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| This is how I'm feeling right now... |
To begin with, so much new material was introduced
in lesson 1. When this course first began I realized that it was going to be
very challenging course, and it was going to be more challenging than other
online courses that I have taken in the past. When taking an online course you
need to know how to properly communicate because some things may be taken out
of context. That is why the appropriate "netiquette" is important,
and I learned a lot of important tips by using the course tools and after
reading the articles assigned in the course lessons. I always thought I had a
lot of knowledge and understanding and learning due to the fact that I have
taken many online courses in the past. However, I am always open to learning
new things. Therefore, my expectations for this course are high. During the
first week I was introduced to so many different new ways of learning online
such as Blogger, Blackboard "IM", and Collaborate, and how easy it
was to contact the professor and/or my classmates through email or our discussion
posts. All of this new knowledge has helped me become part of a vibrant online
community of learners.
Furthermore, during lesson 2 we really began to get into the different
learning material. First thing we got into was the "High Tech, High Touch"
dichotomy. This course lesson basically explained how people should find a
balance between high-tech skills and high-touch skills in life. According
to one of the readings in this lesson, two professors “found that online
students often feel more connected to their online classmates than to their
on-ground ones”. In my discussion post I stated that this may be true for their
students, but you need to consider the students they are teaching. A typical
university student is in their late teens to twenties. Now there are a lot of
older adults who are going back to school, like my mother, who would prefer
being in a classroom. Also, we discussed the characteristics of a
constructivist course. Some characteristics are as followed:
- Introduction of overarching concept followed by expansion of individual components
- Knowledge is compiled through active dialogue between students and teacher
- Group interaction is encouraged to foster negotiation among students
- Value is placed on the process of learning through experience and interaction
- Learning occurs as students gain exposure to a variety of individual perspectives
- Construction of knowledge based upon a comprehensive view of learning
- Student-centered learning is the essence
Constructivism is very popular in the online
teaching and learning community because it allows students to think outside the
box and integrate new information. Lastly, during lesson 2 we were introduced
to BB Collaborate. I did listen to the archived Collaborate meeting with the
guest speaker Jennifer Boender since I was not able to attend the meeting on
that date. That is one feature I like about that tool.
Additionally, during course lesson 3 we learned how
to differentiate between web-enhanced, hybrid, and fully online courses. The
assignment for this course was to choose an on-campus course and explain how we
would convert it into a full online course. Some of the strengths and
weaknesses of online courses were addressed in this lesson. For instance, a lot
of students yearn for that face-to-face contact which a lot of online courses
lack. However, online courses are very convenient for busy learners. Therefore,
one of the best strategies to address this is to teach a hybrid course that is
a mixture of online and some face-to-face or utilize the many online learning
tools such as Blackboard IM or Collaborate.
In addition, after lesson 4 we were able to
distinguish between the VARK learning styles. The four learning styles are
visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic. I learned from taking the VARK
survey that I was more of an aural learner, but I was one point away from being
a kinesthetic learner. Around this lesson we were introduced to the group
project, and in our group we all chose a different learning style. I chose
visual, and the assignment I chose consisted of two parts:
- For the first part, the student was required to select an important figure during the American Civil Rights Movement. Once they made their selection they had to create their own flow chart pointing out significant events involving the important figure they chose during the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 through 1968.
- In the second part, the student needed to post their assignment under the assignment post in order to receive a grade, and they also needed to post their flow chart in the discussion board in order for their classmates to see their work.
Our group was very successful because we had a lot
of communication with everyone. Lastly, what also helped is that we established
our own due date which was nearly 3 or 4 days before the actual due date.
To conclude, we were introduced to lesson 5 which
went over different teaching styles and digital portfolios. During this lesson
we took a quiz, which was suppose to help us find our teaching style. As I
stated in my discussion post for that lesson, it really didn’t provide me with
accurate information because I scored high in three different areas. I received
a 5 in personal model and facilitator, and a received a 4 in delegator. I
believe my scores were so close because I never taught a class before;
therefore, I was unable to accurately answer the questions. After going over
the different teaching styles I learned how my teaching style would help the
students with different learning styles. For instance, in my case all learning
styles would be easy to work with considering the fact that this style
encourages student participation and utilizes various learning styles. Therefore,
the learning style that would be easiest to work with is multimodality, which
is a mixture of two or more learning styles, and with this teaching style there
is really no learning style that would be difficult to address. The second part
of lesson 5 went over digital portfolios. This “big boom” would be very useful
in both face-to-face and online courses because the majority of coursework
today is in digital format anyways. It is not only very useful, but it reduces
the paperwork the instructor would have. This would eliminate the risk of an
instructor misplacing an assignment, and it is very easy to see archived work.
For our online portfolio project I plan on using Wetpaint Wiki because I do not
really have no experience in creating my own website. The only website I
created was an “Our Wedding” webpage for my wedding guests, but that does not
count.
Well I guess this concludes my “end of part 1”
blog, and now I am very optimistic to see what part two has in store for us!
