TACCLE Article

The thing that I thought most important in the TACCLE article was that online instruction creates an opportunity for the teacher to act as a guide or a coach. Kids learn best when they are self-motivated and guided but not just given the information and asked to memorize it. If this method was good enough for Socrates, then by golly it's good enough for me.

Of course, I'm being too general. Some things simple must be memorized: the multiplication table, the periodic table of elements, irregular verb forms, formulas, etc. And sometimes the most effective way to deliver this information is to just give it to the kids. "Here is the multiplication table. memorize it up through the 4's by Friday." But we can also give kids engaging ways to learn and use factual information. In English, for example, the best way to teach grammar is through writing. When kids use incorrect verb forms, say, and they are asked to revise and edit their writing, they learn those forms in context and they remember them. In addition, good writers are good readers and good readers are good writers. This is why our curriculum is heavy on literature. We study the forms and ask the kids to model their own writing after what they read.

I think this must be carried to the online environment as well. If we create bogus classes like that dreadful (ironically named) A+ Learning Center software, then we're just delivering electronic worksheets.  As the TACCLE article points out in the assessment chapter (chap. 16) the more you assess lower level thinking skills (i.e. "recall") the higher the likelihood that students will cheat. If a kid simply uses ask.com to find answers to the Learning Center questions (which happens frequently) she may get her credit, but she won't learn a blessed thing.

I've looked at a lot of online classes and the competition ain't steep. There is a lot of dreck out there. I know we can do better and give our kids a legitimate and rigorous experience.

Considerations when migrating to the online environment

First of all, creating a relationship with your students is the primary consideration. If your connection with the class is robotic and impersonal I think kids just get turned off. The great feature of online learning is that personalization, and differentiation is required. You're dealing with kids one on one for every assessment and through email, blogs and discussion posts. Through in some face to face interactions and I think online learning can be every bit as fun and engaging as the physical classroom. That being said, if you're a bad teacher going online won't by itself work miracles. After all you can't make chicken soup out of chicken....OK, I'm not going there.

I also think online learning loses credibility if it's a freaking joke. If kids just copy and paste from wikipedia or ask.com into electronic worksheets no learning takes place. The class needs to be challenging as well as fun and rewarding. Again, that's up to the teacher and course design.

Finally--the cheating thing. We must find ways to not only identify cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, but we also must engage kids in ways that they won't feel the need to do that. How can we trigger their motivation to honestly engage in challenging work?