EDT 629 Blog Post #4: Online Learning Critque

I have only had two online classes but I thought that both were quite effective (they were taught by the same professor). For me personally, I learn better when I see things instead of just listening to them so I always preferred reading articles over listening to podcasts. When I apply my experience to an online learning environment that I create, I plan on using recorded video instead of podcasts. This is mostly due to the nature of the subject I teach but I know there are students who will benefit from seeing me while I discuss content instead of seeing a blank screen.

One thing that I enjoy about an online class is that I can skip over the items that I do not think are as helpful to me. For example, I already have experience with moodle, and the school that I teach at has no plans to implement it, so instead of using my time to experiment with moodle I chose to focus on other items for the class that week. I plan on incorporating this into my online class; giving the students more choice about their actual activities instead of just a choice of how long to spend on each item.

I wish that I had more diverse online experiences before writing this blog and look forward to seeing how other professors teach an online class.

EDT 629 Blog Entry #3: Final Project

For my project in this class I plan on creating an introductory unit for incoming 6^th graders that could be taken the summer before attending 6^th grade. For the project for this class I plan on focusing on one or two units, with the intention of adding additional units later. My class will be entirely online using a Google Site (in the future I hope to turn it into a hybrid class where students would meet once a week in person). I plan on incorporating videos, podcasts, and online tutorials. The students will only be assessed formatively for now using online assessments. As the class is expanded, summative assessments may be given in order to allow students to ‘test out’ of 6^th grade math and begin their year one grade level ahead in math. I also plan on using discussion boards where students can ask and answer questions on a peer-to-peer level. I would like these discussions to be mandatory in the future – I would require a certain number of posts before attending the in-person class sessions or before being allowed to take a summative assessment for a particular unit.