EDTC 650: Teaching and Learning K-12 Virtual
Assignments and Course Work
EDTC 650 Learning Journals
Course Introduction- September 8, 2014:
This course focuses on K-12 distance education, including the policies and structures of K-12 virtual schools, teaching and course development strategies appropriate for K-12 online courses, and current issues involved in the K-12 virtual enterprise. This course also emphasizes K-12 schools that offer courses over the internet; discussion of principles that apply to the other forms of K-12 distance education, such as television and correspondence courses. In this course we discussed the different models of current K-12 virtual schools; district and state and national regulations governing these schools; role of parental involvement and student support services; social and collaborative aspects of e-learning at a distance; and training and mentoring of online K-12 teachers.
At the end of this course I should be able to do the following:
Week 1- September 16, 2014:
Virtual schools have been become pretty important in the landscape of American education. Some think of virtual schooling at the state level; a supplement to the course catalogue at the local high school. Others think virtual charter, an option where students work from home and rarely set foot in that local school setting. Other see online curriculum as an opportunity for early childhood students, those with IEPs and perhaps, a cure for all things wrong with face to face school. Whatever you believe, the guarantee is that none of us know everything about this phenomenon. I think we will spend the next 12 weeks surveying this virtual landscape, seeing what is being done and figuring out what works and what doesn’t in this type of learning environment.
The first week was spent with introductions, to both the course and each other. Something I hadn’t experienced yet in this program; we are dividing the students into two groups: students in the MDE program with those students enrolled in the MED program. Each group will complete different deliverables, but still come together to complete some assignments and discussion topics. Personally, I don’t like this. It seems like this isn’t the most efficient way to run this course, and with us not participating in similar discussion threads, it makes it hard to create a truly diverse environment to converse in. Just my opinion though.
It seems like the idea of virtual school would be pretty straight-forward. However, it seems as though there are many elements that contribute to the entirety of virtual schooling, elements that can make one program differ substantially from the next. Leadership is definitely something that helps contribute to the complicated definition of virtual schooling. You also have to deal with Charter Schools and brick and mortar schools. It can get confusing, for sure. I’m hoping this will all be sorted out by the end of this course, and I’m interested to see where this course takes me.
Week 2- September 23, 2014:
This week we discussed the evolution of K-12 distance education in America; including rationale and growth perspective; what is the need for access to content, the traditional modes (television and correspondence education), and the role of the Internet in revolutionizing K-12 distance education. This week we worked on developing a timeline of distance education in America and abroad in relation to technological advances. We are going to apply this timeline to future developments. In the conferences we discussed the viability of virtual learning in revolutionizing K-12 education. We looked ahead ten years and tried to describe what virtual schooling looks like. We also took a look at the No Child Left Behind act and how it affected the K-12 teaching profession. It was interesting to see how much of an impact that one act alone had on education as a whole. Overall, I don’t feel that I am a proponent of this political policy.
Week 3- September 30, 2014:
This week we took on a lot of content, including some of the following: emphasis on the student, traits of the distance learner, attitude factors, experience issues, elements for success, learner responsibilities, technology and media, teleconferencing, computer-based learning, the Internet and DE, evolution of distance education, and the foundations, technologies, pedagogies, and future of Internet-based distance education. This week we also explained the potential pedagogical advantages and disadvantages in inherent to distance education, we specified methodological issues relevant to both course development and student-instructor interaction, and analyzed the value of different technologies and media associated with distance education. I really enjoyed this week as I was able to focus more on the foundations of distance education, which is something I am genuinely interested in. I think I have some good ideas about my final research topic with the information derived from this week’s lessons.
Week 4- October 7, 2014:
This week we spent a great deal of time focusing on our first assignment for this course. The work this week was limited as a result, which I really appreciated. In the conferences we discussed the definitions of model and forum, and focused our reading on that of Watson, both his articles Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: A Review of State-level Policy and Practice and Funding and Policy Frameworks in Online Learning. The first assignment requires us to categorize virtual schools considering delivery method, curricula, and type of student. We were required to use the Barbour and Reeves article while addressing a specific student population. This assignment ties into the second; which requires us to choose any virtual school in the United States. In addition, we must develop a presentation that describes the school’s mission, organizational structure, regulatory environment, scope of offerings, and student body. In addition, we are required to address the use of a variety of media in our presentation, like visuals, links, and screen shots. We must also include audio commentary and/or a notes page. While we had limited work to accomplish this week, it was a busy week where assignments are concerned.
Week 5- October 14, 2014:
This week the divided class came together as one, and we were done with the mini-courses, which I was excited to see come to an end. We spent a great deal of time discussing leadership and its impact on distance education. The instructor explained to us that they worked as a director serving over 7,000 students in over 300 schools. There were over 125 instructors that taught AP, core courses, credit recovery and dual enrollment. It was interesting to hear what issues were prevalent, and which issues weren’t. Most of the troubling elements encompassed cyber-bullying and inappropriate content being posted to the classrooms. These are two issues I hadn’t considered yet in this degree program. The instructor explained the importance of curriculum development with the help of a design team, budgets and salaries, servers, and huge contract negotiations with vendors like Wimba, Blackboard, and Respondus. Professional development was also touched on, as well as the challenges faced and how different the approach was compared to traditional school settings.
This week we also worked on the second assignment, which I discussed in last week’s journal entries. We, again, had limited class-related work so the focus could be placed on the assignment, but topics included the following: teacher qualifications and evaluation, quality initiatives for course development and curriculum, personnel and technology equipment, funding sources, accreditation, accountability for student achievement, other reporting requirements, teacher training, and we took a look at a case study of specific virtual school. In this week we were able to identify funding formulas supporting virtual schools, determined evaluation criteria for course content, described management issues related to virtual school administration, defined accreditation processes for virtual schools, and compared teacher qualifications to face to face and virtual schools. In the conferences we discussed the importance of positions/functions of virtual school administrations. We watched a video online and talked about the different types of administration when it comes to an online school.
Week 6- October 21, 2014:
This week we received feedback on our first assignment. I did very well; got an “A” and the feedback received was very positive with few content-based errors. In addition, we turn in our second assignment this week, and I’m feeling much less anxious now that I have a feel for the grading procedures. This week we covered the cycles of reform, roles of business, technological developments, the culture of education, the urbanization and progressive impetus, educational reaction and reform and the standards era, we studied a case study of a specific virtual school, and discussed the UMUC Department of Education Conceptual Framework. We defined a systems approach to education, described cycles of reform movements in education, and determined advantages and limitations of considering the K-12 virtual school as an education reform movement. In the readings we focused on Brown and Cavanaugh. I really thought the readings contributed to the content covered this week. This week was the mid-point of the semester and we received feedback on our conferences thus far. I am doing very well and maintaining an “A” in the conference portion of the course.
Week 7, 8, & 9- November 11, 2014:
The last three weeks were combined into a huge lesson, and I learned a lot regarding elements of creating virtual courses, enhancing online classrooms, comparison and contrast of online pedagogy and practice to that of face to face, communication and collaboration in online learning environments, constructivist pedagogy, differentiation of instruction in the virtual school, and we covered a case study of a specific virtual school. The last few weeks we critiqued case studies, compared online pedagogy and practice to that of face to face, designed a communication plan for student and parent, and identified characteristics of constructivist methodology in online instruction. The readings focused on Anderson, Simonson, and Riedinger, which I believe provided great contributions to the content.
One of the most critical ideas surrounding the concept of the Virtual School is the idea that teaching in a virtual School is just like teaching in a traditional face to face school. However, it is very different primarily because the environment is different. It’s not that there is a crossover, because there truly is! What makes a good teacher, though, in a face to face environment may not transfer to the virtual environment. We actually debated this earlier in the classroom discussion boards, where some felt that a good teacher is a good teacher. However, this runs counter to our experience and it tends to run counter to the general experience cited in the literature. There are a set of skills and strategies that seem to work in an online environment. And usually, they are not directly equivalent to the skills and strategies that are often used in face to face teaching. They are not the opposite of those face to face effective skills; they are just different because they take into account the different environments. We were challenged this week to see if we could determine some of those skills and strategies and include them in our third assignment. Teaching is only easy if you intend to be boring and ineffective…I learned this from the last few weeks of content. The last few weeks were great as far as developing my skills for this program.
Weeks 10, 11, & 12- November 30, 2014:
The last few weeks are spent working on the remaining assignment and covering the following topics: identifying virtual course evaluation best practices and describing quality and effectiveness of online courses. In these few weeks we figured out how to determine evaluation criteria for course content and how to describe evaluative tools for virtual school administration. The reading assignments included articles by the following authors: Simonson and Quality Matters Standards by the Quality Matters Institute, and exerts from the Maryland State Department of Education and the Southern Regional Education Board.
We also covered the following topics: what knowledge and skills does a potential virtual school teacher and administrator need, what courses would provide the necessary knowledge and skills, what are existing courses/certificates that provide this, are they adequate, what resources of research and information on virtual schools are needed, what professional organizations support distance education and K-12 schools, and how to predict the evolution of the K-12 virtual school. We also studied European, British Columbia, developing countries, and how they approach distance education, as well as the UMUC Department of Education Conceptual Framework. What I really enjoyed was identifying virtual course evaluation best practices and describing quality and effectiveness of online courses. I’m actually planning on doing my MDE program final research paper on this exact topic. I want to show how distance education theory can be better incorporated into evaluative practices for online courses. These last few weeks have really empowered me to grab onto this topic and run with it. I feel better prepared to approach this topic and get a really good, very original final research paper out of it.
These last few weeks I felt bombarded by assignments and conference topics. It was a very intense last few weeks but I came out of the course with an “A”. This course was jammed pack of information, all of which I feel will be beneficial to me as I pursue a career in this field. Of the courses I’ve taken so far in the program, I feel as though this one is one I will return to frequently as a reference and for information as I complete my degree. This course re-energized me, and was great to take at this point in my journey. It definitely prepared me for the last few courses I need to graduate. I would definitely recommend this course and this instructor to other students.
This course focuses on K-12 distance education, including the policies and structures of K-12 virtual schools, teaching and course development strategies appropriate for K-12 online courses, and current issues involved in the K-12 virtual enterprise. This course also emphasizes K-12 schools that offer courses over the internet; discussion of principles that apply to the other forms of K-12 distance education, such as television and correspondence courses. In this course we discussed the different models of current K-12 virtual schools; district and state and national regulations governing these schools; role of parental involvement and student support services; social and collaborative aspects of e-learning at a distance; and training and mentoring of online K-12 teachers.
At the end of this course I should be able to do the following:
- contrast education in the K-12 virtual school with the face-to-face K-12 school and online higher education or training
- evaluate the different models of K-12 virtual schools in the United States, including such dimensions as mission; organizational structure; policy and regulatory environments; course offerings; student support services; and student population
- apply essential elements of teaching and learning in the K-12 virtual school environment to course and module development for the virtual K-12 classroom
- analyze the global aspects of the virtual K-12 school movement, particularly in relation to the movement in the United States
Week 1- September 16, 2014:
Virtual schools have been become pretty important in the landscape of American education. Some think of virtual schooling at the state level; a supplement to the course catalogue at the local high school. Others think virtual charter, an option where students work from home and rarely set foot in that local school setting. Other see online curriculum as an opportunity for early childhood students, those with IEPs and perhaps, a cure for all things wrong with face to face school. Whatever you believe, the guarantee is that none of us know everything about this phenomenon. I think we will spend the next 12 weeks surveying this virtual landscape, seeing what is being done and figuring out what works and what doesn’t in this type of learning environment.
The first week was spent with introductions, to both the course and each other. Something I hadn’t experienced yet in this program; we are dividing the students into two groups: students in the MDE program with those students enrolled in the MED program. Each group will complete different deliverables, but still come together to complete some assignments and discussion topics. Personally, I don’t like this. It seems like this isn’t the most efficient way to run this course, and with us not participating in similar discussion threads, it makes it hard to create a truly diverse environment to converse in. Just my opinion though.
It seems like the idea of virtual school would be pretty straight-forward. However, it seems as though there are many elements that contribute to the entirety of virtual schooling, elements that can make one program differ substantially from the next. Leadership is definitely something that helps contribute to the complicated definition of virtual schooling. You also have to deal with Charter Schools and brick and mortar schools. It can get confusing, for sure. I’m hoping this will all be sorted out by the end of this course, and I’m interested to see where this course takes me.
Week 2- September 23, 2014:
This week we discussed the evolution of K-12 distance education in America; including rationale and growth perspective; what is the need for access to content, the traditional modes (television and correspondence education), and the role of the Internet in revolutionizing K-12 distance education. This week we worked on developing a timeline of distance education in America and abroad in relation to technological advances. We are going to apply this timeline to future developments. In the conferences we discussed the viability of virtual learning in revolutionizing K-12 education. We looked ahead ten years and tried to describe what virtual schooling looks like. We also took a look at the No Child Left Behind act and how it affected the K-12 teaching profession. It was interesting to see how much of an impact that one act alone had on education as a whole. Overall, I don’t feel that I am a proponent of this political policy.
Week 3- September 30, 2014:
This week we took on a lot of content, including some of the following: emphasis on the student, traits of the distance learner, attitude factors, experience issues, elements for success, learner responsibilities, technology and media, teleconferencing, computer-based learning, the Internet and DE, evolution of distance education, and the foundations, technologies, pedagogies, and future of Internet-based distance education. This week we also explained the potential pedagogical advantages and disadvantages in inherent to distance education, we specified methodological issues relevant to both course development and student-instructor interaction, and analyzed the value of different technologies and media associated with distance education. I really enjoyed this week as I was able to focus more on the foundations of distance education, which is something I am genuinely interested in. I think I have some good ideas about my final research topic with the information derived from this week’s lessons.
Week 4- October 7, 2014:
This week we spent a great deal of time focusing on our first assignment for this course. The work this week was limited as a result, which I really appreciated. In the conferences we discussed the definitions of model and forum, and focused our reading on that of Watson, both his articles Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: A Review of State-level Policy and Practice and Funding and Policy Frameworks in Online Learning. The first assignment requires us to categorize virtual schools considering delivery method, curricula, and type of student. We were required to use the Barbour and Reeves article while addressing a specific student population. This assignment ties into the second; which requires us to choose any virtual school in the United States. In addition, we must develop a presentation that describes the school’s mission, organizational structure, regulatory environment, scope of offerings, and student body. In addition, we are required to address the use of a variety of media in our presentation, like visuals, links, and screen shots. We must also include audio commentary and/or a notes page. While we had limited work to accomplish this week, it was a busy week where assignments are concerned.
Week 5- October 14, 2014:
This week the divided class came together as one, and we were done with the mini-courses, which I was excited to see come to an end. We spent a great deal of time discussing leadership and its impact on distance education. The instructor explained to us that they worked as a director serving over 7,000 students in over 300 schools. There were over 125 instructors that taught AP, core courses, credit recovery and dual enrollment. It was interesting to hear what issues were prevalent, and which issues weren’t. Most of the troubling elements encompassed cyber-bullying and inappropriate content being posted to the classrooms. These are two issues I hadn’t considered yet in this degree program. The instructor explained the importance of curriculum development with the help of a design team, budgets and salaries, servers, and huge contract negotiations with vendors like Wimba, Blackboard, and Respondus. Professional development was also touched on, as well as the challenges faced and how different the approach was compared to traditional school settings.
This week we also worked on the second assignment, which I discussed in last week’s journal entries. We, again, had limited class-related work so the focus could be placed on the assignment, but topics included the following: teacher qualifications and evaluation, quality initiatives for course development and curriculum, personnel and technology equipment, funding sources, accreditation, accountability for student achievement, other reporting requirements, teacher training, and we took a look at a case study of specific virtual school. In this week we were able to identify funding formulas supporting virtual schools, determined evaluation criteria for course content, described management issues related to virtual school administration, defined accreditation processes for virtual schools, and compared teacher qualifications to face to face and virtual schools. In the conferences we discussed the importance of positions/functions of virtual school administrations. We watched a video online and talked about the different types of administration when it comes to an online school.
Week 6- October 21, 2014:
This week we received feedback on our first assignment. I did very well; got an “A” and the feedback received was very positive with few content-based errors. In addition, we turn in our second assignment this week, and I’m feeling much less anxious now that I have a feel for the grading procedures. This week we covered the cycles of reform, roles of business, technological developments, the culture of education, the urbanization and progressive impetus, educational reaction and reform and the standards era, we studied a case study of a specific virtual school, and discussed the UMUC Department of Education Conceptual Framework. We defined a systems approach to education, described cycles of reform movements in education, and determined advantages and limitations of considering the K-12 virtual school as an education reform movement. In the readings we focused on Brown and Cavanaugh. I really thought the readings contributed to the content covered this week. This week was the mid-point of the semester and we received feedback on our conferences thus far. I am doing very well and maintaining an “A” in the conference portion of the course.
Week 7, 8, & 9- November 11, 2014:
The last three weeks were combined into a huge lesson, and I learned a lot regarding elements of creating virtual courses, enhancing online classrooms, comparison and contrast of online pedagogy and practice to that of face to face, communication and collaboration in online learning environments, constructivist pedagogy, differentiation of instruction in the virtual school, and we covered a case study of a specific virtual school. The last few weeks we critiqued case studies, compared online pedagogy and practice to that of face to face, designed a communication plan for student and parent, and identified characteristics of constructivist methodology in online instruction. The readings focused on Anderson, Simonson, and Riedinger, which I believe provided great contributions to the content.
One of the most critical ideas surrounding the concept of the Virtual School is the idea that teaching in a virtual School is just like teaching in a traditional face to face school. However, it is very different primarily because the environment is different. It’s not that there is a crossover, because there truly is! What makes a good teacher, though, in a face to face environment may not transfer to the virtual environment. We actually debated this earlier in the classroom discussion boards, where some felt that a good teacher is a good teacher. However, this runs counter to our experience and it tends to run counter to the general experience cited in the literature. There are a set of skills and strategies that seem to work in an online environment. And usually, they are not directly equivalent to the skills and strategies that are often used in face to face teaching. They are not the opposite of those face to face effective skills; they are just different because they take into account the different environments. We were challenged this week to see if we could determine some of those skills and strategies and include them in our third assignment. Teaching is only easy if you intend to be boring and ineffective…I learned this from the last few weeks of content. The last few weeks were great as far as developing my skills for this program.
Weeks 10, 11, & 12- November 30, 2014:
The last few weeks are spent working on the remaining assignment and covering the following topics: identifying virtual course evaluation best practices and describing quality and effectiveness of online courses. In these few weeks we figured out how to determine evaluation criteria for course content and how to describe evaluative tools for virtual school administration. The reading assignments included articles by the following authors: Simonson and Quality Matters Standards by the Quality Matters Institute, and exerts from the Maryland State Department of Education and the Southern Regional Education Board.
We also covered the following topics: what knowledge and skills does a potential virtual school teacher and administrator need, what courses would provide the necessary knowledge and skills, what are existing courses/certificates that provide this, are they adequate, what resources of research and information on virtual schools are needed, what professional organizations support distance education and K-12 schools, and how to predict the evolution of the K-12 virtual school. We also studied European, British Columbia, developing countries, and how they approach distance education, as well as the UMUC Department of Education Conceptual Framework. What I really enjoyed was identifying virtual course evaluation best practices and describing quality and effectiveness of online courses. I’m actually planning on doing my MDE program final research paper on this exact topic. I want to show how distance education theory can be better incorporated into evaluative practices for online courses. These last few weeks have really empowered me to grab onto this topic and run with it. I feel better prepared to approach this topic and get a really good, very original final research paper out of it.
These last few weeks I felt bombarded by assignments and conference topics. It was a very intense last few weeks but I came out of the course with an “A”. This course was jammed pack of information, all of which I feel will be beneficial to me as I pursue a career in this field. Of the courses I’ve taken so far in the program, I feel as though this one is one I will return to frequently as a reference and for information as I complete my degree. This course re-energized me, and was great to take at this point in my journey. It definitely prepared me for the last few courses I need to graduate. I would definitely recommend this course and this instructor to other students.