Readings of Week 12-13 Articles

Part 1:

I know that online classes, are individual learning plan for each student, it requires for cooperation from the parents especially in the lower grades. This program is great, because it teaches students right where they are, in addition the instructor differentiate his instructions to help achieve his students' potential in all of their courses according to their academic levels.  

The trend to of teaching “K-12 online learning” is expanding everywhere. I have heard about virtual and cyber schooling, but I never practice it myself or been exposed to some who is a part of this program. I do not know the exact details about the programs or platforms they are using, I think that these courses might be using the Blackboard, Moodle, Google classrooms or any other program that is designed by the school or district. I know that the online k-12 program is progressing continuously, I think the flexibility of the program allows variety of different kind of students to enroll.

Part 2:

                                                          Online Learning K-12

I got surprised when I learned that 53 million students were enrolled in public or private K-12 schools in the U.S in 2004. I never expostulated that the virtual school has begun as an independent-study high-school movement in 1920s. Video based distance education also has a long history. The first education television broadcast in 1933. I was right that on-line learning enrollments is a growing part of the K-12 distance education. I knew that virtual schools are a separate delivery system from traditional education. I never knew that online courses are for gifted and talented students only. I knew that virtual schools are about curriculum and instruction not about using technology, medium is utilized to strengthen instruction. I never heard that online courses represent an “add-on” to already burdened school systems and teachers, but I know that online education does not represent an “add-on.” It does represent an opportunity take advantage of online resources.

It is interesting to know that online charter schools and district-run online schools fall under the state accountability system and receive performance grades based on the state. It make sense that accountability system are not designed to measure online schools, because they have high rates of student mobility, meanwhile state accountability systems are meant to measure and report on how well schools are serving students, in ways that can be understood by policymakers, parents, students, and other stakeholders.

                            What is K12 Online Learning? Online Schools For Students Everywhere.

Week 7 Prompt

Post #2-

Judging the Quality of Wikis and Non-vetted Sites

When I need to search for anything, first thing comes to my mind is YouTube. I am a visual learner and I like to see to learn. I consider myself a fan of YouTube, the good thing about it that you can find many videos about the issue you are looking for and you can be selective. The second thing I do is surfing the web sites and of course I visit wiki to read a conclusion of the issue then I go back to the websites to expand in the subject.

I have used YouTube a lot in my classroom, I always chop my YouTube videos using (Tubechop.com), It is a very good site where I can select the part that I want to show, also there will be No advertisements on the side.

I have not used wiki before with my students; I guess because of my students’ age, but I have heard so many criticism about it, which made so careful when I read any information off wiki.

Wikipedia provides Internet users with millions of articles on a broad range of topics, and commonly ranks first in search engines. However, its reliability and credibility fall well short of the standards for a school paper. According to Wikipedia itself, “[W]hile some articles are of the highest quality of scholarship, others are admittedly complete rubbish. … use [Wikipedia] with an informed understanding of what it is and what it isn't.” to read more about this visit:

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/education/2010/march/The-Top-10-Reasons-Students-Cannot-Cite-or-Rely-on-Wikipedia.html

As educators, we strive to teach our students to be critical thinkers and to evaluate the information they are presented with. We urge them to analyze and to assess. Read another article of “Why should we teach with Wikipedia?”

http://www.hastac.org/blogs/wadewitz/2014/02/21/teaching-wikipedia-why-what-and-how

Here said, we have heard the two sides of should we use Wiki or not as a resource, the teacher have to believe in it to use it into its potential otherwise it will not work.

Using Wiki as a class project or assignment interaction does not apply in my opinion to the fear of using Wikipedia as a source of information. I will personally apply what I am learning in higher education into my classroom and take risks. Our job is to make sure that the students  understand the difference between wikipedia and other sources.

https://vimeo.com/61841112