Week 12 (Part 2)

         After reading the articles, I understood more the nature of synchronous and asynchronous models of delivery. In K-12 settings, synchronous instruction is a better option for students and teachers at the same time. Based on his research, Barbour has found that virtual school teachers in general are better at delivering synchronous instruction rather than asynchronous. Just like the case with traditional teachers, some teachers are more prepared and trained to teach online courses than others. Synchronous instructions give learners the opportunity to have both online and face to face interaction. 

       One of the myths about online learning lacking one-on-one interaction didn’t make much sense to me. It is true that some online courses allow for genuine interaction whether it be between the learner and the teacher or among the students, but that doesn’t make online learning ‘more’ interactive than face-to-face learning. I am saying this based on my personal experience with both online and traditional classes. Most of the time, the online interaction that takes place, lacks genuineness and is mostly staged for the purpose of ‘interacting’. I totally believe that nothing beats face-to- face interaction when it comes to learning.

       Barbour described the nature of students that enroll in online classes as “highly motivated, self-directed, self-disciplined, and independent learners”. This is quite the opposite of what myth 2 explained, describing that students of all levels and backgrounds benefit from online learning.

      A myth that I was guilty of is thinking that online courses were easier than traditional courses. I took my first online course last semester with this thought in mind and reality hit me hard. I realized that online courses were more demanding and required constant work. But as a procrastinator in nature, this has worked to my advantage. Meeting regular deadlines has pushed me to study every day and not leave everything until the end. 

 

      In general, I found the 10 myths about online learning to be very vague and one size fits all. They were tailored to depict a more positive view of online learning. There isn’t an extensive research yet that’s done on virtual schooling to truly illustrate the positive and negative aspects of it. As Barbour wrote in his research paper, there’s a troubling lack of literature related to asynchronous teaching in the K-12 environment. Not much has been studied regarding the advantages and disadvantages of online learning compared to traditional learning when it comes to K-12 schooling.

Week 12 (Part 1)

I don’t have an extensive experience with online-learning in general as this is my second semester taking online courses myself. And even my current experience is not very relatable to K-12 online learning. Based on what I think; K-12 online learning can be two things. Students are either taught online exclusively without attending schools or blended, where they do attend school sometimes and do virtual schooling at other times. I believe that online learning is very tricky with younger students for many reasons. First of all, K-12 students may not be as motivated to learn compared to older individuals. Also, online learning is very dependent on the students taking the initiative to learn by themselves and doing so based on their schedules. This might not be very successful with younger students because of procrastination and lack of interest.

I think the kind of students that take online classes are either students that have learning problems, are shy to speak up in class, are not succeeding in conventional schools, or are students that have busy schedules (compete in sports) and cannot attend regular schools. I think all courses can be offered online.