Ced0550: Week Six - Summary

So, now that I've come to the end and have gained the necessary information for taming the world of online learning, I'm left to figure out how I will use the information I have gained over the next thirty days as well as over the next year.

I have to be honest and say that doing ANYTHING over the next 30 days other than the homework for the next class will be a challenge. My initial thought, however, is that I'd like to start building my curriculum for next year. My school is adding a 7th grade, and I am hoping to be able to teach them a few of the Web 2.0 tools that are popular as well as give them a glimpse into what their future learning might be like. Thus, teaching the class about online learning is going to have to be an integral part of my curriculum. It's really this generation of learners who are going to be greatly affected by online learning in the future. Almost just as crucial is teaching their parents about online learning and all it has to offer. For most parents, online learning consists of a conference call and maybe something to look at on a giant screen, along with emails of homework sent. They have no idea the options open to them and their children. I have mentioned before, but I wish I had known of all the great courses kids can take online, especially the AP high school classes. My daughter very much wanted to take AP Psych this year, but her schedule wouldn't allow for it. Little did I know that she could have taken this online instead. And even though I knew online classes existed, I did not realize just how great the curriculum is. So over the next 30 days as I begin contemplating next year's curriculum, I will need to figure out how to include both the student and parent. For example, perhaps I can set up an online night for both students and parents just to give them a brief intro to our class in the fall. That might be kind of fun.

So beyond the next 30 days of integrating the advantages of online learning into my curriculum, I will also be taking what I've learned well into the next year or two. I am in the process of forming a technology committee to look into our school's five year technology plan. Working closely with the public school, I want to make sure that we are also examining online learning as a possibility for our school. That means examining our hardware, our curriculum, and inservicing our staff. Maybe for our school it's not so much a matter of what core classes they could take, but what classes we could offer as a compliment to what we're doing already. One of our frustrations is trying to accomodate the variety of learners we have. Since we're a small school, we don't have the resources that the public school has for our special needs students. Online classes may be a perfect fit for many of our students, especially for those who are falling behind in some of the subject areas.