Part Deaux is Done!

Another step taken in the life of a prospective online teacher. Before I begin, I must say that I am enjoying this journey immensely! There are not too many things that I can point to in my life where I can say that I worked my butt off and enjoyed the process. But I have always enjoyed gaining knowledge through many portals during my life. The internet is the Wild West to me, a vast land of unexplored territory. My venture into this No Man's Land of virtual reality has helped me gain insight, taught me a few lessons about 'territories' that I shouldn't venture into, and made me a better researcher. For this today, I'm grateful.

In class we pedagogy and pedagogical roles. I know that for myself, I cannot read anything online that lasts longer then three pages. I also appreciate how I have been challenged in these courses. I found out that I learn through many different means and this has heightened my information-seeking and information-acquisition to higher levels. I found out that I really learn via a plethora of styles. These are two things that I believe that I will need to be aware of with my students. Finally there was a nice article about using games in the classroom. Although not a big lover of online games, I found out that students do learn and enjoy learning by playing games. As with all learning and discovering how people learn, I have an open mind for all pedagogical styles.

Interesting discussions evolved about how community plays a role in the online environment. In my field, there is very little opportunities for a new student as there is very little online classes for the new provider. The community that plays a vital role for those seeking online education are those already practicing in the field. But even there, the opportunities are limited. For those on a fire department, the community exists solely for the members of the department. Otherwise people would have to seek out teachers who blog or create educational venues on social networking sites. As we discovered, social networking play a vital role in the online setting. Twitter can be used to send messages to students, provide up-to-date adjunct resources for discussion on the class blog, or even get a discussion going as a topic is presented in a tweet. Chat groups or rooms can be set up in Facebook or Yahoo groups as a means of informal discussion and sharing. Blogs and social networking that is subject-related can be constructed on Ning. Social networking is here to stay for a long time and is the future of education.

Ice breakers is a great way to get the class talking and can introduce themselves to the other class members. Some creative ideas are to tell the class the name of your favorite book, story, song, etc ... and say how it relates to the class. Or a short biography with a picture saying why you are taking the class.

Many aspects of the class must be developed and formulated prior to the class starting. The syllabus, clearly communicated expectations, the class calendar, options for help that the school offers, a welcoming page are some of the necessary tasks that the instructor needs to complete prior to the class starting. Also what is needed the course content. It here that the teacher provides reading and /or resources for the students. What both the teacher and the student should do is save or bookmark these web pages for future references in an online warehouse like Delicious or Diigo. That way in the future both can retrieve these if necessary or needed.

We talked about course management and the key components of it. Grading tools, rubrics, and most of all clear, concise, non-ambiguous communication. These was a resounding echo among my peers, as they felt that a student could fall quickly behind and not be able to catch up if they were lost due to communication errors. We stressed the importance of not only the teacher communicating the message timely and distinctly but also the student should do likewise.

Lastly we took a look at a typical day in the life of an online teacher. A lot of my peers felt that taking a day off from the computer is necessary for good mental health. I agree but I also stated that a new online teacher must, at first, get the feel of the ebb and flow of the class so that he or she can feel comfortable with their skills. Also we talked about timeliness and when should a teacher respond with a graded assignment. It was stated that we all enjoy and expect our feedback as soon as possible but also understand that some projects take longer than others, so patience is needed. As a class we also agreed that when we become only teachers, we must show our students the same courtesy.

On a final note, I co-facilitated my first synchronous and asynchronous classes. It was an fun experience for me! I felt that I did well but most of all I enjoyed the process. I had technical challenges because of browser issues but I sought out the help that I needed and they were resolved. The live classroom was engaging as my 'partners in crime' talked a lot as I just threw questions out there for discussion. I think that I had my first encounter with how facilitation really works!