I cam across this article in my search for what is online and really thought it could be helpful to many teachers and/or parents.
It's Time to Start an Online Program With my job, I deal with people on a day to day basis who are looking for online schooling for their student for a variety of reasons. It could be for flexibility, a need in change from their local school, health concerns, bullying, or even a lack of educational options that are offered in their community. They also contact me out of necessity as many states now require students to take at least one online course to graduate and they need to get a program going for their grade 12's. So where do you begin? You have 3 options to choose from 1. You can create your own course You can and it is not too difficult to do but it does take time. Depending on the learning management system that your school has, you can find many help videos and sites online to help you out with your course creation. Platforms like Moodle, Canvas, D2L, and blackboard are of the most common out there but there are a variety of others and many are free. Like I mentioned... these do take time so planning is key. 2. You can purchase content You can do this too but it can be very pricey so you need to know that you have enough students interested to make it worth your while. You also want to be very careful in choosing your courses as well. Most states and provinces require that you meet their educational standards and even match their learning outcomes for every course that you offer. Be sure to take time to preview the courses so you know these needs are met. I would also advise you to request a demo so you can look at the layout of the courses to see if they would even appeal to the students. Are they merely textbooks with populated multiple choice questions once the student has completed their reading, or is their some sort of interactive component that will keep the student engaged? If you need your students to take a course, you want them to enjoy it. A perk to purchasing content is the option to edit content once you own it so you can really make these your own. 3. You can use an online course vendor If you or your school is brand new to online courses, this might be the easiest and most affordable option to you. You can search for vendors in your own state, or you can decide to contact one of the main players in the game (some mentioned in the article). If you choose to contact a large vendor, often your courses are tried and tested (so glitch free), interactive, well supported, and affordable. This option is also great for those who are not technically inclined and have little to no experience with online courses. Whatever method you choose, there will be some work involved so be sure to weigh your choices based on what is best for your students, what meets your curriculum, what fits into the budget, and how much time you have to invest.
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One emerging challenge of using the internet now is PRIVACY.
We all need to be aware of our digital footprint now but are we really aware of our students and what they are sharing online? Are we covered if we can get their parents to sign a permission slip? How would you feel as a teacher if you set a student up with a tool on the web and they had their identity stolen, or they were cyber stalked? I was fortunate enough to get some exposure to some of the privacy laws in my OLTD 506 course about the use of social media in the classroom but still came out with more questions than answers. Some of these questions were: What programs can I safely use? What does it mean to be "housed" in Canada? How do I know if the content actually stays on Canadian Soil? Do I need to get approval from administration for everything I do? Where can I find all the information I am looking for? Who actually has all the answers and where do I find that person? The list is actually endless. When I saw "Novi's Rant" as an option to read for this part of my course, I thought I needed to read it for sure. My vision was that Avi would chime in with all the answers I was looking for. (Novi and Avi's Rants) He did exactly NOT THAT!! It seems like there is a common theme among my thoughts and his. With all the cool technology hitting us with Web 2.0, so do its restrictions. Then we face the problem of policies not being created nearly as close as the great programs can so where do we turn for answers? You can pound the pavement, ask colleagues, or refer to these great documents that Avi added: Although these are great resources, I think they are more discouraging then helpful for teachers. I spent about 3 minutes looking through each, and it was easier for me to say "I don't want to get in trouble for using something I shouldn't and I don't have the time to read through these" If I think that (as a person that LOVES to try new things and lead the way in technology) why wouldn't the majority of teachers do the same. Why create all the work of figuring out if you can use it, before you even know if your activity or project will work. It comes back to that "Why reinvent the wheel" attitude that many of us are spoon fed as new teachers. Ewww... I just fell into a very lazy place!!! WHY reinvent the wheel??? Because the wheel is BROKEN!!!! A students life is so different within the walls of the school than it is outside. They explore online, they play games on devices, they connect with people all over the world. They are virtually flying through an endless universe of knowledge so why give them a wheel? Take the time to research your tools and take them on that journey of discovery. Thrive to be that out of the box teacher you imagined when you were young. Put on your nothing can stop me hat and do the work to inspire kids and redesign the learning environment. |
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