Research Topic for Distance Ed.

I would like to know how distance education has effected or would effect the dropout rate for teenage parents.  First, I would search for schools that offer online education in place of homebound. I study the processes used by these schools and how it has effected the dropout rate. I would also interview current students and past students who participated in online courses.  I would interview teachers and administrators to determine how the courses were set up and get their thoughts on the effectiveness of the courses. Second, I would go to schools that do not offer online courses and study the procedures used for teenage parents. I would determine how effective their procedures were by interviewing students, teachers, and adminstrators. Finally, I would compare the schools dropout rates before implementing these procedures with the rates after procedures where implemented. I would then compare the changes in rates for the schools with online courses against  those for the schools without online courses. this would answer the question of,  how online courses effect the dropout rate for teenage parents?

Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web – New York Times

Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web – New York Times  I understand that Microsoft and Google  are commerical and want to provide the nubmer one searchengines, but I am glad to see that the libraries have join to form theAlliance inorder to allow everyone online access to their books and materials. If I am understanding correctly Google and Microsoft will also allow the Open Content Alliance to publish their books on their search engines.  Google and Microsoft are only restricting them to publish elsewhere online if they cover the costs for digitalizing the books.  I believe the only libraries agreeing to the terms set by Google and Microsoft are the ones that are unable to contribute to costs. I think all material should be available online to everyone no matter what search engine they use.

Kearsley–Research

In chapter 4 of Online Education, Kearsley discusses several studies involving online education. Kearsley focused on six areas of reasearch; Impact on Student Achievement, Evaluation of Web-based Courses, School-level Impact, The Nature of Class Interaction, Virtual Conferences, and Learning Communities. I found the research on school-level impact on pages 50 thru 53 of most interest. For this area Kearsley discussed the Co-Nect project and the results of this research.  The  Co-Nect project was designed to implement technology in all schools system around the country.  Some results of the project have shown that ,many of the schools developed have shown steady improvements in all subject areas on testing and fewer student behavior and disciplinary problems. 

Another study discussed by Kearsley involing school-level impact was the study conducted by the SRI for the U.S. Department of Education, Technology and Educational Reform.  Nine schools across the U.S. participated in the study, these schools varied from “at risk” to “model” or magnet schools. All schoools shown increased test scores, but the teachers felt that technology was not the only factor involved with the increase. Although, teachers and students did attribute technology(mainly on line classes) with improved communication, reading,  and writing skills, with student involvement and interaction., improved problem solving ability, improved attendance, and finally reduced dropout rates.

The final studies discussed involving school-level imapct were the Boulder Valley Internet project in 1997 and the Living Schoolbook project in 1996. These studies were mainly an infusion of computers and other technology into local schools.  The Boulder Valley Internet project injected technology expertise into the school system by training teachers. The Living Schoolbook project was introduced withsome turmoil but the results were successful computer use. 

It is clear that all these studies have shown improvements within the schools that participated due to technology.  I see how online classes would help improve learning, class interaction and even reduce dropout rates. Students who are unable to attend regular classes due to illness or other family situations would not be forced to dropout if they were given the opportunity of taking online classes. Sometimes events happen where students are forced to miss school and get behind in their studies, this becomes overwhelming for them so they dropout, online classes would reduce this, if not prevent it all together.

Students are already familiar with expressing themselves online through chat rooms, online classes utilizes this form of expression for class discussion. Students would feel more comfortable discussing topics in this format with their peers. Therefore, increasing theirclass participation and interest in learning.

Research – What Type of Teacher are You? « Remonzer’s Weblog

Research – What Type of Teacher are You? « Remonzer’s Weblog I believe if a teacher does not put forth an effort to continue their education and provide new ideas to the students then that teacher has failed his/her students. It is  teachers’ responsiblity to their to provide them with updated tools and learning experiences. Any teacher who does not fullfill this obligation will have students that are not as successful as the teachers who do. So in the best intesert of the students, teachers should do their best to stay informed.

Final Project

 I plan to do a tutorial on creating and modifying HTML.  I am going to create a webpage for the tutorial. Anyone needing to use a webpage for either personal or business use, will benefit from this tuturial, but my main audience will be high school students for resumes and so forth. I choose this project because I had to create a webpage in one of my classes in college and really enjoyed it and I think this would be a fun and useful project for my future students. to ensure that the tutorial is useful I will get feedback from my students to determine how helpful the tutorial was in creating their pages.

phaedrus » Blog Archive » Four Levels of Online Courses

phaedrus » Blog Archive » Four Levels of Online Courses I have to agree with Joe that this class is either a level four or very close. Although, as far as the level one classes, I think very little learning takes place students just go through the steps. They may memorize a few things but I think the success for real learning is not present. Same goes for the level two. I do feel that learnign would take place in level three and four, mainly because they are not relying on present answers but searching and finding them. I do feel grading and teaching would be more difficult.

phaedrus » Blog Archive » Research Asks Questions

phaedrus » Blog Archive » Research Asks Questions I agree, although I must admit I never thought of Research as asking questions more towards answering the questions that I have. i am a person who does question everything, I am repeatly saying that I am not a mindless robot. I want to know why, how when and so forth. i teach the same to my kids. If everyone takes everything as is and does not question then there will never be change or anything new. I am have not competely changed my mind about research being the means to answers for the moment, til new questions and research provide different or new answers.

Interesting Numbers « Life Would Be More Interesting If Everyone Was Animated!

Interesting Numbers « Life Would Be More Interesting If Everyone Was Animated! I also read this article and it left me with questions. Such as what are they really saying? I don’t think they know. The fact that it ended with more research was needed said more than the whole article. I think the research should’ve been done before the article was written.

Goals and Objectives

I believe every teacher starts a class with goals and objectives in mind.  Some designed by them others designed by the adminstration. It is the teacher’s responsiblility to join their goals with the stated objectives. I think it doesn’t matter the type of course, whether it be in a classroom or on line. Evryone starts a class with goals and objectives, includig the student. How these goals and objectives are met depends on the interaction of the teacher and student. By this I mean students will try harder for someone who they think has their best interest at heart. Some students do not feel they way towards their teachers and vise versa. Does an online class hinder this interaction, before this class I would have said yes. This is not my first on line class, but it is the first on line class where I have felt the instructor wants us to learn and wants us to take this back to our classrooms.    Dr. Lowell stated in one of his response to Traci that we have learned more than we realize in the few weeks that we have been in this chaos. I agree I have learned some much, granted I am not sure how to apply all that I have learned yet. I have grown comfortable using tools I never even knew about before this class, that in itself is an accomplishment.  So, no I do not feel being on line effects goals and objectives, I think the teacher and student effect the goals and objectives.

Global effects on Evaluation

I do not think there are any global effects on what or how we evaluate our students. I do think he tools in which we evaluate our students have been and ctinue to be effected by the www. We could to assess and evaluate the same materials and learning criteria but we are changing the way we evaulate. These changes are due to the new tools presented by www.