What Qualities are Desirable in K12 Online Staff?

It is always nice to have others write comments or even full blog entries. The following is a guest blog entry... Thanks to Anna Miller for this thought.

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of degree online . She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com


They're both forums of education, but when it comes to the principles and techniques of teaching, there are many differences between those adopted in traditional classrooms and those followed in their online counterparts. The main disparity arises because of the fact that the former allows for visible forms of communication and instant feedback while the latter is hindered by the lack of the same. Teachers in traditional classrooms can see and interact in real time with their students; if they're good judges of character and skilled teachers, they are able to gauge from the faces and other behavioral aspects of their students their level of interest in and understanding for the subject. But their online colleagues are not allowed the same benefits - they most often never see their students and are mostly limited to emails and online chats and discussions. When it comes to online K12 education, this drawback becomes a limiting factor in more ways than one.
• For one, the students are young and so tend to have limited attention spans. This means they must be treated completely differently from adult learners who enroll for business or other degrees. So the staff handling classes for K12 students must be able to hold the attention of their wards in any way they can. When distance increases and your only way of communication is electronic, it's a challenge to command attention, make your students understand what you're teaching, and get them to adhere to schedules and lessons. K12 online staff members require immense dedication and perseverance to be up to the task.
• Another factor that comes into play in online education for K12 students is that they're compelled to attend lessons and classes. They're doing it online because they're either at remote locations where schools are hard to come by or because they're limited by handicaps that force them to stay home and attend school online. It's an alternative to homeschooling that their parents prefer because it allows them access to qualified teachers. Adult learners go back to school of their own accord because they want to earn a degree or boost their qualifications. So K12 online staff have a tough job on their hands - they need to make their lessons interesting and compelling so that their students don't feel the boredom of learning from far away without the company of other learners.
• Also, because each student is mostly alone and only in the company of their parents or guardians, they don't have the advantage of interacting with their peers and gaining from the experience. Online K12 teachers must make up for this deficiency by facilitating communication and interaction between all their students, even though they're in different locations. Discussions in an online forum, instant chats, and even email threads are great ways to do this, and the K12 teacher has to be up to the task of breaking the ice and getting them to communicate with each other.