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• Elona Hartjes, MEd (Candidate), Ontario Certified Teacher

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Seventy-two  percent of the 2600 students who took part in a survey sponsored by the Ontario Students’ Trustee Association  students agreed  cell phones should not be used as an educational tool in the classroom because they are such a distraction.  I agree whole heartedly with these students.  Cell phones  are a distraction.

I’ll admit, I was quite surprised  by the results of the survey.  I thought since cell phones now are really micro computers that can access the internet, students would argue  cell phones could be a valuable learning tool in the classroom.  I guess students might still feel cell phones could be valuable learning tools in the classroom but realize the distraction factor is too great and would thwart learning instead of fostering it.

The distractability factor of cell phones in the classroom does concern me and my colleagues. But, that’s only one of the concerns we have about cell phones in the classroom.  We’re more concerned about the fact that students can use cell phones to cheat on tests and exams.  For example,  my students who take my math class in period one could text answers to students who take my other math class in period four. Students in period one could also take pictures of the test using their phones and share them with their peers who write the math test later in the day.  I already create two versions of every quiz and test I give and distribute these two versions strategically to try to minimize any cheating. I  spend far too much time and energy monitoring my students to prevent cheating when they write quizzes and tests. I wish there was some easy way to completely disable cell phones so that they wouldn’t even turn on in classrooms during quizzes and tests.

Any suggestions?

The beginning of the year is always a time to look forward.  Today Teachers at Risk is going to look forward to the future of education, specifically the future of online schools.   Sarah Lee Casey,   an advocate for on online schools,  is going to share her thoughts with us on the topic in the following guest post.   I really haven’t thought much about the topic of online education, and I really appreciate that you have.  Thank you for this Sarah.

The Future of Education: Online Schools

More and more, universities, colleges, and trade-schools are offering classes online, allowing their students more options than simply the traditional classroom-based education. As this has been occurring, online schooling has gained notoriety as a feasible option in secondary education for busy professionals, working parents, and those who live too far from campus to attend classes. Many have argued that distance education schools are truly the future of education as technology continues to advance, allowing for greater interactivity via the internet between classmates and teachers. However, there are several areas of distance education that need to be either completely overhauled or developed further to truly make online schools a viable alternative for education in the 21st century. These issues include the quality of instruction, cost effectiveness, and misuse of technology.

1.) Quality of Instruction

While students generally report enjoying online courses for the freedom and flexibility they offer, many teachers feel the quality of instruction suffers due to the limitations of online teaching/learning. A recent study shows that most instructors would be willing to teach another online class after their first experience in teaching one, but they also rated the quality of the online classes they taught as lower quality than other traditional classes. Too often instructors are reported to have taught their online course(s) in exactly the same manner as they taught their traditional classroom-setting course(s), not taking full advantage of the technology available to them. There needs to be opportunities for instructors to learn how to make full use of all the tools at their disposal when teaching an online class to bring up the overall quality of instruction.

2.) Cost Effectiveness and Hidden Costs

At first glance, it would appear that distance education schools should cost far less in both tuition and implementation than traditional, campus-based schools. However, upon closer inspection, sometimes the online courses actually cost far more to run than those taught in a classroom. When Southern Arkansas University decided to give online education a shot, their estimates for the cost of implementing such a program were far less than the actual net cost ended up being. The startup equipment alone cost $80,000, while the establishment and upkeep of an internet server was another $1500 per month. Then there are the human capital costs such as paying the instructors and the necessary technicians to keep the systems up and running with a minimum of glitches. The minimum number of staff needed to successfully deliver an online lecture via compressed video format is three: 1 instructor and 2 technicians, one at each site. In addition, do not overlook the costs associated with training technicians and instructors. Thus, three highly trained professionals are needed to deliver the same class that one highly trained professional would teach in the traditional classroom setting, driving up costs even more. According to a report by the California State University System, only very large courses that have over 500 students per one instructor are more cost-effective than the traditional classroom setting.

3.) Misuse of Technology

It may seem evident that instructors should be trained on how to maximize the use of their technology when teaching an online course, but more often than not they are thrown into the class with no guidelines whatsoever. Simply put, most instructors have no idea how to properly utilize the technology handed to them when teaching an online class. An online class cannot be taught in exactly the same way that a traditional class is. The instructor must learn not only how to properly use the technology associated with the course, but must also change the way in which they deliver their material and organize the work that students must do. The best distance education instructors are creative, well-informed, and experts in the realm(s) of the technology that are at their disposal.

As distance education schools continue to take off, and online classes become the norm of a typical college semester, the problems noted above must be addressed. To ignore them would cause the quality of online education to suffer, effecting not only the students that take the online classes, but the instructors and institutions that implement the classes as well.

This article was written by Sarah Lee Casey. She graduated Ohio State with a degree in Elementary Education. She loves teaching kids and watching them discover and learn new things. She works as a camp counselor each year at a local Christian camp and also advocates for online schooling.

I want to encourage my students to become critical thinkers especially when they are watching movies or videos. While I was searching my files for critical thinking activities for movies, I came across this activity and thought I’d share it with you and ask for suggestions. I can’t remember where I got the original version of this activity. So whoever you are thank you. I did modify it a bit to suit my purposes, but I think it could be improved. I would appreciate any suggestions that would improve the activity.

Learning Strategies Class

Movie Reflection Activity

1.  Write a summary of the plot in paragraph form.

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2.  How would you explain the ideas in the movie to someone younger or less experienced than you?

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3. Who would most likely enjoy this movie?  Why?

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4.  How are children and adults represented in this movie? (Compare and contract)  Give evidence.

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5. How are males and females represented in this movie? Compare and contrast.   Give evidence.

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6. Connect the facts or ideas from the movie to other things you have learned, remembered  or discovered recently. Explain fully.

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7. What are two ways these ideas or facts can help you in the future? Explain fully.

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8. Create a symbol to represent the main ideas in the movie.

School starts next week, and it’s time to dust off my tool kit I use to engage my reluctant and struggling readers and writers. I need to remind myself that there are lots of reasons why my students are reluctant to read and write- learning disabilities, competition from other activities, lack of interest, school not valued. Some of my students have told me they don’t read and write outside of school. Of course they do. They just don’t realize it. I have to make them aware that they read and write outside of school everyday. I need to help my students make a paradigm shift and so they can realize when they text message, email, surf the net or are on YouTube they are reading and writing all the time. My students are very comfortable online. they spend hours and hours on line. I try to use that to my advantage when trying to engage my more struggling and reluctant students.

Good pedagogy states that I should start where our students are. Where are my students? The BBC reported recently that today the average kid spends 44.5 hours a week on-line. Imagine. I can hardly believe that, but when I asked my students whether they thought the statistic was accurate they seemed to think it was pretty accurate.
given that my students practically live online, I decided to build a Web 2.0 tool kit to use in class.

I’m going to share with you a slide show I used at a presentation last year to introduce the Web 2.0 tools I use and why I use them. I also give an example of how I used them. Hope you find the slide show useful.

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  These are my personal views and not those of my employer.