More About Online Schools

Thanks, Mrs. W, for clearing up the book thing for me. I agree that being online makes students more susceptible to learning more. I liked the fact that VHS does not want its students sitting in front of a computer all of the time, but wants them to go out on field trips and such and then come back and write about their time away from the computer. I liked what Droste said, "You need the handshake and the hug. You need to bump into the student in the hall. You have to have that personal contact. people need to know how to act face-to-face with each other." That is one of my main concerns about online classes is that students don't get to know their teachers and their classmates. I believe they need to be in class. I'm not including college students in this which I say "students." I'm only thinking of K-12 students, because that's the business I'm in. I know college students can handle not knowing the teacher and their classmates, although I think they'd do better in the online classes if they did. At any age, there is no substitute for an onsite teacher, in my opinion. But I do believe technology has a definite place in schools and it is time for public schools to face that fact and do what they need to do to get it in place and use it.

Online Learning and Virtual Reality

Well, in Chapter 5, it discusses using television as a medium for learning, but in the assignment you asked for discussion of online learning, so I'm not quite sure what you wanted. I'll stick to what you asked for in the assignment and forget the chapter in the book. I agree that the computer is a boon to the public school setting, which is in agreement with my educational technology philosophy. I don't think it is so much teachers being stubborn or being afraid as it is them being undertrained and being expected to figure the software, etc. out on their own. At least, this has been my experience. I believe that using computers as virtual schools is going a little far, though. I don't believe you can completely do away with the teacher; you need an actual person there to make sure the students stay grounded, answer questions and generally teach the crux of the lesson. You've got to take into account your slow readers or your students who work below grade level as well. Having the computer read it to them is doing them no good because their reading level will never go up if they don't practice reading themselves.

As far as the Second Life thing goes, I don't have much of an opinion of it. I cannot see myself doing it. It seems to me to be unnecessary, really. Something else to have to master in a sea of things to have to master. I don't believe that it is something adults need to have to use to have meetings and to confer with each other. In fact, I see adults using it as kind of ridiculous except to play with it. However, I can see kids seeing it as really cool and I can see it being a really great teaching tool, but I can see it being a difficult to use as a teaching tool in that you have to take so much time to build the sets and get it ready for use in teaching a lesson and I know that a normal school district is not going to put out the $ to hire a company to build for the teachers who use it! They'd be expected to do it themselves! So, I guess I'm not as into virtual reality as some of the other people in the class are. I have a hard enough time with real reality!!!

Primary Sources

My educational technology has changed somewhat since we wrote them in September. I feel now that teachers should be more open to technology in their schools and in their classrooms and that if they were they would have the world of primary sources at their finger tips. No more running to the library to look for books! No more looking through magazines for articles! They would be able to access the databases at any library and find journal articles, magazine articles, ebooks, personal interviews, and other things they could use for primary sources for their research. They could find websites like the NARA website that give them the unlimited potential to find whatever they need!

What Teachers Do

Human progress from the Stone Age to the Information Age resulted primarily from amplifying individuals' capacity to function, first by empowering them with crude implements, then tools, then machines, and now technology. This is basic to understanding how teachers can do what they do--better.

I guess it is a basic understanding of how teachers can do what they do. In the world of technology they are many times at a loss due to now knowing what to do with it. Some teachers go for it and try to use the technology and don't know what they're doing and some just leave it alone.

All human activity is driven by information; the more demanding the activity--the greater the need for information. Thus, information can be termed the fuel that powers the teaching-learning process.

I agree with this perception 100%. The best place to get that information, of course, is from the Internet. That is where people get most of their information today and they will tell you so! The more information a teacher has the more she/he can impart on his/her students, so I agree that information can be termed the fuel that powers the teaching. A teacher with no information has nothing to teach his/her students and therefore, should not be in the position of teacher.

The master teachers of the Information Age are those who develop the capacity to navigate the worldwide oceans of information and selectively retrieve that which can provide and enriched experience for their learners.

I agree wholeheartedly with this perception. This is something I cannot do. I can look for information and usually find what I need, but I cannot "navigate the worldwide oceans of information and selectively retrieve" information. It takes a pro for that and I'm definitely not a pro. Teachers who do this for their students are, I would say, few and far between, mostly because of the time factor involved. They simply don't have that time needed to get on the Internet and practice and learn all the skills necessary to become a pro at it.

How teachers manage information has a major impact on the outcome of of he teaching-learning process. Technology facilitates and amplifies the teacher's capacity to provide learners with information of higher fidelity in an individualized, interactive mode. Thompson said that the successful teacher primarily manages information, not students.

I believe this is true. The teacher has to manage their information in such a way that it is easily accessible in order to have an impact of his/her teaching process. Students do well in an atmosphere where the technology facilitates and amplifies the teacher provides learners with information of higher fidelity in an individualized, interactive mode. I can see where the learners are doing well when they are receiving interesting, true information to use in a project if they are working alone or even if they are working with a group. It is important for the students to get high fidelity information.

Teachers plan, communicate, guide, and evaluate. Information technology can be adapted to allow the teacher to do these better and, thus, impact positively the efficiency of the teaching-learning process.

There are marvelous software packages that are written for writing lesson plans, email, and evaluation documents, such as rubrics, that are available for teachers. They definitely positively impact the efficiency of the teaching/learning process and provide more time for teachers to teach.

There is compelling evidence that learning is heightened when teachers create visually rich experiences, thus engaging the learner's entire brain--rather than only half.

This is an example of teachers providing students with high fidelity information and how the students' will react. They are using most of their senses, and so, most of their brain. This is what we as teachers want to make happen more and more.