Online Learning Theory Week #2

In the summer of 2003 I took an online class to fulfill my final general education credits for Philosophy.  It was the worst class I have EVER taken in my entire life.  Basically I needed to post summaries of what I read and then defend my thoughts, etc. to the professor who for some reason was constantly online and ready to question.  I didn't get much out of it and just waited for the six weeks to be over!  Needless to say my first online learning experience was a bust!  It was so awful that over ten years later it continued to haunt me and made me unsure about beginning the IT&DML program at UNH.  I'm still getting my feet wet with online learning but I'm trying to figure things out as I go.

As a Kindergarten teacher I worry about too much technology time for my students.  I don't want them to be staring at a screen all day everyday but I want to incorporate it into their learning as much as possible.  It's great that in my school district and my classroom students have access to various pieces of technology throughout the day.

We start off the day with some news from Scholastic News just to get the kids learning about the world on the smart board.  Then students have whole group phonics instruction with zero technology followed by a brain break on the smart board.  For those of you not familiar brain breaks are the best.  The kids get to follow an interactive video and DANCE!  It really gets things moving.  Then they sit again for whole group reading instruction.  I have found using the brain break in-between helps otherwise they are sitting on the rug for so long and they get bored.  After whole group reading students move to literacy workstations.  Students rotate through out four stations, small group reading with me, listening and responding to a story at listening center or on the iPad, hands on word work depending on what they are working on rhyming, beginning sounds, vowels, etc. and time on the computer or iPad researching on PebbleGo! or letter writing practice, etc.  Then we have 45 minute phonics block working on letters, letter sounds, and blending, letter writing practice can be done on the smart board but I have found using the white board is easier.  In the afternoon we have a math lesson on the smart board that is an interactive story.  This new program has been great for my students and they look forward to learning something new each day.  After the whole group math lesson we have math workstations similar to the literacy workstations.  Students rotate between two small group lessons with myself/co-teacher, hands on numeracy work based on the topic we are working on and time on the iPad working on number recognition, number writing practice, patterning, etc.  Finally at the end of the day we have flexible grouping which is an intervention/enrichment time.  Some students work on the computer or iPads but mostly it's working in a small group with a teacher or tutor.  I know my students are lucky to have so much technology but I don't want to give them too much.  They need to interact with people not a screen. 

Technology should be incorporated into learning not ALL of the learning.  As old or new as the theory for online learning may be it is an ever-changing puzzle that never has an exact fit.

Creating my storify for this week was fun because as I reading all of these images were popping into my head!

https://storify.com/annemariel82/theory-of-distance-learning