Blog 8

Name and describe three support personnel who work for online schools.


Paul Dahl


Program Coordinator

pdahl@taylion.com

Paul is the program coordinator. His job entails keeping track of students who enter and leave the program. He is the point person for businesses and marketing as well. He holds the staff meetings and keeps in touch with full time and part time employees. I frequently hear from Paul, probably twice a week about students or issues with Taylion. He keeps everyone in the loop.


Charlene Shores

Principal

cshores@taylion.com

Charlene oversees the entire administration. She is the point person of the school and handles matters that are of a administrative nature. Teachers and adjuncts have very little if any contact with Charlene. She works with Paul to make decisions regarding programming, technical aspects and working with FLV in purchasing and maintaining the online program.





StacyJo Thompson

Enrollment Counselor

sthompson@taylion.com

Stacy Jo is the go to person for student information. She signs students up for the program and works as a counselor would in a face to face environment. She addresses issues students have with classes and teachers and places students in appropriate courses based on their graduation track.

Blog Seven

Choose one of the problems. As an online instructor, how can you be proactive in making sure that the problem does not occur within the classroom? Make sure to thoroughly explain the problem and the proactive solution that you would use.

I've encountered student behavior issues within my online course with at risk students in another state. These students were in a recovery program being held in a church. There was a non-teacher facilitator of the students who was in the room but wasn't a certified teacher. The class contained about 15 boys who were taking the same classes, online, together. As the online teacher I ran into the problem of cheating and inappropriate use of the discussion board. Additionally, when the students submitted Word documents they created clever, yet inappropriate, file names for these assignments. It's possible they thought their behavior would be overlooked since an anonymous person in Arizona was grading their work. However, the online school I work for has a student behavior policy in place. I alerted the director at the church, my administration, and the parents. The students quickly realized that there was as live person grading and giving feedback in the course and their behavior would be monitored and not tolerated.

A solution to this on a more permanent level is to address the guidelines and expectations within the course orientation. When an instructor designs the course rather than teaching from a canned or pre-made course, the instructor can create an orientation that involves the guidelines of Netiquette. Students can discuss the rules of netiquette and talk about what they did and didn't know about that term and expectation. Many times netiquette is a new concept to students and many are intrigued that there are guidelines for online behavior. Oftentimes, the Internet, to children, seems like a free for all. Taking an online course and being a responsible participant is something that an online course can teach.

ELN113 Blog 6

Formative assessments:

Online Tools: 

Google Docs / Drive: With Google docs students can, as a group, or individually, express his or her learning. This open document allows for teacher created prompts for the students to respond to. https://drive.google.com/#my-drive

Discussion Boards: LMS systems of online learning are built in with Discussion Boards. This is a way for students to interact with each other and the instructor about topics and questions related to a unit of study. There is not a direct link to this since it is built into the LMS system and must have a log in required.

Graphic Organizers Online: http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm. Holt has interactive graphic organizers students or teachers can utilize. Students can share their formative ideas through many choices of organizers provided on this site. 

ELN113 BLOG 5

Hi Mike,
This is my very last class for 2 certs, so I'm trying to get it done efficiently.

Here is blog 5:

highlight the principles that are important to consider in course design for younger learners.

Reference: Hemschik, T. (2008). Course designs . Retrieved from http://udini.proquest.com/view/course-designs-instructional-goid:304335706/

1.)    Changing and adapting K-8 online education: K-8 students need to explore content. The designers need to ground their instruction in K-8 student pedagogy.

2.)    The development of K-8 online courses needs to be developed through the exploration of the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of that age group.

3.)    Develop the learning community: Teachers and course designers need to keep in the mind the concept of learning together. Students in k-8 have different needs than high school or college students.

Reference: Boettcher, J. (5, 2011). best practices for teaching online. Retrieved from http://www.designingforlearning.info/services/writing/ecoach/tenbest.html

This reference lists the actual best practices for teaching online.

1.)    Be present: Within the course design, the instructor needs to be present in the course. This can come in the form of discussions, replying to students via the class itself, and providing feedback.

2.)    Create a supportive online community: This can be done through thoughtful and meaningful discussions or peer reviews. Students can work together and create projects or provide feedback to each other. This is also done through effective course design as well. In canned classes, the instructor can be facilitator and reviewer of the online community while monitoring the content and watching for any inappropriate or off topic behavior.

3.)    Use a varied amount of both asynchronous and synchronous activities. Too many constraints on kids who take online courses creates un do stress, but participating in group activities or discussions can be beneficial to the tone of the course.

Reference: National center for academic transformation . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thencat.org/R2R/R2R PDFs/SuccCrsRed.pdf

1.)    Create activities that are engaging: Provide multiple opportunities for students to learn in a myriad of ways. Don’t make an online class look like an in person class, change the way you teach the lessons to more interactive technological based ideas or examples.

2.)    Provide individualized feedback: Just like a face-to-face course, provide valuable feedback on assignments so the students have an opportunity to grow and change.

3.)    Create effective assessments: Create tests and assessments so students can see individual and class growth.

4.)    Monitor Student Progress: This can mean emailing or communicating with students on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Many times schools have online teacher hold office hours in case the students need to come in for a face to face meeting or help. 

ELN113 Blog 4

The site entitled Public Domain Images discusses the use of photos. The articles mentions that many images on the internet are, in fact, public domain. Additionally, there are websites dedicated to images that are not copyrighted or the copyright has expired, therefore, making them public domain. According to this site as well,

The Top Ten Myths (actually 11) goes over the myths of online copyright issues. Basically, all ten, eleven, tell the reader to always check, be safe rather than sorry, and that if you think copyright issues are no big deal. You're wrong.

Stanford U has a site dedicated to all issues regarding copyright. One section of interest answers the question: When I can use work without author's permission?
Here is the answer: When the copyright was before 1923 in the US, The copyright lasts the life of the author plus 70 years, The copyright protects an author's ideas, most copyright issues are civil but certain infractions can be felonious. So, always check!

The Horizon site offers an educators and the law section basically saying that just because it's for educational purposes, doesn't mean you can use it. Educators need to consider copyright as well. Many items can be used for educational reasons, but not distributed or copied unless specifically mentioned on the item. Moreover, teachers may use clips, copies, and other technolgies so as long as it is not violating copyright. Addtionally, the onus is on the teacher to find this out. If an infraction occurs it can damage the reputation of the teacher and the establishment of which that teacher is employed. It sites 3 examples of cases where copyright infringement ended in fines, so copyright issues are serious and should be considered whenever materials are used by an author.

ELN113 Blog Three

1.) The first resource I would use in creating an online course is a podcast. This is a great tool to introduce yourself to the course, clarify material, and create a sense of presence in the course. If the instructor is creating his or her own course, they can attach this audio to the overview and introduction to the course. Creating that sense of instructor presence and a human voice adds an element of intimacy. It also lets the student know the voice and perhaps personality of the instructor. Often an online class is impersonal and adding audio through an instructor made podcast may help with that. http://www.podbean.com/

2.) Thesis Statement/Outline Generator: This web2.0 thesis generator helps the student develop ideas into thesis statements and outlines. Many times this is a tool to help them with formatting or structure. http://www.mpcfaculty.net/molly_may/thesis_generator.html



3.) Screencasts: I often use these for online college courses since many colleges have instructors create his or her own course. I can see its effectiveness in K-12 as well. Many times there are screencasts type of technologies incorporated into canned or pre-made courses but usually onilne schools have pre-developed courses. Florida Virtual School, which is the program I currently use, does not have instructors create or change information in the program. All the links and technologies are managed by FV. http://www.screencastsonline.com/

ELN113 Post 2

1.) Improving Distance Education Through Student Online Orientation Classes:
This article asserts that an introduction to online courses improves student performance. Additionally, having an orientation, survey and practice exercises helps students become associated with the tools of the course as well. When students feel comfortable using the tools, they in turn feel more comfortable using the online course.
Reference: Mensch, S.  (2010). Improving distance education through student online orientation classes. [Print Map]. Retrieved from http://www.aabri.com/OC09manuscripts/

2.)  Preparing for Distance Learning: This site explains the importance of an online orientation. When researching articles, most of the colleges and universities come up first. Their websites explain the importance of an introduction to the course, the format, and the syllabus. For K-12, there are onsite counselors that assist students in beginning their courses. 
Reference: Bozarth, J., Chapman, D. D., & LaMonica, L. (2004). Preparing for Distance Learning: Designing An Online Student OrientationCourse.Educational Technology & Society, 7 (1), 87-106.

3.) The impact of Face to Face Orientation on Online Retention: This study suggests that a face to face orientation actually helps students face the challenges presented in an online course. This is often done by the elearning course administrators and teachers. Many K-12 schools offer an in person component before the online course begins. 
Reference: Radwan, A., & Leeds, E. (2009). The impact of face-to-face orientation on online retention. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, VII(IV), Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter124/ali124.html

ELN113 Blog One

find three different online schools that list the computer skills (not necessary hardware, but personal computer skills) that are necessary for online teaching. List the skills, and then rate yourself on each of them.

1.) Taylion Academy: The computer skills required are access to create and read files in .rtf, .pdf, .doc, .docx and the ability to create presentations using Power Point. Internet access is required and basic proficiency is computer functions is required. 
2.) Deer Valley Unified School District: The computer skills required are access to create and read files in .rtf, .pdf, .doc, .docx and the ability to create presentations using Power Point. Internet access is required and basic proficiency is computer functions is required. 
3.) K-12: The computer skills required are access to create and read files in .rtf, .pdf, .doc, .docx and the ability to create presentations using Power Point. Internet access is required and basic proficiency is computer functions is required. 

All three of these schools specifically list what the STUDENT needs for computer requirements. The requirements for the teacher are usually the same but are not specifically addressed in the information packets provided. This type of information is provided in the training listed in Part I of this assignment. In both online situations I've been in for about 4 years, the teacher is given this information as part of the hiring process. This type of information might have been previously available online, but you would have to begin the hiring process for each of these companies to receive that information. All 3 have links for employment but not specific information about computer skills for online teaching, specifically.