Distance Education

Distance education is a concept that has both advantages and disadvantages for k-12 students. Students who take classes through distance education have the opportunity to work directly and work often with the internet, a tool that has become a prominent factor of daily life. Online classes also tend to require more responsibility from each student. Working independently will give students the chance to practice independent learning, and push students to become actively engaged. If students have questions, it is their responsibility to contact the instructor, or ask peers.

Disadvantages of learning through distance education include the lack of teacher-to-student and peer-to-peer interaction. Students attend school not only to gain knowledge in the academic subjects provided, but also to gain knowledge in becoming notable citizens. Without the opportunity to learn and grow together, students only achieve part of what grade school offers.

Students who show competence in traditional schooling should be allowed the chance to explore distance education. A mixture of both traditional and distance education can target the advantages of both, while eliminating most of the disadvantages.

To prepare for distance education, teachers need to form a curriculum that is targeted for independent, teacher-centered learning. It is also important that teachers stay on top of students and that everyone remains organized. Depending on the grade/age level of the students, teachers need to try and regulate how much responsibility is handed over to students for optimal success.

Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

By creating a concept map, those involved are given the opportunity to use critical thinking in breaking down a concept, question, or theme. Students use what they know to build upon prior knowledge, and come to further conclusions regarding the subject. Concept mapping is a great strategy for beginning a lesson, thus establishing common ground, or for ending a lesson and summarizing what one has learned.

It is important to integrate concept maps into lessons when they fully benefit students, rather than force a lesson into a concept map. Criteria that I'd look for in a lesson are deep discussions, complex concepts, or relevant concepts. Lessons revolving around these qualities would benefit incredibly from a concept map.

One way that concept mapping could be beneficial in an English/Language Arts class would be to map out a theme in a novel or short story. Since themes are often times complex recurrent ideas, students would reach further understanding on what the theme means and why it is present. Other literary devices could be mapped out as well. For example, characters can be placed as the main focus of a concept map, and as we read a novel, the characters can even be connected by more than one map.

Concept maps can go beyond reading and analysis in the classroom—prewriting and brainstorming discussions can revolve around concept maps for all sorts of writing assignments. Persuasive essay topics can be analyzed on a map, thus forcing students to think of all sides of an argument. Concept maps can also be used to keep organized while working on an extensive research assignment. Since it is easy to break off on tangents while researching broad and complicated subjects, creating a concept map can help narrow down a topic, creating a cleaner focus for the paper.

Concept maps are great for keeping organized, thoroughly thinking through a topic, and for initiating discussions. Working as a group helps build on everyone’s knowledge, in turn allowing for successful group learning.

Reflections on Using TeacherWeb

Creating a TeacherWeb was great practice for the future, as well as a fun way to prepare myself and think further into what my philosophy as a teacher is. I will use this program, or something similar, for my classrooms to keep myself, as well as my students, organized and engaged in our assignments. TeacherWeb is an innovative way to keep the teacher, the students, and the parents actively involved throughout the semester. It is easy for students to keep track of assignments and grades so that they know how they are doing in the class on a regular basis. Parents are also given a single location to review what their child is learning and whether or not he or she grasps the concepts.

TeacherWeb is also a valuable tool for teachers to stay organized; keeping up with daily agendas, uploading handouts, and keeping track of grades not only shows parents and students that the teacher is consistently handling each class with care, but the teacher is given the extra push to think about the class period beforehand, as well as reflect on how the day actually went.

Students have many chances to become engaged and stay involved in class with the use of TeacherWeb. While surfing through their daily sites, students are likely to reach the TeacherWeb more often than reading through a typed up syllabus to make sure they are on track.

Teachers are also able to check out what other classrooms are working on. This is yet another way that teachers can team up with their department. If teachers are working on lessons that compliment one another, TeacherWeb links can be useful for the students. Teachers also have an easy way of knowing about others' due dates, so that students are not swamped on some days and bored on others.

I definitely plan on using a class website when I begin teaching--TeacherWeb was a great practice for the years to come!

Blogs and Wikis in Education

When I Googled "educational blogs" I was given many sites that listed their favorite blog pages. Navigating through them gave me an array of educational subjects--school politics, teaching strategies, teaching theories--but for the most part the blog was a place for educators to collaborate on their approaches to teaching. Searching for "educational wikis" brought up pages that gave more direct examples of Wikis in the classroom, rather than actual pages from the teachers' perspective like the blogs. Through Bing I was directed to many of the same pages as through Google, but given more blogs on teaching techniques and websites to register for a Wiki page formatted for educational/classroom use. Lastly, I searched through Ask Jeeves. I was given the same blogs and Wikis as through Google and Bing.

By skimming through blogs, like Successful Teaching, I was able to find dozens of web resources, even some interactive pages! I plan definitely on including some of them in my Teacher Web page. Literacy is Priceless was my favorite find of the day. The host includes tips on teaching, technology tools, and posts free literary resources. Being an English major, I will be sure to check out Literacy is Priceless more in-depth for further insight and ideas. As far as finding ideas relevant to student use, 24 Hour Blog explains the benefits of allowing young minds to give their two cents through the internet, and more specifically, through video. Monitoring the use of comments through blogs and videos allows students to build confidence through expression, as well as technology skills through hands-on practice.

Educational Wikis had examples of activities students could do, from a variety of content areas. English Place serves as a Wiki version of a writing space were students, mostly ELL, can practice their English reading and writing skills. Wikis in Education was a website designed for teachers to create classroom appropriate Wikis, through the use of the sites templates and ideas. This site can be a quick go-to for putting together a Wiki for a group classroom activity.

Blogs can be used in the classroom for curriculum development, for sharing ones thoughts on education, and for giving support to fellow teachers. Wikis give students the opportunity to create an interactive workspace for small group or whole class activities.

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RSS readers are tools that wrangle up news content of ones liking and then group them into a single page. I just created my first RSS feed, and added a couple of the blogs that I found while searching "educational blogs."

For the classroom, RSS feeds can help students collect information for research assignments, as well as help keep them with current events relevant to their interests.

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Blogs and Wikis can be useful for hands-on participation and practice with interactive sites. It is important to monitor what students can do and see while online. Using both blogs and Wikis requires responsibility as well as trust in one's students. If my class proves they can handle the freedom and fun of the web, I'll surely be creating assignments paired up with blogs, Wikis, and RSS feeds.

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

Of the nine categories, my strengths in regards to Multiple Intelligence are Intrapersonal and Musical Intelligences.

Intrapersonal: This means that I demonstrate effective awareness, or understand others' feelings, attitudes, and outlook. I have a strong ethical awareness, as well as self-regulation and metacognition. Since I am somewhat of a tactile learner, these intrapersonal traits serve as positive characteristics when working directly with others.

Musical: Learners that benefit from music or rhythm have heightened listening ability, use patterning and resonance to focus and remember, and think musically rather than verbally. Being a strong auditory learner along with tactile techniques, thinking in terms of rhythm rather than words allows for identification with patterns as an expression of experience.

Students with intrapersonal intelligences will benefit from teachers who use analogies in making comparisons, have students create classroom goals, and examine current events in terms of social justice. Specific activities could consist of journals, self-assessment, and class discussions.

Creating a welcoming environment for students with musical intelligences would entail drawing visual patterns, identifying rhyme scheme, and being attentive to sounds in one's environment. Adding music and multimedia presentations to a lesson will engage musical learners.

In my future classroom I will work towards creating a comfortable environment for all students and all types of intelligences. Although I benefit from musical and intrapersonal approaches, I must remember to continue to use tactics that will benefit other learning styles.

Learning Styles Project

According to the American Education Services' Learning Styles Quiz, I'm an auditory/tactile learner.

Based off of the quiz, and my own recollections as a student, I work best in an atmosphere where both hands-on and verbal instruction take place. Depending on the subject matter I am studying, one learning style may benefit me more than the other. In order to succeed in class, however, these tips can benefit auditory and tactile learners:

• Sitting where one can hear well.
  
• Using flashcards to learn new material: arrange the cards in groups to show relationships between ideas, and then read them out loud.
• Read stories, assignments, or directions out loud.
  
• Take frequent, but short, breaks when reading.
• Stay active when reading/studying at home: tap a pencil, chew gum, shake your foot... but try to avoid distractions.
  

Before taking this quiz, I was aware of the multitude of teaching and learning techniques that can benefit students in different ways. I was surprised, however, by some of the tips my results gave me. I tend to shake my foot without thinking often, and have been questioned by my peers and parents about it. It's a relief to see that this is just a part of my learning style, rather than a strange habit that I've developed.

I need to keep this in mind in my future classroom as well. Students may generate their own ways of staying focused and on task--all of which I need to welcome into the classroom as long as others' aren't distracted. Presenting materials in a variety of ways will also allow for all students to fully grasp concepts rather than only some students understanding materials at certain times.

My Quiz Results