In a world that moves at the speed of instant messaging, it pays to think first.
Common mistakes
1) not checking out the student. Do you get to know the kids and their learning environment? Do you ask them when and where they will work? do you know if they've taken classes before? and were they successful? Getting to know your student can make getting them to complete a much easier task.
2) not lesson planning. teaching 101 right? I am amazed at the number of teachers who let the course teach for them, and do not actually read the materials let alone plan their lessons and share the plan with students. Basically good teaching requires teachers to think through what they will be teaching and how it will be assessed and how and when they expect a student to complete it. Asynchronous or semi-synchronous teachers may scoff and say they don't care how and when- but they do need to know how long it will take and communicate that to students. This project will take you a minimum of 10 hours to complete including 3 for research, 2 for writing, 2 for reading peer papers, 1 for writing critiques of peer papers, and 1 for reading the critiques you receive and 1 hour for rewriting based on critical analysis. Let em know up front and you get a better result.
3) being unrealistic about how students learn best. Online learning and learning in general are not one size fits all, when was the last time you surveyed your class for the percent of lessons based on lecture vs reading, hands on vs video. Its ok to have duplicate lessons for learners with different styles.
4) commiting to teaching an online course without first looking at best practices for tech. how many times has a student had incompatible software to turn in work to you? You need to stay on top of software that allows saving and opening in multiple formats or commit to using nearly universal formats like pdf or txt.
5) not checking out the school. Institutions are not created equal. Make sure you are putting your reputation in the hands of someone who does it well.
6) taking on too much too soon. If you have not taught online or blended before ask your employers to limit class size or number of sections, and ask them to provide faculty mentors. If they don't do this already, you probably don't want to work for them. Remember the time commitment for you the first time will be similar to your first year of teaching. It will all be new. There are new keywords and acronyms (LMS, SCORM, CID,.....) and you will benefit if you get help.
7) Thinking that since it is an online course, it is OK to "copy and paste." Teachers fall under the education standard of fair reproduction for one time use in many cases, however if you ever plan to reteach that course that is now not one time use. Good site for more info on fair use
8) Being unprepared or unwilling to cooperate with a virtual team. Depending on your institution you will have all of the people you had in brick and mortar schools. Principals, curriculum directors, tech people, department heads, and co-workers. So think through what you did to build relationships with people IRL and think how will that be interpreted online. Remember emails have tone and context, even if you didn't mean them to. So be careful. Does it need to be put in writing? Should you call and chat or have a live meeting? Because once you text it, IM it, myspace it, blog it or email it its out there on record and you can never get it back.
Today's topic was inspired by The US news and World Report 8 Big mistakes online learners make article of March 25, 2010.
Read the article at
8 Big Mistakes Online Students Make - US News and World Report
I wanted to follow it up with 8 common mistakes online teacher's make.
After reading this blog I completely agree with these 8 mistakes. For the last four years I have taught 7th and 8th grade Social Studies in a virtual classroom and I see these mistakes being made by other teachers all the time. Since a teacher does not see their students face to face it is of the upmost importance that they get to know as much as possible about their students to make for an enjoyable learning environment. A teacher can easily combine mistakes 2, 3, and 4 when teaching a lesson. With a student taking a class virtually they will be prone to all of the distractions surrounding them. Most students attend class while sitting in the comfort of their bedroom that can have TV, video games at an arm’s length away or social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook at their fingertips. Teachers today need to teach to the interests of their students if they want to make an impression on their students. Teachers need to think to themselves, if I was a student in today’s digital age how could learning the material be memorable and enjoyable?
ReplyDeleteTeachers need to plan, plan, and plan for this to occur all while making sure their students will have the capability to access the resources available. One thing that stands out about my cyber school is that it’s the largest in the state and one of the largest in the nation. Our school have a reputation to uphold so the better job I do the better job I represent the school. Some teachers do not realize that by giving their students a bad impression is also giving a bad reputation to the school. One piece of advice a staff member gave me when I started teaching in the virtual world was that the first three months are the hardest. It took about that much time to get used to the new environment of cubicle teaching, uploading material, and finding what teaching methods work best for the teacher. Teaching in the virtual world takes time to get used too much like a traditional brick and mortar school. The main similarity between the two is that we all make mistakes and the only thing we can do is to learn from them and help others out in the virtual learning world when they make theirs.