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IDT846 - Reading Map 1 Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations…

- - - - When I taught Spanish in the brick & mortar environment, I had native-Spanish speakers learning alongside students new to the language. While I tried exhaustively to differentiate my instruction to meet the students' needs, I failed time and again. It left my students feeling neglected and me feeling frustrated. Additionally, I had students with special learning needs and accommodations that further challenged my ability to teach all students Spanish. Now that I am teaching in the online environment, I am not faced with that challenge. While some students do need accommodations and additional support, others can work through the material quickly and master the unit objectives far faster than what I could have done in the brick & mortar classroom. I have shared this previously in my outline: I do not believe online learning is for all students however it is incredible for others.
  - - - As both a student and a teacher in online education I can relate to these findings. Personally, I love learning online. As a full-time worker and mother of two young kids, it would be exceptionally difficult to complete a degree in the traditional environment. I am highly motivated and able to make and stick to a schedule so distance education works very well for me. As a teacher in the online environment, I have met students that excel online and students that can't get up in the morning to log into the computer. When they finally do, they work haphazardly through their lessons and finish a course having barely learning anything. It is this scenario that makes me skeptical. While I can encourage them and provide them with the resources they need, I cannot do the work for them. (I will say that this also exists in the brick & mortar environment. I had students that took Spanish because it is required and could not muster the energy to complete the required work - it is not the fault of distance education for a students apathy.)
  - - - In my opinion, the parent needs to be very involved by helping the student organize and plan each day. I often meet parents that had expected their child to take off independently each day but quickly find they require more guidance. Another factor that weighs heavily on the success of most K-12 students is the relationship between the student and the teacher. Students need to feel comfortable asking for help. They need to know someone is there and willing to support them. In Chapter 2, "Definitions, History, and Theories of Distance Education", Wedemeyer emphasizes this point, "Key to success of distance education...was the development of the relationship between student and teacher" (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p.43).