Online Learning..Not for Everyone.

Online learning has become one of the most popular ways for high school and college students to get their education.  In some cases it has become cheaper to hold classes online rather than have students and teachers come to a physical location to attend classes. In other cases it is a matter of location.  Some students don't live close enough to the school.  In my case, some of the classes that I am required to take are not even offered on a campus, but only online. 

This brings me to the question, "What about students that need to be in a classroom?''  I can say from personal experience that I do better in school what I am actually attending classes face-to-face. I find that I am more connected with the subject and the teacher.  It leaves me with a more comfortable feeling and I feel like I can connect better with the professor. 

What will happen to those students? As teachers we know that we must address the needs of all of our students especially when dealing with all of the different learning styles.  Could online learning be considered its own learning style?  What if education shifted completely to online learning? What would happen to those students that did not do well with online learning?  I believe these questions to be very important and need to be answered.

I am not against online learning. In fact I have learned a lot during my time in EME5050. But I have had my difficulties that have made me wonder about the future of learning.  For me online is great but face to face is better.

Whats your opinion?

Making my way through Technology land!

Hello, My name is Sandra and I am afraid of technology!  OK maybe not afraid, but I do get nervous sometimes at the idea that teaching is changing.  As teachers we are now being told that it is mandatory to incorporate technology into our daily lessons.  I can understand why it is important to use technology. I can understand why it is important to encourage students to use it.  However, what I don't understand is why it has taken so long for there to be acknowledgment that teachers need help learning all of these new things that are being demanded of them.  Remember, now part of the teacher evaluation process includes the use of technology in the classroom.

As an undergrad I was only exposed to one class on technology class, ONE! I even remember in that class that we talked about how to make spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, and this was in 2009.  I have heard many times from many different teachers that they only use about half of what they learn in undergrad in an actual classroom situation.  Now I am only speaking from personal experience, but I would have to agree with that statement.  I am actually currently excited that during this course I am learning how to use the technology of today and even possibly tomorrow. 

Some of the new things that I have actually started to enjoy include blogging.  I never thought that in a million years I would want to post messages of my thought to the Internet.  As this is now my second blog, I am feeling excited that my peers will be able to read what I am thinking and may even be able to offer advice or words of encouragement.  Blogging in this manner, could be extremely beneficial to my students.  I can imagine them blogging about study questions, what they learned in class, and helping students that were absent catch up.  This may also offer an outlet for students to talk directly to the teacher about issues that they see going on in class, but there are not necessarily enough time during class to address.  This can show the students that the teacher cares and is not dismissing there thoughts.

There are still new things that I am learning everyday as I take this journey through Technology Land.  As I continue to learn, I look forward to figuring out how I can use these new tools in my classroom. 

WEB FIND: I found this site that I wanted to share, http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/. This site offers free online workshops for teacher.  There goal is to help teachers gain more knowledge about how to use technology as well as what technology standards they are going to be held to.

Thanks for Reading
Sandra