Sunday, February 3, 2013

First Blog Entry

Hello all who are viewing this right now! First, I will start off by saying that this is my first time I have written a blog. I must say it was somewhat intimidating due to the fact that I am putting myself out there for other reader's entertainment. I do have a Facebook and Twitter account, and when I update a status or post a tweet I am somewhat putting myself out there. However, that does not measure up to writing a blog.

My Family and I
As you all see by the picture above I am a very busy person. Besides the fact of having an active and mischievous two and four-year-old, I am employed full time at an university, and I am pursuing a M.A. in Communication and Training. Yes, it may seem as if I am rambling a bit about my life, but that goes into the topic of my current understanding of online learning. Since I am always "on-the-go", I am no stranger to taking online classes. Online learning is very convenient to those who have a lot going on in their life so I am taking full advantage of this. On the other hand, online teaching is new to me because I never taught an individual in my 24 years of life (yeah I'm young so what!), but in the future I do plan on teaching online.

Moreover, I originally planned on completing the coursework for the ONTL certificate towards the end of my master's degree, but I changed my mind. During SP'13 registration I registered for two on campus classes (two 7:30 p.m. classes on Monday and Thursday).  Towards the end of December I decided to drop one of my other classes, and add Intro to Online Teaching. To be honest, I thought this course was going to be a breeze, but looking at the syllabus I see I was so wrong.

Since I am new to online teaching and teaching in general I have high expectations for this course. I enjoy working in higher learning, but I am always told that I should pursue teaching as well. Therefore, I want this course to help me decide if this is really something that I would like to pursue right now. Also, I want this course to introduce me to a lot of the technology that I do not know about. I do have a good understanding of computers, but there is a lot more that I can learn. 

To conclude, I feel that the information gained from this course won't only help me in deciding if I want to move forward in this pursuit to an ONTL certificate. Nonetheless, it will will help me in nearly every aspect of my life because technology is always evolving.