After reading this chapter the three forms of internet capability that I believe best apply to this class are The ability to find and create lesson plans, Videoconferencing, and online learning. These three internet based tools make it easier for students and teachers to learn both in and outside of the classroom setting.
Creating lesson plans for the year is supposed to be a very stressful and time consuming task. Every lesson has to be planned out ahead of time so that the teacher can be on task each day. Luckily there are many websites that provide lesson plan templates, ideas, and even teacher blogs to share ideas that were successful in their own classrooms. I think this is great and extremely helpful for teachers. For lesson planning in Florida schools, you do need to know the Sunshine state standards for your lesson. Luckily you can also use CPALMS to find the standards for each grade, subject, and lesson. CPALMS also has lesson plans already made for some lessons. Internet access has become a necessary tool for creating lesson plans in today's day and age.
Videoconferencing is great for communicating between teachers and parents, and teachers and administrators. Videoconferencing can also allow teachers to add guest presentations that they may not have been able to add without this technology. Many times parents can't make it in to parent teacher conferences because of work schedules. Videoconferencing can allow teachers and parents to have their conference without interfering with the parents work schedule. I believe this could be an extremely useful tool.
Lastly Online learning, my personal favorite. Since I personally have to work two jobs in order to pay for college, I don't have the free time every week to go into multiple classes. Online learning allows me to get my work done when I am able to, but still attend college and be involved in my school. FSW has a great online presence and they offer almost every class in an online format. This is so helpful for people like me, or people who have children and can't leave them alone to go to class. This is also useful for younger students as well. Some children are home schooled either by choice or necessity and online learning allows these students to stay on track with other students in their grade level. My friend has a little brother with Asperger's syndrome. He attended public school for a few years but it proved too challenging for him. His mother decided to home school him using an online learning system and he has come so far in his education since then. Online learning can really help students to excel!
Overall these three tools are just a few of the amazing assets that the internet has to offer. From teachers having help lesson planning, and having the ability to video conference with any one you need to, to the ability for students to learn from the comfort of their homes, technology is incredible!
References:
Maloy, R. (2011). Fostering Online Learning with Educational Websites and Apps. In Transforming learning with new technologies (Second ed., pp. 132-144). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Tucker, Kayla (2015) http://flipquiz.me/u/kaytuck95/online-tools-for-teaching
Glad to see you mention positive experiences with online learning - love the example of your friend's brother and happy to hear it has been a good match for him. Ultimately, online learning is a very viable infrastructure for teaching and learning, but it is probably not well suited for those who can not schedule time / demonstrate self-discipline to prioritize and manage time needed for success. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and trying out FlipQuiz, too!
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