Pamela Gustafson's Archive
Online college education has opened a whole new world for me. It has helped me to achieve status as a knowledgeable 21st century teacher, and people who I work with look to me for answers about online education and technology integration. Many of the new teachers in middle school education have the tech skills that I have, but they are not yet able to apply their skills as effectively. The experience with 20th century teaching and students combined with my 21st century tech skills have served me well.
Since I am near retirement, my future job prospects are probably different from the normal 22-year-old college graduate. I want to work part time from home, and I think the online training will be helpful. I do know that online teaching jobs at the middle school level are scarce, and the few that are open are highly competitive. It is an emerging market, but I am confident of my readiness for new markets.
It will be highly unlikely that I take a class that isn’t online. I am used to scheduling my course work on my own terms. Online education allows me to work full time, tutor students part-time, and schedule my assignments on my own terms. I do operate from the vantage point of my first degree in 1975 being entirely on-site. At that point in time, computers and the online environment were merely science fiction.
I remember reading a fictionalized story about a man who programmed a computer (which took up a whole room) to write poetry for his wife. The computer ended up falling in love with the man’s wife and obsessively blew its circuits writing poetry. The story ended with the computer giving the man enough poems for a thousand years. Another science fiction story was about a man who discovered how to multiply in his head after years of delegating this tasks to computers. People had forgotten this skill, which I still teach today, after allowing computers to multiply for them.
Although these particular science fiction stories do not completely match the evolution of computers and their online connections, it is interesting to think about how I was educated in 1975 and how I am educated now. My education today would have been a great science fiction story in 1975.
Today my daughter told me she was taking three online classes so she can work almost full time this summer. She is doing this to graduate in December, four and ½ years after she started. While I am grateful financially that she is motivated to finish up; in the back of my mind I am wondering if she can handle the intensity of three online classes. She is quite organized so she has that in her favor, but I am not sure if she can handle the demands. She has taken an occasional online class with her on site classes, so she does have some idea of what she is getting into. Online classes require a lot of response, which is visible or invisible to the instructor. She tends to get overwhelmed and I am wondering if online classes condensed for a summer session might be too much for her. She did not inherit her mother’s need to stay busy.
If you work full time, online or on site classes, eat most of the free time you have after working an eight hour day. You need to have a lot of energy to do either types of college education. If you have children they still need a piece of your day too. The advantage of online classes is you can complete a lot of your assignments on the weekends before your assignment is due. If you are the first to post, you have the advantage of starting the discussion and understanding all the threads that follow.
Success in online classes belongs to those with a lot of energy and good organizational and time management skills. The ability to work ahead before the deadlines helps a lot in the online environment. If a student lacks these skills it will be difficult for them to achieve in the online environment.
At age 54 I am not in the market for an online degree. I am more interested in updating my skills, even as I edge toward age 55, the first year I am eligible to retire from Wisconsin public education. In the spirit of keeping up to date I have enrolled in a five-course program to become certified as an e-learning educator. The courses are all available online from the University of Wisconsin—Stout, located in Menominee Wisconsin. I have looked nationally for a program, which would teach me how to teach online, and I found it in my own backyard. I pass by Menominee Wisconsin once or twice a year when I travel north to see my relatives. The first course is this summer.
I will take the courses one at a time as not to overwhelm myself, while teaching full time and tutoring students after school. Hopefully when I finish the sequence I can retire and make a living online. Online education has not quite evolved for students at the middle school level, but I want to be ready as the opportunity will be here soon.
The only thing I am concerned about now is paying for the courses while I finish paying for my daughter’s degree. She says she is going to be finished in December and I reminded her that after five years (this is 41/2 for her) I will not be contributing to her college education. It is a subtle form of “dangling the carrot” so hopefully she will finish and graduate debt free from college.
I have so enjoyed my online course work I can’t imagine anything should be changed. I blossom in the online environment. This is because the written discussion format gives me time to read, ponder, and formulate an intelligent and more complete response. Vocal discussions in on site classes do not offer the time to really research an answer.
When I assess the value of any of my classes I think of two things. The financial value and the value of the skills I obtained from the class.
The financial value has been tremendous. For each set of credits, beyond my bachelor’s degree I earned significant pay raises. These raises were cumulative and I was able to support my family.
Eventually, I did reach the top of the salary schedule, but did not lose interest in graduate classes. I started taking classes to improve my teaching skills or to stay up to date. As education goes more digital I am glad I have taken classes on the use of computers, or online classes using computers. Next year I will be required to use an online grade book, and I am not threatened or upset as some of my colleagues. I have prepared myself for the change and was ready long before my employer required me to use digital tools.
The online graduate classes offered a way for me to take classes, without having to juggle my time. I tend to take more classes because of the flexibility the online environment offers. The added bonus is I have learned to use more digital tools, as a result of these online classes. Whenever I take an online class I am always analyzing the tools and methods the professors use, to see if I can adapt them for my middle schools students. The value of online classes for me is greater than the on site classes. There is so much more practical application, as I turn to teaching in an online environment after being a student in the online environment.
Old dogs can and should learn new tricks. I have seen public school teachers retire or quit because they don’t want to change what they do, even if that change is better for the students, helps to communicate with parents, or is just more efficient. It is ironic that people, who are charged with educating today’s youth, don’t embrace learning something they need to learn to improve their job skills. Computers and the online environment are not a passing fad, which will go away. I am one dog who is invigorated by the online environment and its use in education.
There was only one online instructor who I met face to face. The other online instructors only had an email presence. Interestingly enough I felt closer to my online instructors than most of my other instructors.
My freshmen year at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire was not the best for me educationally. At the same time I arrived at college, the drinking age turned to 18 and businesses in Eau Claire capitalized on this new set of customers. I stayed up late, drank more than I should, and slept in the chair of my eight a.m. classes. I was appalled when I met my 8:00 a.m. instructor in the hall one day, and he said, “Hello Pam.” I was embarrassed that he knew my name since I habitually slept though his class. The next semester I did not schedule any eight o’clock classes and learned from this embarrassment. After this lesson I realized that sleeping was not the impression I wanted to make on my college teachers and sought them out to give a more favorable impression.
I made it a habit to have a personal meeting with all of my instructors over the years, especially those in large classes. I thought it was helpful for them to equate a face with a name. In hindsight I guess it was a subtle way for me to let them know that I really cared about my education. E-mail in online classes make contacts with college teachers a lot easier. There was no calling to set an appointment and no appointment to remember. You send the email and wait until the answer arrives. Most of my instructors were prompt to respond. Some of the responses turned into longer personal discussions and some did not. Online instructors can tell how much you care about education by looking at your written responses or lack of responses.
The online teacher also is not affected by the way a student looks and eliminates a lot of bias in grading assignments and the written discussions.
There is no chance of an online instructor seeing you sleeping in their class. Depending on your other commitments, you may be completing your online assignments when most everybody is sleeping,including the instructor.
I attended online classes with a local campus and online classes with a national campus. I found very little difference between the two. The online classes were a less intimate approach to getting an education. The tradeoff for less intimacy was more effective time management.
With the local university there was one on site meeting, to orientate the classmates to the online environment. Because I saw my classmates only once, I did not really remember them when the online part of the class commenced. I did establish an online relationship with the instructor and we talked about presenting together at a conference. That opportunity never materialized and after the class I had no other contact with her.
Interestingly enough I recently had contact with an instructor from a national campus, where I participated in two online classes. I enrolled in an online class this summer, starting a certificate to be certified as an instructor in e learning. This is at the University of Wisconsin–Stout, It is not really local, nor is it national. This instructor took a new position at this new University. I received an email from her and when I replied back I told her I remembered her from the national university. I don’t think she really remembered me, but this is normal when instructors have hundreds of students over the years. It does feel like it is a small world when you make a new contact with a former teacher.
The online environment has flattened the world, and now a lot of people are my neighbors and classmates digitally. There are local friends who I only see online. If we wanted to and had the time we could get together. At my age with my busy schedule, Internet platforms and email keep me in touch without committing more time. My online classes do the same, and have flattened the classroom to the whole world.
In the online platform Moodle, the icon for a discussion forum is two faces looking at each other. It is an interesting icon, as you may never see the faces of your online classmates; unless they post a picture in their profile. You don’t always know a lot about their personalities either, as many participants stick to the topic of the online assignment and don’t add a lot of voice to their writing. Occasionally, a controversial topic arises and then you start to read more passionate responses. The result, participants discover the personality behind of the writer.
A colleague of mine took her entire masters in an online program. She didn’t like the written environment for discussions. She said she missed the non-verbal types of communication, especially facial expressions, which add meaning to the spoken word. I didn’t have the same reaction, but I understand her point. There are a lot of non-verbal cues along with what a person is saying. The cues are helpful to understand the words of another person.
In education we have a concept we call “the hidden curriculum”. These are the things that students learn without direct instruction by the teacher. It is the social and emotional interactions amongst the students themselves. There isn’t as much hidden curriculum in the online environment. Social interactions are few and far between and are limited to an occasional personal email.
At 18 years of age I was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. I loved the hidden curriculum, the social interaction of the college environment. Away from the structure of my mother, I had to make my own decisions and take care of my own business. I knew she was there to pick me up if I fell, but I learned a lot through my new independence. During my master’s program I met a woman and we have been friends for 34 years. I haven’t made life long friends in the on line environment. It saddened me when my daughter, chose to live at home and not live on campus to experience the hidden curriculum of college. While it is a lot cheaper for me, I felt she missed out.
The online environment can’t duplicate this hidden curriculum. I suspect as college becomes more expensive in the current recession, more students will stay at home and more will use the online environment. It is today’s reality. This could be a good or bad trend. The good things are that as technology evolves more and more jobs will be at home using the on line environment. Students who have gone to school online will be especially well prepared for these jobs. The bad, no human interaction, no social interaction, no hidden curriculum.
Online assignments in my classes were very similar to the assignments given in on site classes. There was a great deal of reading and a great deal of discussion. The major difference is online discussions are in written form, and the on site discussions of course are verbal. There is a tendency for students in onsite classes to not say anything at all, and let the more verbal students dominate the discussion. My impression is these people did not read the assignment, and simply were unable to contribute to the discussion. This doesn’t happen in online discussions, as there is a requirement for all to contribute to discussions; as well as a record of the participation. However, I still get the impression that some students don’t read the assignments in depth. Their written response is more of an opinion rather than a response to the reading. They are not able to point out the “big ideas” in the readings.
The assignments beyond the readings were usually tasks to implement with my own students. I would teach or assess something my students did and write a short paper or response about the effectiveness of my teaching. Most of my graduate on line classes were project-based and did not require examinations. This is typical of education classes at the graduate level. College professors want to improve the skill of teachers and use more authentic assessment, instead of the rote memory of facts through examinations.
The classes I took online have basically just digitized reading and writing. I am hoping to find online classes, using the new real time communication tools offered on the Internet. Google Talk or Skype can used for video conferencing or an online lecture. The lectures can be viewed at the online participant’s convenience. Elluminate and Dim Dim provide a method for verbal discussions and could digitize small group work in on line classes. The possibilities for online education assignments are endless.
My online classes were scheduled like traditional classes. There were due dates and timelines. Timelines were scheduled for initial posts and for responses to the posts of others. There was a similar format in most of the classes, read something assigned by the instructor, post a response to the reading, and then reply to posts by other students. There was flexibility within a week, but generally not beyond a week. People did post past these due dates, but I am not sure how it affected their grade. In any class I consider late assignments a cardinal sin. I hate nagging my students for assignments, and would be quite embarrassed if someone had to nag me.
There was no requirement about the number of replies a student had to post during a discussion. This bothered me. Some posts would hit a nerve with other classmates and there would be many replies. Other posts would get no reply and the class visibly ignored the response. There would be a zero in the column titled “replies”, and every person in the class could see the zero. It bothered me that instructors would not watch for this, and formulate their own written reaction. I did my best within my busy life to respond to everyone’s post. At the least, I could ask a question if I did not understand the post or did not agree with the post. Cognitive conflict is a productive experience, and at the graduate level I find it stimulating to discuss different points of view.
I have never been a class that allowed me to pace myself. In a previous entry to this blog I mentioned a freshman psychology class at the University of Milwaukee utilizing this approach. Ever since reading the article I have thought about this class and I really want to try a class with a similar type of format working at my own pace. I envision a summer when I am off, getting through a class as quickly as I can and then spending the rest of my vacation doing the other things I need (or want) to do.
My son is taking two online classes while he interns in a town away from his university. He worked ahead to decrease the workload during his busy internship. which started a month into the semester. I am not sure if the class encouraged this, but he could easily save his work offline and post it when the instructor asked for it. I used this same strategy when a just for pleasure trip magnetically pulled me away from my online class commitment. I stored the class work in a web based email attachment and posted far away from my home. Where I go, my online classes follow.
Posted by Pamela Gustafson on February 23rd, 2009
Hard copy was not common in any of my online classes. I did have to purchase two required reference books for the class “Integrating Technology into Reading”. These books were designed for teachers studying digital technology. I reviewed them but never really used them, and they are now obsolete and collecting dust on my basement bookshelf. I bought them at the infancy of the read/write web and much has happened since they were published. Books about technology become dinosaurs quickly!
There were other materials and equipment that made online education easier. A headset with combined earphones and microphone made online chats enjoyable. I could listen and speak, with my hands free to type or respond on a whiteboard. I was fortunate to have a combination scanner and printer, to scan and immediately upload copies of my student’s work, however I find scanning cumbersome and slow.
All the documents necessary for the class were linked to the web site where the class was hosted. Occasionally I would print them to read and study when I knew I was not going to be near a computer. I took the printed copies to the doctor’s office, since there could be a long wait. I could maximize my study time reading when I was forced to wait somewhere.
Many of my classes were nearly paperless. If I did use paper, it was not because my instructor required me to print something. I only used it to fill down time. I spent a lifetime using reams of paper in my college classes and in my own job as an elementary teacher. Currently, I have no desire to sift through piles of paper. My desks at home and school are cleaner, and I have ventured into uncharted territory, allowing my own students to post material online in a paperless format. I scan which of my students have neglected to turn in their online word documents. They no longer have the comfort of waiting a day or two for my wrath! The trees in America are breathing a sigh of relief!
