This week we moved on to read articles about teacher professional development and iNACOL standards of evaluating online teachers. The readings were interesting as it enlightened me what are some the barriers that online teachers face in addition to what traditional brick-and-mortar teacher faces. Here I always thought, online teacher have it easy since classroom management is taken out of the equation if classroom does not really exist and students are more motivated. However, online class management is quite the contrary to my beliefs. In an online classroom, teachers have to motivate and engage students virtually through all mediums necessary either if it's through telephone, IM, discussion boards, or following up with the student's mentor. In light of this weeks' readings, managing a classroom seems harder to me than managing a traditional classroom.
Thinking as a future K-12 Tech Specialist degree, I find that the readings provided great examples and ideas how online teachers can engage students which also correlates well to how teachers should use technology in a traditional classroom. I also find that the iNACOL National Standard of Online Teaching can also be used to evaluate traditional teachers in the use of technology and learning management system (LMS) effectively in the classroom.
Another interesting article I find interesting is how being a "BIG BROTHER" on teacher's email, discussion boards, and phone calls can possibly be an effective evaluation of online teachers. I agree that having a BIG BROTHER will keep teachers at it's best, but I personally will never be able to perform my best if I'm being recorded and eve dropped at anytime. Than again, where I currently work has the BIG BROTHER model also but it is not really used until it is deemed necessary.
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You forget about "BIG BROTHER" after a while. In financial services, just about everything you do is supposed to be recorded and archived. While you are aware and VERY cautious of it at first, you soon forget about it entirely. The problem I had with it in the past is that is is only of use after the fact. If you are going to have "BIG BROTHER", why not have a more real-time one, so that changes and recommendations can be made closer to the event.
ReplyDeleteIt would be neat if we could all teach a class for a week to experience what it is really like to teach online.
Is that a suggestion? I wonder if we could do that. In one of the classes I am looking at, each student takes charges of one of the discussion forums each week, posting a question for others to answer.
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