“Teaching Online Made Me a Better Teacher": Studying the Impact of Virtual Course Experiences on Teachers' Face-to-Face Practice.” By, M. D. Roblyer, Marclyn Porter, Talbot Bielefeldt, and Martha B. Donaldson http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ844209.pdf
I decided to read and review an article that I found on ERIC through the Shapiro Library’s EBSCOHOST. After searching for a while to find the perfect document to review I stumbled upon the article, “Teaching Online Made Me a Better Teacher": Studying the Impact of Virtual Course Experiences on Teachers' Face-to-Face Practice.” This article takes an in-depth look at how online instruction can help the classroom teacher better navigate through technology and still be able to deliver a lesson and a message to their students.
I was not aware that there were so many K-12 classrooms that took advantage of virtual learning but the article stated that, “that in 2004–2005, there were an estimated 506,950 technology-based distance education course enrollments in public school districts.” I found this statistic to amazing. I know that as a student on the university level, it is mandatory for most students to interact with the classroom and the instructor through the web, but I did not realize that it was this prevalent in the secondary educational world as well. It is a known fact that students at the secondary level do not always put 100% of their effort and thought into an in class discussion. Homework is not always completed in the best effort either. The article that I read for this blog stated, “In asynchronous discussions, students had more time to think about their discussions … (which) improved the depth and quality of responses.”
However, this article did not focus so much on the great impact that the technology had on student but on the teachers themselves. In a world where the majority of teachers in today’s classroom did not receive their education in a technologically advanced classroom, it is imperative that they learn through continuing education of some sort. By being an instructor through technological means, it not only strengthened their competency with the computer and all of its applications, but also made the teacher a more prominent figure in the real-life classroom.
I think that it is an exciting time to be studying education and learning how technology can be integrated into classroom to accommodate the 21st century students. It is also challenging as technology has grown in relevance in the current years, and it can be difficult to be at the same competency level as some student who have grown up in this era. The best educational tool for teachers is to gain personal experience and the article written by M. D. Roblyer, Marclyn Porter, Talbot Bielefeldt, and Martha B. Donaldson, makes that very evident.
Ciao, Jenna
