Hello wonderful people of the education world. I know that it has been a little while since my last entry but here is it. I recently had a conference call with an associate after a webinar regarding online/distance education. The associate asked me if we could schedule a conference call to discuss my suggestions for increasing retention for online courses.
During my conversation with her about a month ago and after some detailed research that I conducted, I came up with the following initiatives for online education and retaining their students. First, it is my innate belief that online courses requires management of self which may result in a student becoming a self-directed learner. An online course requires discipline, focus, and a lot of concentration on behalf of the student. Therefore, the same skills that are learned through online education should carry over to the workforce because recent research has shown that employers are looking for employees who are disciplined, focused, and are able to concentrate on a given task. Employers are also looking for people who are able to meet deadlines in an effective and in an efficient way. Online courses provide this for their students due to the fact that research papers and essays are always due within a week after the assignment is given. This helps students with time management as well.
One of the most important things for online universites and colleges should do is build professional relationships with outside high schools. Developing partnerships with high schools for online education courses while working with their technology department to find out where the strengths and weaknesses are with their students on with preparation for not only the traditional college setting but for the blended classroom experience as well. Research shows that most students drop out of college within their first and second years of attendance. This is contributed to a few factors. One of the contributing factors was the lack of preparation from their high school experience. Some of the other factors could stem from the environment, the climate of the classroom, or from the quality of teaching.
Students who just graduate from high school should go into the traditional classroom where a professor demonstrates, models, interacts, and incorporates their expertise of their content through the use of lectures or other teaching modalities. It is only my recommendation that the online mode or the blended classroom should only be directed towards the master or the doctorate level.
Another suggestion that I provided is the use of more faculty interaction through the use of podcast and video conferencing. From my initial blog, I mentioned how our brains process 40% to 60% of what we visualize and observe. If more online courses provide more of these video conferences and podcast, then it could increase the retention level rather than increase the attrition level for these online courses.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
A Functional Education Philosophy
It is my innate ideology and philosophy that all students have the physical and psychological capacity to learn any new information, concept, or task. The physical capacity stems from the functioning of the brain and the psychological capacity stems from the way we all process information. Research has shown that the brain processes 40% to 60% of what is visualized and what is done. Therefore, I feel that is it imperative to ensure that instruction in the primary school, middle school, secondary, and higher education sector incorporates more visual aids, demonstrates, and hands-on examples and experiences in order to help learners to understand educational concepts and to learn new and innovative skills. At the same time, each learner discovers new information at different levels and different paces. My goal as an instructor is to promote learning which will extend over into the lives of the student in their personal and professional lives. Therefore, as an instructor it is essential to utilize and implement certain types of methods of teaching in the education sector. One of the methods that I utilize in my instruction of learners is the asynchronous method rather than the synchronous method. As a current adjunct faculty member at a junior college, I have used the asynchronous method over the synchronous because of the benefits it provides for students. The asynchronous method as an instructor allows the environment to be geared towards a student-centered environment where the emphasis is based on the constructivist theory of promoting peer to peer interactions. When I have used the asynchronous method of instruction, it helped to promote a higher level of interactions. I believe that a high level of interaction will help students to balance between their personal lives and their educational lives as well as help to increase their level of using effective communication and team work to enhance their work ethic inside and outside of the educational setting.
In addition, it is important to incorporate a higher level of critical thinking skills at the middle, secondary, and post-secondary sector. One way of doing this would be the feedback method to which I have used in the classroom. It is my theory that students can increase their critical thinking skills when instructors use the Socratic feedback method instead of an informative feedback method. Research conducted by Maj Norman H. Pathode (2002) concluded that the usage of the Socratic method in the education sector, but particularly the higher education sector, is a useful way to help students “increase their level of performance” by showing them another way to go in order to gain more clarity and help increase their level of critical thinking. The Socratic Method offers the student the opportunity to think deeper into a task, concept, or the content. One illustration that would support this stems from an English 102 course that I taught during my spring semester as an adjunct instructor. During my lecture on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, I discussed how the letter alludes itself to the Declaration of Independence document. I began to discuss the clause in the Declaration of Independence in comparison with the Civil Rights era by conversing about the 3/5’s of a human being clause. One of the students, who were an African-American woman, was deeply appalled by the clause from the document. As the instructor, I inquired about why the student was appalled regarding the clause. After I explained to her and the rest of the class about the Enlightenment period and its reference to different perspectives, Western perspective versus other perspectives, I used the Socratic Method by asking her and the rest of the class, “What are your opinions about this clause?” “What can you take from this?” “How is the cause relevant to today’s society?” “Has this clauses become a relevant issue to how people think about other cultures and races, why or why not?”
As a result of this method of questioning, it pushed the students to become heavily involved in a professional discussion regarding the clause while at the same time using their skills to revert back to Dr. King’s letter from the Birmingham jail. Therefore, when a student has asked me a question regarding a concept within the content, I have returned the answer by asking them a different question or reframing the question. The question allows them to dig deeper into their initial question. The Socratic method of feedback has been the best method of usage for me within the classroom.
In conclusion to my functional educational philosophy, it is also essential for instructors to provide a productive environment, whether online or traditional classroom environment, which is conducive to helping students to comprehend the content. Part of providing a productive environment includes the instructor’s knowledge of the content, being cultural competent which incorporates their level of cultural sensitivity and responsiveness, ensuring that the student’s self-esteem is paramount, stating measureable goals and objectives in the syllabi, establishing a daily routine with high expectations for the students, and implementing multiple levels of assessments and other teaching modalities (i.e. lectures, presentations, hands-on, webinars, case studies, etc), that align with the instructional objectives and outcomes.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Why Every Teacher Needs a CAR for Work.
Without a vision, there will be chaos in our everyday personal and professional lives. This statement fits perfectly for the field of teaching. Even though the field of teaching is one of the most rewarding careers of this century as well as past centuries, it still has its many facets of using a multitude of teaching modalities within the education sector. The field of teaching and educating our young and adult learnes takes a lot of academic, personal, and professional discipline. We take on and play a multitude of roles in the classroom from the bed of the sandboxes in day care centers to the many party goers in the college setting. Some of the those roles includes playing mommy and daddy or playing the psychologist or even the pastor to pray and understand how our federal government and educational systems push our young through high school so that they won't be "left behind" (sacarsim).
As an educator, I have realized that the most important role that a teacher needs to play is how to drive their God given talent of using their CARS in the classroom whether online or face to face interaction. You are probably wondering why CAR is capitalized. To most of my English teachers, educators, and professors out there, there is a significant reason of breaking the capitalization rules for this particular point. Well, an educator needs to be a Credible witness in the classroom. The reason for an educator, whether young classroom teacher or college level to be a Credible witness is to closely observe the changing trends in the generation of today and the generation of yesterday. Speaking of my own experience over the years, my credibility came into play when I observed how our generations of young and the college level write, speak, and communicate with others. I recall a training that I conducted to adult learners in the agency where I am a Director of Education. After the training of a course, it is important for the learners, adults mind you, to take an assessment. Well one of the questions inquired about how documentation should be handled. The answer to the question was "factual and timely. One of the participants who finished the assessment very quickly had the correct answer, but spelled facutal as "faxchuwol." When I saw this, I almost brought up my dinner from the night before. LOL. At that particular moment, I realized that my credibility of being an eyewitness to the troubled times of writing, spelling, and speaking is a strong reflection of our personality and how we see the world. As educators, we also need to be Attentive. It is a vital component of the teaching genetic makeup to be Attentive in how educators present their teaching modalities, pedagogy, andragolgy, as well as other teaching methods in the classroom. Of course, every student whether young or old wants to be able to look at an instructor who is easy on the eyes, but being attractive in your teaching methods can have all of your students bringing you roses all of the time. Your teaching methods and how you present the information is imperative to the longetivity of learning for all learners.
When I teach my college students, I always bring a connection between their real world experiences and the content area. Most theorists believe that this particular component of connecting the curriculum with the content only exist at the elementary, middle, and high school level. However, other theorists, such as Howard McClusky, believed that his Margin of Theory, helps to bridge the gap between what adult learners learn in the classroom and how it relates to the outside world. Case and point: Reverting back to the elementary school level, my daughter brought home one of her Science test. Her overall score was not good, so I decided to analyze the content and the format of the exam as well as the questions. When I looked on the back of the exam, there were two questions. One of the questions inquired about "describe why the Grand Canyon is a great tourist attraction to you." When I looked at my daughter's answer, it was very vague. Her vaguness said to me that she did not understand the question. Therefore, I asked my daughter if she understood the word "describe". She said, "no." I also asked her if her teacher ever explained or taught any content area which asked you to describe something. My daughter said, "no". This led me to one conclusion. My conclusion was the teacher's deliver in instruction was not a top Attentive modality for the students to understand the word "describe." Even though my daughter has a responsibility of asking about the word describe; however, all teachers should know that we should never assume about what our students know and what they don't know. From there, I decided to help my daughter to understand the word "describe." I took a water bottle and I asked her "What is this?" She correctly responded by saying that "it's a water bottle." I said, "okay, how tall is the water bottle, what colors can you point out on the label of the water bottle, how clear is the water in the bottle, etc?" From there, I asked her to describe the cover of her SIMS 2 game package. Once I tapped into this, she began to understand how to describe something. Relevancy to the content by connecting it with real world experiences is highly correlated to how students respond to the content at any age level.
Last but not least, the last letter of CA is the R. A teacher needs to have Realistic objectives in the classroom in order to have successful outcomes. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream Speech" years ago, I can only assume that he knew that his dream would probably not become a true reality or even look at it as a measureable outcome. This is how I see the difference between realistic goals and realistic objectives. To have a realistic goal is like having a dream come true. Even in Disney world, dreams do not come true. Since goals have a tendency to change over time, they should not be categorized as being realistic. Therefore, when teachers have measureable objectives instead of measureable goals in the classroom, they will be able deliver their instruction in effective ways. Case and point: Here is an example of a measureable realistc objective for any classroom: "At the conclusion of the 8th grade English class, the students will be able to identify and define the parts of speech in 10 sentences without the use of their textbooks at a rate of 90%. With this particular measureable and realistic objective, it allows the students to have high expectations for themselves in the classroom. The students would know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. However, it is up to the teacher, who is credible in their observance of their students and attractive in their deliever to ensure that the students understand the concept and the task, to help the students along in their path of success. This objective is realistic to reach in any classroom.
In conclusion, every teacher/college professor is an educational leader in the classroom, but in order to be an effective educational leader in your own write, it is important to drive that CAR (Credible, Attentive, and Realistic) at its highest acceleration in the classroom for the future success of all of our learners of the world.
As an educator, I have realized that the most important role that a teacher needs to play is how to drive their God given talent of using their CARS in the classroom whether online or face to face interaction. You are probably wondering why CAR is capitalized. To most of my English teachers, educators, and professors out there, there is a significant reason of breaking the capitalization rules for this particular point. Well, an educator needs to be a Credible witness in the classroom. The reason for an educator, whether young classroom teacher or college level to be a Credible witness is to closely observe the changing trends in the generation of today and the generation of yesterday. Speaking of my own experience over the years, my credibility came into play when I observed how our generations of young and the college level write, speak, and communicate with others. I recall a training that I conducted to adult learners in the agency where I am a Director of Education. After the training of a course, it is important for the learners, adults mind you, to take an assessment. Well one of the questions inquired about how documentation should be handled. The answer to the question was "factual and timely. One of the participants who finished the assessment very quickly had the correct answer, but spelled facutal as "faxchuwol." When I saw this, I almost brought up my dinner from the night before. LOL. At that particular moment, I realized that my credibility of being an eyewitness to the troubled times of writing, spelling, and speaking is a strong reflection of our personality and how we see the world. As educators, we also need to be Attentive. It is a vital component of the teaching genetic makeup to be Attentive in how educators present their teaching modalities, pedagogy, andragolgy, as well as other teaching methods in the classroom. Of course, every student whether young or old wants to be able to look at an instructor who is easy on the eyes, but being attractive in your teaching methods can have all of your students bringing you roses all of the time. Your teaching methods and how you present the information is imperative to the longetivity of learning for all learners.
When I teach my college students, I always bring a connection between their real world experiences and the content area. Most theorists believe that this particular component of connecting the curriculum with the content only exist at the elementary, middle, and high school level. However, other theorists, such as Howard McClusky, believed that his Margin of Theory, helps to bridge the gap between what adult learners learn in the classroom and how it relates to the outside world. Case and point: Reverting back to the elementary school level, my daughter brought home one of her Science test. Her overall score was not good, so I decided to analyze the content and the format of the exam as well as the questions. When I looked on the back of the exam, there were two questions. One of the questions inquired about "describe why the Grand Canyon is a great tourist attraction to you." When I looked at my daughter's answer, it was very vague. Her vaguness said to me that she did not understand the question. Therefore, I asked my daughter if she understood the word "describe". She said, "no." I also asked her if her teacher ever explained or taught any content area which asked you to describe something. My daughter said, "no". This led me to one conclusion. My conclusion was the teacher's deliver in instruction was not a top Attentive modality for the students to understand the word "describe." Even though my daughter has a responsibility of asking about the word describe; however, all teachers should know that we should never assume about what our students know and what they don't know. From there, I decided to help my daughter to understand the word "describe." I took a water bottle and I asked her "What is this?" She correctly responded by saying that "it's a water bottle." I said, "okay, how tall is the water bottle, what colors can you point out on the label of the water bottle, how clear is the water in the bottle, etc?" From there, I asked her to describe the cover of her SIMS 2 game package. Once I tapped into this, she began to understand how to describe something. Relevancy to the content by connecting it with real world experiences is highly correlated to how students respond to the content at any age level.
Last but not least, the last letter of CA is the R. A teacher needs to have Realistic objectives in the classroom in order to have successful outcomes. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream Speech" years ago, I can only assume that he knew that his dream would probably not become a true reality or even look at it as a measureable outcome. This is how I see the difference between realistic goals and realistic objectives. To have a realistic goal is like having a dream come true. Even in Disney world, dreams do not come true. Since goals have a tendency to change over time, they should not be categorized as being realistic. Therefore, when teachers have measureable objectives instead of measureable goals in the classroom, they will be able deliver their instruction in effective ways. Case and point: Here is an example of a measureable realistc objective for any classroom: "At the conclusion of the 8th grade English class, the students will be able to identify and define the parts of speech in 10 sentences without the use of their textbooks at a rate of 90%. With this particular measureable and realistic objective, it allows the students to have high expectations for themselves in the classroom. The students would know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. However, it is up to the teacher, who is credible in their observance of their students and attractive in their deliever to ensure that the students understand the concept and the task, to help the students along in their path of success. This objective is realistic to reach in any classroom.
In conclusion, every teacher/college professor is an educational leader in the classroom, but in order to be an effective educational leader in your own write, it is important to drive that CAR (Credible, Attentive, and Realistic) at its highest acceleration in the classroom for the future success of all of our learners of the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)