Activity 12--What Will I Do Next Year?

We are supposed to talk about next year.  How will I use what I have learned next year?  That depends.  What will next year look like?  Will I have a job?  What will I be teaching?  What technology resources will be available?  I can't answer any  of these questions without speculation at this time.

I can tell you how I've used some of this technology and how I need to improve.  I have used online learning in my developing skills class for the past 2 years with study skills lessons on blackboard.  I need to do some major revisions with it.  There is too much reading in it.  I have every reading assignment also on audio, but the lessons with a lot of reading were not successful, even if the lesson was read aloud to students.  I need to make it more visually appealing.  I also need to figure out how to have kids be able to view a video clip without having it "buffer" for 5 minutes and never open.

I need to change how my class does this work.  I thought that I could assign lessons on blackboard, provide computer access, and the kids would complete lessons thoughtfully and accurately.  Instead, I had many kids who would use one of the Acer computers and figure out how to play games on it.  When I walked around to check how they were doing, they would quickly switch back over to the lesson so when I checked the screen, it looked like they were doing what they were supposed to do.  It was nearly impossible to monitor.  I discovered it takes a certain amount of maturity and independence to complete online classes.  Self-pacing did not work in my classes.  This year, I assigned lessons on Monday and the assignments were due on Friday.  That didn't work. It was too unstructured for my students. 

I also need to spend more time teaching students how to use online learning.  I had students who had trouble logging on to the site almost daily.  I had students who would swear that they completed assignments, but we couldn't find them anywhere--the assignments were not saved in their documents or in blackboard.   I need to spend more time teaching students how to learn this way.

We are supposed to discuss how we share what we have learned with other teachers.  Sharing is difficult.  A couple of other teachers and I have talked a lot about what we are doing with online learning and we share resources. I have gotten lots of help from these people and we exchange ideas. But, people are busy and I find that there isn't a lot of time to share ideas in my department.  Last year, I wanted to talk about what I was doing with online learning at a department meeting.  I thought it might be something other teachers may want to try. There was never time in any department meetings to talk about this.  Special Education department meetings usually have a full agenda and there isn't much time to talk about teaching or sharing ideas.

I hope I am not sounding cynical.  I think that online collaboration and mobile tools are exciting and can make learning more fun and interesting.  Sometimes I think that all the people who talk about reforming public education miss the point.  Not all kids enthusiastically come to school, brimming with curiosity about learning how to calculate the axis of symmetry or respond thoughtfully to blogs written by fellow students.  Maybe using a cell phone in class, or going to cha cha to find answers will be a way to reach reluctant learners in a new way.  We will always have students who are not ready to learn for many different reasons and we have to continually find ways to reach those kids.  I am looking forward to trying these new ideas.