Think of how education has been delivered for the past 130 years. Information was not readily available. If you wanted to be informed, you would have to go to a public library, pick up an encyclopedia, or be “taught” information by university scholars deemed “teachers”.
Fast-forward to today’s environment. Information is readily available and students can Google information faster than the teacher can lecture it. So is the lecture important? Do you think the traditional industrial aged teacher, who was the keeper of information, will be successful in an online environment?
The biggest change (or challenge) for online teachers is that they will transform from the “sage on the stage” (givers of information) to the “guide on the side” (mentors of information). Online learning is truly student-centered and teachers will need to help students with their questioning, problem solving, and investigation skills while individualizing and differentiating their instruction for every student.
Since online teaching will focus on the needs of the students, it will be very important to have multiple ways to assess them. When I say asses – I do not mean TEST! (traditional t/f, multiple choice tests) Too often teachers use the “test” method as the only measure and evaluation of student’s learning. Learning comes in multiple facets so we need multiple ways to obtain students personal growth. Assessments need to be viewed as a teaching tools and learning tools.
Assessments can be reflective and personal (like blogs, journaling), can be knowledge based and measured (quizzes, tests, pre/post courses surveys), and they can be collaborative (like skype and wikis). All assessments must be based on the courses objectives and final outcomes!
Teachers will also learn from these assessments. Are my course materials effective? Does content to be further enhanced or developed? Teachers need to be open-minded and accept the learning and feedback they receive from their students. It can be very empowering to the students that we are learning from them, just as they learn from us.
So, please review Pink Floyd’s video “Another Brick in the Wall”. How does it coincide with the current problems in brick and mortar classrooms? How will online learning tear down these bricks in the wall?
I believe online learning can potentially have all the student-centered attributes you give it here. However, I know it is not always the case. Many online classes are just as top-down and instructionalist as their f2f counterparts. Also, not every student does well in an online computer mediated environment. The student-centered approach you describe can be done just as effectively without the technology, the technology just gives us another avenue. It could be argued that online learning environments offer less ability to be learner centered because for the environment to exist there must be a teacher created prompt of some sort. That prompt, no matter how small, will by nature shape the direction the student choose to take right from the start. If online learning provides us with a catalyst to start thinking of alternative pedagogical possibilities than I am alright with equating online learning as holding this student-centered potential.
Hi Carl,
I agree that F2F environments can be student centered. I also agree that F2F classes can use assessments that are not technology oriented.
This post addresses online learning. The online courses I have participated definitely gives me the control over my learning. Yes, there is a minimum prompt that my instructor has given, but I have complete creativity of what project I want to do, how I want to post, ect. I suppose, that teachers who think they can teach online just as they have taught traditional industrialized f2f teaching for the past 30 years could still have that top down affect. I wonder what their success rate is? I am not sure, in an online environment, how else you will assess students other than technology-based unless students have a small postage budget. 🙂
Thanks for the reply!
Jen