TPI Results

I’m not a teacher and never taught online/face-to-face in a formal setting, but the teaching perspective profile definitely revealed some interesting results that definitely make sense to me.

My dominant scoring categories are Nurturing (Effective teaching assumes that long-term, hard, persistent effort to achieve comes from the heart, not the head) and Apprenticeship (Effective teaching is a process of socializing students into new behavioral norms and ways of working), both tied at 37. I agree that Nurturing is my highest score because even when I tutored high school students as a big-sib in college, I was told that I encouraged their efforts while supporting them to try their very best. When a teacher helps the student feel capable and confidence, this will serve as a safe home base from which the student can continue learning. As a student myself, I am most motivated and productive when I feel like my learning efforts are supported by my teacher and he/she really cares about my well-being and learning needs. Once students can trust you as a teacher, it’s easier for them to make progress and achieve their learning goals.

My other scores are quite similar to each other, around 30-32 which probably means that most of the perspectives are equally important to me. My back-up perspectives are Transmission (Effective teaching requires a substantial commitment to the content or subject matter) and Developmental (Effective teaching must be planned and conducted 'from the learner's point of view). I often used real-world, concrete examples that are meaningful to the student to “bridge knowledge” and help illustrate mathematical concepts when I taught math so students can be able to transfer their new-found knowledge to other, related problems. I found that this strategy worked because the students were more likely to work hard when they focus on topics that they feel are worthwhile and relevant. Lastly, my recessive perspective is Social Reform (Effective teaching seeks to change society in substantive ways).

I think TPI results should be the same for face-to-face because their teaching style and values should be the same in any setting.

Week 4 Reflection

This week, in reviewing various excellent examples of instruction design, I was impressed by the high-quality online content that these online schools can offer. For example, FVS’s science class was interesting, interactive (between both student-student and student-teacher) and included many multimedia modes to deliver content. Students are allowed to explore science through everyday examples that can help them learn better to actively apply the knowledge when it comes to real world situations. Students acquire and retain information most effectively when material is relevant and presented in the context of real-life events and situations. They want to know how the concepts and principles they are learning affect them and often search for meaning by making connections between what they are learning in school and their own realities outside of the (virtual) classroom. Educators/course designers should make sure these real-life situations/goals are age appropriate and relevant to the knowledge of the learner group with attention to achieve the maximum effect.

Also, this is my first time learning about wet labs/virtual labs and I find this concept really innovative as it provides student with a complete set of genuine lab experience and students actually go into real world and collect data to write their reports. The multimedia modes allow students to also work on their own pace, referring to various lessons if they needed reinforcements or skip/advance to lessons if they want. Students are also forced to get creative in solving problems (or work collaboratively with partners) once the lab is started since the instructor is not physically there in the middle of the experiment.

Week 3 Reflection

I definitely learned a lot about online schools than I did the first week. Online schools are much advanced, wide-spread, and well-operated than I expected!

Tweet: If I were Choosing an Online School for my Child....

I just realized that I was one of the few that tweeted 140+ words instead of characters :P

so...here I go again. If I were choosing an online school for my child, I'll make sure the instructors are experienced with online education and there is good teacher-student communication and interaction!

If I was a student, I'd like to try interesting courses and have fun!

Week 2 Reflection

If I was choosing a school for my child, my main concerns would be what kind of help and support will my child receive and how can he/she succeed in an online course. The school should ensure that the students will understand that online learning is a very different educational medium, and assist the students to acquire the set of attributes that are needed to succeed in an online environment (ie. self-motivation, time-management, self discipline). Although students have more leeway to complete lessons at their own pace, the school should assist the students to budget their time to better understand and enjoy the course content. At the same time, the instructor should monitor student’s comprehension of the material, as well ll as his/her focus to learn and progress. Good communication between teacher and student is essential ingredient in the achievement of realist goals. Also, I would want to know how many students are in each course and how much attention can a teacher give to an individual student. The instructor is the focal point in the communication chain so it is important as a parent to be able to easily track student progress.

Week 1 Reflection

What I find most surprising this week was how data suggests that a significant 50 percent of high school courses will be delivered online by 2019 (Christensen, 2008). It is already evident that many schools, universities, education organizations are rushing to adopt the new student-centric online technology, but I had never imagined how rapidly technological innovations are evolving, and within a few more years that the world is likely to flip to a new education paradigm! Another interesting analogy from Virtual High Schools and Innovation in Pubic Education, is “Virtual schooling is driving the same sorts of transforming changes in public education as Apple’s iTunes have been producing in the way people collect and listen to music (Christensen, 2008).” The popularity of online schooling is without a question continue to increase, but it will take a lot of effort, patience, time and money from the learners, educators, and government, to fully maximize the ever-changing educational demands.

As we discussed the pros and cons of virtual schooling, my biggest question now remains to how learners and educators can fully maximize online discussions. As I mentioned in my rebuttal post to the advantages of asynchronous discussion, it is problematic that students can have the sense of being mentally disconnected from the group from a online environment. A student that does not feel connected with the class or instructor may lose motivation, interest and ultimately find that learning and retaining the material is nearly impossible. It is a hugely important question to address now, and I hope to get more promising solutions to answer my question in this semester!

About Me

Hi! My name is Tiffany Wang. This is my second semester in the Computing in Education program. After graduating from UCLA’s design and media arts program in 2002, I went to work in a variety of design roles in the educational toy/video game industry in California.

Here at TC, my goal is to learn how creative technologies can be applied to support learning and solve learning problems, as well as to gain a deeper understanding of how design influences the online experience, and extend my aesthetic senses. I also want to complement my academic interests in the learning and education fields with my practical desire to work on something which would have an impact on the world.

In addition, I am very much interested in online learning as a means of increasing equity between educational communities. Everyone uses social media, so educational tools and media should be similarly accessible and user friendly. I took one online class prior to signing up for this class and the experience, to my surprise was overall positive. The discussions were engaging and allowed the students to learn collaboratively.

Looking forward to discuss issues with everyone!