When you spend as much time traveling, as I and others do, time has a way of weirdly skewing. It’s sort of a doppler effect thing, where what I’ll be doing for the next week, tends to bunch up in front of me worrying me, demanding my time and effort, and what I did only a few days ago, gets flung back — way back — into a stretched back and fading past.
Out of that dim past, there is one school that I visited only last week (seems much longer) that is worthy of some comments here. The Odyssey Schools, in Las Vegas, provide instruction almost exclusively online. Located in an office building, that a local telephone company at one time used for telemarketing and tech support, the building actually looks very much like a small school — until you learn how many students they serve. I do not remember the number, but it was a lot.
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| High School Science Department |
Most of the teachers work at cubicals, leading learning through a course management system. They use eCollege. The science teachers, social studies teachers, etc. are separated by a five foot wall. I think that what intrigues me the most is simply that teaching, as a profession, has expanded a great deal since I entered the classroom 31 years ago.
Students report to the school for four hours every week. during that time, They receive an hour of math, an hour of tutoring, and an hour of rhetoric. This made my ear perk up as well, that these kids are being taught logic and the art of argument.
What reminded me that I had not written about this experience, was a short piece that I read yesterday, while finally scanning through my September EduTopia. It was part of the section on “What’s Next” a brief examination of virtual education. The short piece that caught my attention, written by Tamar Snyder, was about teachers who are moving back and forth between virtual and face-to-face teaching — call them “trans-classroom” teachers.
In the article, Susan Lowes, director of research and evaluation at the Institute for Learning Technologies, at Columbia University’s Teachers College, observes that…
virtual educators return to classroom teaching with renewed vigor and enhanced teaching methods.
the article continues that these teachers:
- View student participation as key,
- Encourage wallflowers and even slackers to speak out,
- Have learned to clarify directions and provide more detailed instruction,
- Ask probing follow-up questions,
- Give more meaningful assignments and freflective questions,
- Lecture less and facilitate more, and
- Are more efficient with time.
This appears to be an ongoing study, as I did find a number of presentations that Dr. Lowes has used at AASA and NACOL.
Finally, that article was also on the same page as eduTopia’s “Edublogs We Love.” The list runs:
- 2¢ Worth
- Around the Corner V2
- Dangerously Irrelevant
- Joanne Jacobs
- Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch
- Leader Talk
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity
- NYC Educator
- PBS Teachers: Learning Now
- Weblogg-ed
Needless to say, the list is in alphabetical order. But with a name like Warlick, I deserve to be at the top of the list every once in a while.
Snyder, Tamar. “Virtually Real.” EduTopia Sept 2007: 41.
The link to edutopia’s “Weblogs We Love” (for some reason not included in the post) is: http://www.edutopia.org/whats-next-2007-best-blogs
It’s worth thinking about the discussion that follows, where readers (including myself) wonder why the publication would only consider American sites for its list of ‘Top Edublogs’.
That article was a great introduction into trans-classroom teaching. I would have loved to see a longer article by Edutopia on this topic. It never occurred to me to think about the reverse trend–virtual teachers going back to a traditional classroom. Thanks for those two studies. I’ll be looking at them over the next couple of days.
Stephen, thanks for including that link! I missed it completely! I’ve posted my response there, and include it here for your reading…
BEGIN:
This comment may very well be uninspiring and lack “pithiness,” but…that should never be an impediment for a blogger, especially one who appears second on the list (which I sometimes point out without sharing it’s in alpha order…pride).
After reading Stephen, Graham, and Ewan, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m the victim of an elaborate conspiracy of blog inflation. Like Eddie Murphy in the “Trading Places” movie, I find myself wondering, “How did I get valued as lovable by one of the premier (honest) magazines that I read?” As I slip the fame into my pockets for fear this is only temporary, I can look around and see folks that aren’t subscribers to Edutopia’s “Edublogs We Love” left out. Would I trade places with them?
The answer is, “no.” Around the Corner is a blog written by a Latin-American male. I am a minority in the edublogging community, a fact I hadn’t paid much attention to until Tim Holt (Bytespeed Blog) pointed it out. In short, there are too many white folk and not enough people of color represented.
Before we go on, I’m of Swedish descent on my father’s side, Panamanian on my mother’s side. I claim dual citizenship in the U.S. and Panama…would that I could claim New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
When i point this out to my audiences, invariably, the white folks make the argument, “It’s the power of your ideas, not your race or ethnic background, that count.” Shortly thereafter, the people of color walk up and say, “I’m glad you pointed that out because it’s so true.” It’s amazing to see the difference in perception…are both deluded?
(It may explain why my Dad–American of Swedish descent–would complain that Hispanics would always vote Hispanic, but whites would vote for Hispanics if they were good candidates.)
We have different perspectives. I’m grateful that Around the Corner was chosen, elated in fact, but in a world with over 70 million blogs, a top 10 list is a very short blogroll. Diversity of thought, richness of ideas are essential in any endeavour, but especially in the conceptual age.
I commend Edutopia editor(s) for their choices, and recognize that blogging is a form of media unto itself. It is pure vanity to enjoy appearing in the list, and a waste of pride to wish to be on the list of “old” media.
As a blogger, the supreme compliment is being quoted and a link. Don’t suppose you could throw one my way?
Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://mguhlin.net