Online Learning Experiences

 Sadly when I think about my own experiences with Online Learning, that I have participated in through an institution, much of it has been of the "plug and chug" variety. Do the work, submit it, and never interact with anyone else. Ever.
Like I said, sad.
But, this semester, the two courses that I have been taking has altered my opinion on that. I'm sure that part of it has to do with the fact that I am working with a group of competent adults, but all the same, it was the instructors who established the course so that I could have those experiences.
I knew that Michigan required an online learning experience, but I had not realized that it extended outside of a traditional online course, which to me is quite exciting because that means that teachers who are not ready to go "whole-hog" with online, can find the ways and means that they are comfortable with to still provide their students with the needed experiences.
As a social studies teacher, I can definitely see myself incorporating the virtual field trip into my curriculum. As budgets get tighter, the likelihood of taking students to the next city, let alone out of the state becomes more slim. With a virtual trip, the only limit is the quality of what is on the web. While not every historical place has a museum or an official website, chances are you can still find content that will allow you take students where they need to go, and see what they need to see (documents, landmarks etc.). And that's the other beauty of the virtual trip: if there is something in particular that you want students to focus on, you can easily customize the activity. For instance, instead of possibly having students go through information overload at a local Civil Rights museum, you could go on a virtual tour of only the stops of the Freedom Riders (and no one is complaining about being bus-sick). I would probably try to use jigsaw and other small group activities...because it would be too easy for students to simply get answers from each other if I had them all look at the same things and answer the same questions. Plus, I feel that jigsaw helps students to understand how different perspectives are formed, and the idea of how interconnected different people, ideas, and themes really are.
The most difficult experiences to successfully accomplish, in my opinion, are the activities like blogs, wikis, and OLMS because students must have individual computer access for an extended period of time in order for the experience to work, and often that time is outside of classroom hours. This means that students must have computer and internet access. Although schools are working towards getting students these resources, many still do not, and I believe that unless students can reasonably gain the tools to accomplish the task, then the task should not be assigned. It's not that these are bad idea, in fact they're great, but consideration of resources (including time to moderate) should be done before planning any of the online experiences.