Matt's+Reflections+on+online+learning

=Online Mentoring Reflection=



In recent years we have seen a sudden change in the way the Internet is being viewed. Computers have gotten more powerful, cheaper and therefore much more widely used; and the Internet itself has grown from approximately 45 million global users in 1996 to over 1 Billion global users in 2006. With the launching of [|Web 2.0,] the Internet changed from a platform filled with text only web pages, to an interactive reading and writing experience. As we continue to expand our knowledge on how to incorporate this ever-changing interface into our lives many ask how the Internet will affect the current educational system. This quarter I was fortunate enough to take an educational studies course dealing with how technology can impact the current student – teacher model. In this paper I will reflect on my experiences as an online mentor and offer my opinion on the future of online education. The school that I worked with throughout my experience as a mentor was [|High Tech High] an online school based out of San Diego CA. While some online schools have classes made up of students around the country HTH is composed entirely of students who live in San Diego County. It is important to note that HTH like many online schools is a fully accredited High School and students who graduate from here have a perfectly respectable diploma and the option to attend higher education following their graduation. In fact, the only difference between HTH and the other High Schools in San Diego County is the fact that most of the time HTH students only interact with their teachers face to face once a week. The rest of the interaction is done online through communication. At HTH the online communication fostered between students, their teachers, and their classmates was accomplished through [|Ning], which is a Social Networking site that allows users to create their own social networks. The administrations at High Tech High set up a social network for the school that only school officials and students have access to. The fact that HTH uses a social networking site as its main means of communication is a surprisingly effective solution. I used to work for a non-profit organization that offered online tutoring to students through a Virtual White-board application and instant messaging all in real time. What resulted was useful to some point, but overall became frustrating and felt like a poor imitation of a traditional classroom setting. HTH leaps over this boundary by refusing to simulate a traditional classroom setting at all, the main component behind this idea is the fact that the students are not forced to work in real time. On Ning the students are free to work on their projects at will, every so often posting any updates. Similarly the teachers will drop by and post comments on the work in order to check out the student’s progress. This gives the students a chance to work at their own pace while at the same time providing more one on one interaction between students and teachers as the teachers leave personalized comments throughout the projects lifetime. While this might sound like a large departure from traditional High School level learning this approach is remarkably similar to how we learn in college. In college students meet with their professor once a week, sit and absorb a lot of facts in one sitting with little to no direct interaction and then complete their project by the deadline imposed by the professor. In this light I believe that HTH students will be more prepared for college than their counterparts. While mentoring, I only encountered one glaring problem with the online model. I was assigned three groups to help with a science project and one group refused to respond to my comments and questions. I tried posting multiple comments, but could not get a response out of them. I suppose in the real world it might be easier to get this students attention and see what is going on with the project, but this could be combated if I was able to see them once a week like their teachers did. Overall I can see many pro’s of having an online learning system especially being able to offer better resources and other options for high school students who are home schooled or live in rural or inner-city areas with questionable school quality. I can definitely see a shift in the recent years as more students and parents become acclimated to the idea of attending school online.

Links to my other pages

 * Main Page
 * Web 2.0 Tools
 * Big Shift Paper