Final Post

My biggest take away will be the googlesite I created to use with the students that I worked with in intervention during the school year. They are unable to attend summer school due to not having transportation. This allows these students to continue to grow their math skills to keep closing the gaps. All of the different technology we learned about is useful within the online course to create a better experience for the students. Thank You!

Synchronous or Asynchronous

I think that the best online courses offer both synchronous and asynchronous involvement. I do not think that it is appropriate to have a synchronous course that involves readings and writings. These things take time and need to be completed outside of synchronous communication. I also do not think that it is beneficial to have an online course that is completely asynchronous. I think that interaction of some sort is necessary for students and teachers. If the teachers never interact with the students live in some way it is hard to get an understanding of what students know and the progress they have made. Just as differentiation and variety of  strategies are important in a face to face classroom, I believe the same is true for online courses.

Webinar

The Webinar that I chose to view was Impact Every Student: Simple Strategies That Provide Big Improvement from 2010. I chose this webinar because as the Math Specialist for the district, I feel that one of the issues that concerns me is the experience that we as teachers provide students each and every day. I understand that they are in middle school and high school, but these students know what teachers think about them and their abilities by how they are treated. I was hoping to gain more research and ideas to use for professional development next school year.
The content of the webinar was good. I really struggled with the setup of the webinar. The presenter asked questions that he answered himself because it was not a face to face situation. I understand that this could be done differently if it was live rather than taped but it still was not. When it was done live participants were given short questionnaires throughout and they had the ability to type in questions. It was really difficult for me to "sit and get" for an hour.
I feel that evaluating existing online courses is the fact that you can watch ones that are not live. Would it have been a different experience had it been live, I am not sure. The other thing that makes evaluating them difficult is that I feel that many of them are structured so differently. Some are more interactive than others. I think another thing that makes a difference is the preference and learning style of the individual participating in the course.

Use of Technology Supports

During the summer I will be able to use the information that we have been learning to keep in contact with students in regard to their Compass Learning use. If they have any questions we will be able to communicate with the technology being shared. If they have a question, I will be able to show (through modeling) the process to follow to solve problems. I think that is cool because a verbal explanation does not work for all students. I could also see using this with colleagues to work on collaboration with new resources. I think that I will find the technology as we move forward, especially if I am still going to have to travel between 2 buildings next year.

Blackboard- Trudy Wahlen

After our first training last Thursday, I started to realize how effective the structure for summer school could be this year. With the capabilities of the Blackboard, it takes away the unknown of what are the kids going to do if they run into questions while doing Compass at home. Parents do not have to worry about transportation as much with them only having to come 1 day a week at the high school and 2 days at the middle school. I liked that you can connect live with them if they have questions and teach them math through Blackboard (or similar sites). My biggest concern is being able to use another program within it to use appropriate math symbols. I have used Edmodo and the kids loved it so I think students will be on board with the technology we use during the summer. I could then see that evolving into more similar use during the school year.