A very big thank you to Jay for responding to my collaboration thoughts in the post below. One of the limitations of blogging is the inability to respond directly to those who post comments, especially when no website or email address is provided. But, Jay's response also reflects the power of blogging. What better way to compare collaborative activities between virtual schools than to get feedback from actual teachers.
On a related note, one of the news stories from my sidebar highlighted an upcoming webinar sponsored by the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL). What Works in Creating Student-to-Student Interaction in Online Courses will stream at 6:00 on Thursday, April 17. The webinar will include interviews with teachers at virtual schools who are using interactivity and collaboration effectively in their classes. I hope to attend to learn more.
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3 comments:
Well, you are welcome and here's my info, I thought I included my url on my comment. www.mystateofflux.net
Wendy-
You're right. I think getting feedback from actual teachers is definitely the way to go. As we both know, a problem with educational legislation and policy at the local, state and national levels has been a lack of teacher input. If the people who are to implement policy directly are asked about any potential pitfalls and general efficacy, then you will get the most beneficial information available. How can you understand what's going on in online learning if you aren't asking the teachers and the students? It's like getting war reports. I think you will learn far more from someone on the frontlines than from someone sitting comfortably out of danger and observing from afar.
The webinar sounds great! Thanks for the post. I plan to check it out and hope it will address several issues I wonder about online collaboration with younger students. To be honest, I still worry (a little) that middle school students may miss important collaborative and social opportunities when they take online courses exclusively. I hope the online teachers in the webinar will discuss these issues.
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