What are you most concerned about as you embark on creating a curriculum unit?
My primary concern as we plan our curriculum unit is that, as in any instructional design, what seems to work in theory does not always translate to a good course. There are lots of teachers in this class who are probably very adept at planning good coursework, and thankfully I will be working with one of them :) It may be different when constructing an online course though. I feel as though I will know ways to prompt discussion and engagement, but just as in face to face course design, in a real course unit we would need to be ready to shift gears if the learners were not responding as we'd hoped. That "Plan B" we all keep in our pocket might not be as easy to implement in this environment. We shall see!
My other concern, if we do a combination of virtual classroom and virtual course, is that even if we have occasional live sessions (which we are talking about doing) there will not be participation - especially if it is optional.
As of right now those are my main concerns, but I'm sure they will snowball as we both reflect and dig in to start planning the actual mechanics of the course!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Reflections on the Unseen
Q: 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 did not change anything in my spreadsheet, but our discussions really made me think about the challenges and unseen (or specified) challenges in both producing and conducting an on-line class. It is easy to say "oh, this class was good" or "oh, this one was bad" but the past couple of weeks allowed us to delve deeper in to why we say these things. I thought our discussions really showed deep thought and proved that, given the proper forum and group of motivated students, it works!
Peer to Peer interaction, the various ways of encouraging it, teacher student interaction - there are so may components that go in to a class. This explains why being a good teacher does not necessarily translate in to being a good online teacher. It is a unique skill set that a teacher must have to adequately balance all of these things AND provide rich and educational content.
I have to think that running a class like this would be even more difficult for a K-12 teacher who knows nothing about her class or their personal interests, aside from the grade they are in. How do they know they are hitting the right buttons with questions to engage and promote discussion? It is definitely not easy.
I did not change anything in my spreadsheet, but our discussions really made me think about the challenges and unseen (or specified) challenges in both producing and conducting an on-line class. It is easy to say "oh, this class was good" or "oh, this one was bad" but the past couple of weeks allowed us to delve deeper in to why we say these things. I thought our discussions really showed deep thought and proved that, given the proper forum and group of motivated students, it works!
Peer to Peer interaction, the various ways of encouraging it, teacher student interaction - there are so may components that go in to a class. This explains why being a good teacher does not necessarily translate in to being a good online teacher. It is a unique skill set that a teacher must have to adequately balance all of these things AND provide rich and educational content.
I have to think that running a class like this would be even more difficult for a K-12 teacher who knows nothing about her class or their personal interests, aside from the grade they are in. How do they know they are hitting the right buttons with questions to engage and promote discussion? It is definitely not easy.
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