This year, as a cost-cutting measure, my school board is offering summer school courses, which traditionally would have taken place in a classroom setting, through online correspondence. I don't know about you, but I think that students who already weren't successful in a traditional classroom will be hard pressed to find success in an online environment. I might be overgeneralizing, but these students may suffer from poor time management, limited organization skills and a lack of motivation, which combined with learning challenges, math anxiety or minimal fundamental math skills could be setting them up for significant struggle to obtain their math credit.
I totally get that school boards need to save money, but are we really doing students any good by steering them in this direction? I'd like to know how successful students who complete Ontario math credits via eLearning are compared to their classroom dwelling brethren. What do you think?
Check out these revelant articles from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/opinion/learning-in-classrooms-versus-online.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/the-trouble-with-online-education.html/
I agree with you. Students tend to slack off when there isn't a teacher to supervise them. They may leave stuff to the last minute (lessons, assignment, etc.) At least with a traditional classroom setting, lessons are conducted on time.
ReplyDeleteHey Emily,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great topic you have brought up for discussion. As we all know, online courses take a lot of discipline, especially during the summer. I think it is unfair to ask our students to take an online course when there is no in class option.
I am sure some of us had the choice whether to take this aq online or in person. We, as teachers, have had success with the school system and have acquired some level of accountability over time. For us, to ask our students in high school that have not had success the first time around taking a math class to go ahead and relearn the course alone in front of a computer is pretty heavy handed. The article you posted from the NY times articulated this point well; it can be alienating working through a course alone, especially as a teenager. If a student doesn't have family/friend support to help out with the really tough questions, who do they ask?
Another point I wanted to mention is that a major assumption is made to ask students to take an online course. We can't assume that our students have a computer with high speed internet connection waiting at home for them to use. What if there are multiple siblings in the house, all needing a laptop with internet connection to complete daily assignments. I can only imagine the financial burden on the parents and the fights that would ensue among the siblings!
Great post!
Nicolina
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ReplyDeleteExcellent topic of discussion!
DeleteMy school board has also started to offer eLearning courses. It certainly concerns me because if a student was unsuccessful in obtaining the credit on their first attempt, I can't imagine that they would be successful without supervision and motivation. As we all know, it can be very difficult to find the motivation to be in front of the computer on a beautiful summer day! And we are the ones passionate about education!
The best use for eLearning that I can envision as it relates to math would be having an online tutor available for support. But the key there is support, not the direct point of instruction.
e-learning takes on different meanings everywhere... but certainly these students are not ALONE in cyberworld!
ReplyDeleteI teach math in an e-learning environment, and I have weekly meetings where all students are to be on to go through examples of what they're going to see in their studies. Another way we provide elearning courses is through a blended atmosphere. As a night school teacher, we use adobe connect or another screen sharing software to connect with students, and are available face to face 2 nights a week for 3 hours each night at a specific hub with computers for students to access this. Each e-learning teacher has 2 nights a week that they supervise the hub, any students can come in, but the teachers students in specific are to show up atleast 1x per week.