Abstract

What does best practice in online education look like? How can educators make use of the affordances offered by online environments to bring out the best in the children they teach? These questions are answered in this new textbook, written with experienced teachers, novice educators and teacher educators in mind. Meskill and Anthony offer a wealth of examples of what successful online teaching looks like, and provide a rich source of practical, conversation-based strategies for optimizing online learning. This book will inspire anyone teaching or planning to teach fully online, or in a blended or hybrid format, by demonstrating how well constructed online conversations constitute powerful teaching.

Providing a much-needed framework for a conversation-based approach to teaching and learning, this book is a resource-filled guide emphasizing the use of information and communication technology to promote sound learning. Embedded in the strategies is encouragement for communication, reflection, and growth. The content and techniques contained in Teaching Children Online are elements all teachers and instructional designers need in their tool box.

This book provides novice and seasoned online teachers with a detailed view of the opportunities for excellence in online teaching and learning. It identifies the importance of moving beyond online interaction to online instructional conversations, leading to both knowledge/skill advancement and individual learner development.

Carla Meskill is Professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research and teaching explore new forms of technology use in language education and professional development as well as the influences of new technologies on evolving language and literacy practices. With Natasha Anthony she is the author of Teaching Languages Online (Multilingual Matters, 2015), which is now in its 2nd edition.

Natasha Anthony is Director of the International Language Laboratory and Associate Professor of Russian at Hudson Valley Community College in New York. She designs and teaches online Russian courses as well as online graduate courses in Education. Her research focuses on Computer Assisted Language Learning and, more specifically, on the use of synchronous and asynchronous oral components in online language courses.