Being that I'm a culinary teacher I feel that using a class structure like elluminate will only work for classes like sanitation or nutrition. Delivering information for classes like this is pretty much lecture. For high school students I feel that a class designed in this manner will be a huge challenge for most students, due to the fact that I feel they mainly need to physically see the instructor and utilizing more hands on techniques. But for a class that consist of mainly lecture it may work to the point that power points,group assignments and various whole class discussions will work because you can conduct a larger class size and possibly cover more information. I do feel that the challenges will out weigh the benefits when it come to high school students. Since you will not be standing in front of them you can't tell if they are really grasping the information being presented or if they are paying attention at all. For adults its great because with various schedules it makes it easier to jump online where ever you are when the class time start. Most teenagers are not that responsible to stop what they are doing to go and log in to an online class.
So all these things would have to be seriously considered before attempting some thing like this on a high school level. With so many distractions ( cell phones, television, ipod, etc) I feel that it would be easy for students to loose focus on what being taught. If this technique was used I know all activities would have to well structured and designed to hold the students attention. SO it would have to be something as a teacher you know they would enjoy for the duration of class. I would maybe have them teach portions of the lesson so they would have to be on point. Work on projects, create power points relevant to the lesson and maybe even design some games focused around the games shows we see on TV daily. This will make it much more interactive and maintain the students attention.
Me personally I enjoy our elluminate class when we work on group activities. It allows everyone an opportunity to participate in class because you basically have no other choice. I also really enjoy being able to be at home or work to complete class/assignments.
I agree with you, the breakout group sessions in the Elluminate class is my favorite part as well. Also, the instruction of lecture material is difficult enough for a high school student to sit through in a class room setting. To believe they would actually sit at home and follow along with you on Elluminate is hard for me to believe. They are to easily distracted in a structured classroom session. I do feel that Elluminate would be a valuable tool to a student who had become ill or had an accident of some kind limiting them from attending school for an extended length of time.
ReplyDeleteHi, Keio - you make several valid points in your post, while you and Kevin raise interesting questions concerning the independent focus of our high schoolers. Still, both of you added possible uses of Elluminate for our young students - very good.
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