Today I’ve realized the most potentially exciting or depressing aspect of my experience with studying literacy skills in the virtual school English classroom. When I’m attempting to use Google to search for “literacy in the virtual school,” my own blog is the top result. This is a blog I just started about seven weeks ago. I say that this is exciting in the sense that I feel like I am contributing (potentially) to the existing bank of knowledge regarding this unique subject, but also depressing in that there isn’t already more canonical info and scholarship readily available via Internet. Though many schools around the country are continually paying more attention to literacy and “reading” instruction, including seeing that teachers all get reading endorsements soon, it seems that many people haven’t yet considered what role technology has played in what we define as a “literate student” in the 21st century. Is this student the one who does very well on a state-standardized, multiple-choice reading test? I’m not so sure the answer to that question is “yes,” but rather “possibly.” Yet, how are we teaching these students about literacy and language and how does that vary between the virtual and traditional schools?
In my own school literacy instruction has changed and will continue to change drastically within the next year, as we have just received a grant that will place 25 laptops (w/ connectivity) for student use within the classroom of every English and Reading teacher. This means that my students will have access to the minimal technologies that are required to take a virtual school class and many of the same resources those students and teachers use. Still, if I so desire I can still utilize more traditional forms of text, including the trusty old literature book and the white-erase board. I suppose in this way I can further differentiate instruction and offer a blended course. This notion of emerging “hybridity” in many classrooms was recently addressed in an eSchoolNews article.
I hate to continually use this media outlet as a resource to support my viewpoints, however, it is one of the most prolific resources available regarding innovations, trends, issues and general news in educational technology, including virtual schooling. The article, by eSchoolNews assistant editor Meris Stansbury, primarily focuses on the recent trend of traditional school classes where teachers meet with students in both face-to-face and online format and cites “evidence” that hints that “hybrid courses can help students learn more effectively.” Stansbury’s primary example is a study done with a college course taught at the
Strengths
Students’ final grades were 9.9 percent higher in blended course compared to traditional only classes
Greater student comprehension of course content
Frees up traditional class space and offers students more flexibility for part of the curriculum
Weaknesses
Learning curve for the course delivery system (WebCT in this case)
Difficult to confirm identity of actual student completing assignment
Through its
1. What do you want students to know when they have finished taking your hybrid course?
2. As you think about learning objectives, which would be better achieved online and which would be best achieved face-to-face?
3. Hybrid teaching is not just a matter of transferring a portion of your traditional course to the Web. Instead it involves developing challenging and engaging online learning activities that complement your face-to-face activities. What types of learning activities do you think you will be using for the online portion of your course?
4. Online asynchronous discussion is often an important part of hybrid courses. What new learning opportunities will arise as a result of using asynchronous discussion? What challenges do you anticipate in using online discussions? How would you address these?
5. How will the face-to-face and time out of class components be integrated into a single course? In other words, how will the work done in each component feed back into and support the other?
6. When working online, students frequently have problems scheduling their work and managing their time, and understanding the implications of the hybrid course module as related to learning. What do you plan to do to help your students address these issues?
7. How will you divide the percent of time between the face-to-face portion and the online portion of your course? How will you schedule the percent of time between the face-to-face and online portion of your course, i.e. one two hour face-to-face followed by one two hour online session each week?
8. How will you divide the course-grading scheme between face-to-face and online activities? What means will you use to assess student work in each of these two components?
9. Students sometimes have difficulty acclimating to the course Web site and to other instructional technologies you may be using for face-to-face and online activities. What specific technologies will you use for the online and face-to-face portions of your course? What proactive steps can you take to assist students to become familiar with your Web site and those instructional technologies? If students need help with technology later in the course, how will you provide support?
10. There is a tendency for faculty to require students to do more work in a hybrid course than they normally would complete in a purely traditional course. What are you going to do to ensure that you have not created a course and one-half? How will you evaluate the student workload as compared to a traditional class?
Obviously, these questions are mostly those that require in-depth consideration for an educator thinking about teaching a hybrid course, or at least one who plans to do it effectively and thoughtfully. Just reading these questions, it makes me realize that there are a lot of logistics to developing a hybrid course. Given this, a teacher striking out on their own may have a lot of difficulty and it would seem more effective to have, at the very least, a learning community within a school that can take on the trials of developing the course and learning the delivery technology for the online portion of the curriculum. From my observations and interacting with an virtual school Senior English course, I realize that the course delivery and quality of content is a large part of its success. Though the school seems to desire to improve the course, and plans on rolling out a new version soon, the tools it uses for content delivery, interaction and student tracking and record keeping all seem to be extensive, versatile and seamless. Being that these tools are already available and ready for the teacher and students to use, there isn’t the difficulty of having to develop ones own course. There are a lot of people with specific expertise backing them up, including curriculum specialists and IT professionals. For this reason, I think if hybrid English courses are to become more common and as beneficial as possible, each course needs to have the online portion of the curriculum delivered by tried-and-true digital frameworks, otherwise it may not be worth the time and energy a teacher would put into designing such a course. That is, the students’ learning gains statistically or anecdotally may not be enough to justify such an effort.
References:
Stansbury, M. (2008). Hybrid courses show promise. eSchoolNews.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Technology Learning Center. (2005). Ten hybrid questions to consider. pp. 1-2. Accessed
1 comment:
Very interesting post. I guess I'm teaching a hybrid course, as I'm now using Moodle activities in my classroom. I haven't considered even half of the questions you listed though. I'm still tinkering, I suppose. The study you cited and the list of application questions you posted will help the teachers at our school carefully consider how they'll use Moodle in their classrooms. I'll be sure to share both documents.
You say the study hinted that hybrid courses improve student learning. I'm wondering if hinted means there was only a slight improvement or if it's difficult to measure.
I just completed the data collection segment of my action research project for another course. I wondered if Moodle forum discussions increase my students' understanding of a specific science concept. The data shows it does! I'm shocked because I didn't think the improvement would be something I could measure quantitatively. Now I'm anxious to find additional related studies.
Post a Comment