Reviewing your previous blog posts, what, if anything, has changed in your attitude toward online schools and online schooling over the past 15 weeks?
What has changed? That's sort of a funny question from my perspective because frankly, I barely even knew they existed 15 weeks ago (except for the occasional mention of Philadelphia's Virtual Academy) and now I am starting to produce courses myself.
It is not really that I didn't know they existed, I just never gave deep thought to anything about online learning - even though I do it myself at TC. What made a good instructor vs a bad one. What defined a good online course vs one that was poorly done. My knee jerk reaction would have been to say "what about the social interaction?" I don't believe it is so much what I've read or seen that has changed my attitude - but more the fact that I thought about it at all. It tied everything I know about education, technology, teaching, learning, and people together. And the well chosen readings provided interesting perspectives I would not have thought about.
As I begin working with a new CTE school this month, they are requesting an online learning component. I haven't had a client ask me for this before, and I am not sure whether our national education crises is bringing online learning out in to the open as a very viable alternative or whether it is just coincidence. Now I will know to look in to all options - should they have existing teachers give it a shot? Should they outsource to FLVS or K12 or one of many other sources? I would have absolutely no knowledge of the alternatives, the differences, or what to look for in a high quality online environment if I hadn't taken this course.
Thanks to you all - for this was truly a social learning experience - great class peers and of course an instructor/facilitator who is one of the highest ranking black belts in the country when it comes to online learning. I feel so fortunate that I was able to have this experience and very coincidentally, I will use what I've learned here often in the short term future.
