• Job Opening @ Virtually Scholastic

    28Aug
    Categories: Educational Technology Comments: 0

    Position: Writer
    Location:     Anywhere

    Description: Are you involved in the world of educational technology? Studying or teaching online? Developing elearning strategies for your institution and putting together blended learning curricula? Or perhaps you’re training people on how to make the most of a particular technology and writing up online learning materials? And don’t think I’ve forgotten about all you learning management system/virtual learning environment administrators! If you fall into any or all of these categories, (or one that I’ve missed) and you’re interested in writing about your colorful experiences, then you’ve come to the right place!

    Virtually Scholastic is opening its digital doors to guest contributors who know how to wrap timely messages in witty packages. This is a perfect opportunity for writers interested in expanding their readership and amplifying their virtual voice. It’s also a wonderful chance for those of you who’ve been thinking about starting a blog but who aren’t really sure whether to make the investment just yet. Virtually Scholastic has been around since 2008 and has cultivated a loyal following from places around the world like the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Italy, the Philippines, India, Spain, China and Russia.

    If you know how to speak to a global community of practitioners (or aren’t exactly sure what that really means but would still like to have a go), then here are the steps to follow:

    1. Read through some of the content at http://www.virtuallyscholastic.com to get a feel for the tone and the nature of the material.
    2. Write what you propose to be the next post to be published on the site. Make it timely, fill it with interesting links, and remember to include a poignant message. Also remember to include one image along with source to accompany your writing.
    3. Email your article to contact {at} virtuallyscholastic {dot} com along with a brief introduction to yourself and your work.

    Guest contributors will be asked to write between one to two articles a month. Biographies of contributors will be featured on the site once three pieces have been published. Writers will also be expected to monitor discussions of their posts once comments start coming in, as well as to post occasional commentary to other VS posts.

    I look forward to reading your work!

  • Online learning a contingency?

    20Aug
    Categories: Education Comments: 0

    The Chronicle just wrote a piece about Northern Virginia Community College and how the school has incorporated online teaching into its emergency plan (i.e. teach online when natural disaster strikes).

    It’s great that this institution is setting a minimum level at which teachers are required to be trained in the use of some technologies, and even greater that training is being provided. However, if the motivation is to get courses online fast in case a disaster strikes sooner rather than later, it makes me wonder how thoroughly sound pedagogical principles are being considered. If they aren’t high on the agenda, then what we have here is an all too common scenario in which face-to-face courses are just being ‘transferred online’. Translation: weekly PowerPoint presentations, a few handouts, some links and maybe a room change announcement are all that students are going to get out of their virtual learning experience.

    I’m just not grasping the logic here. Why do we have to have an emergency before we start considering the benefits of online learning? I suppose that one good thing to come out of this type of practice is that it’s getting people to rethink the way that they can deliver their courses, but who is to say that an Internet connection or even a power source will be accessible in a natural disaster?!

    I suppose that sometimes…it takes the perception of necessity to get us to embrace change…or, at least to start thinking about how that embrace would look.

  • My affair with online learning

    15Jun
    Categories: Education, Technology Comments: 2

    Online learning and I have had an interesting relationship over the years...

    We’ve been monogamous…
    I have studied online as a full-time student.

    We’ve seen other people…
    I have completed additional specialist training (also done online) in online language instruction while still wearing the hat of the part-time online graduate student.

    We’ve taken a break…
    As with many professional development endeavors, they eventually lead to promotions. Mine did, but along with more money and a longer title, it also came with more work!! As a result, I had to take a break from my studies and trust that when the time was right, we would pick up where we left off.

    We’ve had a long distance relationship…
    During the time that I’ve been working on completing my MA in Online and Distance Education (a three-year part-time degree) I’ve lived in 7 different cities spanning 4 countries. If it wasn’t for the technology, I would have had to choose between my studies, which are both personally and professionally very important to me, and the numerous other aspects of my life.

    I hope that a few things have emerged from this little blurb. One is that learning is a lifelong process, and sometimes it can feel like a love/hate relationship. But as with all relationships, they’re only as good as you make them! The second thing that I hope translates is that online learning (whether it be fully online or mixed in with a bit of face-to-face instruction) is a flexible approach to developing your knowledge and skills. And the third aspect of online learning, and the one that is probably the most fundamentally important to me, is its ability to seamlessly connect you to a border-less world.

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