Reviewing your previous blog posts, what, if anything, has changed in your attitude toward online schools and online schooling over the past 15 weeks?

For some time before the first day of this course, I've thought that education would soon change largely due to the affordances of the Internet. I believed that the Internet could improve education in so many ways in many cases, and in others, completely change it. With this interest, I thought that I was ahead of the game.
Two weeks into the course, I was so surprised by the many online schools and online schooling already available. I found out that I am not ahead of the game! Research has been going on for some years already. Online models have been tested and changed over time, and continues to be tested and improved upon.
For the next few weeks, I was amazed at how awesome online schooling would be and was eager to learn more about it.
In the recent weeks, however, I've learned that online schools, along with its benefits, also have their disadvantages. What interests me now are the different ways we can improve the current online schooling system, especially in the areas of virtual science labs and foreign language teaching.
This course was definitely a lot of work, but I learned that much more. I'm not even sure if this course was a required one or an elective for me, but I'm glad I took it.

What was the most difficult aspect of researching this topic?

For my final project, I researched how foreign languages are taught online. The most difficult aspect about this research was going more in depth of how languages, especially of different alphabetical systems, are taught specific to a country's or region's culture and usage. Research data was lacking in more detailed areas of teaching a foreign language, such as the sequence of strokes required to write a non-roman alphabet in an online environment. If a foreign language class takes place online, are students required to learn the foreign language's keyboarding as well? Other than that, there were an abundance of articles and demo lessons available to get a general idea of what an online foreign language course is like. It makes me wonder... the online approach makes sense, and for-profit companies certainly make it sound easy, but will it really work, or is it a lot of marketing? I'll give it a shot one of these days.

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

The argumentative response assignment was most difficult for me this week because everyone offered such agreeable and well-thought out posts. As I read and reread each post, thinking about and looking for potential arguments, I came to think about the difficulty in measuring the quality of an online teacher. With such an inadequate level of studies available on online learning in its elementary stages, it is quite difficult to assess online teachers beyond standardized test scores. When it comes to content retention rates or application of newly learned concepts beyond a course, we still lack enough data to conclude what really constitutes a good online teacher. For this reason, I see it as all the more crucial that we continue to (though oftentimes inadequately) compare f2f and online courses to determine which, in general, yields more superior students and citizens, and in which disciplines. 

My thinking has not changed, but I continue to learn and adopt new ideas throughout each progressive week.

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

This week's readings has allowed me to realize that there is still so much to research and figure out in the virtual education world. Comparing virtual learning to f2f learning is only the beginning. I'm sure that there are many other areas of virtual education yet to be studied and reflected upon, possibly even at a level unrelated to any type of study we've already done in f2f learning. It looks like virtual learning will introduce this and the next generation a revolutionized way of learning, and along with it may come a whole new set of problems to deal with. 

I wouldn't say my thinking has changed per se, but it did shine light on further difficulties of research in virtual learning.

Now that you have seen what other people did in creating their units, is there anything that you might do differently if you were to redesign your own unit?

I may have used the moodle platform and thought of ways to use its tools more. It's definitely a different platform to use than the one we had thought of (which would most likely require the building of a new learning site). This course (MSTU4050) has been a really engaging and thought provoking class so far, so I'd be interested to brainstorm some of the ways a math course could benefit from this platform. I would like to see a sample math class on moodle, if one exists somewhere.

What are you most concerned about as you embark on creating a curriculum unit?

Gus and I will be creating a curriculum on quadratic functions. While I've taught this topic many times, I have never taught it online. I am most concerned about the efficient online delivery of content, especially because the discussion forum, a virtual classroom tool I'm most familiar with, may be difficult to use heavily in a math class. I also want to make sure that I use online resources to the best of its capabilities, rather than being tethered to the teaching methods effective in a physical classroom. This project should be very interesting and challenging. I hope that we are able to develop an excellent curriculum that can be used.

Did you change anything in the Google spreadsheet? If so, what? Has your view of the schools you chose to research changed from the first week you looked at them? If so, how?

I did not change any of the placements for either of the schools that I'd researched. While I definitely learned a lot more in depth about student-student interactions and online discussions, I still feel that the schools were generally placed appropriately based on the information that I was able to gather throughout the research.

TPI results

Overall, I agree with the results offered by the TPI. Here are my more detailed observations:

Dominant perspective: Transmission

I do agree that my dominant perspective is transmission. I believe that a teacher's mastery of the subject matter is crucial to effective teaching. Students learn in different ways and have varying strengths and weaknesses. When concepts or ideas are presented by a teacher in one way, some students will absorb the information in its delivered form, and others will ask for clarification by offering a seemingly identical idea in a different form or from a different perspective. Without mastery of the subject matter, the teacher will be ill-equipped to offer effective communication and learning.

Back-up perspective: Apprenticeship and Nurturing
Apprenticeship and nurturing perspectives are important, but I may not be practicing these perspectives as much as I could be. Students often ask, "When will I ever use this in real life?" Offering practical advice that students respect can act as a bridge of communication between teacher and student. Also, I find value in hard work, that in many cases, hard work can outperform brains. I do encourage students, whether at the top or bottom of the class, to simply do their best and I would reward those who show dedication.

Recessive perspective: Developmental and Social Reform
Although my TPI result concludes otherwise, I would like to think that I have at least a back-up developmental perspective. I do offer multiple ways to understand an idea and attempt to conduct my lessons from the learner's perspective. I placed right on the boundary line of recessive perspectives. I guess this may be a result of my more definite recessive social reform perspective. While I do think that social reform and challenging the status quo are important, I don't believe that it is appropriate for every student. Therefore, I would rather teach students to follow the status quo and be successful in it. I would like to individually challenge those students who may show the capacity to challenge common practices.

What did you learn about the design of online courses this week that will affect how you think about this form of instruction in the future?

When it comes to online courses, I was most afraid of courses that may simply put a textbook on your screen. That's exactly what I found on one of Aventa Learning's Geometry lessons. This could be a very detrimental learning experience to many students. If students could read (or be read to) from a math textbook and teach themselves the materials, they wouldn't need a teacher. Aventa Learning provided zero interaction (at least in the demo) and read the lessons to you from the screen, occasionally highlighting portions of a diagram, which can also be easily done in a textbook.

Other demos, such as from K12, Inc., offered a little more interaction (I understand that interaction in an online math course is, by nature of the subject, difficult). They used multiple modes of delivery of content and made it very possible for students to really learn at their own pace, referring to previous lessons if reinforcement is necessary and advancing to subsequent lessons when ready. I see such uses of technology to be only the beginning and really look forward to ways technology will not only supplement, but change the way we learn.

How has your thinking about online schools and online schooling changed since the first week?

I certainly know a lot more about online schools and online schooling than I did the first week. The first week was really an eye-opener for me; I hadn't realized how wide-spread online schooling already is. Our small research of virtual schools and their websites has taught me a lot more about virtual schools and how they operate. My respect and appreciation for online programs have really grown over the past week and I feel that many more people will begin to feel the same way once these programs become more commonplace and new standards are established in our views of what an education should encompass.

Tweet-length response to for-profit online schools

After having tried sample lessons offered by K12, Inc., I wonder how successfully and efficiently a student may be able to absorb so much information strictly through text, especially at the primary grades.

Tweet-length response to online schools

What interests me most about these online schools is the ability to customize the learning and their offering of personalized attention to each student.

Week 1 Reflections

What did you learn this week that surprised you?
The biggest surprise this week through the readings was to find out how far along we already are in the development of virtual schools. According to Weintana Abraha in the article, "Cyber Charter Schools: The End of Public Education or a New Beginning?", 217 out of the 5000 charter schools in the nation are cyber charter schools. Fully functioning charter schools! Online! Additionally, it's apparent that these cyber schools are doing quite a good job already, shown by Pennsylvania's virtual charter schools out-scoring both state and national ACT and SAT averages. Seventy percent of Pennsylvania's cyber charter school students matriculate to a 2- or 4-year college. Now that says something about the potential of these schools once experience and further developments play their parts.


What was the biggest question you were left with at the end of this first week? 
How can I, as a teacher, get ready NOW in order to experience the full benefit of virtual schooling for both educators and students? 

About me

Hello everyone!

My name is Jung S. Rhee. Many friends also call me Paul, a name my father gave me when I arrived in the U.S. at the age of 6. Paul was actually my father's name, but gave it to me to use in school and renamed himself, Peter.

This is my second semester at TC, attending half-time in the Computing in Education program.  I have taught Mathematics at a private enrichment school in Pennsylvania for the last 7 years, a school I founded in order to provide enrichment programs and courses to students in grades 1-12. Over the years, the school has grown to offer approximately 60 programs to an annual student body of 520-550.

We are currently in the final stages of our plans in the online division of the school. As you know, this is an area of research that is still in its infancy, and I am very interested in learning about various models offered by other online programs, as well as the ideas and discussions we will have in this class. I enrolled in the Computing in Education program largely to supplement the school's progress; this class will probably be most directly related to that intent.

I've taken two online courses thus far here at TC. Both were asynchronous, discussion-oriented courses. At first, I was nervous about taking the courses online; I had no idea how they would be facilitated. As it turns out, my experiences with them have been quite positive and engaging. The most important advantage I found in an online course was that I was given a chance to think about discussion topics and carefully respond to them after sufficient thought.