards 21st century skills rather on content knowledge.

In Social Reform, “Good teachers challenge the status quo and encourage students to consider how learners are positioned and constructed in particular discourses and practices.” Social Reform is definitely lower on my traits, compared to Transmission, Apprenticeship and Nurturing. Maybe it was the way I was brought up, or the environment I was in; taking social action for change has never been one of my key concerns in class. Taking this test has certainly opened my eyes to the opportunities/responsibilities of effective teaching in social reform: “to change society in substantive ways.”

Do you think the TPI results are different for the same person teaching online and face-to-face? My answer to that would be a “no”. I have never taught an online class before, but I envision myself holding on the same values that are dear to me; and what I feel is best suited for the learners, either for face-to-face or online classes. The way we teach is very much dependent on our values, and they don’t change easily.

Week 4: Instructional Design for online courses

What did you learn about the design of online courses this week that will affect how you think about this form of instruction in the future?

Looking at NACOL, rubrics for instructional design for quality assessment, the concept of “Instruction providing students with multiple learning paths to master the content, based on student needs” came up several times. This prompted me to review is importance, especially in relation to virtual schooling. As a former Mathematics and Physics high school teacher, I know that students have different learning styles and it is important to listen to each student’s needs. However, in a class of average 40 students with 1 teacher, it can be logistically difficult. With virtual schooling, this logistic difficult is minimized and teachers can now tap into the wonders of technology to make this possible.

Week 3: Change in thinking about online schools

How has your thinking about online schools and online schooling changed since the first week?

Previously, I did not know that there is so much rules and regulations governing the operation and funding of online schools and online schooling. After reading through several articles, (Christensen, 2008) and (Watson & Gemin, 2009), I have a better understanding of the management and operation of online schools.

However, as of the first week, I am still skeptical on the effectiveness of online schooling. As mentioned by Vanourek (Aug 2006), evidence of effectiveness is a growing concern for online schools. As of 2006, there was still very research on on K–8 virtual schools effectiveness. As a parent, I am concerned about the effectiveness of the program; similar to public schools, virtual schools differs in their ability to deliver.

Week 2: Choosing a virtual school for my child

Write a tweet-length paper (140 characters) that describes what you would be thinking if you were a parent choosing a school for your child, or if you were a student looking for an online school.

If I am a parent choosing a virtual school for my child, I would look for 2 things in particular. Firstly, I need to feel confident about the curriculum development and course quality. Does the virtual course provide as much rigor as a face-to-face class? Is there enough thought placed on developing students’ learning and higher order thinking skills? Secondly, I would like to know the teacher management philosophy of the virtual school. How can I be sure that the teacher has enough skills and experience to teach online? Are there additional training opportunities given to teachers to ensure that the goals of the program are met? What mentoring, support and accountability processes are used in the teacher management operations.

It would probably be a difficult task since there are no standard physical school tours I can join; I might have to join a virtual demo class for parents to find out more. In fact, I feel that it might require more work than finding a physical school.

Week 1: Reflections

What did you learn this week that surprised you? What was the biggest question you were left with at the end of this first week?

One of the most interesting read this week is from my coursemate Timothy Cooper where he mentions the current lack of checks on virtual schooling has left some to exploit it for financial gains or circumvent existing laws to aid educational reform. It is amazing how the district can place 35-40 students in a lab with monitor because the existing regulation on 25 student limit does not cover online classes. In Tucker (2007), it was mentioned that virtual schools’ strengths are particularly well-aligned with high school reform, which includes curriculum rigor and maintaining broad menu of course subjects. Perhaps more attention should also focused on alignment of laws and regulations on education.

A lot has been mentioned on the pros and cons of virtual schooling. Like it or not, virtual schooling is going to stay; according to Christensen (2008, p.98), about 50 percent of high school courses will be delivered online by 2019. My biggest question is how we can effectively manage the pros and cons of virtual schooling so that it can translate into meaningful experience for our next generation of learners, who are already doodling on the ipad before they turn four years old.

Week 1: A little about myself

Hi! I am Kar Hwee, from the small island of Singapore in South East Asia, just a few degrees north of the equator....

A mathematics, science and engineering lover, I have been teaching high school mathematics and physics in Singapore for several years before coming to United States. My interests are wide; serious games on STEM, healthcare awareness and corporate education to name a few.

What made you interested in this course?
I have been fortunate to teach in a school that is technology-rich since the start of my teaching career. The school, which is part of the Future School in Microsoft's Global Innovative Schools Program, is also a technology test-bed where students are equipped with tablet PCs for all lessons since 2004. I am interested in developing instructional curriculum and deliverables catered to meaningful and effective e-Learning experience. Virtual Schooling is a big part of that experience.

What experience do you have with online learning? Was it positive or negative and why?
I have not taken any formal online courses before. Last Fall, I had the chance to work with Dr Susan Lowes on reviewing of IB online courses. The experience certainly opened my eyes to the world of online schooling. There is certainly a lot of things to learn in this emerging field, so here I am. :)

If you see me anywhere in TC, say hi!