Joe Rohrhoff’s Blog

As a high school teacher, I want to find the best learning opportunities for all of my students, no matter what their age or learning abilities. Online learning is a great motivational tool and a perfect choice for students who need another option. Students often come to me to ask me about AP classes and other classes that either aren’t offered at our school, or may be offered in the future but aren’t ready yet. Many students are excited to be able to earn credits towards college, but their schedules don’t allow them to travel to a local college or university to take these classes. Online classes are a great choice when taking AP courses, classes that aren’t currently offered at our school, and college classes.

I fully support moving forward with adding online learning experience requirements at the high school level. Hopefully, this will also be a requirement at every level in K-12 education so high school students can take even more classes when they get to that level.

I think that age is just one factor of many that play in to the success in online learning.  I think that the differences are obvious at first glance.  People that are younger are generally speaking, giving them somewhat of an advantage in an online class.  People that are older are generally more mature, and have the self-discipline that is required to achieve in a virtual environment.  Both of these statements are probably true in some respects, but as I previously stated, there are many other factors that are much more important than age when determining someones success in online learning.

One factor that is far more important than age is motivation.  If someone is motivated to succeed, than they will be more likely to be successful.  This is true in any classroom, whether brick-and-mortar or virtual.  Some younger people may not be successful because they lack the motivation to succeed.  This is something that teachers have to overcome all the time with younger students.  Teachers must find ways to motivate students and it is very difficult when the student is someone you never see or meet face to face.  In order for younger students to be successful they must find motivation elsewhere.  This is most likely going to come from home.  Parents need to keep their children motivated to succeed.  Parents need to sit down and follow the progress of their children, especially in an online learning evironment.  If a parent does not follow the progress and follow through with consequences (both positive and negative), then the student will be likely to fail. 

Older students traditionally have more intrinsic motivation.  They want to succeed in an online course because it will help further their career, or teach them something that they are interested in.  It is presumably true that people that are over the age of 20 that are taking online classes are taking them out of their own personal choice.  If they fail the class than they are likely out about $1,000 for a 3 or 4 credit college course with nothing to show for it.  I bet if high school students were offered $1,000 for an A in online course they would be much more likely to be successful. 

Being a first-time online class taker, Susan was excited to see her physics class online and available to look through and play with. She was excited to see moving graphics, such as the moving car. She enjoyed being able to click on each category and explore what was coming up in the class. It’s always a good idea to “play around” with a course before beginning the class, even if you aren’t a first-timer. Getting familiar with the layout of the online course is a great idea to get acquainted with the style of the class and of the teacher. Susan began feeling anxious when she realized she hadn’t seen any information regarding assignments or due dates. What assignments are coming up, and when will they be due? This information is crucial in order to feel organized and ready to begin the class.

In order to prevent Susan’s anxiety, I would have designed the layout of the class in a different manner. For example, instead of including mostly course content that is easily accessible, I would have created different tabs, such as we have in Blackboard. These tabs could have the headings of “Assignments”, “Calendar” or “Due Dates”, “Gradebook”, and a “Contact the Teacher” page in addition to all the course content. These tabs should be on the first page after signing in, so students feel comfortable and have an easy time navigating the class. Organizing a user-friendly class website for students, especially first-timers, is crucial to easing any anxiety a student may feel before beginning a course. If I were a school-based teacher at Susan’s school, I would organize a new-student orientation for first-time online class takers. If I had one of these to introduce me to online classes I would have felt much more comfortable taking my first class. We could use the computer lab and students would be able to access either the real class they are taking or a mock course. They could navigate the site and ask any questions or talk about any problems they are experiencing as they work their way through. I believe this would ease a lot of the anxiety a student may have before jumping into their first online class.

As I stated in my previous blog, I believe that virtual schooling can drastically change the face of education as we know it. However, we need to first get rid of all the myths surrounding virtual schooling so people are given the facts before they jump into taking online classes.

Before reading the article and viewing the website, I have to admit that I believed one myth about virtual schooling: that virtual schools are all about technology. As a high school teacher, I try to incorporate technology into my teaching style as much as possible. This seems to grab my students’ interests and keep them involved in their own learning. So, I suppose I just broadened this concept to virtual classrooms, too. Technology, of course, is a perfect learning tool when taking classes online; the class could be about technology, as well as incorporate different types of technology. However, I now realize that almost anything can be learned through an online class. Thinking about the classes offered in a “regular” high school as opposed to online school, I can think of ways that pretty much every class in my high school could be taught online. For example, a class such as art that some people might think of as a “no possibility whatsoever” type of online class, could be taught mainly online. Art history, art criticism, and art instruction could all very easily be instructed through an online class.

I would like to discuss point #10 on the “Top Ten Myths” that schools are over burdened and couldn’t handle taking something like online classrooms to the next level because they are already maxed out. I believe that online classrooms would be beneficial, ESPECIALLY for these schools that are over-burdened in the regular classroom setting. This would allow classes to be offered that are over-capacity, or maybe even classes that can’t be offered because there isn’t physical room in the school building. Students would be able to join online learning communities from other schools and higher education facilities.

As mentioned before, online learning could change the face of education as we know it. It can not and will not replace learning, especially at the K-12 level, but it is definitely a great tool that we as educators need to find ways to bring it into our own teaching.

Virtual schools are something that intrigue me very much.  I am a high school teacher but don’t have any experience teaching in a virtual school (or at least not of what I think of as a virtual school). 

What does it look like?
I think that there are a lot of different things that could be virtual classrooms.  The most obvious would be something similar to the online classes I have taken at Wayne State.  This is a classroom in which students participate over the internet and interact with each other.  There is still the opportunity to have many of the same things that are available in traditional classrooms.  There can be tests, essays, papers, discussions, and all other types of assignments.  When I envision this type of teaching the K-12 classroom it is probably often times very different.  I picture students meeting in a computer lab and taking a class where their education takes place online, rather than from a teacher.  The students could possibly all be taking the same class, or maybe they could all be taking a different class.  For example, one student could be taking a history class and  a student sitting at an adjacent computer could be taking a math class.  They each may be doing for assignments for a different teacher.  Maybe this teacher is from the district, a local community college, or even further away.  The possibilities are endless. 

There are some obvious advantages and disadvantages to these virtual learning environments.  One major advantage is that it could allow students a wider variety of classes to take.  I teach in a high school with 2500 students and there are still classes that do not have enough interest to run.  For example, many AP classes are not run every year because of low interest.  If a student has the ability to take this class online than that offers the student a huge advantage.  This could especially benefit smaller districts that do not have the population to run many classes.  Another advantage is that with increased technology, students have at their fingertips blogs, virtual field trips, articles, and hundreds of other resources.  This makes it easier and easier to run these online classes. 

What I see as the biggest disadvantage is the lack of face to face communication.  I know that there are several things that can be done in a virtual world to encourage communication and collaboration.  But online groups, blogs and discussions can not fully fill in with the interaction that students have with one another.  If students went through their entire education in a virtual world, they may have trouble in a face to face interview with a company president.  I also worry that many high school students do not have a maturity and discipline to complete an all online course.  One problem I have in my classroom now is a lack of parent support at home.  If this support was lacking in a virtual classroom environment than a teacher might not have developed the type of relationship with a student to motivate that student.

Although I do see virtual classrooms as a growing trend, there are still some problems that need to be worked out with it.  I don’t feel it will ever completely replace our traditional education, but it could drastically change it.

I feel that it is very important to take a look at generational differnces when looking at anyone from a different generation.  I also think that this is particularly important for anyone with a profession that spends most of their day working with and communicating with members of a different generation.  Thats what makes this such an important issue for teachers, and an issue that is often overlooked.  I have been teaching for over four years now, and was in school to be a teacher for 4 years before that, and have never had the opportunity to discuss this issue with peers until now.

Although I thought that the article on digital natives and digital immigrants was interesting and insightful, I thought that the article describing “generation me” was the most relevant and informative.  So much of that article rang true to me as a teacher.  Students are certainly more self confident, assertive, and they have higher expectations that generations past.  This can be both a good thing and a bad thing. 

Students today are seen more as ego-centric and selfish than in the past.  This leads to the old fashioned saying that shows up in the article (paraphrased) “kids today behave worse than in the good old days.”  I would be willing to bet that this is a phrase that has been tossed for years and years.  If a generation of people looks at a younger generation in a negative way, than they need to admit that they come from a generation of failed parents.

There is, however, a more constructive way of looking at this, especially from the perspective of a teacher.  Teachers need to accept the fact that kids today are different today than they were years ago.  Not necessarily better or worse, but different.  Rather than trying to explain why this is, teachers should be focusing on the best ways to reach these students.  If students have shorter attention spans today than in the past, than tailor lessons to suit the needs of the students and helps them achieve at the highest levels possible.  If a teacher feels that all students are disrespectful than maybe it is a good idea to find a new way to reach out to students.  The job of teachers is contiuously evolving and the same teaching methods that worked in the past may not be the best methods today.  Another constructive way of looking at this is to focus on the positive aspects of younger generations, such as an increased desire to succeed.

I think that the article on digital Natives and digital immigrants brough up some very valid points.  Technology is something that is continuing to shape our learning community each and every day.  There is a big difference at the school that I teach at between digital natives and digital immigrants.  As a relatively young teacher, I am often the person that other people in my department come to when they need help with technology.  I am always happy to help other people integrate technology into their classroom.

I think that there are some major road blocks for digital immigrants to integrating technology in the classroom.  One is the obvious fact that they have had less exposure to these technologies.  I don’t feel that the digital immigrants are offered the opportunity to enhance their digital skills.  There is a lack of professional development in my particular district in this area.  If teachers that have not been exposed to this technology want to use it, they have to spend their own time learning this technology.  Many teachers either don’t have the time to do this or don’t want to spend their personal time to do this.  Who can blame them for that?

Another major road block is just an overall lack of technology in our building.  I don’t want to make it sound like I don’t like the district that I teach in, because I love my district, but the fact is we lack the technological resources to get ahead.  We share one projector for the entire department that I work in.  We also share one computer lab.  It is often more hassle than its worth to use these technologies.

I read the 2009 Horizon Report which can be found here.  http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2009/chapters/technologies/

Which one do you think will have the biggest impact on teaching? Why?

I think that all of the technology trends that were outlined in the report will have a significant impact on teaching.  It was difficult for me to choose which one will have the biggest impact because the truth is we don’t know exactly how these technologies will look when they arrive.  For example, nobody could have predicted 10 years ago what the internet would look like today, and what it would be used for.

That being said, I think that the semantic aware applications will have the biggest impact on teaching.  When I picture this technology in practice, I imagine students being able to type in any question and being able to find the answer instantly.  I know that we already have the world at our fingertips with the world wide web, but it still requires us to sift through loads of content and information.  It seems to me that these semantic aware applications will make teachers take a serious look at what the most important concepts to teach are.

Also, which one are you most excited about coming to fruition (i.e., actually happening)? Why?

This question was a lot easier for me to answer than the first.  I am excited for the further advancement of mobiles.  I am excited to watch the technology in this area grow.  Some people think that technology in this area has come close to its full potential, but I believe that there is still a lot of room for growth.
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The following blog is one on personal finance.  This was appealing to me because it is one of my favorite topics to cover in economics.  Even though personal finance is just one unit and goes by fast, I try to throw in personal finance tips and comments at the beginning of each hour.  I think this blog will be able to give me some good ideas to start a class period.

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/07/06/the-weeks-hottest-personal-finance-stories-via-tipd-jul-6-ed/

The next blog that I decided to subscribe to is a US History and World History blog.  It is written by another teacher.  It provides topics to talk about as well as links to current articles that discuss issues in US and World History.  This will be one I will share with my colleagues becasue we will be teaching World History in our high school for the first time next year.

http://www.worldhistoryblog.com/2009/07/historical-thinking-matters.html

The third blog I decided to join is a coaching blog.  It was a lot more difficult for me to locate this coaching blog than it was for the first two.  I found it interesting becasue it seems like there are many people similar to me that have been responding to these blog posts.  Hopefully I will be able to pick up some good tips by reading this blog.

http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2009/06/29/coaching-for-more-basketball-consumption/