What are the pro's and con's of online teaching and learning?

What most attracts me to online teaching and learning is the freedom there. I will be able to teach the way I want, using the content that I want. This would be an amazing opportunity. Especially now that I am teaching this wonderful 12th grade mathematics class called, Advanced Mathematical Decision Making. I am pushing my students to answer questions like the following: You need to fill up your car that gets 27 mpg and has a 17.1 gallon tank. There is a gas station 5.3 miles from your house. The price for regular unleaded is $3.91 per gallon. The gas station that is .62 miles from your house has regular unleaded at $3.85 per gallon. Assume you are filling up from zero. Mathematically prove whether or not it is worth it to drive to the cheaper gas station. Also, how long does it take you to get there if your average speed is 45 mph? What does the savings have to be to warrant a drive of that duration? Is that amount of savings realistic?

This was literally the first problem which my students saw and it took an entire week, but not only did we solve it, but came up with a general formula which all drivers can use to answer the question, “Is it worth it to drive to that cheaper gas station?” If this had been an online class, much of the students unwillingness to work would have been averted, because as I said before, they decide when to engage the content, not a cookie cutter bell schedule, that rings no matter how great a class is going and will not ring early, even if a student is burned out.

I am excited about teaching online, because the self-reliance and autonomy is implied and inherent in the very nature of online learning. Not to say that there is no interaction at all, but as I respond to this prompt it is just me and my orchid relaxing on a Friday night. I cannot express to my students enough about the importance of personal accountability, which has been wickedly and foolishly wrenched from their hands.

Seeing the way that they are no longer held accountable in the six years I have taught in GA is sometimes disheartening, but I admit, that I can and should communicate more with parents.

Getting back to the topic, of course the convenience of online learning is wonderful, especially now that gas is almost $4 a gallon where I live.

It is a blessing to be able to secure a high quality accredited and challenging education at your convenience. It is a wonderful time to live in, and the future of technology is poised for even greater things. I never would have imagined that it would be some much information, so easily available. I literally can't get enough.

I actually believe and have told my students in no uncertain terms, that I believe that youtube's mathematical instructional videos will honestly put me out of a job, because when you have a student willing and determined to learn combined with solid instruction, you have success on the horizon. Truly, I don't see how everyone doesn't have A's, which is why my research project is going to attempt to ascertain, why struggling students don't take advantage of helpful mathematical instructional technology like they should in order to succeed.

However, honestly and personally, online teaching and learning is not all sunshine and rainbows. The amount of personal accountability is immense, whether student or instructor. For instance, the amount of free educational resources available via the internet is virtually unlimited, and failure truly is even more so a personal choice and an indicator of intensity and desire, than ever before. But on the instructor end, the behemoth of foresight is larger than life. To literally have to plan every single introduction, explanation, and application activity ahead of time, predicting questions, hang-ups, knowledge gaps, needs of over-achievers and more for an entire semester, before it even begins is more than daunting. But online instructors do it all the time. It's amazing. I personally am excited about the idea of such a worthy challenge and look forward to testing my academic clairvoyance.

What is my past online learning experience?

My past online learning experiences include two different periods and purposes. The first was the NIH training I undertook for my Master's degree thesis. During this process, you have to read over a series of power point slides and then answer questions about what you read after the end of several slides. This was not setup very well as the answers were basically regurgitation, though. However, the end of the training was better designed, if I recall properly, there were a few actual application questions, where you had to apply what you read to a few research scenarios to determine whether proper informed consent was needed, whether informed consent was actually gained in relation to the amount of information divulged by the experimenter, and was the research was ethical or not. This was very beneficial and really helped to ensure that you actually understood and could apply the rules and guidelines you had read. The beauty of online learning is that the temporal freedom and intrinsic motivation is likely to be at higher level because the individual selects when he or she engages in the content as opposed to a immutable bell schedule. Since a learner picks when to begin and end work, the instructor has the flexibility to use the information from a real-world context, where analysis and processing takes a large amount of time. As a result, the quality of education can be much greater. Picture if you knew when each student was ready to learn and could be taught in that exact moment. What you could accomplish... This is not possible in a standard classroom, where the clock is the Mad Queen, and if you do not heed, “Off with your head”. The temporal freedom offered by online education is especially needed in mathematics, now that the Common Core Standards (CCS) are rolling out. CCS focuses on forcing a student to think critically and analyze situations, hyper-condensed word problems, which require heavy processing, addition of contextual and implied information, and synthesizing, high ideals on Bloom's Taxonomy. Such problems cannot be completed unless a student is able to have the time to understand, setup, and solve today's super-complex mathematics problems. Literally, my class is covering approximately one problem every few days. Though this will speed up later experience, this poses a great problem as the progress and momentum is lost daily and pacing guides must be obeyed. Online education allows for this. My second online learning experience has been at Georgia Southern. This would be the true online learning experience. And just as I previously stated, I have been able to tackle coursework at my convenience, but more importantly at my peak of interest, energy, and attention. The professors, while physically not there, through pictures, videos, and audio files helped us still get to know them. Literally, because of some of Dr. Green's feedback and in-depth bio, as well as Dr. Griffin's synchronous chat sessions, I actually feel as though I would recognize their voice, face, and possibly Dr. Green's hair, if I saw either in passing (don't quote me on that though, :-)). This connection is very important, as many educators know that many times a student works for you as a friend and mentor, and not always necessarily as a teacher. Dr. Kennedy has done this as well through our communication, because her personality has come through. So that it was not just communication solely for the sake of education, but also genuine humanitarian concern and encouragement from one educator, learner, and up-wardly progressing individual to another. It is a beautiful and powerful bond that must be made to motivate certain students, and excellent online teachers do that using the many wonderful and powerful online multimedia tools which are thankfully, free.