E-learning: a future in distance education?

My frustrations in recent days over being in a classroom have led me to strongly re-consider my future as a teacher. However, I happened to rekindle an old thought that could be of very great interest to me.

While looking through Dave's ESL Cafe for Korean job postings, I noticed an ad for Korea Cyber University. They are looking for an instructor to conduct online classes. That rang a bell with me because I recently finished my M.A. through the University of Phoenix Online. I really enjoyed the type of interaction that took place in this learning environment.

Suddenly, I remembered Nova Southeastern University - a university based in Florida that offers a doctorate in instructional technology/distance education. One of my instructors in the M.A. program was doing his Ph.D. at Nova SE, and he said it was a very worthwhile program.

So now I'm thinking that I might try to get some work at a university here in Korea (maybe the Cyber University), and work on my Ph.D. through Nova SE at the same time. Teaching and studying completely online? Sounds PERFECT to me!

Sick as two dogs

I'm on day 10 of my illness. Call it a cold, I guess, but I've been suffering from headaches, sore throat, coughing and sneezing, and mostly sleepless nights. I'm a big suck when I'm sick, so I've been a nuisance (I'm sure) to my wife and co-workers.

My whole family has been hit. Heather was sick two weeks ago, and Renee had problems about a week ago. Kaitlyn is a victim right now, throwing up everything and dealing with the shits. Thankfully she's toilet trained, and knows how to run to the toilet whenever something foul is about to come out of either end.

I can't remember how it feels to feel good. Aye carumba!

Sick... and sick n' tired

I've been battling a cold for the past week, which has made life miserable for me at work. I was irritable with my students because of a headache that lasted for 2-3 days, and I lacked energy all week to deal with problems that arose.

To be honest, in times like these, I doubt that I want a career in teaching.

But... Heather and I have talked about something that could be adventurous as well as providing us the opportunity to get away from teaching. International Living is talking a lot these days about the benefits of investing in global real estate. I'll talk more in detail about this idea later, but it would require some money to get started.

Ahh, dreams of freedom and wealth. Not to mention travel around the world. By the way, I wonder if we won the lottery last night!

Teaching History

The ideas are coming fast and furious today!

Having studied History and Political Studies at the University of Guelph, it is this field that I would most likely teach in a high school setting. I've been doing a lot of thinking about History - the subject - and have been considering how the past is so easily interpreted differently by people from different backgrounds.

For instance, living in Korea has shown me that there can be radically different interpretations about history. The Japanese history textbook controversy is the perfect example. Given such differences in interpretation, I've been wondering why so many history programs tend to teach a certain interpretation above all others. Perhaps it is the case of the winner getting to tell the history. But that doesn't hold true anymore, not in the age of the Internet/global communications. You can no longer say something about an historical event without other people soon setting their eyes on it, and if they disagree with your interpretation, you can bet they will let you and the world know it soon.

So, why don't we teach History in the way Ruth Sandwell of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education does? She provides the raw materials of historical events, has students analyze these raw materials, and then lets them come to their own conclusions about the events. To me, this is the sensible way to try to teach History.

I have a special interest in international history because of my time spent overseas. It is in this field that I feel we must allow students to make their own decisions about events. For example, I do not think that telling students that the Islamists have embarked on a war of terror against the West because they hate freedom is in our best interests if we are trying to understand the causes and effects of such actions. But American textbooks will most likely go down this route.

If I attend OISE in a couple years, I sincerely hope to meet Ruth Sandwell to learn more about her pedagogical theory concerning the teaching of History.

(May 15, 2010)
Here's an update five years in the making: I just completed a course at OISE called History is a Verb, taught by Ruth Sandwell. I'm also working on a curriculum correlation project to connect Ruth's website Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History to the various provincial curricula.

Visual aids in the classroom

This is a point I've been trying to make since I started at JLS: use visual aids such as videos or PowerPoint to explain vocabulary and other concepts to students. I've tried to do this on my own in the past, although I have gotten away from it because of the lack of equal access to computers and projectors in each classroom.

Nevertheless, there has never been a better time for CyberJLS to start doing something for us native teachers. Why not create a CD-ROM specifically for teaching the vocabulary from our various textbooks, perhaps with some animation? Why not make posters to place on the classroom walls? Perhaps they could go so far as to create video segments to model language usage. CyberJLS already does much of this kind of thing for the Korean teachers. It bothers me that the native teachers get so little consideration in this regard.

About teaching

Although I've been teaching EFL/ESL for the better part of 10 years, I still often wonder if it (education) is for me. Some days I enjoy what I do, while other days bring frustrations that cause me to question if this is where I want to be. Having few other options is what keeps me thinking that this is where I will ultimately stay.

I came across an interesting article today in a magazine (the Boston University alumni magazine). The story talked about a first-year teacher's feelings about his job. He loves teaching and learning, but experiences many days when the students just don't seem to care.

It is this factor that most often causes me concern about my own future in this field. I tend to be a teacher who feeds off the energy of the kids. If they are alive, then I feel alive. If they are dead, I might be able to whip up a magical elixir to deal with the problem, but I might also fall flat. This scares me when I think about my future as an educator, given what seems to be a growing problem of student apathy. Can I be an effective teacher if I feel this way? Should I try?

Of course, it is in university where I feel I would be best suited to work. My grad school experience was fabulous from beginning to end. The chance to engage in thoughtful discussions with similarly-motivated professionals made me work hard, and it was almost always a rush to do my work and help others in the class learn the material and reach our goals. I would love to get into a faculty of education as an instructor, but I'll probably have to get public school experience first.

I suspect this debate within my mind will continue for the next few years.

Ramble on

It's been a week or so since my last post. Frankly, little of note has happened in recent days to prompt me to write. But some things here and there:

I just downloaded the new album by Dave Matthews Band from iTunes. It comes with a video, which I believe is a first for iTunes. I've never really listened to Dave Matthews Band before, so this should be an interesting introduction to the group.

Two months from now, we will be in Canada for our 4-week visit. First stop will be Vancouver (for 3 days), followed by our stay in Ontario. I'm excited!

The Sony PSP was released in Korea last week. Sounds like a great device, but I'm not into it yet... at least not enough to consider buying it. I did see a guy on the bus with it, and he was playing around with one of the racing games, obviously trying to figure it out. I'm suspecting that Apple will soon have their own portable media player for videos and such (the "iPod vision" perhaps?). It would make sense now that you can download videos for iTunes.

Well, that's all for now.

iPod in the classroom

On the weekend, I picked up one of those Altec-Lansing InMotion portable speaker systems for the iPod. This week, I've been using the speakers with my iPod mini to play music in the classroom. Since technology usage at my school is frequently limited due to availability of equipment, I have tried to make use of my personal devices. Such is the case with the iPod.

Furthermore, I've been able to develop some well-rounded lessons with the music. First, I provide a lyric sheet with some words missing (listening practice). Then we review the lyrics for instances of "poor grammar" (grammar practice). After listening to the song a second time, the students write about the song for a specified period of time, maybe 5-8 minutes (writing practice). Finally, the students are placed into small groups to discuss the song (conversation practice).

I've been pleased with how this particular foray into technology usage has worked out so far. It's great to not have to rely on school property.

The joy of spring

Yesterday - April 30 - saw the temperatures in Bundang reach 31 degrees Celsius!

Meteorologists in korea are saying that this summer will be even hotter than last year, when we had a run of about 3 weeks where the highs exceeded 35 degrees each day. Amazing.

But for April, I was very impressed that it got so warm and so nice. After work yesterday, I had some beers with a friend of mine on an outdoor patio, and we were amazed at how much it felt like summer. Today, the temperature is returning to a more seasonal level - low to mid 20's.

Coincidentally, today (May 1st) is the five year anniversary of our return to Korea. And tomorrow is Heather's birthday (the big 3-1).

A little baseball

Great game at Yankee Stadium tonight. Roy Halliday of my Toronto Blue Jays outdueled Randy Johnson, throwing a complete game, three-hit shutout. Better yet, I have Halliday on all three of my fantasy teams. It's fantastic to see Halliday pitching again like he did in 2003.

Later this summer, when I'm visiting Canada with my family, I plan to go to a game at the Dome (Rogers Centre - yuck!). Hopefully the Jays haven't collapsed by then, but it'll be good to get to a game for the first time in about 6 years.