Online learning has a great deal of potential.  Over the past two years, I have been working on my master’s degree by taking online courses.  In my experience, this type of learning is a good match with a motivated, independent learner.  Since I have always been an independent learner, online classes have been an excellent learning opportunity for me.  I enjoy reading and viewing materials on new topics and taking time to reflect on what the author is saying and how it impacts me as a teacher.  I was expecting this, and a good deal of the work in my degree has been this kind of independent learning.  One aspect of online courses that surprised me is the amount of collaboration with my peers. In the past, I have found that discussing new materials with my colleagues can help me gain new insights into the concepts by listening to different perspectives.  I was not aware of the variety of web tools available for interacting with others, so I was not expecting the amount of interaction available in online classes.  I have used forums, wikis, online chats, video conferencing, email, and websites designed for coauthoring documents in order to interact with my classmates.  Although I was not anticipating this kind of interaction in online courses, I found that it was just as valuable as my independent studies in gaining new learning.  As more interactive technologies are developed, this part of online learning will continue to be important.



To me, one of the most exciting aspects of online learning is the opportunities it can open to students and teachers in rural areas.  When I began my career, teachers in rural school districts, like mine, had very limited options for professional development.  We could form a study group with our colleagues, assuming they were interested in the same topics, or we could drive an hour or more to the nearest city for classes or conferences.  With Internet access now available in most schools and homes, teachers have many more options for professional development.  In addition to online degree programs, such as Michigan State’s Master of Arts in Education, there are online forums where teachers can discuss their practices, share ideas, and ask questions.  Many teachers share their experiences and lesson plan ideas on teacher blogs.  Some organizations offer online classes or tutorials for free or for a small cost.  There are websites devoted to lesson plans and even classroom organization. 



Online learning opens up new possibilities to students as well.  In the past, students were only able to take the classes offered by their high school.  In rural areas, this was often limited due to issues with resources and staff.  Now, students can take many classes online that can’t be offered on-site.  In my district, this has allowed many students to take a foreign language of their choice, even if we did not have a teacher of that language.  Students can take advanced math and science classes, as well as remedial classes for those at risk of not graduating on time.  Although at this time, online learning is limited to the high school in my district, I can see the potential for using it at younger grade levels as well.



A limitation of online learning can be the motivation of the student.  It seems to me that online learning works best for students who are motivated to learn the content.  Since public schooling involves teaching all students the content, I wonder what can be done about the students who are not as motivated.  In some ways, the technology itself can be motivating to students.  In my classroom, given a choice between playing a math game with cards, or playing the same math game on the computer, most of my students would choose the computer version.  I wonder, though, if this is just due to the novelty of using the computer for these tasks.  It would be important to make the online content interesting enough that students would stay motivated to learn, even after the novelty wears off.



I would like to use these insights into online learning in my future plans. Although I may not take formal classes again, I plan to incorporate some of the benefits of online learning in my future professional development.  I would like to take advantage of some of the teacher forums, blogs, and websites to share my experiences and learn from the experiences of others.  One of my major goals over the next couple of years is to integrate everything that I have learned in my degree program into my classroom practice.  Although I feel as though I have gained a lot of knowledge about teaching science, math, and literacy, I do not think I have had time to truly apply it to my everyday teaching.  My district has been using an interesting model for professional development over the past few years. Our administrators have been looking at professional development as having two phases – a learning phase and an application phase. In the learning phase, we examine a particular practice in education. In our case, it has been the use of formative assessment. We read and discuss materials about the topic, and experiment with it in our classroom. In the application phase, we integrate the new method into our regular teaching practice.  The past two years of earning my master’s degree have been an example of the learning phase.  I have learned many new ideas for teaching effectively.  In my classes, we were often asked to try a lesson or two, or a case study, using the new knowledge we gained in the course.  Now that I am completing my degree, it is time to move into the application phase of professional development. I would like to take the time to develop more units and lesson plans that apply the principles I have learned.  It is time to make these new methods an integral part of my teaching practice.  Once I have accomplished that, I will be ready to move on to a new learning phase.  There are so many topics that I am interested in learning more about that it will be difficult to choose!