A model of Successful Adaptation to Online Learning for College-Bound Native American High School Students
By (Student's Name)
Course Code and Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date of Submission
Introduction
As the human population grows, the pressure exerted on the available resource continue to get intense. In the education sector, the impact is far reaching as it has significantly reduced the effectiveness of the traditional approach the educator has been using on the students (Clearly and Peacock, 1998). There is an urgent need to employ technology to ensure all students benefit. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and provide a summary of the findings of the research conducted by the Department of Educational Studies, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The research focused on the conditions that upshot in an efficacious adaptation to the online learning atmosphere for Native American high school students.
Findings
To evaluate the favorable condition for the alteration to an online learning environment, the affirmative research results that the researchers believed were key to attract and retain the students. The results show that online learning environment has a great impact on individual students. Most of the students can ask questions on the virtual space and get help regardless of their low confidence. Unlike the case of traditional classrooms with a general guideline and lack of clear instructions (Doyle et al., 2009), the students can get the optimum benefits resulting from increased collaboration, great sense of independence and a personal initiative to learn what makes the student yearn for a challenge.
It is also evident that most of the students that took part in the study had different wants and needs. The rather generic approach used by the educators in the classroom setting was not addressing the needs of each student. The students need a flexible routine and freedom to learn in their ways (Pewewardy and Hammer,2003), further, they can access custom content. Students can best relate with this benefit in an online learning environment if it meets the condition. They also need a reflective approach to learning. The online environment demands an initiative from the student to read more than in the classroom setting, with every progress made, they can easily account for it and plan their plan of improvement. They also need to try new things that they find enjoyable, and ultimately learn at their speed without time and resource constraints that dictate the student performance in the traditional classroom environment.
Despite the benefits and the highlighted favorable factors, the research also points out some existing challenges that impact negatively on the adaptation to the online erudition environment. First, is the failure to relate to real-life examples in the virtual learning space. Second, the quality of feedback received by the students is often generic as the instructors seem to address all students. Second, is the need to master basic computer skills which increase the amount of learning required to benefit from the online space. Third, online learning students experience a lot of internet distractions in the form of music, videos, and adverts which impact negatively on the effectiveness of the approach.
Conclusion
Adaptation to online learning environment calls for other factors that not only make the environment attractive but also the ability to retain them. The students are attracted by the freedom to learn what they want and at their speeds. They enjoy the flexibility that comes with an online learning environment as they can access the content anytime, in this regard presence in the classroom is not a performance factor. Various students need to satisfy their need for new challenges of choice and access to custom content. If an online learning environment addresses these, then it bound to increase the adaptation rate. However, the platform has some challenges that slow the adaptation among the students. They include abstract examples that student cannot associate to real-life, rather generic feedback from instructors, need to learn computer skills among some students and distractions in the online platform.
References
Cleary, L. and Peacock, T. (1998), Collected Wisdom: American Indian Education, Allyn " Bacon, Boston, MA.
Doyle, A., Klienfeld, J., and Reyes, M. (2009), “The educational aspirations/attainment gap among rural Alaska Native students,” Rural Educator, Vol. 30, pp. 25-33, retrieved from ERIC (EJ869312).
Pewewardy, C. and Hammer, P.C. (2003), Culturally Responsive Teaching for American Indian Students, ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, Charleston, WV, December, retrieved from ERIC (ED482325).
