Posted by Michael Runge on Aug 19, 2016; 3:57am
URL: https://nabble.aealearningonline.org/Topic-1-Introduction-to-the-Online-Learner-tp3791p5531.html

I will start off by saying that this is my first year teaching at my school, so my knowledge of the system, students, and challenges as a whole are limited. That said, I'll share my initial impressions.

1) My school is 1-to-1 with iPads and has been for a few years now. There are some classes that use textbooks for the students and some that have no textbook at all. I will be teaching 4 different preps, 2 utilizing a text for the students and 2 without a text.

2) I think there's a lot of promise for online and blended learning in a majority of the areas of study, but there are some limitations.

3) Some of the biggest limitations involve availability of quality resources online. Granted, there are thousands upon thousands of resources available, but finding the right ones can be challenging. One of the most reliable methods for obtaining quality resources is making them yourself, but that can be incredibly time-consuming. In fact, that's another one of the challenges teachers face with blended/online learning; time. Time is a precious commodity and doing things online can save time, but can also create a lot of headaches and wasting time unnecessarily.

4) I was intrigued by the admission that this course would not make me an expert, but would likely raise more questions and anxiety about what's left to learn. That's not a common thing to admit when teaching a course.