Is online learning for me?

Well I would hope so :-) I am in the process of obtaining a Distance Learning Certificate from Teachers College USA. We have just begun our third course, Integrating Classroom Content and Standards into Web-Based Courses. One of our first assignments was to find an Online Learning Analysis survey that had to do with the course we were in the midst of developing. Mary Beth found a great one that is very local -- Delaware County Community College. Click here to check out the survey. I took the survey and got a 26. I like this survey because it gives you instant feedback and even gives an interpretation with a more detailed description on what your score means.


Just to get another opinion, I found this other survey to take... different questions but still in the same scope. http://www.waol.org/getstarted/IsOnline4Me.asp

When it comes down to it, I love Online Classes. I have always been a busy person with a hectic schedule, and they always seem to fit well with my lifestyle. I used online classes to finish my associates degree AND bachelors degree. My husband is now using it to supplement his nursing program because of all the time he has to spend at the hospital for clinicals. While I love taking online classes, nothing will ever replace sitting in a classroom feeling others energy when discussing topics!

SmartBoards

As usual, every time I see the SmartBoards in use, it sparks more and more ideas on how to use them in the everday classroom. It was exciting to watch how inspired all of the SmartBoard newcomers were to actually use the boards. We didn't even cover a quarter of what they could do! :-) An interesting question did arise... is it better to keep the SmartBoard in one place where the projector is already set up, or have it be a mobile item where teachers have to set it up every time they want to use it? Any thoughts?

Reflection 2 - Cleveland Institute of Music VCON

Our video conference with the Cleveland Institute of Music on September 7th was enlightening. Mark George was our contact at CIM and he did a great job showing us what they had to offer in terms of Distance Learning Activities. For schools that are cutting music programs because of funding, it is good that they could use this as a substitute in integrating music concepts into other parts of the curriculum. Since our class is so diverse, I think it really benefited us to see different grade levels using VCons as well as different subject areas. I also loved seeing how this could benefit inter-city schools that don't even have access to computers in the classroom. Opening those children's eyes to life outside their surroundings is so valuable.

There were a few technical issues during the Video Conference, but I was glad to see that they could be fixed easily. Mr. George informed us that they do test calls to every school that they work with, and have a 90% success rate.

I ran into school the next morning to tell our 7th grade science teacher about the Science of Sound. Because we have Middle States this year and a big push to make science more interactive, I hope we can get support from our Home & School to participate in some sort of Distance Learning activity. Having the downloadable materials from CIM's website should help in this process...

Thanks everyone -- it was fun and informative! Good questions throughout the VCon!

Distance Learning & a National Disaster

I swear this Hurricane is giving me post traumatic syndrome, similar to what I dealt with for months after September 11th. I can't stop reading stories about victims. And not to mention the fact of the chance of my husband getting called up to go down to help. He would do it in a second, but it still scares me.

An aside -- My full name is Kathryn, and for my entire life my Italian grandmother has called me Katrina. I called her yesterday and told her after 26 years she can't call me that anymore.... I am bad luck... I was born on the 50th anniversary of the stock market crash that caused the Great Depression!

I have a friend that graduated from Tulane and she is completely devasted right now. When I opened Internet Explorer today, I checked out the latest news stories.

Who would have thought Distance Learning would be a solution in the aftermath of a Natural Disaster. Click here for the article about Tulane.

Click here to donate to the Red Cross.

Multiple Intelligences & Distance Learning

As I was reading Diane's blog, I got to thinking about how Distance Learning can be an obvious use in differentiating instruction. 2 of the main concepts of Differentiated Instruction are Learning Theories and Multiple Intelligences. I found a few resources on the topics.

Link 1 -- http://eduscapes.com/distance/mi.htm
Link 2 -- http://www.tecweb.org/styles/imslsindl.pdf (13 pages but REALLY interesting!)