PLN

Developing a PLN is valuable because it provides mediums, other than formal seminars and training, for professional development. With the communication tools and private communities available on the internet, one can receive quality information for free. Examples of these communication tools that I used in my PLN were a virtual meeting room, Blogger, and Twitter. Utilizing these tools allowed me to learn about various classroom strategies and to learn how my colleagues view issues such as cell phones in the classroom and online learning. My PLN also allows me to share my thoughts and ideas out with other educational professionals.

Another PLN activity that I participated in was contributing a post to the NBEAConnect Ning. This was convenient since I attended the 2011 NBEA Annual Convention. A link to my post can be found here. In this activity, I learned what true integration was and also learned some techniques for incorporating academic integration into the classroom.

Additionally, I attended an NBEA session. This was also convenient since I was in New Orleans for the Annual Convention. One session I attended was “Create Excitement in the Classroom!” presented by Dr. Linda Hefferin, Professor of Management, Elgin Community College and Mrs. Heidi Eaton, Associate Professor of Office Administrative Technology, Elgin Community College. From this session, I learned several teaching strategies that engage students and make the classroom more fun. Some of these strategies are:

• Onion Peel
• Crossword Connect
• Beach Ball
• Where Do You Stand?


Onion Peel
All students are given a strip of paper and instructed to write a question on the strip of paper. The instructor then randomly collects the strips of paper, crumbling up the first one and then wrapping the next strip around the previous strip. The end product should be a ball of paper strips that resembles an onion.

One student starts with the ball of paper and peels off the outer strip of paper, reads and answers the question aloud. That student then throws the ball of paper to another student who then peels off the out strip of paper, reads and answers the question aloud. This process continues until the paper “onion” is peeled apart.

Crossword Connect
A topic heading is written on the board. Students are instructed to write words that associate with that topic heading in a crossword puzzle fashion. Students can build off of words other than the topic heading. The example below started with the word “PRESENTATION” displayed vertically and the class built the crossword from that word.

Beach Ball
Questions are written on a beach ball. Students throw the beach ball to one another. When the ball is caught the student reads and answers the question that their left hand is on. That student then throws the beach ball to another student.

Where Do You Stand?
Ten position markers are placed around the room and numbered from 1 to 10.



Students are given a prompt such as: “Salespeople are born, not made.” The students must then move to the marker in the classroom that matches their feelings toward the prompt. 10 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree. Each student must then explain their stance.

These active learning strategies can be used as a review activity before a test, as a close to a lesson, or as an instructional activity. These strategies also help develop the students’ critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration skills.

Furthermore, I listened Mr. Ken Robinson gave a speech at a TED conference in October, 2010 on “Changing Education Paradigms”. In his speech he talked about, for the most part, how schools over emphasize convergent thinking. He mentions that students are told that there is often only one answer to questions and problems. Mr. Robinson also states that after years and years of students only thinking in logical, “inside the box” ways, they are unable to make a shift to think creatively and critically, looking at problems and issues from all angles.

I agree with Mr. Robinson that some schools and some teachers only focus on the textbook’s answers and do not accept any variation. However, there are also schools and teachers who focus on project-based learning, problem-based learning, and active learning strategies. These teaching techniques help foster students’ creativity skills, critical thinking skills, and collaboration skills. An ill structured scenario can be developed for any course and given to the students to analyze and work their way through. This requires students to deal with constraints, take multiple perspectives into account, and develop multiple solutions.

Learning Center 2

Learning Center 2: Marketing & Sales

This learning center focuses on the sales process. The learning center lists the eight steps of the sales process which were taught in the latest unit. That part of the learning center was used as a visual during instruction on the eight steps of the sales process. Also included in the learning center is a section on consumer promotion and visual merchandising and display. In the near future, the students will be taking a trip to the Susquehanna Valley Mall where they will need to complete an evaluation of various types of displays, store entrances, consumer promotion, signage, store layout, and a sales demonstration. Upon returning from the mall, the students will write examples of consumer promotion and visual merchandising and displays that they witnessed at the mall on the sticky note under the proper heading. As the students write their examples on the learning center, they must also explain that piece of the mall experience with their classmates. Assessment of student learning through the learning center is done via observation of students writing their examples on the learning center, students explaining their experience with the class, and formal grading of the mall evaluation forms that students will be given.

Young Students and Online Learning

Online learning is not a fix-all solution. Whether the classroom is physical or virtual, there will always be high achieving students and not so high achieving students. Compared to the physical classroom, online classrooms face the same hurdles along with a new challenge. Three issues that need to be addressed regarding online classrooms are:
1. Gaining and retaining student interest and focus.
2. Motivating students.
3. Teaching students to work independently and use the Internet responsibly.
In the perfect world each individual student would receive a customized project, topic, and environment that would enable them to perform and learn at 100% of their ability, but developing a custom learning plan for each student is impractical if not impossible. If a student is not interested in a subject, the use of virtual devices, tools, applications, or resources would not make much of a difference. Sure the virtual devices, tools, applications, and resources are cool and interesting, but the subject is still boring. If a student is not interested in a subject, they will get distracted and lose focus. Once focus is lost, it is far too easy for the student to open a new window and check Facebook, shop online, or play games when they should be working on an assignment.
Students might be more motivated to “attend” school in online classrooms simply because they do not have to physically commute to and walk into the school building, but they can still be mentally absent in an online classroom. Just because they are electronically logged-in does not mean they are mentally focused and ready to learn. Students can simply “go through the motions” in an online classroom as they do in a physical classroom. In addition, the lack of physical one-on-one contact between teacher and student may hinder the student’s motivation to complete an assignment. Sure webcam communication is available, but its effectiveness is not the same as the teacher standing right next to the student in a physical classroom. Physically attending a live concert is a much different experience than watching that same concert performed live on YouTube.
For the use of online classrooms to be fully effective, students would need to mature and be able to use the internet independently and responsibly. The ability to work independently and the concept of net citizenship would of course need to be taught in school, but can these skills be taught and refined through a virtual classroom, when distractions are only a double-click away?
Online learning is a good supplement to physical classroom learning, but it is not currently fit to replace the physical classroom entirely.