NEIT+2013+OpenSpace+3L

Teaching and Learning Online: Pedagogies and Strategies Linda Vasu, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich Elizabeth Fernandez, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich

Attendees:

Paul Chalmers, Professional Children's School Vincent Sagona, Professional Children's School Kerry Roeder, Professional Children's School Alexander Steinberg, Churchill School Anne Rowley, Windward School Susan Allen, Nichols School

What are your schools doing with online courses? A number of schools are considering a graduation requirement for at least 1 online course

Different Models: Online School for Girls http://www.onlineschoolforgirls.org Global Online Academy http://www.globalonlineacademy.org/ Stanford University Online High School http://ohs.stanford.edu/
 * School liaisons with existing online schools:
 * Online summer courses 4-8 weeks for students
 * Online summer boot camps (SAT prep, college essays, etc), workshops for students
 * Online yearlong courses for students
 * Professional Development for teachers: workshops, week-long, etc

Alexander Steinberg Churchill School
 * plan to have students participate in one online class before graduation
 * will offer classes for credit recovery

Vincent Sagona of Professional Children's School
 * Tried online course with APEX learning but found content watered down.
 * Last year school paid teachers to develop courses online on Moodle
 * Teachers created 4-5 courses that way and taught them over the summer
 * Beneficial because you could control content.
 * The course lasts 8 weeks. This is the 4th summer the course has been running.

Alexander Steinberg from Churchill did online masters at University of Scranton. Readings discussions and short videos

What are the essential elements of online education? What are the crucial elements for a good online course? What voice do you want to adopt? Nichols School -- Susan Allen Nichols is establishing a requirement so that students will graduate w some experience in taking courses online. How do you engage students? What are different ways of assessing -- besides online quizzes? Give students choices
 * The most important consideration;
 * Often, the fact that teaching online is totally different than real life teaching is overlooked.
 * Watching videos of traditional teachers giving traditional lectures does not constitute good online courses.
 * Avoid superfluous assignments
 * Avoid talk and chalk, i.e. teacher lecturing and teacher writing on whiteboard
 * Wordle for vocab
 * videos (short, never longer than 8 min)
 * clips that get posted that teacher finds
 * students create their own videos
 * student contributions on a wiki
 * blog entries
 * short Ted-type talks

Assessment
 * multiple choice quizzes - useless
 * essays - written comments
 * forums provide most effective learning

Susan Allen has used Moodle, Blackboard to design online courses
 * Always begin with a podcast no longer than 6 minutes
 * Establish a connection between teacher and students.
 * Short readings - short video
 * Very structured discussion forum
 * post a question on wednesday - by sunday they response
 * rubric - substantial response - not just i agree
 * respond to other students
 * standards for response - strict rubric
 * substantive responses
 * digital citizenship
 * assignments - hands on assignments -
 * teacher emails each students - discussion forum, blog, digital
 * students appreciate feedback
 * create shared learning resource -diigo - could be LibgGuide (sample LibGuide from Elizabeth Fernandez ([|libguides.cshgreenwich.org/worldhistory1])
 * reflective blog - reflection on learning
 * collaborative projects give students choice, provide variety in assessments, encourage rigor and creative thinking
 * must be much more structured
 * hands on projects
 * google docs - each person has a color for their post
 * students create a wiki that gives information
 * create 2-3 activities based on primary documents

Paul Chalmers - blended learning at Professional Children's School
 * provides continuity for a student body whose attendance can be sporadic

Anne Rowley at the Windward School
 * working with LD students, agrees that the discussion of online courses merits further conversation and analysis

Blended learning | Collaborative work Linda Vasu showed FrankenWiki, designed and created by students after critical reading and analysis of Mary Shelley's //Frankenstein//


 * http://eng10frankenwiki.wikispaces.com/home
 * // Macbeth // Prezis: small group work developing a prezi on a soliloquy

Mapping tools: - Mind Mapping,
 * Mind Meister http://www.mindmeister.com
 * Mind Node app http://www.mindnode.com
 * Brainstroming https://bubbl.us/

How to manage a successful online course:
 * Create a safe environment and feel part of a community
 * MOOC - too many people - like working in a crowd
 * students need to have an authentic and responsive audience.

MOOCs have democratized education; rigor may be missing

__For Professional Development:__ Where to take courses online, either in content areas, or in online teaching: https://www.coursera.org/courses https://www.udacity.com/courses http://www.udemy.com/teach2013 http://learn.media.mit.edu/ free course in design thinking http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercises/0 Learn to code, interactively, for free http://generalassemb.ly/education


 * Online Reading Research:**

The educator that was mentioned that does research on the differences between online and book reading is Dr. Coiro. Her web page with links to her reserach is: []

(these readings are offered in a Fundamentals of Online Teaching course offered by Georgia Tech through Coursera Guide to learning styles http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire
 * Readings: **

The Trans-Classroom Teacher in the Age of the Internet. A brief, excellent overview of the issues of online instruction. http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol4_issue3/Online_Teaching_and_Classroom_Change-__The_Trans-Classroom_Teacher_in_the_Age_of_the_Internet.pdf

Teaching with Technology http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/teaching-with-technology-tools-and-strategies-to-improve-student-learning/

What We Learn When We Learn by Doing http://cogprints.org/637/1/LearnbyDoing_Schank.html

How Does Online Learn By Doing Actually Work? http://www.rogerschank.com/

Brain-based Learning http://www.itdl.org/journal/sep_05/article03.htm