Making Online Learning Meaningful

As a student, I have always been worried about the future of education in terms of online learning. This stems from my own personal preferences toward learning. Personally, I do not enjoy online learning or online classes. I’m an individual who enjoys being in the classroom, having personal contact with one another, and the option to have my questions answered quickly, instead of having to wait for a message or email reply. Although I am huge fan of technology integration in the classroom, I’m not sure how far my love for online learning really goes. I suppose if I want to keep up with everyone else, I will need to become more willing to accept online learning.

Listed here are some strengths and weaknesses of moving to an online program.

Positives:

1.) Pace of Work:

It seems to me that online learning allows a user to work at their own pace. I ask myself, what am I doing with the kids who legitimately finish the assignment in half of the time that it takes the other students? If I were to switch to an online method, those kids could finish the first assignment and move on to the next without having much dead time. If a student needs to go back and reread or rewatch a video, they can do that on their time and not have to hold everyone else up.

However, this could also be a draw back for students who see themselves falling behind to the students who are flying ahead of everyone. Personally, I like being able to work at my own pace so that I don’t have to wait for the entire class to catch up before we move on.

2.) Differentiated Instruction:

When giving speeches about technology integration, this is always one of the concepts that I like to hit hard. When giving students online work to complete, the teacher, if the online lessons are structured correctly, can make lesson plans that hit the different learning styles in the classroom. For example, the students could be listening to a video and reading text while interacting with the keyboard and mouse. In this scenario, the teacher is addressing and meeting all of the various learning styles.

3.) Change of Pace:

Too many times the students do the exact same thing in every classroom. They sit. They listen. They write. Blah. Blah. Blah. By using online learning, you can be the breath of fresh air that these students need. The change of pace will not only make you a more welcomed teacher, but it will give the students a “working break” that they need in the course of their day. Also, online learning does not have to be the entire class period. It could be having the students simply go down to the computer lab for a one-day web inquiry based project where they are answer a question on a worksheet.

Negatives:

1.) Effective Communication:

If I have a question, I need an answer pronto. Through using online learning, it seems that communication is difficult for individuals who want a response ASAP. The ability for a teacher to provide quick feedback to students is crucial. If not, there are many bad scenarios that students will run into (e.g. frustration, doing the assignment incorrectly… etc.). When most of the communication for online learning is through text, students could possibly read the assignment incorrectly and end up having to redo it.

2.) Personal Contact:

There are certain individuals, like myself, who enjoy that one-on-one personal contact with other people and who want to socialize during the learning process. This is important in my class because I encourage individuals to help each other out. I want them to ask questions and learn from other another. Online learning can hinder the ability for students to collaborate effectively. As a student in this class had pointed out, “Let’s chat because this is getting all lost in Twitter.” This means that the students did not enjoy talking about assignments online because communication simply was difficult through a social networking source.

3.) Skill Level:

What I’m finding, even with some of the students in this classroom, is that if you don’t have the computer skills needed to complete the task, then you’re going to have a difficult time with the class/assignment. These basic skills are usually mastered immediately, not a short period of time. Simply teaching someone how to use the basics of the internet is not enough. Students need continual practice.