5 advantages of distance education:

1. Less classroom management = more time on task. Because it is a virtual environment, classroom distractions and interruptions are virtually nonexistent. Teachers can spend more time on teaching and less time on introduction and transition tasks, and student disruptions.
2. Flexibility of time. Students who have to work can schedule their hours around classes, or vice versa. Transportation time is eliminated, and rather than spending a six hour chunk of time at school, students can schedule classes the way they might in college – with breaks in between. Also, some classes only meet in live virtual chat rooms or via webcam once or twice a week, leaving ample amounts of free time for students to pursue work or other endeavors.
3. Tailored education. Students can really put together a schedule that works for them. For example, classes that aren’t normally offered in a traditional classroom may be readily available and depending on the attendance policy and how often the class meets, students could have significantly less scheduling conflicts.
4. Innovation. Schools that are built around the computer will naturally have a more pressing desire to seek out and utilize technology to the best of their ability. Classroom teachers, due to brevity of classtime, classroom management issues, or lack of technology are often not on the cutting-edge nor are they using technology to maximize their lesson plans. Teachers of online courses already have a lot of front-loaded work when they design the course; it is only natural, then, that they would spend time developing their technology.
5. Access. Students can access classes, coursework, and assignments from virtually any location on earth as long as appropriate Internet connections are available. This means that students whose parents want to take a vacation during a time when school is in session could potentially work from their hotel room as long as they called ahead to verify WiFi or Ethernet access.

5 disadvantages of distance education:

1. Loss of face to face interaction. Even if students and teachers are able to access skype or another webcam program, that human connection sans technology is lost. A chat room conversation is different from a classroom debate – some of the spontaneity can be lost, and it is more difficult to read the emotions into writing (sarcasm, sadness, etc), leaving it up to the students to make teachers and other classmates aware of their emotions.
2. Cost. Unlike public education, the online schools we’ve been looking at are not “free and compulsory,” each credit/class costs money. Unfortunately, many districts and/or schools that don’t yet have a high demand might opt out of paying for the program. In that case, the parents and student are left to pay the bill, and many parents will find this cost to be out of reach.
3. Technical difficulties. If one or two students experience technical difficulties in a traditional classroom, they can move next to another student to share a computer screen for until the problem is fixed. Students studying online in isolation do not have this option, nor do they have an in-house tech consultant. It could take hours or days for someone to fix their problem.
4. It’s not for everyone. Students who aren’t self motivated will probably find distance education difficult. Without regular daily (or bi/tri weekly) contact with teachers and other students, many students (even those who are motivated) might find it difficult to keep up with the course work, saying “I’ll do it later.”
5. Altered teaching mindset. Teaching distance education courses is not just a matter of throwing up a traditional schedule and set of lesson plans and activities. It requires a different mindset on the part of both teachers and students, and it requires that teachers adapt both their units/lessons/activities and their way of thinking about education.

How you would determine the readiness of students to participate in distance education?

• What type of study skills does the student have?
• Is the student equipped with enough technical knowledge to readily complete the courses? (In other words, will technology aid in his/her education, or will it detract from and hinder his/her learning?)
• Has the student complete online course work in a traditional course? Does the student understand how distance courses work?
• Does the student have the necessary technology at home (or will technology be provided)?

What would you need to do to be ready to teach in an online environment?

Resources. Other teachers who have taught in this environment before and who know what works and what does not work. Books on technology (ie one of the Dummy books - "Websites for Dummies" or something to that effect)

Technical support. I need access to someone who can help me when I get stuck or have trouble with my online tools (website, wiki, chat room, etc.)

Time to develop some great instructional plans.

A vested interest. Frankly, I'm not interested in online education. I love the vitality of the classroom, I am a people person and I find that I am better able to teach when I see students face to face. I'm sure that online education is a fabulous option for many teachers and students (it's definitely a great option for the United States, as our population continues to grow at a pace that will eventually outgrow our resources) it's simply not for me.

Concept Mapping

Post your 2-3 paragraph summary of the 3-5 ideas you explored for how you could use Concept Mapping within your future classroom. Give your specific examples.

Student Created. I explored the Inspiration Language Arts examples and came up with a few that I thought would work really well in the classroom. I'd like to use concept mapping for The Odyssey, novels by Toni Morrison, or other novels that are heavily populated. In these novels it's difficult to keep characters straight, and there have been many times (in Morrison's Paradise, for example) when I've caught myself flipping back to an earlier passage in an attempt to remember which character the author was referring to and what her past history was. If students could create an ongoing concept map, adding details and characters as the book progressed, I think it would be a handy reference to have at their side as the plot and themes progressively thicken.

Co-Created. The second way I'd use concept mapping would be for poetry. Many students frequently cite poetry as the most difficult type of text for them to comprehend. I loved the Wordsworth example that the site used. It really nailed the literary devices the poet used and I love the progression of line number to example from the text to what literary device was employed. I could envision doing one map on a smart board or projector with students, turning them lose on their own poems afterward. It's a much more cohesive/inclusive way to teach literary devices. Because poetry analysis has so many specific components, I also think the visual representation of the parts would help a lot of students who get lost in a tangle of diction, imagery, syntax, rhyme, meter, and so forth. Because poetry is subjective, I also envision students coming up with maps that contain many of the same devices, but which vary greatly in their examples. Middle-to-long poems and more complex poems would lend themselves nicely. I'd probably show students an example of a more difficult poem and then have them try the map out on a less cryptic poet, such as Billy Collins, and use that map as a gateway to other poetry (Keats, Plath, Edna St. Vincent Millay, etc.)

Student-Created. The third way I would use concept mapping would be in comparing two books with similar themes, or from similar time periods. For example, I might use The Odyssey and couple it with "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" The map would provide a great way to separate out complex themes and simple character comparisons all in one spot. It would help students who have a difficult time making connections between texts and could also be a springboard for a paper that begins by asking students to make comparisons and judgment before coming to a conclusion about a theme or character.

Discuss what you see as the impact of the use of Concept mapping might have on student learning within your future classroom. Give some details to support your statements.

I think the concept maps would be beneficial to many different students. The flexibility that the map offers means that both more advanced students as well as struggling readers could take advantage of its uses. Mapping allows students a visual representation of the text, which is especially beneficial for students who have a difficult time "seeing" the connections between characters and/or themes in various texts, for those (such as myself) who find a large character list quite daunting, and for those students who struggle, at the end of a book, to remember enough details about the text to begin brainstorming for their paper or project. Having a concept map that progresses as the student move through the book means that all sorts of important details can be recorded. It also means that students need to make value judgments to decide what is important for them to add to their map, and what to leave out.

The concept map, to me could be used as a more focused form of note-taking that allows students to have a point that they are moving toward. So students could make little notes of page numbers, important things to remember, etc. at home, and then transfer what they feel is important to the concept map, organizing it in the process.

Discuss at least 2 criteria that you would use to decide whether or not Concept Mapping activities would be part of a lesson for your students.

My decision to use Concept Mapping in a particular lesson would definitely be based on my learning targets for the day. I would want the concept map to enhance the students' understanding of a text or help them better organize their ideas. I would also take into account the types of learners in my classroom and whether or not it would benefit the students to work individually or in pairs or groups. In one lesson I might have students make individual maps of different poems that they have selected (see image at the top of this page). In another lesson, I might find it to be more helpful for students to collaborate on a character sketch that could be used as a handout for the students' classmates.

The frequency with which we used the maps would also depend upon the availability of computer access within my building.

Reflections on Using Teacher Web

1. Describe at least two ways that the use of a class website like TeacherWeb could be used to support your future teaching. Provide some specific details for each example.

I will definitely have a class website, whether it is TeacherWeb or another host. One reason for this is that from my perspective as both a student and teacher, I find that organization plays a huge part in how much work students are able to complete, and how much respect students and teachers have for one another.

Using a class website means that I can provide an advanced calendar in a central location that is accessible from anywhere, and that shows when readings, assignments, and tests are due. This eliminates paper waste, the problem of students losing assignment dates or not writing them in their planners, and also helps students who want to look ahead and plan around sports schedules, family vacations, dentist appointments, and the like.

I strive to make my classroom as transparent as possible - I will never "trick" students, withhold important information, or otherwise mislead them. The class website, again, provides a central location for me to upload all assignments, class handouts, grades, and the like. If a student misses class or loses an assignment, they know where to look to see what they've missed. The gradebook is fantastic as well, as I will keep it as up-to-date as possible. A student could then look at their grade at any point during the semester without having to come to me and look it up. And parents could look at the website and see exactly what is going on in their young adult's classroom, which again, would cut down on confusion, or simply phone calls/visits to my classroom to see what's going on.

Due to a lack of funding in most districts, classroom supplies might be lacking, or outdated. Having a single list of links to important sites such as the MLA guidelines and literary terms is a great way for students to find basic information they need on their own, rather than asking me how to perform basic tasks over and over again.

Finally, assuming that my school has the capabilities, I will be doing a lot of multimedia, collaborative projects with my students. Students will therefore be spending a considerable amount of time online, and I think it's only practical that they have an online site to go to for whatever information they may need while working on their projects.

2. Identify 2 ways students could use a class website like TeacherWeb to enhance their learning. Provide some details for each way identified.

A lot of what I mentioned above applies to students as well as teachers. In addition to the practicality and convenience of being able to access handouts, assignments, grades, and resources at one website, I also think students could create websites like the TeacherWeb one for their own projects. It's a great way to organize and present information on a research topic, or a collaborative performance assignment.

Blogs and Wikis in Education

1. Identify and describe three interesting/innovative ways blogs and/or wikis are being used in K-12 classrooms.

Edublogs.org lists ten ways that blogs are being used in classrooms. I've included the ones I find most interesting below:

• to post materials and resources


• to host online discussions


• to create a class publication


• to get students blogging


• to share lesson plans


• to integrate multimedia of all descriptions


• to organize


• to get feedback

I've witnessed many of these wonderful results firsthand, as one of my teachers utilized blogs as a tool for exploring weekly critical and/or creative responses to the readings we did in a graduate level course I took. She posted the blog prompts on the class website, along with the due date for each prompt, and kept a blogroll on a second page of the website. We were responsible for reading the prompts (there were always two options) and posting to our own blogs, as well as responding to two classmates' blogs.

I had such a great experience that I ended up keeping my blog and I try to post a couple of times per week. Blogs allow our innermost thoughts, ideas, and creativity to be shared across an open network and are accessible by anyone with a computer and an interest in similar ideas. They are less stuffy and formal than traditional papers, and there is a live audience beyond the teacher - I've actually got three people (whom I have never heard of nor met following my blog).

And it works at the lower levels as well. Several high school English teachers have set up blogs for their classroom and have helped their students set up individual blogs as well. They use the main blog to post a writing assignment, reminders about upcoming reading/classroom activities, and comments regarding class discussions. The students, in turn, access the main blog, read the prompts, and write in their own blogs. Generally, teachers have students post, and then require them to respond to two other bloggers' posts. Some teachers do not have their students create blogs, but instead, have students respond in the comments section of the main blog. Students are often more candid than they would be in a more formal assessment, and more descriptive than they would be if called on randomly in class. They also allow for students to post photos, videos, or other multimedia to enhance their writing, or simply serve as a visual representation of a student's response to a text, an event, or an emotion.

2. Describe how you might use RSS readers/aggregators within a classroom setting.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It is used to update frequently published information, most frequently, from blogs and news headlines, in a standardized format. An aggregator is a website that is used to collect these headlines. From Wikipedia: "The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds."

Basically, instead of having to visit numerous sites to check for updates and information, a teacher or student could visit his/her aggregator for an organized collection of headlines and descriptions in one location.

RSS aggregators are great for all sorts of teaching purposes. They could be used by a class to follow news about a certain topic or time period that they are studying, or by the teacher, to keep up with changes in educational policies, to keep up with the blogs of other educators, to keep up with author blogs, to keep up with topics in a teacher's field, or simply to keep up with the news (especially helpful for history/current world problems teachers).

3. Describe at least two pros and two cons of using blogs and wikis in education.

Pros:
Both blogs and wikis allow students to interact with one another, with a live audience, and with the text by allowing collaborative work (wikis) and through comments (blogs) and links to others who are writing/blogging about the same topic. They allow students to interact with authors, scientists, and others who have taken their work to the level of 2.0. Before the internet and before collaborative spaces were created online, this was nearly impossible without an enormous amount of funding and luck.

Wikis, but especially blogs, maintain a record of student writing and activities: essentially, these online spaces act as a permanent portfolio of student work that can be accessed from any location at any time by any employer, friend, parent, teacher, or other interested party. They are a great way to showcase student work and ensure that it doesn't get lost in the paper shuffle.

Cons:
As with anything new in education, blogs and wikis will need to "prove," their worth - to parents, administrators, and possibly other teachers. There will be parents who deem these online spaces unsafe for their children. There are issues of anonymity vs. public record: should students post under their own names so that their work can later be found doing a simple search, or should students remain anonymous to protect their privacy from unwelcome eyes?

Then there is the issue of access. Blogs and wikis require online access, but prior to that, they require enough computers for the entire class to access. If the classroom is not equipped with enough computers (few are) library or computer lab time will have to be scheduled. If the school has a conservative firewall, this too will have to be navigated.These physical considerations must be taken into account. In addition, there is the matter of the digital divide. Some students will have computers at home and may be eager to work on their blogs and/or wikis on their own time. Other students have no access to a computer, let alone an internet connection. How will you handle requests from students to spend outside time making their blogs/wikis extra special?

Despite these concerns, perhaps because of these concerns, I find that the pros for using blogs and wikis outweigh the negatives. Exposure to technological devices that might serve students both personally and professionally in the future is incredibly important and rewarding. Digitally literate students will have not only technology at their fingertips, but the ability to explore, create, analyze, and adapt to all kinds of situations. What teacher wouldn't want that?

MI in the Classroom

Discuss which of the multiple intelligences you have strengths in and then discuss some of the core characteristics of that (or those) intelligences.

The results of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Test indicate that my strengths lie in the Intrapersonal, followed closely by Rhythmic, and Verbal areas. Judging from the MI descriptions at Walter McKenzie's Surfaquarium site, I'd say that the characteristics associated with these areas are pretty spot-on. Examples of some of these characteristics include an awareness of one's thought process, a regulation of one's thoughts, actions and behaviors, a sense of one's morals - basically, Intrapersonal people really know themselves quite well inside and out. Characteristics of Rhythmic intelligence include seeking out and identifying with patterns and a heightened listening ability. And finally, Verbal or linguistic intelligences include the ability to express oneself orally and in writing, a pretty accurate description for me, a writer.

Discuss which of the core characteristics best describe you and your learning style.

I found the descriptions to be quite accurate. For example, I know my self pretty well, and I like working alone. I am very Type-A about my projects, and I fear having to give up that power over the quality of a project if I'm put into a group. (Hate group work!) I also prefer assessment that allows for either creativity or writing, since I believe I express myself best in writing (especially storytelling). I find it easy to apply rules and skills involved in language to a variety of different disciplines: I hate any types of tests that rely on logic, one-correct-answer, or multiple choice. If I am allowed to explain myself or explain how I came to the conclusion that I did, I feel as though 1) I am learning something and 2) I am being fairly assessed.

Discuss what students with this type of intelligence enjoy, are like, or tend to do within classroom settings.

Intrapersonal learners are communicators, they express strong likes/dislikes, show confidence, and relate to others based on a sense of themselves. Linguistic learners enjoy and are skilled at expressing their learning through discussion and essays, they enjoy word play, and are good storytellers who use descriptive language.

Discuss how you will support this type of intelligence within your classroom and within your teaching.

For all learners, I will offer students a variety of activities and assessment tools so that they don't feel as though they are being misunderstood and I will differentiate instruction so that learners of all intelligences will have the opportunity to flourish. When working with Intrapersonal learners (and all learners, for that matter) I will ask students to set goals for themselves and reflect on their own learning and I will involve students in the development of the assessment we use in the class.

I'm also a proponent of online forums for student work: blogs, wikis, websites. I feel that all students can benefit from having a wider audience for their work (especially Intrapersonal students who might not feel comfortable sharing their work aloud or face-to-face).

For Linguistic learners, I will utilize journals, promote opportunities for writing in different genres/styles, I will include oral storytelling and emphasize the importance of preserving different forms of storytelling, and I will provide a small library of quality young adult literature for all of my students and will work with individuals to come up with other reading suggestions.

Discuss what technologies stimulate this type of intelligence.

For Intrapersonal learners: class discussion, real time projects, digital portfolios, self-assessment, journals, and YA lit.

For Linguistic learners: newspapers, magazines, and web-based publishing are fantastic tools.

And finally, discuss how you might impact student learning by applying your understanding of learning styles and multiple intelligences within your classroom.

As I said in the post before this one, I feel that it's important for me to be cognizant of the variety of ways that exist to teach a concept. I hope to affect student learning by changing things up, offering choice, and realizing that just because a student doesn't understand a concept when I teach it one way, that doesn't mean they won't understand it if we try a different tactic.

Learning Styles

Learning styles, learning modalities, learning strengths - all of these terms are banded about among teachers and psychology students. Having taken various incarnations of personality, "brianedness," and learning style tests, I was not surprised by my results from the Hemisphere Dominance Test and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II (KTS-II).

The Hemisphere Dominance Test measures whether the right or left side of your brain is dominant. What does this mean? Well, different tasks are associated with different parts of the brain. So, for example, when I took the test, I ended up being primarily right hemisphere dominant. According to the site, "the left side of the brain is the seat of language and processes in a logical and sequential order. The right side is more visual and processes intuitively, holistically, and randomly." My results indicate that my type of cognitive processing is:

Holistic Processing information from whole to part; sees the big picture first, not the details.
Random Processing with out priority, jumps from one task to another.
Concrete Processes things that can be seen, or touched - real objects.
Intuitive Processes information based on whether or not it feels right; know answer but not sure how it was derived
Nonverbal Processes thought as illustrations.
Fantasy-Oriented Processes information with creativity; less focus on rules and regulations.

This suggests that when learning something new or stressful, I prefer to learn in ways that involve, for example, illustrations or creative examples. I would have to say that this test is pretty accurate. Since my dominant side processes information from whole to part, I am definitely the type of learner that needs to read the chapter before coming to class, I don't like to jump into experiments or projects without some sort of example or model from the teacher, and I definitely am more comfortable using creative means to express myself.

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter II measures personality rather than cognitive learning preferences. The questions were interesting, and my results indicate that I'm an Idealist. Again, I'm not too surprised. According to the results, some of the characteristics I share with other idealists are enthusiasm, passion, intuition, a desire to attain wisdom, trust, valuing meaningful relationships, a giving spirit, and inspiration. As the results sheet states,

Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self -- always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey...Idealists are incurable romantics who prefer to focus on what might be, rather than what is.

Only 15-20% of the population are idealists. I am, apparently, a rare breed.

All of this information is especially important for me to know as I enter the teaching world. A lot of emphasis is put on understanding the different learning styles that exist, creating strategies for working with diverse learners, and cultivating an awareness of the variety of learning styles that exist in individual classrooms in order to be as inclusive as possible.

While I agree that these are crucial steps for teachers to take, it is just as important that I am aware of my own personality traits and learning styles so that I am aware that I will tend to teach using strategies that are familiar and comfortable for me, but that might not be the correct strategies for my students. Knowing, for example, that I learn best in creative situations, through visual representations, and by randomness of thought means that I will need to build other options into my lesson plans for students who don't learn best through these methods.

As I develop units, I will need to be aware that my weaknesses may be my students' strengths; if I don't give them the chance to explore their full potential simply because it seems foreign to me, I am not doing my job.

On the other hand, it's also good for me to realize that just because I am a highly motivated individual who has found her passion in life, this does not mean that my students will share my feelings toward my subject matter. Nor will all of my students necessarily share my penchant for abstract expression, a rich imagination, and a tendency to be impractical. Some students will need more order and might be confused if I jump from one thought to another; others might become frustrated if I don't explain how I came to a conclusion or made a prediction.

In order to teach to the best of my abilities, I will need to accept these differences and many others in order to create a harmonious classroom that varies in its learning styles and fosters open acceptance of all ideas.

I'm excited to be opening a new blog, and especially, a blog in which to learn about, create, and display potential ideas/projects involving technology in the classroom. I'm working on my teaching certification at WSU so that I can put six years and two degrees in English to use in the high school classroom.