Online Learning

The benefits of Online Learning are clear. A teacher and a student have access to limitless information and tools. I wonder, however, if there is a point where online learning ceases to be effective, sort of like the Law of Diminishing Returns? The more we utilize something, the less value we derive from it. In a given school day high schoolers have between 6-7 class periods. If all of the teachers utilized Online Learning all of the time would it have the same educational impact as if it was only used every once in awhile. Would it loses its novelty and its effectiveness? I ask myself the same questions when I look at schools and universities that only utilize online learning. Do students who use only online learning and those who use no online learning benefit has much as those who balance the two? My belief is that balance is key in education. We should utilize all tools and methods to form a balance curriculum. We don't want students to feel as if they can't learn without online learning, but we also want them to get what they can from it.

What skills have we lost because of technology?

I graduated high school in 2003 and can already see significant differences in the technology I used in high school and the technology they are using now. It is amazing to see, but it makes me feel old. I think, "wow, these kids know so much more about technology than I do and they are only 15." My mom would always say that when she was in college the computers were huge and they had to use these punching cards...I have a hard time picturing an image. But she used typewriters to write papers and used the card catalog at the library. I would feel bad for her because it seemed like with the technology I had, writing a research paper was a lot easier. But is there a trade-off?

I wonder what skills she developed from her school experience that I didn't gain from mine because of the different technologies we had. Are there things I missed out on? Are there things kids are currently missing out on? Or were the things my mom went through insignificant inconveniences that we have solved with technology so that we can spend our time doing productive things. What do you think?

Audio

This week in class we heard a presentation on Audio tools and how they relate to learning. I discovered that for me, audio tools greatly enhance my learning. I love listening to things and learning by them. In high school my favorite lessons were when the teacher would play a song for us and ask us to analyze the lyrics or just lecture to us. I have never been one of those students that needed a lot of activities or games to learn the point of the lesson. I simply liked to sit and listen to what the teacher had to say. Now as an adult, I love listening to online lectures and podcasts. For me, audio educational tools have been very valuable.

We also discussed design goals. This gave me a clearer idea of what instructional design means. Some of the examples of poorly written goals were things I would have looked at and seen nothing wrong with them. But as we discussed them in class, I did see how vague and unclear most of them were. I am learning that having clear and well understood phrasing is essential to great design. The ability to write such clear goals is a skill that instructional designers develop through practice. This lesson helped me understand more clearly how I would answer someone who asked me what an instructional designer does. I think one response I can give on an aspect of instructional design is that they pay very close attention to detail!

The Education of Mark Twain

According to Smith and Ragan, education is "all experiences in which people learn." I could not agree more. I think the great American writer Mark Twain would also agree. He once said, " I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." Meaning that education was not simply something you obtained from a formal institution of learning, but rather from all aspects and experiences of life. In fact, maybe some of the MOST IMPORTANT learning experiences happen outside of the classroom. I can think of a million small events in my life where this has been true.

I was formally taught that it was important to balance my checkbook, but it wasn't until I had to pay the overdraft fee that the lesson truly sink in. This is not to say however, that the role of the classroom isn't an important part of our education. It was in the classroom where I was taught and learned to recognize my potential. It was there that I discovered what I was passionate about and what I "wanted to be when I grew up". I will never forget my high school history class and the various assignments my teacher would give me. Each assignment was thoughtful, educational and exciting. I don't know how she did it, but there wasn't a boring lesson in that class. Lessons were always done creatively, and always with our education in mind. Looking back, I might venture to say that that particular teacher might have been using a teaching method similar to the systematic design of instruction. She really seemed to look at a topic and how it would fit into the whole of our educational experience. I will always be grateful for what that class taught me. Thinking of that class makes me want to be that kind of teacher, one that sets goals, designs, develops and implements ideas, and most importantly is not afraid to reevalute whether what I did actually worked. I think human nature sometimes makes us hesitant to admit what we planned did not work well. But that kind of honestly only helps you refine you design so it can be the most effective as possible.

The great thing about education is that it happens everyday. The great thing about formal education is that it can be focused and narrowed to fit what you need to learn to achieve a goal. All aspects of education are important to humans becoming productive and well-rounded beings.