Last week the mentor of this course, CEP 416, came in to talk to us and had so many interesting things to say. He's a really cool guy.
Well, he was telling us about a time that he ran into a former student and she told him that she never believed that technology would become incorporated into teaching. Then she proceeded to ask him what he thought that she was doing with her life. He had no idea. She told him that she started teaching a fifth grade classroom completely online.
That was a shocker for me to even hear because I had no idea that was going on these days. I can't even imagine how an educator would go about doing that. I can't even really say that whether I agree with it or not because I have never seen it done, but I just feel that classroom, face-to-face teaching is so much more beneficial.
He did mention that the students that take those online classes are mostly those that are homebound by illness or children that are home-schooled. I wonder what parents think about this method and how many parents have taken their kids out of schools because they thought it was better. I'd definitely like to read up about it and check out if there are forums out there on the internet where parents discuss this.
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I also really liked this guy! I think he was motivational and made me feel good about being able to be hired and being a good teacher. I also became interested in the concept of teaching school online. Of course, it makes sense for college kids, and maybe even high school kids. But I was so shocked to realize that elementary schoolers were learning online! I would love to see that in action. The one downfall, of course, is social development. I remember so much about elementary school and a lot of it revolves around friends and the teachers.
ReplyDeleteWow. I can't imagine have my 5th grade class be online; I'm struggling with my college course that is online.
ReplyDeleteToday I went to take my exam for my Geography class that is completely online, and I almost got kicked out half way through. There are a lot of rules when taking exams online; you aren't supposed to have more than one window or tab open, and you have to be really careful when you use the refresh button. If your screen freezes, you are pretty much screwed. So many things could go wrong, I'm just glad that I have to deal with this stuff for only one class that than my entire curriculum.
I'm sure that the teacher takes these things into consideration, but still. That is amazing, but it just adds that little bit of extra difficulty that makes me unsure of the idea. However, you did say that it was for the kids that would probably not be going to school because they were sick or whatnot, so I guess it does have a lot of benefits.