Posts Tagged ‘online learning’
A virtual learning environment also has great appeal to parents of children with disabilities
because these schools can provide individualized programs as a pace that best suits their child’s learning, offer extensive opportunities for parental involvement, allow for the use of technology which accentuates existing assisted technology for children with disabilities,
“Technology has enormous benefits for the learning process, and promises to change the nature of schooling and heighten its productivity. Curricula, teaching methods, and schedules can all be customized to meet the learning styles and life situations of individual students; education can be freed from the geographic constraints of districts and brick-and-mortar buildings; coursework from the most remedial to the most advanced can be made available to everyone; students can have more interaction with teachers and one another; parents can readily be included in the education process; sophisticated data systems can measure and guide performance….” (Moe & Chubb, 2009).
In fact, when families were asked to identify what made a virtual learning environment especially effective for students with disabilities, these benefits where listed:
Individualized support and instruction and tutoring,
Ongoing and immediate feedback,
Self-pacing,
Opportunities for students to take control of their own learning,
Promotes students ability to choose how best to access information,
Lack of peer pressures, conflicts or distractions,
Supports alternative means of social interactions,
Equalized the the academic and social “playing field” through new technologies.
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My Friday’s Quotes
Today I thought, rather then share a quote, that I would share with you an educational site. Teachers will probably know this as a very valuable resource. However, for parents who home school or are just interested in what is going on in education, this is a great place to bookmark and visit regularly.
Edutopia, “K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work”. I strongly suggest you browse this site and then sign-up for their weekly newsletter. For me to list all it’s benefits would be a waste of my time for they become quickly apparent when you enter the site. It is broken down into five major sections: Core Concepts, Community, Sections,(where you will find blogs, videos, webinars and more), Stay Connected, and The Foundation, referring to the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
“An in-depth and interactive resource, Edutopia.org offers practical, hands-on advice, real-world examples, lively contributions from practitioners, and invaluable tips and tools.”
“Through an extensive offering of documentaries, Edutopia video is a catalyst for innovation by helping educators and parents, as well as business and community leaders, see and understand pioneering best practices.”
But don’t take our word for it – go find out for yourself. You will find a wealth of information and support.
Yesterday we briefly looked at the first 4 steps when doing a Project Based Learning assignment. It should be easy to see how nicely this allows for individualization and homeschooling curriculum. Now let’s look at the last 5 steps.
5.Make a list of what needs to be completed with a timeline: What information is needed to solve the problem? How are the possibilities ranked? How are they relate to the list of solutions?
6.List “What do we need to know? You will have already started this list in step 2 but as you have looked more closely at your question, there may be additions to the list. Start the research. Parents can help find possible resources, â¨experts, books, web sites, etc.
Make up a timeline listing the tasks/question being researched. This will help to stay focused and organized. *If your research supports your solution, go to (7). If not, go to (4)
7.Write up your solution with its supporting documentation â¨Findings and/or recommendations should include the problem statement, questions, data gathered, analysis of data, and recommendations based on the data analysis: in short, the process and outcome.
8.Review your performanceâ¨: â¨Take pride in what was done well well and learn from what could have been done better. Thomas Edison felt unsuccessful experiments were part of his journey to successful outcomes!
9.Celebrate the work! Find a way the project can be shared with others. It could be anything from addressing the town council to putting up a video on U-tube.
PBL is a perfect match for a virtual school. It is an effective way to integrate technology used by the school into the curriculum. Like a virtual school, its potential is a limitless.
Project Base Learning is a wonderful tool to use with home-schooled children. It enables them to learn standard base skills across the curriculum through real-life projects.
There are nine basic steps when completing a Project Base Learning assignment. That being said, they may repeat steps two through five as they gather new information and redefine the problem.
1.Explore an Issue: Brainstorm with your child issues or problems in your community, state or country. They don’t have to know much about the issues because they’ll gather informatin, learn new concepts, principles, or skills as they become involved in the problem-solving process.
2.What do you Know? Have your child select one issue to be their Project and develop a chart showing what they know on one side and questions that need to be answered on the other.
3.Develop and write a problem statement: This statement should address what they know and what you need to know to solve their problem. This statement may be rewritten many times during the problem solving process as new information is obtained or old information tossed.
4.Brainstorm possible solutions: Have your child list all different ways the problem might be solved. Have them list each idea on a note card. Then have them review the ideas and organized them from the strongest, most likely to succeed, to the weakest. From that they can make a selection on which idea to research.
Tomorrow’s blog will look at the remaining 5 steps for a Project Based Learning assignment.
We recently got involved in a workshop to learn about PBL or Project Base Learning. Would it fit into a homeschooling program? Could it be used successfully in a virtual learning environment? Did it allow for the necessary individualization which is so important to Mistacres School?
PBL is an approach to teaching across the curriculum by allowing students to explore real-world problems. These projects can last a few days or can go on for a semester. They allow the students, either individually or collectively, to develop a deeper knowledge of the subjects they are studying through direct involvement. It is a way to provide active and engaged learning.
It is obvious students are more likely to remember things they learn through an active, hands-on approach then the more traditional textbook-centered learning. But as important is the confidence and self-direction students gain as they move through their project. As students work through their projects they strengthen their organizational and research skills, develop strong communication skills with peers and adults, and will often have opportunities to work within their community and see first hand effects of their work.
Assessment also becomes reality-based, not on some arbitrary fill-in-the-blank test that asks them to regurgitate what a teacher has said. Students are evaluated on the basis of their projects which has more meaning to them and is more in line with how were are assessed as adults in the real world. How often as I teacher did I hear, “Why do we need to learn this? I’ll never use it!” PBL allows students to see how academic work connects to real-life issues.
The next post we will look begin to look at the steps involved in Project Based Learning.
For those of you who visit Mistacres School on Facebook or at the home site, you know that we graduated our first student at the end of June. Following is a letter that we received from the mother of our graduate. I share it with you because I believe she spoke to many of the reasons why Mistacres was formed.
“I want to thank you for a wonderful first year of virtual learning. I was very concerned it would be more difficult than it was. The programs you used were very user friendly which made learning for Kyrsha much more enjoyable.
There is nothing like working from home,; no lost days of education due to snow days, no distractions from other students. Virtual learning let my daughter move at her own pace, although you pushed her when she needed pushing. I was also very pleased with the fact that if she needed you for support your were readily available or it wasn’t long before you were. I can only hope next years experience …is as simple. We are looking forward to your continued support through these last 4 years of schooling.
I was also very pleased with the amount of growth Kyrsha was able to make. Again, this is another advantage to virtual learning. There is no box limiting my child, … no one moving on with out my child having mastered concepts.
I am so glad we made this move to virtual learning. It has been one of the best decisions I could have made for my child’s educational needs. We owe you many thanks and we are proud to be one of your first graduates.
Thank you again for everything Sherra Carr”
I want to share with you some quotes from inspired people in history and literature. These quotes have made me happy and given me something to think about. They have led me to decide to provide online education to children. I hope you will enjoy them as well.
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” ⨖ Jim Rohn
“Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don’t know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.” ⨖ Sir William Haley
” Instruction ends in the school-room, but education ends only with life.⨠Frederick W. Robertson
How often is it that children seem to know more about computers than their parents If you’re like me, it’s all the time. Computer literacy no longer begins in high school; it begins in pre-school. Computers have become a central part of modern society, and it’s important to introduce children to computers at a young age. More and more you will find educational software as one of the primary tools for teaching children, with virtual learning environments now being incorporated in the classroom. By learning through software, children not only learn how the computer works, but the subjects that the software is used to teach.
You’ll often find adults that have no idea when to double click, when to single click, how to minimize windows, use tabs, and search for files, while a teenager could do this in their sleep. This is not because teenagers are more intelligent at figuring out how to use the computer, but rather because the entire interface of computer usage is embedded into their brains. It’s important that children too understand this basic computer interface when they’re younger. In the long run, children who are familiar with computers become more successful adults
Facts about Socialization and Online Learning: Conclusions and Reflections- II
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Five years ago I was given the opportunity to see if my gut feelings were correct. I became Program Director for a small non-public school middle school that served students whose behaviors kept them from being successful in a public school setting. For the most part, they were students that had specific learning disabilities, or were gifted, or just had extreme anxiety being in a large class setting. The thing they all had in common was the feeling of being a failure. This fear didn’t develop over night; It had been drummed into them over many years in the public system.
Each student had their own work station with computer. Using the technology that I had been studying, I developed individualized programs that were delivered directly to their computer. My foundation for each student’s program that required reading was the Lexile. Math was developed around another program that assessed mastered skills and areas in need of improvement. Then I stood back, held my breath and watched.
Yup, I watched. Because I had handed their learning over to them. If they needed me, they came to me with their INDIVIDUAL problem….or the programs I used flagged me with information. I didn’t have to stop everyone in the class to address one person’s questions. I didn’t hold anyone up by trying to teach the same thing to a group as, in my mind, there was no group. They were all at different levels of learning even if they might be in the same “grade”. And when we came together for discussions, nobody was left out for they had all worked on the skills, their way.
For the first time, these students were being successful. Then they became motivated to learn more – because they could. It was like taking a little ball of snow up to the top of the mountain and letting it roll down to the bottom. The result was students showing no behavior issues but making as much as 2 years growth in all academic subjects. Students that could stand tall and be proud.
I took this philosophy, this technology, to the web and created Mistacres School. I meet with the students whenever they buzz me on Skype or email me or I buzz them. I group students together online to work on projects or to hold discussions. Socializing is never questioned as it is a part of our school day. In fact, as we expand to bringing in students from other areas of the USA as well as internationally, then socialization takes on a whole new meaning. Think of the implications! Learning with others around the world!
But parents also have their needs satisfied. They can be more directly involved in their children’s education, they can direct better, more positive social opportunities outside of the school program, they have the flexibility to do more things with their children such as take trips without loosing academic time, go to museums or cultural events, the possibilities are endless.
I, for one, do not think Virtual Schools undermine social skills. If anything, they have the opportunity to develop strong, positive skills that will make them leaders in future years.
Facts about Socialization and Online Learning: Conclusions and Reflections – I
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Online public schools are experiencing rapid growth across the country,” said Dr. Jay Sivin-Kachala, Vice-President of IESD, who led the research project. “Yet some concerns have been expressed that students enrolled in online public schools may suffer from a lack of opportunities for socialization, and
consequently may fail to develop important social skills. The results of this study provide substantial evidence supporting the conclusion that typical, mainstream students enrolled in full-time, online public schools are at least as well socialized as equivalent students enrolled in traditional public schools.”
As a person who has spent over 30 years educating in the public school system, I feel that my reflections of value. As a new teacher starting out in 1979 (OMG), behavior issues were few and far between. We had them but they didn’t take over the class. There was a lot of collaboration; parents and teachers worked together to solve the issues. In the mid ’80′s there seemed to be a shift; each year there were more students that had behavior problems, parents were less supportive – not wanting to deal with the problems as they were the schools. Every year a little worse until finally in the early ’90′s teaching became less of the academics and more of the behaviors. Discipline, rather then learning, became the way of the classroom. It is not a surprise that teacher burn-out also increased. I didn’t become a teacher to be a baby sitter or a disciplinarian. The joy of teaching left and so did I.
I left the classroom but not education. I began to discover and investigate the technology that was developing at the time; the most influential being the Lexile. During this time I worked with severely disabled, multi-handicapped children. This was a wonderfully rewarding experience but I was drawn to those children whose learning was being interrupted by the behaviors and kept thinking that there was a better way.