Janine’s blog

This is a single case study that basically finds an association between improved teacher knowledge through an online model compared to face to face. It makes the point that the key advantages appear to be cost savings by reducing travel costs and the well known fact that spaced professional learning over a sustained period of time generally provides better results than short bursts.

http://www.edvantia.org/publications/pdf/05CostEffectiveness.pdf

Just browsing around and came across this article re online teaching in K-12 sector form the Florida Virtual School

Key points cited:

- excellent communicators in online media (email. discussion forums, chat, other…)

- providing timely feedback

- active participation and frequent interaction among teachers and students

The article includes a checklist for assessment which could be quite useful as a self-audit tool.

elearning 1.0 - know thy learner- the importance of context in e-learning design http://www.learningcircuits.org/2001/oct2001/elearn.html

Related, though not specifically for the K-12 sector, this elearning circuits article also provides some good guidance

I have introduced myself to iTunes this week, something I have been meaning to do for some time. I have observed my own children, my nieces and nephews and others using such tools, developing their playlists etc and have understood it all at a conceptual level. My personal motivation to get involved was to address my inability to easily tell whether or not I already have particular tracks when I consider buying a new CD - particularly if it is a compilation and especially if it is classical music. I can now know rather than sense that I have many copies of Ravel’s Bolero, Pachelbel’s canon and many Chopin etudes but not Op. 10 No. 3 which is my favourite.

So I set about the task, beginning with Windows Media Player but 300 tracks later switching to iTunes on the basis of some Gen Y colleague’s recommendation. I am still reserving judgement about the pros and cons of each but each do the basic job in a fairly equivalent way as far as I can tell. Contrary to the initial advice given to me they do not use the same default online database.

So I now have several evening’s worth of ripping while doing other jobs, and about 1200 tracks on my computer, fully catalogued. I think I have moved from novice to intermediate user, and have discovered several efficiencies when I want to edit all tracks in a sequence (that is significantly different in the two systems from what I can tell so far).

I have been taken by surprise to witness my own excitement at having my music collection organised in a visual way! I love it! When the mood takes me I can with the stroke of a couple of keys, play all my versions of “I still call Australia home” and decide which I prefer.

As I have experimented, read the on-screen help, played around, made mistakes, it has struck me that many (what proportion I wonder?) of our young learners are using such systems on a daily basis. They are using powerful information systems and I imagine are developing strong  understanding of key concepts in information management. I wonder how they translate that in their learning when trying to understand systems? Will it unnecessarily limit their thinking by being the only example they use in great depth?

I see great potential to use this concrete experience that they have to link fwith their formal learning. I hunted around the ‘net for  examples of educators commenting on this and could not find anything. I’ll keep thinking about this…