February 6, 2018
For Internet for Educators today, we once again were privileged to have a group of presenters join us. The topic for the presentation today was around the options which exist for online and distance based learning, given from the perspective of Manitoba Education employees Shannon Horne and Chris Fredrickson.
The options and variety for the different types of classes that exist is quite astounding, compared to what I had thought was available. Things have drastically changed from when I was a high school student, where the options were to take one of the few IITV courses they could offer in the school division, or to complete a few binders full of material in the form of an ISO basically on your own. Now, entire courses are offered and available that are completely online and web-based. There are also options for synchronous classes and asynchronous classes, and other options, which helps to make these online and distance-based courses that much more accessible and practical for the general public.
It is encouraging to see that this is a field that is continually growing. New courses are always being developed and added, which can benefit both student and teacher. During the presentation, one website that was given extra explanation was about using Blackboard. This is a program that allows for entire courses to be accessed and subsequently managed by a teacher for their students, that can be accessed by the students from wherever they happen to be. Although some of the process that was being described in how to get started with Blackboard seemed to be a bit confusing, the potential that the website offers seems really beneficial. For educators, just being able to access the additional resources that are available might be really helpful in giving extra ideas or better explanations when starting out in the field. The professional development and options for material that can be given out to a classroom of students while you are away are great ideas mentioned as well.
I think that for many students, taking a course through distance learning or through a web-based format can be quite beneficial. Students need to learn how to manage their time and to become more accountable for completing the work when they aren't always in the classroom and with a physical teacher in front of them pushing them along. This will only help to better prepare them for post-secondary courses if they choose to pursue those, or it will show the students that another option might be better for them.
It is great to see all of the options that are now available. I will need to investigate further to see what options might be useful for me in the future.
-B
I used Blackboard a little bit during my first placement just for developing various resources/materials for my classes. The process is a little weird, from what I remember you had to request access to a particular course on one website in order to have access to it on the actual Blackboard site. That confusion aside the courses do have some pretty good material which I could see being relatively easy for a student to work through and navigate. The only downside of Blackboard for me was that its limited to highschool level courses only, middle years and early years are out of luck.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely is a surprise that there is so many courses offered, and that it is ever expanding. As educators it's always great to be able to see how someone else approaches a course, so that we can learn from them and then adapt to our own purposes. I wonder if online learning will be the future and that the school as a building might soon disappear.
ReplyDeleteI think the online courses are great for rural division that do not have all the resources ! I am also excited to use blackboard learn as a resource for when I start teaching this year. I agree with you that it is important for students to learn about managing their time. I have taken online courses through Athabasca University and the University of Manitoba, and if you do not learn to manage your own learning it isn't going to end well.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was also quite surprise by the amount of courses offered. As future educators it is nice to have more resources, as you mentioned. I agree with you that online courses have many benefits for out students and the main benefit is time management. I know I plan on using Blackboard Learn my first year.
ReplyDeleteGreat point about how taking courses online or through distance learning makes it necessary for students to organize and manage their time wisely. I've never considered how learning in this was will help prepare students for post-secondary education, but it definitely will! For those students who are interested in post-secondary education, taking a distance learning course closer to the end of high school might help to ease the transition. Lots of great thoughts--thanks for sharing!
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