Week 11 - Thoughts for the Week

A particular line stuck with me in the readings from this week: “Americans live in a menu-driven society where options are readily available in practically every aspect of life. ‘One-size-fits-all’ is not a concept with which people are comfortable.” (FLVS, p.13) Virtual schooling is clearly on the rise, which makes “a compelling case for personalized decision-making.”

I’m not sure that, “is online schooling better or worse?” is even the question we should be asking. The question might be, “how can we reach as many students as possible in as many ways as possible?” There will always be room for comparison and, as a result, comparisons will always be made. If we can, by means of expanding our methodologies for teaching and learning, offer more options and accommodate more students, we should do our best to explore more possibilities.

The other day, I was at the coffee shop working, and noticed a young high school or college student at a nearby table. She had a laptop up, on which she was tapping out a paper or school assignment. Sitting next to it was an iPad propped up and open to Facebook. Every 5 minutes or so, she was checking out info on her iPhone, maybe texting, maybe playing a game. I won’t lie. I was disturbed by it, at first. Still am, a bit. The sensory overload seemed distracting and unnecessary. However, it made me start thinking about the quote above and my students who are living it. Not only is the “menu-driven” smorgasbord of choices prevalent, it is essentially expected. I want to make sure that I am guiding my own students toward choices that are going to enrich their interactions rather than erode them, and I think that with the right design and guidance, virtual learning can do just that.

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve found a new web site that I’m somewhat addicted to and is great fun for online learning on your own and in the classroom: Sporcle

Week 10 - Comparisons

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 line struck me more than any other in the course of our readings:

“Researchers have challenged the field to move beyond simple comparisons and, particularly given the heterogeneity in results from previous virtual schooling studies, to examine the specific factors that may impact student achievement in the online learning environment.” (McLeod, 2005, p. 8)

While the mission for the week, I realize, was to compare online and face-to face education, I thought the point above was a very persuasive one. Less important than comparing the various approaches is, perhaps, analyzing what components within each approach are the most effective. For instance, professional development and front-end training have been repeatedly mentioned as cornerstones of excellent online programs. Perhaps we should target what the best parts of each approach would be and then seek to make that particular approach better.

One thing is clear to me: the analysis we will see in the next 10 years (comparing face-to-face and online OR investigating just one approach), I believe, will contain much more useful data than what we may be seeing today.