Good intentions gone awry
Here is a recent article that I found very interesting. The State Board of Education in Michigan recently approved a new graduation requirement for high school students: Every student must take at least one on-line course before receiving a diploma. The reasoning they use is that colleges and jobs are becoming more technology-focused and they want to make sure students are prepared.
Good intentions, wrong course of action. Let me provide two reasons:
1) I have taught several on-line courses, and my expectation is that students come into the course with a basic understanding on how to use technology. The platform we use (Blackboard) takes care of the rest. Prior experience taking an on-line course is certainly not required. What would be helpful, for both on-line and 'traditional' classroom students, is: understanding how to attach documents to e-mails; how to use footers, headers, and footnotes in documents; how to decipher between quality websites and those that are not; proper on-line etiquette; how to use Powerpoint, Excel, and Word both individually and as an integrated whole; and the like.
2) There is something that is always missing from on-line courses: a sense of community, and a genuine depth of discussion. While there are certainly good discussions that take place in an on-line course, rarely, if at all, have discussions gotten as far as they would in a traditional classroom. Perhaps this is because of my lack of abilities in teaching on-line. But it is always harder to form a true dialogue/argument when people are logging in at various times throughout the day.
What should the State Board be requiring? A specific set of abilities, such as those mentioned above, that each student must prove they have mastered prior to graduation. If the State Board were to survey college professors I think they would obtain a great list of requirements that can, and should, be taught in a traditional computer course. I don't know of any colleagues, even those who frequently teach courses on-line, who would argue that taking an on-line course in high school would contribute to the success of students in college on-line courses.
Seeking input and listening to those who will be hiring high school students, or admitting them into their college or university, would have been the prudent thing to do and provide a good example of servant-leadership in action. Anyone want to venture a guess as to whether the State Board of Education in Michigan did this?
Good intentions, wrong course of action. Let me provide two reasons:
1) I have taught several on-line courses, and my expectation is that students come into the course with a basic understanding on how to use technology. The platform we use (Blackboard) takes care of the rest. Prior experience taking an on-line course is certainly not required. What would be helpful, for both on-line and 'traditional' classroom students, is: understanding how to attach documents to e-mails; how to use footers, headers, and footnotes in documents; how to decipher between quality websites and those that are not; proper on-line etiquette; how to use Powerpoint, Excel, and Word both individually and as an integrated whole; and the like.
2) There is something that is always missing from on-line courses: a sense of community, and a genuine depth of discussion. While there are certainly good discussions that take place in an on-line course, rarely, if at all, have discussions gotten as far as they would in a traditional classroom. Perhaps this is because of my lack of abilities in teaching on-line. But it is always harder to form a true dialogue/argument when people are logging in at various times throughout the day.
What should the State Board be requiring? A specific set of abilities, such as those mentioned above, that each student must prove they have mastered prior to graduation. If the State Board were to survey college professors I think they would obtain a great list of requirements that can, and should, be taught in a traditional computer course. I don't know of any colleagues, even those who frequently teach courses on-line, who would argue that taking an on-line course in high school would contribute to the success of students in college on-line courses.
Seeking input and listening to those who will be hiring high school students, or admitting them into their college or university, would have been the prudent thing to do and provide a good example of servant-leadership in action. Anyone want to venture a guess as to whether the State Board of Education in Michigan did this?
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