As I completed my assignment of reading about schools providing blended and online learning, and I checked the reflection questions for this portion, it's obvious that my teaching is going to have to change! Heck, we're talking about less face to face time with students, how could it stay the same? I'm going to be delivering content through videos I create or find, written instruction that I need to be sure the students will comprehend, possibly some online hangouts or Skype, email communication, possibly texting, holy cow! Not only with students have 24/7 access to the course work online, they're going to have 24/7 access to me! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Ok, come back down a few steps on the ladder Holly, no reason to hit the top and jump. Take a deep breath and think, what do you need most to be able to juggle all of this? Time Management! I currently have a room full of students at the same scheduled time each day, I have their undivided attention for 50 minutes. We all are in the same physical building all day long, they know where my office is, I know what their schedules are (not memorized or anything creepy like that, what I know where to find them.) Communication is not an issue because we always know where to find each other. But if this were taken out of the equation, I'm going to have to make some adjustments, and having a student text me at 1:00 am when they are working, and get stuck, is not an option.
To begin with I need to make sure initial instruction is precise and clear. There will need to be some sort of formative assessments as we move along each unit or chapter. I see this as a simple check point, similar to a 5 finger test or a quick thumbs up/down. I'm not going to have the immediate feedback of the "deer in the headlights" look, I have to plan to gather more information as we go and make adjustments quickly. If the initial instruction gets students moving in the right direction, we'll be off to a good start.
In order to be accessible, I want to have specific "office hours" when I will make myself available to be online and have back and forth interaction with students (email, discussion forum, hangout, etc.) If a student has to go more than 24 hours without feedback from me, they'll become frustrated & distracted, and their interest in the course will start to diminish. This might not occur everyday, but if the dates and times are set ahead of time, or consistently the same days of the week, students will be able to schedule accordingly and have their work and questions ready.
I also want to provide the opportunity for students to help each other, all answers do not need to come from me, and if students can help each other they are developing a community they can rely on. This is where the discussion boards can be so important to start with. The tips we have on how to encourage good feedback in a discussion, and draw out more deep thinking will be crucial for me to do. I envision as a class progresses, students could do hangouts or Skype with each other, I would not necessarily need to organize it.
Because of the lack of face to face communication, simple multiple choice assessments will not do the trick. I'm going to need more open ended, thought provoking, higher level thinking activities throughout a unit and in the assessments to check for learning. Each unit will need something a little different. Too much of a good thing turns it sour. Group activities are a must and need to be incorporated often to help build community.
So what tools can I use to facilitate this? I don't think I even know all the possibilities, that's one thing I hope to learn from this course. I'm sure there will be a few technologies I'll use more than once, but I also want to expose the students to different ones, encourage them to try something new. As long as I keep trying new things and sharing it with them, even if I make mistakes along the way, I can model to students that it's ok to put yourself out there and maybe fall once in awhile, just as long as you pick yourself back up and keep going.
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