Issue: CIPA/COPPA
The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) are laws that impact how the internet can be used in educational institutions. CIPA requires institutions receiving federal funding to have internet filters in place, intending to reduce children's exposure to pornographic content. Considering the average age boys are first exposed to pornography is 11 years old, it seems like a very significant law. With this law however come issues of censorship - is it a violation of rights to censor material? And how is this law best enforced? Even more, what about the opportunity to use sites often blocked to teach critical thinking skills to discern truly obscene/pornographic from valuable content? Sometimes useful sites are blocked for reasons that are less than great.
COPPA basically limits the collection of information on internet users under 13 and requires certain privacy measures be taken for those users and describes under what circumstances parental consent must be obtained. It limits/sets guidelines for obtaining or collecting personal information about those under 13, so companies can't just be getting information from kids without their parents' awareness. Currently, schools or districts are able to decide which sites require parent permission and which sites the school/faculty permission is sufficient.
An internesting site with games teaching about internet safety is Web Wise Kids. I think this would be a very engaging way to teach students about internet safety, covering issues of sexuality as well as privacy.
Trend: Virtual Schooling
Online classes and schools (there are 27 online schools in the US) are becoming more common/prevalent. They offer the chance for students to take courses that aren't otherwise offered in their area. A danger of this trend is that sometimes online learning can be a "sit and get" model, where students don't contribute or create much. In addition to offering access to otherwise unavailable courses, online education offers a lot of autonomy to students and creates a way for at-risk students to achieve higher than they would at a regular school available to them.
I'm interested in this concept as a learner but not so much as a teacher. I don't know if I would like not getting face-to-face contact with my students. Although I suppose that's what video conferencing is for. As a learner I think it would be really exciting to have access to courses I wouldn't otherwise have access to. Throughout college, I've often said I could get my college education on Google haha.
I'm not sure how well it would work for science classes. The content knowledge obtained would be the same, but the limit would be access to lab materials and equipment. That's something you can't get in an online course. Learning scientific techniques/methods would also be very limited, as you can't be present with a student and watch her titrate and make sure she's doing it correctly - and she would never have access to a buret to do a titration in the first place if the class was entirely online. So I guess I'm skeptical of its effectiveness for science courses, particularly in terms of practical skills (labs).
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI'm quite interested in the trend you've posted about; virtual schooling. I agree with all of your thoughts and feelings on the subject of virtual schooling as well, both from the teacher and student perspective. I wouldn't enjoy teaching at all without the constant, and informative, face-to-face interactions with my students. That is why I went into teaching, to make those connections with students that result in their best learning. But I realize virtual conferences help with that argument against this issue, I just don't feel that occasional online conferencing is as meaningful as real-life interactions. This opinion fluctuates though when it comes to grade level. If I one day teach a college-level course, I don't see as much concern with having an online class that meets occasionally as our EDT class has; most college students have honed in on their learning practices and what works for them in regards to retaining material meaningfully. When it comes to students in a K-12 class this isn't commonly the case, so the teacher's presence is essential in students developing an understanding of how they best learn. This is done by learners being exposed to different practices that their instructors introduce to them throughout their primary schooling. Lastly, I completely agree with your assessment of scientific instruction not working when received virtually due to a lack of access to certain lab materials that are essential to the field. My content area on the other hand, social studies, is very doable virtually, yet ineffective in that students need exposure to perspective when exposed to the different aspects of the social studies (politics, psychology, economics, history, etc.).
Social studies covers a vast amount of information that can be overwhelming to students when they navigate it individually, at any grade level. I'm a seasoned social studies major and struggle at times with retaining material via online sources (i.e. articles, and videos) due to the lack of activity associated with the learning. Thus, I wouldn't recommend teaching social studies virtually. Students, unless they hold a high interest level (most do not in regards to this field), will not retain the information they access online because it is given to them in a superficial way that lacks meaning to them. This is opposed to sitting in a classroom with an instructor who has the ability to teach social studies in engaging and meaningful ways, and expose students to a variety of perspectives that are important to understanding social studies material. For example, would one prefer to learn about WWI by reading a variety of articles on it and watching a couple of in-depth documentaries, or by listening to a passionate educator tell a story about the Great War that first shook the world. Most students of all ages would prefer the latter, I know that that type of exposure to the social studies is what sparked my own passion for it.
Overall, I think virtual schooling has a limited place in the field of education. Those experienced, college-level students benefit from it for the reasons I've given above, but for those K-12 students I feel face-to-face learning is more meaningful and effective.
-Kendra B.
Yeah, it's really interesting how different it can be with different content areas. And I think you put into words really well how I felt about the inability to form a connection in virtual school - that is why I want to go into teaching, for the opportunity to have a positive influence on kids lives.
DeleteTo play devil's advocate, I do have to say I would honestly love watching videos and reading articles to learn about a social studies thing and might prefer that to listening to a lecture, just because it offers a little more autonomy/choice, since you have control of when you watch the videos. So I think it probably depends on the student, how they prefer to learn. (:
-Michelle
I strongly agree with your opinion about how you need to carefully decide the grade level you allow students to take classes online. The one thing I may say is do you not think that a high school senior or junior are capable of succeeding in classes? By the time they are that age they typically have also mastered (at least sufficiently) their study and learning skills. The high school I attended offered online classes for the last two years of high school and many students jumped at the opportunity. I would say that it would be appropriate for them as long as they have shown responsibility in their other classes and are overall successful at school
DeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand your point of view concerning how you would prefer a video or reading an article to having to listen to a history lesson; a lot of students would also have that preference. I guess I was thinking more about my personal experience with social studies courses and how I preferred to learn in those classes. Knowing there will be students like you and I in my future class, I would definitely make use of both meaningful in-class lectures and videos, articles, and so forth; this way more of my students will be able to access the material in the ways that work best for them.
Abby,
I completely agree with you in that a junior or senior high school student could be successful with virtual schooling if they have shown responsibility in other classes and have been generally successful in school. The only thing I worry about in a high school setting where virtual schooling is present are those students who may simply do what is expected of them without taking any meaning away from what they have done, and thus, losing the material in the long-run. That isn't to say all high school students who partake in virtual schooling would have this happen, but it's a possibility that disheartens me as an educator I guess.