Hands-on Teaching and Learning

For those of you who may not know, I am taking a class on Structured English Immersion this month and my classmates and I started having a discussion about hands-on teaching in reference to authentic learning. (That's kind of where this post comes from)

I remember a teacher I used to work with years ago who had a poster in her classroom with this quote: "What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing." --Aristotle

...and that quote just sticks in my head even 15+ years later. She really believed that students really learn something only by doing it themselves. Lessons had to be hands-on.

Even more so, I remember being a child, coming home and telling my mom what I did in school that day and her response was, "...and how can you apply what you have learned?"

In an online environment, one of the common misconceptions that we hear regularly is that online isn't hands-on. My response when I hear that is a phrase I read in an article a few years ago, "We many be high-tech, but we are also high-touch."

How do you create athentic learning atmospheres in your online classrooms? Do you believe students learn "...by doing?" If you don't have hands-on activities in your online class, is that something you would like to have access to or create?

Critical Thinking

What kinds of activities would you like to see in the online classes that would better engage the students in critical thinking?

What are your thoughts on adding cooperative learning groups in the online classes?

Providing Meaningful Feedback on Assignments

What kinds of things do you do to provide meaningful feedback to students on their assignments?

Online Teaching Techniques

I have had the best time getting to know all of you and how you teach online. I can honestly say that each of you bring something new, unique and engaging to your online classes and I would like for each of you to share your perspectives in online education. So the big question for this month is...

"How is teaching online different from teaching onsite?" What makes this experience at NUVHS different?