There are two sides to everything!
When it comes to online courses, there is always going to be a give and take. I think we all can say 2020 left us all disheveled, spent, and yet much wiser than the years prior. I will speak from my own experiences with virtual classrooms, but I feel my experience was shared by many in the educational field. Before I start on the melee of virtual battlefields, I feel I must define virtual learning. "An online course is one where most of the content is delivered online, which means 80% of the course content" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 5). Have I had the honor of teaching a virtual course, you may ask? Yes, but I think everyone has because of COVID19. Maybe it has not been for a whole semester, but I don't think a single school missed out on going virtual at some point in 2020.
My experience with virtual learning was positive for the best part of the 2020/2021 school year. The positives are not hard to mention, but let us take a moment to savor the virtual bliss. Students tended to enjoy staying at home, even with the challenges of distance learning. It is true that "evidence suggests that students are increasingly demanding to be allowed to learn at a distance" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 5). Let us not get ahead of ourselves because "students say their first choice is not to learn at a distance" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 5). I know, confusing, right? Of course, it is. They are kids, for crying out loud!
I would love to tell you only the students/kids are crazy, but I would be lying. The truth is that many adults are learning online as well. Say nothing, act casual, ED610 what? Where was I? Oh yes, there is a whole distance education theory based on adult learning. Say it with me, andragogy! Malcolm Knowles distance education theory (andragogy) "is relevant because most often adults are involved in distance education, and andragogy deals with frameworks for programs designed for the adult learner" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 48). While many teachers only have a one-sided view of virtual learning, I actually know both sides pretty well. Aren't I lucky?
Let's just look at the positives of virtual learning for a moment. When we consider distance education, we are really attempting to describe "what attributes of the medium can contribute to a positive, equivalent learning experience" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 61). I love using technology in my classroom, but this only one of the key factors for distance education. Current research suggests "instructor attitudes toward the technology, instructor teaching style, student computer competency, use of interactive collaboration, course content, and effectiveness of the technology system were critical success factors for distance education courses" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 66). For me, games always work well. Gimkits, Quizlet Live, and other interactive, collaborative, and competitive games always do well, in my humble opinion. Yes, these games take time to set up, but students learning while having fun is awesome to see. This time in the technology wonderland of fun is only matched by the challenges we face with distance education.
There are many barriers to face, and it is time to discuss the ugly dark side of distance education. To me, the largest issue is the "lack of money to implement distance education programs" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 68). While my district was able to implement new digital technologies during 2020, there were several issues. Many students did not have the capability to transition to distance education, and "the almost overnight need to move delivery of programs online at every level of schooling has exacerbated an already uneven implementation of digital technology" (McQuirter, 2020, p. 48). For my district, some teachers were resistant to learning another digital application. The beginning of the implementation process for Newsela flowed like molasses during a freeze. These problems I am describing are some of "the strongest barriers to distance education" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 68). Most of these problems could have been avoided if our district had a larger staff dedicated to technology integration, but we were not that lucky. So, with so much negativity, what can we do to mitigate the challenges to distance education?
While there is no silver bullet to eliminate the challenges to distance education, there are always best educational practices to utilize. The greatest positive I can give is "what we know about best practices in education is directly applicable to distance education" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 68). Every teacher does not teach the same subject, but many use the same technologies, strategies, and methods. Distance education is, for most students, an online learning experience, and "the Internet can provide a student-centered learning environment, if the materials and methods are designed to take advantage of the interactivity and resources the Internet provides" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 107). As with most things, there is good and bad depending upon how it is utilized. McQuirter (2020) discusses "basic principles such as building on the strengths of current practices, encouraging and facilitating teacher collaboration, and providing focused, systematic, multi-level implementation support are building blocks for innovation regardless of grade level or curriculum area" (p. 50). The greatest benefit, I believe, would come from teachers understanding what it is like to be a student enrolled in an online course. In the end, students and parents must also decide if distance education is right for them. The infographic below provides a great deal of information concerning the advantages and disadvantages of online learning.
References
"Coin tossing" by Scarygami is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
"Covid19 The Wind of Unwelcome Change" by muffinn is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Giphy. Sarcastic Sarcasm. https://media.giphy.com/media/xT9IggnH2ywRd39XDq/giphy.gif
Giphy. Going Crazy Will Ferrell GIF. https://media.giphy.com/media/CKrlUi30dn44w/giphy.gif
Giphy. The More You Know. https://media.giphy.com/media/83QtfwKWdmSEo/giphy.gif
McQuirter, R. (2020). Lessons on Change: Shifting to Online Learning during COVID-19. Brock Education: A Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 29(2), 47–51.
OnlineSchools.org. (2021, April 8). Is Online Learning Right For Me? OnlineSchools.org. https://www.onlineschools.org/visual-academy/is-online-learning-right-for-me/.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S. E., & Zvacek, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: foundations of distance education. Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Darren,
ReplyDeleteI really love your gifs, and if I had one thing to change about Blogger it would be allowing gifs in comments. Guess what: I have not taught a course online. I hadn’t really thought about the implications of that before taking this class. When we started to make our course introductions in the Canvas playground, I decided to go with Scenario B so I could have some experience with “teaching kids” online before going back into a school setting….which is my plan, maybe sooner than later. Even though I’ve participated in a lot of courses via distance education, I think not having taught during the pandemic while everyone dabbled in virtual schooling might put me at a slight disadvantage. Anyway, I agree that games work well. When my children were doing school at home, my son, who is in third grade, was much more engaged when his teacher used games with them. It took a bit of time because she had to explain how to show two tabs, get logged into the game, and the time it took to create the content prior to class. Simonson et al. (2019) mentioned the importance of instructor attitude in relation to the course effectiveness. Weir (2020) also said that student learning will be greater during remote learning when the kids’ interests are taken into account. Someone who is willing to invest time in making the course engaging, like with games, is probably going to have a more positive experience, as will the students. Win-win!
References:
Simonson, M., Zvacek, S. & Smaldino, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (7th ed.). Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Weir, K. (2020, September 1). What did distance learning accomplish? Monitor on Psychology, 51 (6), 54. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/09/distance-learning-accomplish
Hi Darren,
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to say how much I enjoyed reading your blog post, it is really engaging and entertaining. I agree with the factors you shared about what makes for good virtual instruction. My only negative experience with virtual learning was assisting my niece when the pandemic first emerged. I could tell that neither the students or teacher were accustomed to the technology being used. The teacher displayed more frustration than encouragement and support; which was understandable given the situation. But the result was confusion and subpar instruction. I have never taught an online class, but I have an opportunity to teach some tech courses both in-person and online at the library this summer and I'm hoping to put many of the strategies and tools we discuss into practice. You also talked about the disadvantages of distance learning for some students and there is a trend in all of our research. Lack of funding for technology and connectivity issues for student in rural areas. In my readings I found that a crisis management plan that is tailored to the demographic of the school system could be instrumental in insuring that effective instruction persists even when educational emergencies occur. This doesn't exactly provide a solution to the underlying issues, but it would help mitigate some of the effects of a crisis (Karalis,2020). Having experts in distance education working together to devise a plan and evaluate the effectiveness of methods and strategies would be a beneficial to any school system.
Karalis, T. (2020). PLANNING AND EVALUATION DURING EDUCATIONAL DISRUPTION: LESSONS LEARNED FROM COVID-19 PANDEMIC FOR TREATMENT OF EMERGENCIES IN EDUCATION. European Journal of Education Studies. https://www.oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/3047/5685.
Jasmine Densmore
Darren,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog. You made some great points and your GIF game was on point as always. I’m glad to hear that you feel like you have had a positive experience teaching distance learning during this COVID-19 pandemic. I’m also glad you brought up this counterintuitive information about students wanting more virtual learning, but also admitting that they don’t learn as well in-person. I hate to admit it, but I think that may have as much to do with the fact that many teachers don’t know how to properly design and implement distance learning. I say this knowing that I am personally guilty, because I have learned so much over the last 9 months in my Instructional Technology program. I think many teachers fall into the trap of believing that adding an online medium creates better learning opportunities, but as we learned in the text the format is not what determines learning (Simonson, 2019). If that is true, then it must be true that the most important thing is guiding students down a path of greater understanding through well-designed lessons. I think the obvious step is to ensure that teachers are properly trained on how to properly leverage online learning options. I believe we will start to see schools embracing their technology leaders even more to tackle this challenge. This will likely have to start through a needs assessment. As Karlin et al (2018) explain, “Regardless of the source of needs (teacher, administrator, school, or district), a formal needs assessment should be an integral component of the tech-PD planning process. While collecting data on teachers’ individual needs may be one way to make tech-PD more personalized and, therefore, perceived by teachers as more effective, technology leaders must consider administrative, school, and district needs as well. (para. 73). In other words, technology leaders will have many different considerations when it comes to planning PD to lead this change.
References
Karlin, M., Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A., Ozogul, G., & Liao, Y. (2018). K-12 technology leaders: Reported practices of technology professional development planning, implementation, and evaluation. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 18(4)
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S. E., & Zvacek, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: foundations of distance education. Information Age Publishing, Inc.