4368 research outputs found
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2021-04-20 (Western Howl)
Get PDFStudent newspaper includes campus, local and national news stories and photographs. For additional information about this collection see: http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/studentnewspapers
2021-05-18 (Western Howl)
Get PDFStudent newspaper includes campus, local and national news stories and photographs. For additional information about this collection see: http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/studentnewspapers
Adjusting Instruction to Enhance the Digital Classroom
Get PDFOne of the biggest questions asked of young educators is “How will you adjust your instruction to meet the needs of your students”? There is a plethora of ways to adjust instruction to best fit the needs of students. Differentiation is a term that is well known throughout most educational practice and pedagogy. Using assessment data to adjust instruction is another way to adjust for students. Even a student\u27s cultural values can be used to adjust instruction. While all these practices apply to traditional classrooms very well, what happens when the traditional classrooms are taken away? Obviously, life for teachers becomes a lot more challenging if there are no students in the desks of their classrooms. The term “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” applies in this situation. In this review I look at (among other things) how the tough got through the Covid-19 pandemic.
The creation of this action research project will highlight the challenges of distance learning. Moreover, what teachers can do to recreate the classroom for distance learning. The aforementioned research and pedagogy as it relates to teaching still hold tremendous value in the distance classroom. The application of those tenets only requires creativity and dedication to make the digital classroom one that bears those traditional tenets. I had the opportunity to see many great “tough” educators work during the pandemic, and I found them so inspirational in recreating their classes for the distance learning environment. The first two chapters highlight my own traditional beliefs and research about education. The focus shifts in the last three chapters to how that research and belief system translates to the distance classroom. Findings focused on how to connect with students, get through content, and grade student work in a pandemic
Teaching in the Dark: Increasing Student Engagement in Comprehensive Distance Learning
Get PDFThis project began as a desperate attempt to increase student engagement in my online classroom at the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic. I was having no success at convincing students to interact with me, with each other, and with the content. After turning to the literature for help I found extensive research on engagement strategies in online college classes, a plethora of engagement centered high leverage practices for traditional high school classrooms, and almost no research on increasing engagement in online high school classrooms. So, I decided to do the research myself. I started with the data on traditional high leverage practices and data proven university level online strategies. I then implemented these practices in my social studies classroom alongside social studies specific pedagogy. For a whole quarter I wrote formal lesson plans before instruction and journal reflections afterwards. I also recorded classes and high leverage practices using education technology.
After a thorough document analysis of my lesson plans, journals, and digital records I found that some traditional best practices are extremely engaging online as well. These can be especially effective when implementing them with education technology providers for integrated online formative assessments or social studies disciplinary literacy. Other practices, like flexible groupings, were far less effective online than anticipated. Overall, I was able to greatly improve the engagement in my online classroom, and I found some practices that I will carry over into a traditional classroom