The Online Educator

Teaching in virtual spaces has become more than publishing information for learners to read and respond to. Thankfully, technology advances have made virtual spaces more creative, engaging, and interactive for teachers and learners. Today, there are no tested standards for effective online teaching and the possibilities keep changing. Virtual and online schools vary as much as the definitions of what online teaching is.

Educators who use technology in their teaching and those who teach primarily through technology must keep learning new applications and experimenting. These educators are inventing the playbook. The badging movement may yield criteria that designates an “Online Educator”. I hope that the criteria comes from those who actually are online educators, have experimented and explored technologies, and can verify that they work. Using virtual spaces for teaching and learning is a growing trend and those currently in the trenches would serve themselves and the future well by documenting their practice and learning. We have an opportunity to use our experiences to codify promising practices as we continue to learn and practice newer ways.