Online Teaching Experiences

I was very excited when I read through the list of suggested tools to create online experiences. I realized that students leaving my 7th grade language arts class will already have accumulated the required 20 hours of online learning based on the projects and tools they will be using in my class alone. Some of the tools and projects I have already had success using in my classroom and will continue to implement this year, while others are new projects I have been creating over the course of the summer. One example is the use of WebQuests. My students will be using a WebQuest about the research process to help develop their skills at researching and organizing a thesis based paper. Some of the strategies used in this project include scaffolding, opportunities for feedback, and the use and evaluation of rubrics. Another technology tool I will be using is the RSS feed in collaboration with online researching skills. Students will be creating and following their feed reader over the course of the school year, practicing informational reading skills for assignments based on the articles they find. Then, the final 12 weeks of the school year are dedicated to the research process, including the WebQuest and an extended research project that will require students to use both their RSS feed and a social bookmarking account. One last tool to discuss is podcasting, which though it is not labeled as collaborative, will be used collaboratively for a book talk project. Students will partner up to write, record, and mix a podcast “book talk” promoting an independent reading book of their choice. This project integrates content from general genre study and the drama unit (script writing). The heart of this project relies on cooperative learning, and many students naturally take the role of “expert” in the lab, supporting other classmates in troubleshooting and brainstorming.

While I would be very comfortable leading an online course as opposed to simply an online learning experience, I think this type of learning is most appropriate for high school juniors and seniors who have the initiative and dedication to manage their learning independently. I also think that online simulations and conversations with experts might be harder to incorporate into the language arts classroom. One reason is the difficulty of integrating content standards, though I do think somehow communicating with a published author would be a very engaging and encouraging experience for students. But this leads to another difficulty: the challenge of setting up this type of experience. I think it could be done, but outside funds and cooperative planning might be required.