Foundations for Virtual Education

So, I'm taking the online course "Foundations for Virtual Education" in coursera. Ever since ALAD course, I've become fond of learning online, and this looks like a good one. Thus, I want to publish here some of my thoughts and reflections from the course. Don't worry coursera instructors, I'm not giving away the tasks or activities. I'm just keeping notes for my personal portafolio. Through these few years since I finished ALAD, I've discovered myself coming back and forth to search for activities, definitions and things I learned and kept in this portafolio.

My reflections on Week 1
I'm a huge fan of blended learning system. I used it last school year with my students, but this course helped me to define it better for my students. It might not be the ultimate definition, but I'm quite satisfied with it.

"Blended learning combines the time you spend learning at school, inside the classroom, the language lab, the Self Access Center, with the time you learn in a virtual environment like surfing the net, solving online courses or tutorials, or sharing what you know in social networks while using a PC, mobile phone, tablet, etc."

I found this beautiful expression "shifting from brick and mortar to bytes and bits"  at http://www.edutopia.org/stw-online-learning 

So, this is my own definition of virtual education after reading the course materials, and watching the video tutorials.

Virtual education is a learning process that happens through a technological environment, mostly by using internet or software. It requires 3 basic elements (Yeah, I'm recalling my post El tríangulo irreductible):

1) a learner with a learning goal that can be personal, or part of the common core of a syllabus;

2) learning content materials delivered through a technological device, that can be a PC, a mobile phone, a tablet, etc. Virtual education materials include software, apps, digital tools, images,  videos, websites, interactive exercises, etc. that can be interactive, and may or may not give feedback or promote means to share knowledge in social networks;

3) a teacher, a school, a state educational program, an educational company, or someone who sets learning goals to create those learning materials.

Virtual education can be synchronic or asynchronic, but the main characteristic is that there is a geographical distance between teacher and learner. In this learning environment, learners can be teacher guided, or self-directed. That is, teacher guided learners will be given a learning goal, and specific activities or tasks to perform, with materials designed or selected by the teacher. Autonomous learners, on the other hand, will choose their own learning goals, and the kind of product that proves they have fulfilled that goal. In this case, learners can surf the net, roaming for websites, apps, videos, software, etc. that provide an answer to their learning goal. 

In find that virtual education is a good way to promote autonomous learning skills, which is the most important principle in the teaching-learning philosophy of the school system I teach.

I really enjoyed the idea of disruptive innovations vs

On my personal experience, learning online is fun, but time consuming. It requires a lot of thinking and creativity. It demands responsability and autonomous learning skills.  It is also useful to be a technology geek. But no worries, online learning transforms you into a technology user. I've discovered that I always learn how to use a new digital tool, app or software while learning online. And the self-satisfaction pay off is wonderful!

Proof of that? Here's my score for the first week's quiz: