Online Teaching Experience

There were so many technologies listed in the Michigan Merit Curriculum’s Online Experience Guideline that I would like to use. I think the technology tools that would work best for my students are the interactive visual activities. One of the many technologies I would love to use is the Online Virtual Fieldtrips. I have never conducted one of these myself yet, but I’ve assisted my mentor with one. We took a virtual fieldtrip with 5th grade students to a science institution. The 5th graders were studying bats or nocturnal animals as one of their science topics. So after learning more about bats, they came to the library media center prepared with well-thought out questions and were able to see real-live bats. They had a great online experience because unlike TV or educational videos, they were able to interact with the presenter and the animals. Based on their questions and comments, the students were able to direct the flow of the presentation. Needless to say, they were all very much involved and engaged throughout the entire presentation. In addition, virtual fieldtrips are ideal for a library media center because it is even more difficult to plan and budget for “real” fieldtrips in our setting than in a classroom setting.

If I were to do an online experience like this virtual field trip, I would follow the same pedagogical strategies as my mentor. She assisted and collaborated with the classroom teachers in their bat studies and research which led up to the virtual field trip. By that time, the students were well prepared with adequate information to be able to properly address an expert with their individual concerns or questions that they hadn’t found the answers to when they researched. It seemed to flow well as far as a well-rounded learning experience. Students were able to express their newly found information in a practical, real-life situation making their learning more meaningful.

My students are younger and I know this article mentioned its focus on middle school and high school students; however I could still implement many of these learning experiences but there were some that would be more difficult to do with younger students. Those would be the technologies that involved greater student independence. For example, the interactive discussions with students, communicating through a blog, Learning Management System and RSS Feeds may be difficult for a 1st student to navigate through; although not impossible. These could still be used successfully with young students, but probably wouldn’t have as great of a benefit as it would with older students. The focus might swerve away from the content to be learned and focus more on how to utilize that technology. As young students, I think they would benefit more from the exposure to these technologies and utilizing visual technologies since they haven’t yet mastered their “voice” in writing or sometimes even basic writing skills; especially not typing skills. Exposure would be great as they move forward in their educational learning experiences, so that they are prepared for the technologies that the higher grade levels are utilizing.