Ya know that horrendous saying "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach"? Being a teacher, I obviously disagree with this and like to put my own spin on it and say "Those who can, do; those who can do
everything, teach".
You have my permission to use that. I obviously can't do everything, but as an elementary teacher, I do feel as if I am tasked with preparing students for the future. I would like to think that this task can be done in the traditional classroom as well as in an online setting. Unfortunately I have discovered that online teaching is a lot more challenging than I originally thought.
There are a lot of reasons for online teachers feeling discouraged. Hawkins, Graham & Barbour identified three types of disconnection that online teachers experience: Disconnection from the students, from their traditional notions of what it meant to be a teacher and from fellow teachers. Sometimes teachers feel like performers.
It is our job to make the content interesting and exciting so that students are engaged and learning. This isn't the case in an online setting. Borup & Stevens found that teachers sometimes felt lost or separated from the content because they were not designing the curriculum. In some cases teachers were encouraged to modify the curriculum to make sure it was meeting standards, but teachers reported that some courses were not easily modified. However, because the curriculum is already designed, teachers reported having more time to focus on the individual student. And isn't that the reason we became teachers in the first place?
A major trend I found in a lot of the reading material was the fact that online teachers are not properly or thoroughly trained to be online teachers. Kossan & Raymon reported that few colleges make online teaching methods an integrated part of their teacher preparation programs. They also called online learning an "educational experiment", so maybe more colleges have gotten on board and realized that online learning is here to stay since they wrote the article. Hawkins, Graham & Barbour stated that too many teachers are expressing the fact they are receiving their training on the job. The old "learn by doing model" I suppose. It also does not seem to be a priority to provide professional development for current online teachers. In most situations, the training varies by school. The teachers who do receive professional development and training opportunities find it very beneficial (Borup & Stevens).
The biggest challenge that I see with online teaching is the disconnect between students and teachers. Teachers are crucial to student motivation within online courses (Hawkins, Graham, Barbour). They have to find new ways to build a rapport and relationships with their students and to interact with them. This can be difficult because teachers and students are not interacting face-to-face. Kristina Valles stated that making initial contact with her students at the beginning of the course via phone could make the difference between a student failing or passing a course. She said that once they are willing to speak to you, they'll be willing to ask for help. However, Borup & Stevens found that students sometimes ignored the invitations for these types of interactions and chose the text-based communications instead. Teachers must intentionally plan and integrate communication opportunities into the learning to create a sense of community and build relationships with their students. However, online teachers are expected to take on high course loads which can make it difficult to create relationships due to the large number of students (Borup & Stevens). These are all challenges that must be overcome to provide quality learning experiences for all students. I am up for the challenge.
