Online Teaching Experiences

After reading and exploring this document, there were several resources that I am already utilizing or have in the past. One technology that I had not explored before were the Online Field Trips. This is an excellent resource! With previous classes, I have created my own virtual field trip using pictures from my visit, maps, and other resources, but had not sought out pre-created field trips.

What content could this help you teach?
In fourth grade, we teach North Carolina history. This resource could greatly help in our Social Studies and Reading classes because the students would be able to explore places they had never been. In our rural community, many of our students are not able to travel at all and have never been outside of the small city limits. It has been very eye opening at how little knowledge they have about the outside world and recognition of other cities and states. These field trips could really open their eyes without leaving the classroom. Similarly, it would increase their ability to visualize places when we are reading about them.

What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
There are countless pedagogical strategies that would be used with these Online Learning Experiences. One that I would use with the field trips would be independent study. The students would explore these field trips independently during stations or at home for homework. This may also involve note-taking so that the students know what they are responsible for getting out of the field trip and to keep them on task during their independent study. Many of the characteristics mentioned in the document appeal to me for the classroom. I would really like to use a gradual release of responsibility to the point where students are utilizing class time to complete their blog or explore the field trips, but eventually be able to assign it for the week and have them take the responsibility to finish the assignment either on their own or at home. To begin, I would need to use primarily teacher involvement and then work toward their collaboration between students.

What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?
Given the age of my students, some of these technologies seemed like they would be more challenging to incorporate in a meaningful way. Some of these would be RSS feeds, Online Resource Evaluation, and Career Planning. At this point in time, Career Planning is not a productive use of time within my classroom and many students are very unsure as to what they would like to do for a career. That is not an exploration that would be a possibility for them to do independently. I also think my students would have a difficult time utilizing or understanding an RSS feed and it's application. On previous research projects, my studetnts really struggled to find resources to use online with the computer teacher, and so it seems very challenging to ask them to evaluate the site after finding it.