General Thoughts on Chapter 7 and 8

Ch. 7:

Chapter 7 focuses on online learning in all of its many forms. It primarily discusses the difference and benefits of online vs blended courses. Blended classes combine online activities with in person activities. 

To me, it just seems like blended classes are preferable to purely online classes. The online activities and resources are meant to be supplements to education and instruction. This class has heavily emphasized the significance of technology integration in the classroom. There are a lot of tech aps and tools we've been dealing with that just don't make a whole lot of sense without real physical humans beings present to use them and implement them.

I feel like I do better in person with other people around me. I think online classes have too many outside variables that can prevent successful learning. I just don't think as effective communication can be made through online resources as it can be in person, face-to-face. That's the type of teaching were likely going to be doing, and I don't think any online or technological resource can substitute the actual presence of a good teacher.

Ch. 8: 

Chapter 8 continues Chapter 7's discussion of online classes, extending them to the idea of entirely virtual schools. The chapters breaks down the best possible practices for establishing online courses. It also deals with virtual reality tools and their possibilities.

I suppose I should begin to have some familiarity with developing an online course considering, since as I've discussed before, I'd like to use a Moodle site to have students do journal-types write-ups. The issues of tracking students' grades or ensuring that there isn't plagiarism are things I hadn't thought about in a lot of detail.