While I am very excited to be wrapping up all of my activities and being done with this class, I am going to miss the opportunity to explore new technologies and get great feedback from my classmates. The discussions we have been having, as a class, have really given me a renewed focus and forced me to look more critically as I am creating activities and/or looking for resources to share with my students.
This week's discussions have really caused me to reevaluate the way I am using assessments, currently, and the way I will use them in my future online course. I need some time to digest and reformulate my grading system, but some of the suggestions like William's idea of allowing students to retake quizzes and exams have really intrigued me. I am going to do some soul searching and figure out different strategies that will help the kids LEARN, I do not want "tests" to be a punishment.
Overall, the discussion on promoting student success have given me much to ponder. I am looking forward to the coming weeks of researching and developing assessments that increase my students' success!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
1 Week to Go!
This week's topic of Facilitating Discussion and Student Collaboration brought up many things that I have not thought about before: Is it an instructor's job to assign groups? What if a group can't get along? Along with the introduction of more tools that an instructor could utilize to make group work more efficient for students.
I had a tough time participating in this topic, because I've never been an online instructor and because this is my first online class, as a student. The only opportunity I've had to work collaboratively, online, is a small project that we completed for this class. My experience was wonderful, we got together utilizing Elluminate, hammered out the details and did the work. It seemed like a rather easy process. Would it have been as easy if we had not been able to pick our group? What if I was assigned to a group that one of the people worked second shift and wasn't available to meet at a scheduled time? My limited experience with discussion boards and group wikis have shown that it is much more difficult to come to a consensus and final product, meeting asynchronously. I truly believe that we need that feeling of connecting to "real" people, even when participating in an online course. Synchronous meetings make me feel I have much more input into projects than simply posting something and hoping that others take time to read it.
For these reasons, I plan to incorporate as many live interaction possibilities as possible when I am the online instructor. There are many great tools available, so part of making things successful will be to investigate which are the most cost effective for my employer and allow the greatest number of students to utilize them.
From an instructor point of view, it is very important to encourage collaboration, in any form, by making yourself available to the students. Not only by posting comments or attending synchronous sessions, but sharing real-life experiences and situations that you have encountered in your online experiences.
The one thing I really like about this group of classmates is that people taking the course have a variety of occupations that cause different view points. It is much different then taking a class with other K-12 teachers. Although I still don't have the answers to many questions that I have, I have gained much "food for thought" and have been forced to consider situations that I never imagined.
I had a tough time participating in this topic, because I've never been an online instructor and because this is my first online class, as a student. The only opportunity I've had to work collaboratively, online, is a small project that we completed for this class. My experience was wonderful, we got together utilizing Elluminate, hammered out the details and did the work. It seemed like a rather easy process. Would it have been as easy if we had not been able to pick our group? What if I was assigned to a group that one of the people worked second shift and wasn't available to meet at a scheduled time? My limited experience with discussion boards and group wikis have shown that it is much more difficult to come to a consensus and final product, meeting asynchronously. I truly believe that we need that feeling of connecting to "real" people, even when participating in an online course. Synchronous meetings make me feel I have much more input into projects than simply posting something and hoping that others take time to read it.
For these reasons, I plan to incorporate as many live interaction possibilities as possible when I am the online instructor. There are many great tools available, so part of making things successful will be to investigate which are the most cost effective for my employer and allow the greatest number of students to utilize them.
From an instructor point of view, it is very important to encourage collaboration, in any form, by making yourself available to the students. Not only by posting comments or attending synchronous sessions, but sharing real-life experiences and situations that you have encountered in your online experiences.
The one thing I really like about this group of classmates is that people taking the course have a variety of occupations that cause different view points. It is much different then taking a class with other K-12 teachers. Although I still don't have the answers to many questions that I have, I have gained much "food for thought" and have been forced to consider situations that I never imagined.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
3 Weeks Down...
Week three was all about Direct Instruction. What is direct instruction? Thank you to Matthew for clearing up the distinction between "DI" and "di." Evidently, they are instructional designs that have very specific steps to follow. I assumed the direct instruction was a more general term that referred to materials provided to students that would lead them to a specific goal. Dr. Kovalik pointed out this is the general definition she uses for the activities that she wanted us to post. Obviously I will have to do some more research, so I can better participate in discussion of "DI" v. "di."
I am a little disappointed that only two classmates have taken the time to look through my Building an Element Gizmo. I will try to recruit some more reviewers, this week.
Jake's discussion topics on different tools available for direct instruction was very nice. I am going to look into DimDim as a potential resource, to use in the future.
I was glad Ashley and Sara presented their topic in a blog, because I had been wondering how it would work. I have to admit, I absolutely hated the layout. I know now, that I will not use this format for class discussion, in my courses. It was clunky and a pain to open up comments and try to follow the conversation. Maybe a Wiki is more appropriate? Although, I'm not thrilled with the way our class wiki for ITEC 67438 is working, either. Maybe I'll have an epiphany in the last two weeks.
I am a little disappointed that only two classmates have taken the time to look through my Building an Element Gizmo. I will try to recruit some more reviewers, this week.
Jake's discussion topics on different tools available for direct instruction was very nice. I am going to look into DimDim as a potential resource, to use in the future.
I was glad Ashley and Sara presented their topic in a blog, because I had been wondering how it would work. I have to admit, I absolutely hated the layout. I know now, that I will not use this format for class discussion, in my courses. It was clunky and a pain to open up comments and try to follow the conversation. Maybe a Wiki is more appropriate? Although, I'm not thrilled with the way our class wiki for ITEC 67438 is working, either. Maybe I'll have an epiphany in the last two weeks.
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