Distance Education in Middle School

When it comes to distance education in middle school, some may think that it is irrelevant for children to learn outside of the classroom. Personally, I believe that distance education is important at every level of school. In middle school, it would be appropriate for students to experience distance education, by requiring your class to log into a class chat room on the weekend, or at a particular time after the normal class hours and discussing the lesson for the day or the week. Also, as the instructor, you can post a topic on a personalized blog, and open it to your student to leave their opinion, or answer certain questions on the blog. These methods, in my opinion, are beneficial for students to explore the many different technologies readily available to them. With every benefit, there can be some limitations. One limitation concerning distance learning is the fact that if a problem was to arise or occur, the teacher would not physically be there to assist and guide the student. A situation like this could result in the student missing out on the assignment or lecture and possibly earning a failing grade. I believe that distance learning is appropriate for middle school students because it teaches them the importance of responsibility. It allows children to think responsibly and complete work on their own without the direct guidance of their teacher.

Question 2. The message is the information, attitude, skill, or strategy that we deliver to the students in the classroom. The medium is the tool used in communicating information to the students in your classroom. The method is the way of getting the message across to the students. The message is what is given by the instructor, for someone else, typically the students in your classroom to learn. This message can include words, actions, and in many cases, signals. The message is important in the learning environment because it is what needs to be taught to your students. Teachers must make sure that the message is refined, focusing and compelling to the different types of learners in the classroom. Also, the message must be appropriate for the specific age group of students in your classroom. Using multimedia in your classroom in beneficial because it keeps the interest of the students in your class, as well as it motivates them to become discovery learners. When a teacher uses different types of multimedia in the classroom, it helps to reach the different types of learners that may be in the class. In order for the students to truly understand the information that is being relayed, the method in which it is delivered must be engaging and needs to revolve around the way that the students learn best. For example, some of the students in your classroom may be visual learner, while others may be auditory learners. In order for you to effectively get your message across for the lesson that you are teaching, you may want to present the class with a power point presentation which also has voices and sounds incorporated. Also, another way may be to present the class with an instructional video in order to get the message across. The 3M’s are very important when instructing your class because it ensures that your students are effectively gaining and understanding the knowledge that you are communication to them.
Question 3.
In today’s society, technology and the different types of media are forever evolving. The incorporation of technology is very important in education, in my opinion, because it motivates students to learn, and engages the student with the lesson that is being taught. Technology and media can be a resource to facilitate instructional strategies in many different ways. For example, a teacher may require her students to use a computer to browse the internet for research on a class project. Another way that technology and media can be used to facilitate instructional strategies is by allowing the student to take notes from a presentation through power point, instead of traditionally taking notes from the black board. Some instructors may have their class view a video on YouTube, in order to give the class a better understanding of a particular subject. These different ways of facilitating instructional strategies are important, in my opinion because they will help students in the classroom with different learning styles to fully understand the information and instruction that is being delivered by the teacher.

Question 6. An instructional setting in which I would implement the use of multimedia would be inside of my kindergarten classroom. In order to get my class prepared for a very special trip to the National Aquarium in Downtown Baltimore, MD, I would, first create a weekly lesson plan for my five and six year old students. The daily lesson plans would review the different wild life that could be found at the aquarium. I would allow the students to view videos online of the different habitats the animals and mammals live in. This will give my students the understanding that the animals are not originally from the aquarium, but in fact from different wild life around the world. Also, I would allow the student so play different computer games which would help them to gain better knowledge of the animals they will view at the aquarium. By playing different computer game, the student will learning about different animals and mammals while having fun playing computer games that they are familiar with. Another form of technology that I would implement in my kindergarten class would be different interactive transparencies, in which the class as a whole can view, identify, and label together. For example, the instruction might include the student matching the correct mammal with the correct habitat. Before the actual trip would have even taken place, the students in my kindergarten class would have met the initial objective, which in this case, would be the understanding and the gaining of knowledge of the different animals and mammals in different habitats around the world. My reason for choosing the types of media list is easily accessible by me the teacher, and it is already familiar to the student in my kindergarten class.