[Catalist] teachers better than screens

[Michael McGarry]

Greetings Catalistians,

In my previous post to CATALIST, I forgot to include the quintessential student motivating fully INTEGRATED "hands-on" and "minds-on” STEM BLENDED LEARNING online program STELR URL: http://www.stelr.org.au <http://www.stelr.org.au/>. STELR is Top-Quality STEM TEACHING!

Best Wishes,

Mike McGarry


> On 5 Nov 2015, at 5:14 AM, Michael McGarry <mmcgarry44 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Greetings Catalistians, especially Igor,
> 
> Thanks for the BBC URL: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34671952 <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34671952>
> 
> "The biggest challenge for online teaching is keeping pupils engaged with their studies.” 
> 
> From my about 47 Year career teaching secondary science, mainly Upper school Physics, I would say that motivating ‘modern' students to stay on task is also the biggest challenge in "bricks and mortar" schools, especially in state government secondary schools.
> 
> I found comment at the BBC URL too simplistic and full of self-evident observations on the effectiveness of online learning. Why too simplistic? Too simplistic because the most effective learning in modern classrooms is Blended Learning.
> 
> "Blended Learning is a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through delivery of content and instruction via digital and online media with some element of student control over time, place, path, or pace. While still attending a “brick-and-mortar” school structure, face-to-face classroom methods are combined with computer-mediated activities.”
> 
> I have found in the last 15 years of my secondary science teaching career that Blended Learning is an excellent pedagogical practice to motivate ‘modern’ students in state government secondary schools to stay on teacher-assigned and negotiated learning tasks. 
> 
> WIKIpedia URL 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning>
> 
> The BBC URL makes no mention of: "A virtual university provides higher education programs through electronic media, typically the Internet. Some are bricks-and-mortar institutions that provide online learning as part of their extended university courses while others solely offer online courses. They are regarded as a form of distance education. The goal of virtual universities is to provide access to the part of the population who would not be able to attend a physical campus, for reasons such as distance — in which students live too far from a physical campus to attend regular classes; and the need for flexibility — some students need the flexibility to study at home whenever it is convenient for them to do so.”
> 
> Wikipedia URL 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_university <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_university>
> 
> The BBC URL makes no mention (for example) of the very effective motivating mathematics learning program http://www.mathletics.com.au <http://www.mathletics.com.au/>
> 
> In conclusion, from my observations as a former head of science of secondary science classrooms in state government secondary high schools, I find that teaching science from textbooks bores and restricts the minds of ‘modern' secondary science students. 
> 
> For example, I have observed on occasion a secondary science teacher reading to his lower school science students and to his Upper School chemistry students the PDF of popular Textbooks displayed on a smart board resulting in expressed student boredom.
> 
> Best Wishes,
> 
> Mike McGarry
> 
> 
> On 4 Nov 2015, at 3:41 PM, Igor Bray <igor.bray at curtin.edu.au <mailto:igor.bray at curtin.edu.au>> wrote:
>> 
>> To all us science teachers, it seems we are not yet able to be replaced by a virtual education, see http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34671952 <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34671952>. Surprising? I think not!
>> 
>> With best wishes,
>> 
>> Igor
> 

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