It is hard to add to the fabulous remarks that Maria has so
succinctly published, I totally agree that the sessions were amazing. It showed some of the potential of what
Online Education could be and could do, given the right organization, structure
and such great participants and an instructor who has put a lot of thought into
the process.
I thought back about my experiences in Online education. I
had been out of college for a long time (almost three decades) and I knew I
wanted to go back to college, as my career and my life was going to face
massive changes in just a short time: 1) the last of my students (my kids) were
finishing up high school and going off to college, 2) my father, who I had been
taking care of for over seven years, was dying of cancer, 3) with my outdated credentials and
background in teaching music, there wasn’t much of a chance to get back into
that field, and I really wasn’t that interested in it. I wanted to go back to get trained in
something I could do to really help others. Because of tight budget issues at the time I knew that LCC
was my only option and I would have to pay my own way. I took something simple to see if I
could handle college level work, since I was still teaching our home school, my
very first foray into Online Education was a MSU extension class about British
Gardens. It was well organized and
I loved the videos, interactive maps and I could handle the interaction. Then I took classes at Lansing Community
College in writing with an honor’s section that was a hybrid class. Again, I had a great professor, he knew
how to handle online environments and
get the most out of the digital environment. I signed up for more online sections, they allowed me to
work when I had free time (late at night and weekends) and I didn’t have to
worry about driving my old car downtown and getting stranded, or searching for
parking; online education was fabulous.
Then I had a class taught by a typical online instructor. A nightmare.
Over the years, I have had probably ten or more online
classes through both LCC, Northwood University, and now MSU. Even though I am highly self-motivated,
good at working on my own, know how to structure and maximize my time, and can
teach myself, I still have had to fight my way through some online
classes. I’ve faced professors
that: had no apparent organization, would not return messages for weeks, had
obviously just slapped their face-to-face material online, had no clue how to
use the Content Management System, hated teaching online, would not use any
online features, and some who even quit in the midst of the semester. I had group projects online with a
range of classmates that were brilliant to nonexistent, checking in only for
the introduction. After working in the writing center and getting to know the
professors I found that often professors were assigned online sections only a
week or two before the semester started.
Actually only two professors in the whole writing and English department
(about fifteen total instructors including adjuncts) had any specific training
or pedagogy for online education.
LCC administration considered the required online training module for
how to use the school’s CMS as full training for teaching online. At the same time, my major focus became
computers, information management and the potential for using these tools in
education. On the innovative side,
the programmers and developers are working furiously to bring products to the
marketplace that could potentially upend the traditional methods of education.
There are millions of dollars going into usability studies
and improvements on the delivery and hardware side, but from what I heard in
talking to recent college graduates that had focused on education- the
theoretical training and preparation for teaching in these new environments
just wasn’t happening. At the same time, college administrators were promoting
online classes since they are very scalable and profitable, they allow for
higher influx of students when needed, and can easily be reduced as student
populations wane, without creating massive infrastructure to house
classrooms.
It appeared
there was a need to do research on how to build bridges and help simplify the
delivery of online classes and ways to help instructors rethink their pedagogy
to not fight the online environment, but optimize it.
Even though my summer was going to be incredibly busy, I
really wanted to see what this class had to offer, it was exactly what I wanted
to learn more about.
The set-up was extremely effective. Using the time before the face-to-face
sessions to get to know each other and build some foundational understanding on
key topics was very beneficial.
Instead of wasting precious class time in “team building” or “getting to
know you” activities, we were able to dive into the more difficult concepts of
how WE were going to apply these principles. The ability to discuss the issues in depth right away was
wonderful and intimidating at the same time. It felt like being thrown into a raft and setting off on a
white-water expedition.
It did, indeed, cause me to rethink everything.
A few conclusions at the moment-
1) Future instructors going into education at any level
should take a class (or classes) on using technology in education. They will have to face choices on what
to use and how to use it. Even
children in rural Africa sometimes have wind up computers and local
networks. It is like the
transition from scrolls to books with pages that turn.
Message: learn to turn the pages.
2) The
potential to use online tools is almost limitless, so is the potential to
confuse or overwhelm students. In
every lesson, every activity it is important to carefully consider both out
students (our audience), what we want to teach (our thesis), and our limitations (MAPS). Every
decision should carefully weigh the affordances and disaffordances.
Message: look before you leap.
3) Seeing a tool like ELI was a revelation to me, and a
revolution in my thinking. Finally
a tool developed by instructors to help improve the process of education. Most tools are developed by businesses
(Angel, Blackboard, and Desire to Learn) and programmers. They are designed as a business tool,
some of these designers take user
interface seriously, but very few understand educational pedagogy and that is
why when it comes to using the product in the classroom there is chaos.
Message: there is hope.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, unfortunately it is
a freight train coming. If we
don’t want to end up as part of the scenery we need to change our paradigms of
education and how to convey to our students a joy towards learning, even in an
online environment. Instead of shaking our fist at change, instructors need to
learn how to harness it and channel it to meet our needs.
Change is going to happen, we just need to be alert and look for ways to avoid the pitfalls as we embrace the benefits.
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