Virtual Schooling Questions

1. How does virtual schooling help students?
The Florida Virtual School's motto is "Any time, any place, any path, any pace." I think that this is a good summary of how virtual schooling helps students. Students are allowed the option to complete assignments according to their own schedule (within certain deadlines). Also, they can participate in courses wherever they have access to a computer with internet capabilities. Virtual schools opens up other paths to learning, such as discussion boards with other students, access to topics that are interesting to each student, and interactions with students in other locations. Finally, students are able to work at their own pace. Again, there are certain time constraints; however, students can spend more time if they need it, or may move on to other topics, when they are ready.

2. Who benefits from virtual schooling?
Students: Because virtual schooling gives students so many options, learning can be tailored to each student's individual needs and interests. The student who needs more time to formulate responses can have more time. The student who wants to explore other topics related to the content is able to do so.
Teachers: Teachers benefit because they can use technology such as webcams, discussion boards, and online chats to reach students. Also, because lessons can be viewed online, teachers can reach more students in more locations at the same time.
The community: The community benefits because students are getting better access to the things that they need. Having greater education options for members of the community increases the likelihood that more students will complete their K-12 Education and leave school with more options for employment.

3. Have you participated in a distance education course?
I have not; however, I have thought about the benefits of taking online courses, especially for professional development. With a busy teaching schedule, it would be nice to be able to take a course that was flexible in meeting times so that you could work it around your other commitments.

4. What are the benefits of virtual schooling? Drawbacks?
The benefits of virtual schools include providing greater access and options for students, meeting the needs of more students and teachers, keeping more students in school and interested in learning, and allowing students to use technology to learn at their own pace. Drawbacks may be what to do if technology fails or is down for multiple days. Also, making sure that students are doing their own work on time and using what is available to them effectively could be an issue.

Students Perceptions of the Smartboard

When reading the students' feedback about using the Smartboard, the general trend was that they liked using it. Very few of the students said that they did not enjoy it, or that it did not help them. Most students said that they liked it because it was fun. There was one comment that said that it was nice to use one computer that everyone could look at, rather than each person having a computer and all asking the same questions. There were comments that praised the format of the Smartboard. For example, some students thought that it being in color helped them remember and that they understood better because they could see the examples. Visualization was another main reason that the students enjoyed the Smartboard. They said that being able to see the steps and see the problems helped them. Many students commented that they were able to understand concepts that can be quite difficult (e.g. working backwards, solving algebraic equations) to visualize using the Smartboard. Other benefits included focusing the students attention and making them excited to learn math.

I thought it was interesting that some of the students did not enjoy using the Smartboard. One student said that he was unable to see it and needed to be closer. This could be a drawback for someone using the Smartboard in a small classroom. Another student said that he still didn't understand math. This would be an instance to which a teacher would have to pay particular attention. I think that a consequence of using the Smartboard may be that the teacher is not able to always ensure that each student is understanding. It may be easy for some students to avoid participation and get away with not understanding because of the excitement of all the other students. I think that you run the risk of decreasing participation when using the Smartboard because you have all of your students focused on one thing, as opposed to having them each doing their own thing. To avoid this pitfall, you could ensure that your lesson was fast paced and had each student participate at some point on some level. Also, you would have to make sure that at some point in time you were assessing each student to make sure that they all understand the concept. If they do not understand, then it needs to be taught again in a different manner.

In my classroom, I think that I will find the Smartboard especially helpful when teaching math. It seems that the Smartboard really helps students to visualize math concepts, which is something that is sometimes difficult to represent on a chalkboard. Also, for games, such as jeopardy, I think that the Smartboard would help keep the students engaged. Showing websites or games from the internet would be useful too. There are a lot of websites that provide free math games. Doing these games as a class, instead of individually, may ensure that everyone is doing it correctly. After modeling the game as a class, you could even move to playing on individual computers. Because the Smartboard can show things from the internet, it makes things like PBS videos more accessible because they can be shown more easily to the class as a whole. For me, the main benefits of the Smartboard include student engagement, visualization of concepts, and accessibility of online resources.

Is PowerPoint useful??

I had two teachers in high school use PowerPoint. They both used it effectively. One taught economics. The other taught leadership and ethics. They used the slides as a way to focus our attention on the point of the lesson. They did not read from the slides, or have extraneous features that distracted from their message. Also, they did not use PowerPoint presentations everyday. I think that this is important. Anything can get old. PowerPoint is not appropriate for every lecture either. They did a good job of choosing when the lecture would be improved by using slides to focus the attention of the class. Additionally, they taught us how to make PowerPoint presentations. We were required to give a presentation to the class, using the pointers that they had given us.

Their pointers have helped me to learn to streamline what I want to put on the slides and to use the slides as a springboard for discussion. Once you put a slide that has a lot of words, students start copying and stop listening. I think it is more beneficial to put up a few words and pictures that will help the students understand the point. Giving a visual can also help start discussion without the students even having to read anything. I have used PowerPoint presentations to share images with students without using any text. I found this successful in focusing the students' attention and promoting discussion.

Univeral Design for Learning

Universal design relates to learning in the same way that it relates to architecture. When building accessibility is an afterthought for the architect, the aesthetics of the building suffer, while accessibility is often inadequate. When equal access to learning for all students is tacked onto a curriculum, it is often difficult for the teacher and does not succeed in helping students learn. Just as in an architectural plan, when universal design is incorporated into a curriculum it becomes an integral part that achieves its goal. In UDL (Universal Design for Learning) the goal is to provide access to learning for all students. If teachers are flexible with their materials and methods for instruction by designing curriculum with universal design as the framework, all learners will benefit, which saves time and energy in the end.

I have definitely taught many lessons that have caused me to scramble to help all of the students understand. I have also had to reteach in a more appropriate format. However, I have also planned lessons with each student's needs in mind that have been much more successful. For example, I made a PowerPoint about Native Americans. I gave the students each a note-taking sheet; however, because I knew that many of my students had trouble taking notes, I gave them each a note-taking sheet that was appropriate for them. By labeling the sheets with each student's name on his or her paper in advance, I was able to pass out the papers without the students paying attention to the fact that they had different papers, a common problem in our class. I gave the students that had trouble taking notes a sheet that was partially filled out. For all the students, I put lines on the paper because, while not all of them required lined paper to take notes, some of them needed it; yet, it helped all of the students to write more neatly. Doing all of this planning in advance took a little bit more time before the lesson, but saved a lot of time after the lesson.

Center for Technology and Teacher Education

The CTTE website provides information about new educational technology, as well as about the current research that their group is doing. The website also provides ideas and guidelines for all content areas (math, science, social studies, and English). While the links vary for each content area, in general, lesson plans, web links, and other resources are provided. The application that I found the most useful was the science content area activities that integrate technology, which was divided into chemistry, biology, earth science, physical science, and physics. Each category has multiple lesson plan ideas that may be downloaded. One of the chemistry lessons that I really liked had the students use an Excel spreadsheet to graph each element's position in the periodic table and its melting and boiling points. By using a graph students are given a good visual of periodic table trends for the different phases of matter, a concept that may be difficult to understand without a graph.