TxDLA Conference

TCEA Conference --DP

MONDAY----7 AM-----The morning started with a session for "newbies" that highlighted sessions that would be helpful and the iNACOL standards and resources. This was a good session since we are all new to this conference. They provide some good documents and information as to what iNACOL is all about and how it has grown over the years.

Susan Patrick gave an interesting opening which included information about online learning in the world. Interesting fact--- 100% of secondary schools in Singapore use blended and online instruction.

Interesting information about students entering college today. Excepts from the Beloit Mindset List... http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php Their world is quite different than the world in which many teachers grew up...

There have always been flat screen televisions.

Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.

They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.

Text has always been hyper.

They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.

They have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.

They have never used a card catalog to find a book.

American students have always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.

There has always been a Cartoon Network.

There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.

CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.

Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.

 Walked down one row of the vendor hall and found 2 resources for online content. We'll be able to login to a demo course and take a look around...

*****At the end of the row was a treasure--- something FREE, YEAH! Take a look at http://phet.colorado.edu for science simulations in elementary and secondary content. You can link to these or download the simulations and corresponding documents. You can also download the ENTIRE site for use on your computer. Great resource find.... :-)

I visited with several online content providers and found some good resources to share with all the teachers developing online courses. I'll have to visit more tomorrow.

The best part of the lunch was the student panel. I was impressed with the confidence of the young people who sat in front of the entire room of conference attendees and answered questions. They all (including a 5th grader!) spoke clearly and intelligently. Kelton school was represented very well. Students attend Texas Virtual School.

Going Virtual III! Effective Professional Development of K-12 Online Teachers---

This session dealt with the study of the effectiveness of professional development for online instructors. In their survey, open ended responses reflected concern of online teachers in the ranked order:

Someone mentioned using CBAs to check on students.... Content Based Assessment: The online teacher calls and visits with the student to see what they have learned... tell me about .....  Very effective to determine that the student actually understands the content and also they are doing the work. 

Using Live Sessions to Boost Student Attendance and Engagement

This session would have been more powerful had they been able to actually log on and show how it worked-- the internet was not working. Very good ideas for use of live sessions, though. 

Live sessions:

1. Help develop relationships
2. Increases positive feelings
3. Interactivity
4. Enjoyable learning
5. Tangible support
6. Are individualized

You can give bonus points for attendance.

Record and make available later with a password at the end so you can tell the students listened to the recording.

Have a "Power UP" session the first day of the course.

Send an invitation for the session.... ecards, audio file, email

Use a live session for one on one assessment

Give expectations up front and take away privileges as needed.

Give students a chance to demonstrate

Time management--- the most important open-ended comments

Student responsibility

Tech skills

Communication

Parental support

Isolation

Workload

Teacher/student ratio

Special needs

For new teachers... Isolation ranked the highest. Mentoring and frequent help sessions might be helpful.