March 22, 2021
Episode 19

The Opportunities of Online Learning

Featuring: Natalie Conway, Teacher, Instructional Coach

Featured Guests

  • Natalie Conway

    Teacher, Instructional Coach

    Natalie is an online special educator and mentor teacher for an Oregon public charter school and an instruction coach for SYS Education, LLC. As well, she hosts SYS Presents: Adventures in Online education, a growing podcast where she interviews leaders in the world of online education.

In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear says, “Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.” So how might a teacher’s practice change if they were no longer within the walls of a traditional classroom? On the episode, learn from a teacher, instructional coach, and fellow podcaster about how teaching in an online environment offers new possibilities.

Show Notes:

  • 6:20Natalie works for Frontier Charter Academy in the special education program and is also an instructional coach with SYS Education on the side.
  • 7:40Natalie’s passion for online learning was sparked by the limitations she felt working in traditional, brick-and-mortar schools.
  • 10:45The biggest difference between remote learning and online learning, is that remote learning was forced upon teachers, students and families, while online learning is something that many seek out for a variety of reasons.
  • 12:45Many families choose online learning as a means to offer social-emotional reprieve from traditional schooling, to transition students out oof homeschooling, and to provide flexibility for travelling or extracurricular pursuits.
  • 14:50The mantra that most online teachers adopt is “complexity over busywork” to ensure that students must go beyond tasks that can be Googled.
  • 16:30With the volume of free resources available online, the only limit to what teachers can do in an online classroom is their own imagination.
  • 20:30To ensure that online learners still have an opportunity for socialization, they can still engage in teams, clubs and communities outside of class to cultivate quality connections.
  • 23:45When it comes to online learning, less is more. The metric that teachers must use to measure learning is no longer seat time, but what students produce.
  • 28:20There are many ways to meet the needs of diverse learners online including flexible pacing, choice, differentiated tasks and targeted grouping.
  • 32:15Assessment in online learning is an ongoing process that engages students in a feedback loop where they can continuously resubmit and improve.

Significant Quotes:

“You assume online that everyone can “cheat” so ask them something that they can’t Google. That really shows you what they learned; what they understand.”

Natalie Conway
14:60

“I think we are putting value in the wrong metric. Instead of measuring learning in the number of hours a kid is putting in, it should be with whatever it is that they are producing.”

Natalie Conway
23:50

“You can differentiate so robustly online, and you can do it covertly too.”

Natalie Conway
26:00

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