I really enjoyed looking at the Khan Academy website. I found myself agreeing with a lot of what Khan was describing about how educations needs to be reformed. I personally have already used some of his videos on courses that I was struggling with, and I imagine I will continue to use them in the future. The videos were easy to follow and understand, which is why I even added the video series to my favorites on YouTube. I didn't know that Khan taught more than math as I had only watched his videos explaining math concepts.
After reading the article about the school that implemented Khan Academy videos as a learning tool in class, I found myself liking that Idea as well. I do like how some of the teachers had their students watch the videos at home so that they would have more time at school to practice problems and ask questions to the teacher. I think I would like to apply something similar to this when I eventually teach. I would try to almost never give my students homework other than reading or watching videos. The difference I would use though is that I would also teach them the content before they watched the videos.This would allow them to have more free time at home for whatever they wanted.
I do think learning is increasingly leaning towards online education. I don't ever think online education could replace traditional learning, however with the increase in the digital world, and the added convenience, and often affordability, of online learning, it will thrive. There are specific groups of people who tend to use online courses, mostly out of need, rather than wanting to be isolated. Because of that group of similar people, there will always be a large demand for online courses. It simplifies learning for many people, and as it becomes more popular, it will also become more respected.
When I looked at some of the classes offered at Coursera, I knew I would be very interested in finding classes about education and teaching. I found a course series that seems to be interesting and relevant to my field of study called the "Teach English Now!". Each one picks a different area of focus, but share a common theme of discovering ways to more efficiently teach English to students. This is particularly of interest to me because I had decided that if I had to chose two areas of focus in terms of teaching, it would be English and Science. This allows me to get more familiarized with teaching one of those subjects.
CSCC doesn't appear to accept classes offered at Coursera, as I was not able to find any proof that they do. In addition to that, CSCC has not yet partnered with Coursera, which would indicate that the school doesn't accept them. The courses offered at Coursera seem to be easier than my regular classes for a couple of reasons. As a general fact, you are able to take how many classes you want at a time on Coursera, but while in a University, you would have a minimum as to how many classes you must be enrolled in to receive financial aid. The problem with that is that because Universities tell you exactly how many classes to take and, in general, the specific subjects, students become more easily bored, as they are waking up early to take a class they aren't interested. While learning online, students can opt to only chose topics they are passionate about, leading to a better experience. Although I don't doubt that the instituters at Coursera make the classes just as challenging, it not more, than regular classes, but the benefits of taking the same course online outweigh the negative.
I believe that MOOCs will become more widespread, as there is also an increasing rate`of computer use, and there is still certain people who greatly benefit from taking courses at home. I think it will be too convenient to not become more widespread. Some people struggle from a lack of a social relationship with fellow students when they learn from home. Others take advantage of resources and events near where they go to school in order to fulfill the social aspect. Students who take MOOCs would likely find an increased desire to use technology to learn, rather than waiting on someone to give them the the attention they deserve while simultaneously teaching dozens or even a hundreds of students.
No comments:
Post a Comment