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The dangers of teaching online.

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Learning to Teach Online

UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales)

4.7 (256 ratings) | 29K Students Enrolled

Are you an educator? Have you ever wanted to understand more about how to design your class to make better use of educational technology – whether fully online or in blended contexts? Would you like to learn from those who have extensive practical experience with online technologies? The Learning to Teach Online (LTTO) MOOC will help you develop a working understanding of successful online teaching strategies that you can apply in your own practice. The course is based upon the multi award winning open educational resource developed by Dr Simon McIntyre and Karin Watson. Integrating online technologies into your teaching can be a challenging prospect, and it can be difficult to know how to approach it effectively for the benefit of both students and yourself. No one knows your own content and teaching strengths better than you, and the “one size fits all” formula doesn’t always suit everyone. No matter what type of technology you are interested in exploring or your level of experience, this course will help you draw on your teaching strengths and find the approach that is right for you, your students and your educational context. This course will guide you through your journey of understanding how online technologies can enhance your course design. You will have the opportunity to develop your understanding of effective online teaching practices and their relationship to the use of different technologies. You will also be encouraged to progressively design and reflect upon your own online learning activity, assessment or resource for use in your own class if you choose to undertake the course assignments.

Skills You'll Learn

Teaching, Online Learning, Evaluation, Planning

Reviews

4.7 (256 ratings)

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CM

Aug 09, 2017

A really interesting course for someone who is already teaching and wants to spice up the classroom or for someone who has absolutely no knowledge on online teaching.

KW

Nov 13, 2017

Well conceived and executed course. No hesitation in recommending it for those who wish to get a comprehensive understanding of online teaching!

From the lesson

Question and Answers

Simon and Negin answered the top questions asked of them in previously run versions of this course via video. Although from previous courses, the questions raised and the discussions that follow, are very relevant, and they may answer some questions that you have about the course. In the videos Simon and Negin, did reference learners' names and the week in the course, but this is not important in this version of the course. These Q&A videos have been collated according to their relevance to the Modules of the course.

How do you keep a teacher's presence in an online environment?3:55

The dangers of teaching online.4:09

What are the current main challenges about teaching online in your opinion?5:49

What do we do to recruit, motivate and retain teachers?4:44

What resistance do teachers have when they begin teaching online courses?6:57

Who can help if you are a trailblazer?4:14

Taught By

Associate Professor Simon McIntyre
Associate Dean Education
Dr Negin Mirriahi
Academic Developer, Learning and Teaching Unit (formerly)

Transcript

We have a really interesting question about the dangers of online teaching from Michael this week. And it's interesting in terms of it's all about access difficulties or what problems we might face when using online technologies- >> Right. >> For students, but the dangers in terms of am I going to distract them, am I putting them in a compromising situations, those kinds of things. So an interesting topic for debate. >> Yeah, absolutely it's a topic for debate. Well I think with anything in life yeah, there's some pros and cons to it, and I guess one of the examples that Michael had actually put into the question was for example if you're asking your students to go to a particular educational app, does that provide them with an additional opportunity to perhaps disengage with the learning and teaching and maybe do something else on their mobile phones, something like that. And I think that's when you really have to think about why you're choosing for them to use the technology in the first place. What are the benefits of that particular educational app? And essentially you're weighing the cons against the pro's. But also providing that environment for them to know that okay, they're not just going to the educational app but they need to do something about it, keeping them busy so they don't take the opportunity to text their friend, or look up their Facebook profile, or something like that. I mean, you can't control all of it, but- >> No, and that's just the point. I think this has always existed. It doesn't matter- >> Yeah. >> About the technology, theres' always been a more interesting book or a more interesting person sitting next to you. >> Of course, yes. >> Anything like that. So on the flip side of that, I might say what's wrong with sometimes being taken on an unexpected journey. So if at lecture a gives me a resource and I go and look at that with a piece of technology, YouTube was one example. I might find ten other really amazing things, and like you're saying, it's about how you weave that initial starting point for the idea into the larger framework of the course so that they know there's a point for looking etc. >> And, I suppose, well, yeah, there was a point for looking, and also making sure that they're engaged with the activity. >> Yeah. >> They see a reason, or a purpose for the activity, because, yeah, even if they go onto YouTube to look at a particular video, you want them to look at, they could be, very well, distracted with advertisements, or other types of stuff, other videos on YouTube. But it's really I guess making sure they understand why they're doing the activity in the first place making it as more authentic as possible or as meaningful to them as possible. >> Yeah, and another interesting aspect of this I think is overuse of technology. >> Yeah. >> And there are act of cultural dangers which I think someone else in the discussion referred to and there was another MOOC I think that discussed that but- >> Yeah. >> I know that some classes or some teachers are working in the faculty here, I know that if we try to introduce too many new pieces of tech too fast, that can cause a lot of angst and worry. >> Absolutely, yeah. It's better to start slow and steady, yeah. >> Start slowly and build confidence and capability, because obviously, too many things, things that the experience is too fragments and everybody gets a little bit discourage and a little bit sick of it and they go back to the old familiar way. >> Well they may think that's just about the technology. >> Yeah. >> And the students can think that too they might just think that it's the technologies are gimmick or it's just a novel tool and you just really want to get them to use a particular educational app unless they can actually see the purpose of how it relates to everything else in the course >> So basically make sure it relates. >> Goes back to the whole curriculum alignment kind of stuff. >> It does. >> [LAUGH] >> Sometimes there's nothing wrong in a little serendipitous discovery, so sometimes being distracted is a really good learning experience. And that's the power of the Internet. It connects so many different ideas. It's just finding that balance, I think. >> And you can actually build on that, too, and get your students to go and find related resources. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So obviously we can keep talking on this one for a while, but we might stop there, and it might be a good one to continue in the forums, for some people. >> Absolutely.

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