I was surprised by the fact that
cyber schooling and virtual schooling are two different things. Cyber schooling
is done entirely on-line where the cyber schools provide the materials to the
children and the parents are there to provide support and basically teach.
Where the virtual schooling uses a combination of synchronous and asynchronous
delivery models. (Barbour, 2009) Another think I found interesting was that virtual
school teachers are better synchronous teacher than asynchronous teachers.
According to Barbour (2009) this can be associated with the fact that the synchronous
environment resembles a typical brick and mortar classroom. If you think about
it that is true most of what is taught in an education program is how to manage
a classroom, so in a synchronous environment you could use those classroom management
techniques. In an asynchronous environment where students work at their own
pace and at different times then you can’t use traditional classroom management
skill.
After
the readings I found that most of what I said in part one was accurate. The asynchronous
environment can clearly be done form the comfort of home and in your pajamas. The
definition of cyber schooling were the students take all of their course online
and the materials that are provided are used by the parents and students from
home. (Barbour, 2009) When I was working on another assignment I did make the assumption
that online teachers have easy job by saying that sometimes teachers take what
they are doing in their traditional classrooms and convert the lessons to an
online format with instruction done through prerecorded videos or Power Point presentation
with audio explanations. Although teachers still might take a lesson or unit
and convert it to an online environment the amount of work that goes into making
the conversion so that the lessons are effective shows that it is not as easy
as it sounds.
Great post Paul. I became overwhelmed thinking about all the work that would go into teaching an online course. Especially for a core subject, there is just so much content that would need to be replicated online. Additionally, teachers would have to get creative in creating online content that can replicate all the information that is usually delivered in class.
ReplyDeleteHello Paul,
ReplyDeleteIt is daunting thinking about everything you would need to prep and organize to manage an online course. I rely a lot on student thought and input when going through the lessons and having an asynchronous environment would inhibit that since I wouldn't be able to get real time questions or feedback from students. I would definitely have to get creative to be sure students don't fall behind.
It's not easy, which is why companies (and MVU) create the courses in-house, then hire instructors to 'teach' the content. The instructors have little say in the course creation (with some exceptions). On one hand, an instructor may not like the content (although there is some wiggle room). On the other, the task is overwhelming, and if a place like MVU let each instructor design his/her own course, you would not have the quality control and consistency you might hope for.
ReplyDeleteAt least if a student is taking a course through a specific provider, they know they're getting pretty much the same curriculum and assignments as the next person.