Teacher education

Another installment of the funnies, courtesy of Darren at Teaching and Developing Online.

- Gee I was bad at math.

- When you think your day is bad …Part 8.

- This made me laugh.

- My parenting skills.

- This is the one statistic that is true

- When you think your day is bad … Part 9

- This makes a lot of sense…NOT

- When you think your day is bad … Part 10

- this might be why I don’t camp.

- When you think your Day is Bad … Part 10 (yes, this is a second one with the same title)

Until next week…

Friday Funnies.

Another edition from Darren over at Teaching and Developing Online .

- Some say to do this job you must be insane.

- Now that would be interesting.

- Cartoons are aways wrong

- Reality is so real.

- Fifty percent

Until next week…

Virtual Schooling in the News.

Beginning with the Yahoo! News Alert for virtual school.

Virtual school leads way
The Hendersonville Times-NewsSun, 14 Sep 2008 7:09 AM PDT
Brandon Warren leans back in his chair, staring at the computer screen.

News briefs for September 15
The Danville Advocate-MessengerMon, 15 Sep 2008 8:55 AM PDT
Area news briefs for September 15 regarding Junction City Fire Department, Kentucky Virtual School, Stanford chili cookoff and meetings of the Danville Housing Authority and City of Danville Sister Cities Committee.

Districts move toward online learning
The Elyria Chronicle-TelegramSun, 14 Sep 2008 10:09 PM PDT
Remember carrying big, heavy books and using typewriters at school? Well, those days are long gone. Today, technology, such as the online textbooks used in Avon and “virtual computers” being tried in Avon Lake, are changing the way students learn. Both high-tech tools are being rolled out this school year. “Our children [...]

Michael Horn Will Offer Keynote Address at NACOL’s Virtual School Symposium
PR Newswire via Yahoo! NewsTue, 16 Sep 2008 12:30 PM PDT
The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) is pleased to announce that author Michael Horn will be the Virtual School Symposium keynote speaker on Tuesday, October 28 at 8:00 a.m. in Phoenix, AZ. His address is titled, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, and his keynote will cover the case studies and themes of his book of the same …

Correction: School grades story
Miami HeraldTue, 16 Sep 2008 11:23 AM PDT
In a Sept. 9 story about appeals of state school grades, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the school that had its grade raised. It was the Florida Virtual Academy, not the Florida Virtual School. The Florida Virtual School is not graded by the state.

Cheyenne district seeks virtual charter school
Billings GazetteThu, 18 Sep 2008 12:03 PM PDT
CHEYENNE – The school district in Cheyenne is looking into starting a virtual charter school for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Students enrolled in the school would take classes online. …

Cheyenne district seeks virtual charter school
Billings GazetteThu, 18 Sep 2008 11:53 AM PDT
CHEYENNE – The school district in Cheyenne is looking into starting a virtual charter school for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Cheyenne district seeks virtual charter school
KIFI Idaho FallsThu, 18 Sep 2008 11:16 AM PDT
Associated Press – September 18, 2008 2:06 PM ET CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – The school district in Cheyenne is looking into starting a virtual charter school for students in kindergarten through…

Next the Yahoo! News Alert for cyber school.

Board briefed on cyber school
Lebanon Daily NewsFri, 12 Sep 2008 9:31 PM PDT
FREDERICKSBURG — Nate Byler, coordinator of the Northern Lebanon High School Virtual Academy, presented the Northern Lebanon School District board with a progress report on the V3
PA Cyber Charter School Weathers Remnants of Hurricane Ike
PR Newswire via Yahoo! FinanceWed, 17 Sep 2008 2:08 PM PDT
The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School continued nearly normal operations in spite of power outages which closed school headquarters for two days as remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Western Pennsylvania.

Moving on to the Google News Alert for virtual school.

Virtual school leads way
BlueRidgeNow.com – Hendersonville,NC,USA
The school has 35 students, mostly freshmen and sophomores, who take high school courses through North Carolina Virtual Public School. …
See all stories on this topic

School board approves new online high school
Siuslaw News – Florence,OR,USA
For each class, students participate in a “virtual classroom” where they interact with the instructor and other students by using a two-way …
See all stories on this topic

Obama, McCain Push Different Visions for Schools, Teachers and …
NewsHour – USA
On September 10 he delivered a major education policy speech in the key election state of Ohio, calling for big increases in federal school spending and …
See all stories on this topic

Finally, the Google News Alert for cyber school.

New ice rink opens in Campbelltown
The Patriot-News – PennLive.com – Harrisburg,PA,USA
He attends cyberschool, to give him more time to practice the sport he dreams will some day take him to the Olympics. With the opening this weekend of the …
See all stories on this topic

Madison Central school enrollment is up
MADISONet.com – Madison,SD,USA
Chester Area School dropped from 373 students last year and now boasts 365. This doesn’t include the cyber school enrollment, which went down from 248 to …
See all stories on this topic

Cyber high school completes transformation
Newport News Times – Newport,OR,USA
By Terry Dillman of the News-Times The Oregon Council for Online Learning (OCOL), the board of directors for Insight School of Oregon (ISO), …
See all stories on this topic

I apologize for the delay in posting these items, but the conference hotels do not provide free wireless access. The first paper in the K-12 Online Teachers: SIG-Online Teaching and Learning session was:

Who’s at the Keyboard? A Description of K-12 Online Teachers in the United States

Schedule Information:
Scheduled Time: Tue, Apr 14 – 12:25pm – 1:55pm Building/Room: San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina / Newport Beach
In Session: K-12 Online Teachers

Authors:
*Leanna Matchett Archambault (Arizona State University)
Kent J. Crippen (University of Nevada – Las Vegas)

Abstract: Virtual schools continue to grow in popularity as a realistic alternative to traditional education. Because of this, a growing number of teachers throughout the nation are facing the challenge of creating and presenting quality online content and instruction. Little is known about this population of educators and how they compare to traditional teachers. This study presents data gathered as a result of a national survey of 596 online teachers and describes the characteristics of a group of K-12 online teachers from 25 different states. By studying this particular population, teacher educators can better understand the specific needs of online teachers. This, in turn, can inform changes, adaptations, and improvements to teacher preparation programs across the United States.

So, I missed the first few minutes of Leanna’s and Kent’s presentation, as I was trying to find the well-hidden Newport Beach room in the Marriott. This portion of the presentation was based on Leanna’s dissertation.

The study itself was based on a national survey that was solicited via e-mail – using the Keeping Pace report and Google searches to identify the various virtual schools. She was able to contact a variety of different types of online teachers.

She used an interesting model for contacting the teachers, which she called “Tailored Method Design (Dillman, 2007)”, which I think was useful for other researchers. It followed:

Step 1 – pre-notification e-mail
Step 2 – E-mail with survey access link
Step 3 – E-mail with survey access link
Step 4 – Follow-up e-mail
Step 5 – Final e-mail (included an MS Word version)

Leanna specifically mentioned that she received positive feedback from the respondents concerning her use of this model, particularly Step 1. She noted that none of the teachers completed the MS Word version (i.e., they either completed it online or not at all).

In her searching, Leanna identified 2262 potential respondents. Based on the e-mail sent out in Step 1, 413 bounced back as undeliverable – 48 were corrected and re-sent for a total sample of 1897. Of those, it was determined that 102 teachers did not meet the criteria so the survey was sent to 1795 online teachers.

There were 549 respondents and the sample represented all 50 states, although none of the online teachers in Michigan or New Mexico completed the survey. Of those who did complete the survey:

-77% were female

-63% were between 26-45 years of age

-91% were Caucasian

-they had an average of 14 years of overall teaching experience

-they had an average 4 years of online teaching experience

-62% had Master’s degree and 13% had more than Master’s

-54% full time and 36% were part-time

Compared to traditional teachers, there were 21% more online teachers with Master’s degree than brick-and-mortar teachers. Also, there were 6% more online teachers with higher than Master’s degree education than what is found in brick-and-mortar schools.

In looking at some of the differences between part-time online teachers and full-time online teachers. For example, part-time online teachers had on average 4 more years teaching experience and 0.4 years more online teaching experience.

Of the online teachers who responded:

-81% reported teaching asynchronously

-38% reported to teaching in state-based schools, while 31% reported to teaching in an online school managed by a local education authority

-80% of respondents taught all of their classes online with an average of 97 students

Interestingly, when asked who authored the content that the online teacher taught with, they responded:

-38% the teacher themselves

-42% a content provider

-20% a curriculum specialist

-15% a colleague

-7% other (e.g., a team of teachers – and the online teacher may have been one of those, a textbook provider, etc.)

With the qualitative data, the teachers were asked an open-ended question about why they taught online. The responses included:

-ability to work from home (19%0

-new model of education (14%0

-need for employment (10%)

-flexibility (8%)

-retirees (3%)

In response to another open-ended question, K-12 online teachers also reported:

-63% reported a positive response to teaching online

-29% had mixed experience (challenging, but rewarding)

-8% had a negative experience

Finally, participants found online distance education allowed them to work more one-on-one with students and being able to provide them with more individual support, moreso than the brick-and-mortar environment.

Again, sorry I missed the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) stuff that Kent presented at the beginning (which formed the lens through which Leanna looked at this data). If you’re reading this Leanna, please add a few sentences in the comments to describe the part that I missed.

From my inbox, a little reminder about these NACOL sessions.
Monthly Webinars for February 2008 February 13, 2008
2:00 PM (Eastern)
“Trends, Myths, and Action in Professional Development for K-12 Online Teaching” Open until 2 PM (ET) the day before the webinar.This Webinar complements two recent white papers that NACOL released on professional development at 2007 VSS last November: Going Virtual! The Status of Professional Development for K-12 Online Teachers and Professional Development for Online Schooling and Online Learning .The Webinar will overview national trends in the professional development of K-12 online teachers and debunk common misconceptions in relation to preparing teachers to teach and facilitate K-12 online learning. This session covers the professional development continuum from pre-service through in-service to master educator.

Presenters

Niki Davis , Director of Iowa State University Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching

Lisa Dawley , Chair of the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University

Kerry Rice , Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State UniversityFebruary 21, 2008
6:00 PM (Eastern)
“Making Sense of Content Standards through Reconceptualization”

Open until 3 PM (ET) the day before the webinar.During this Webinar, we will explore what it means to reconceptualize academic content standards and how it relates to creating meaningful and engaging lessons. We will also discuss ways in which online professional learning communities can aid in this process.

Presenters

Grammar Snob
January 10, 2007 at 8:51 pm

Hooray! The first day must be so nerve racking!

Congrats!

Reply

Well, What Do You Know!.
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It seems that my roster for Monday’s composition class includes a couple of gentlemen I’ve had the pleasure of having in class before! These young men were – how shall I put it? – challenging elements of my public speaking class and, if my first impressions of today are in any way accurate, are bent on being so again this term. Well, I suppose one must stick to one’s strengths.

I managed to get them both aside before they left class today to point out to them that our history gives me pause. I will send each a private email reiterating the expectations of the class and outlining the standards of behavior, though I wonder whether one or both of them will drop the class before we meet again on the 22nd.

Leave a Comment

Filed under General Griping , Teaching

1 Comment.
Kizz
January 6, 2007 at 10:32 am

Students in practical courses should write reviews! I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. Write a review of a meal or a piece of art of a movie or something. If people are going to review what you do you should know what it looks like from the other side.

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1 Comment.
Rick
December 19, 2006 at 3:18 pm

Yay!!!! [he runs out the school door and jumps into a snow pile in the parking lot, only to learn that it hasn't snowed yet this year....]

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