Kōrero Mai: Kaiako experiences of synchronous online teaching and learning in New Zealand

Online teaching and learning programmes allow ākonga who live in isolated areas, or who have differing learning requirements, to study by distance. Maintaining student engagement in the online environment is an important aspect. This article explores how kaiako (teachers) can engage their ākonga (students) better in online environments. The article has a particular emphasis on supporting Māori learners, who represent 25% of the New Zealand school population. Five kaiako were interviewed about their experience of teaching New Zealand secondary school students online. The study found that the kaiako had some awareness of bicultural values and practices, but lacked confidence in embedding it in their online teaching, which was limited to synchronous timetabled sessions with some communication by text and email. The time provided for online students was considerably less than for the secondary students in traditional classrooms

Suitability Review of Common Synchronous, Live Online-Classroom Tools

While virtual learning environments (VLEs) such as Moodle and WebCT are now ubiquitous in most higher education institutes, live synchronous virtual classroom software is merely gaining in popularity. The first online meeting tools were tailored towards business requirements for remotely held meetings rather than educational purposes. The recent expansion of virtual classroom tools specific to education has changed this. Such software offers the standard features of streamed voice and video, yet purposely provides an array of additional features specifically designed to conduct classes online. While VLEs work optimally as a compliment to standard courses, Virtual-classrooms such as Adobe Connect Pro and Elluminate have the potential to transform distance education beyond previous limitations. Since these tools are being used more and more within higher education, questions must be asked about how effective they ultimately can be in meeting learning requirements. More importantly, what are the best teaching and learning practices employed when conducting classes online in this way? This paper makes a comparative review of some of the most popular virtual-classroom tools in terms of what features they offer to educators and students in higher education. A list of criteria crucial to each of these tools is compiled and a selection of the most popular are reviewed according to how well they meet these requirements. Certain obstacles and restrictions that arise are discussed with a view to identify and overcome them. Furthermore, opportunities are explored as to how virtual-classrooms might actively enhance teaching and learning rather than merely simulating it on the web. Along with a specific review of technical features, some observations are made as to how general features of these tools, such as instant messaging, might be enhanced to suit proven pedagogies, such as problem based and collaborative learning

Strategies for successfully engaging all students in live synchronous online classes

A December 2016 study in Psychological Science found that residential students who bring laptops to class frequently use the Internet for nonacademic use, which results in lower class performance. Another study referenced in Fast Company in March 2016 noted that just knowing you have an unread email in your inbox can temporarily lower your IQ by 10 points. How, then, can we discourage students from browsing the Internet or looking at their email when they are attending class on their computer because the course is online? How can we keep their attention focused on the class? At Columbia University’s School of Social Work, we are in our second year of our fully online MSW program. Our courses are taught via weekly live classes hosted in Adobe Connect for 90-120 minutes and led by a course instructor with an associate facilitator and a technical support specialist. In order to engage our students in these classes, instructors use online tools and teaching strategies to make the class sessions interactive. This poster shares active learning tools and strategies for online classrooms. These include creative uses of typed chat, formal & informal polling, webcam, on-screen drawing, live note-taking pods, and breakout rooms. This poster draws from the presenter’s personal experience teaching the fall 2016 online course Macro Community Practice, as well as the following peer-reviewed chapter: Marquart, M., Fleming, M., Rosenthal, S., & Hibbert, M. (2016, March). Instructional Strategies for Synchronous Components of Online Courses. In S. D’Agustino (Ed.), Creating Teacher Immediacy in Online Learning Environments. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Thank you to the following online instructors for contributing quotes: Mashura Akilova, Johanna Baez, Beth Counselman-Carpenter, Amelia Ortega, John Robertson, and Steven Schinke

An exploration of the potential of Automatic Speech Recognition to assist and enable receptive communication in higher education

The potential use of Automatic Speech Recognition to assist receptive communication is explored. The opportunities and challenges that this technology presents students and staff to provide captioning of speech online or in classrooms for deaf or hard of hearing students and assist blind, visually impaired or dyslexic learners to read and search learning material more readily by augmenting synthetic speech with natural recorded real speech is also discussed and evaluated. The automatic provision of online lecture notes, synchronised with speech, enables staff and students to focus on learning and teaching issues, while also benefiting learners unable to attend the lecture or who find it difficult or impossible to take notes at the same time as listening, watching and thinking

Drawing on the Layers of a Partnership to Prepare Middle Level Teachers

The University of Midwest (UM) and the University of Metro Midwest (UMM) are located approximately 90 miles from each other in a central Midwestern state. They are the only two research-intensive institutions in the state, and both have middle level teacher education programs preparing candidates in school-embedded clinical sites. Both teacher preparation programs are guided by the requirements from accrediting bodies, AMLE Teacher Preparation Standards, (AMLE, 2012) and the missions of our institutions. In this essay, we will describe our collaborative partnership and how two teacher educators from two institutions utilize school-embedded clinical sites to connect and prepare middle level teacher candidates with the end goal of improved educational experiences for young adolescents through teachers prepared to teach them

Maintaining the Human Touch in Educational Leadership

It is a pleasure to be invited to contribute to this special edition of the TCPEA School Leadership Review. TCPEA has been a valuable organization for me as the relationships that have been fostered through it have enabled me to grow personally and professionally. This has led me to consider some of the issues that educational leaders are facing today and will continue to face in the years to come which are focused on the notion of how to effectively maintain human relationships. While few leaders agree on everything, there is no doubt that we all agree this is a complex time for our schools. My focus of this article is to consider three of the challenges before us to maintain the human touch in our profession: Identifying appropriate responses to the dilemmas that are occurring due to technology advances which include movement to hybrid/blended and fully on-line teaching venues, Establishing covenant communities in our diverse classrooms and beyond, and Nurturing our professional relationships as educational leaders. While these three topics might seem unrelated, I believe they all are connected to our shared humanity and all have the potential to develop or diminish the human touch