lifelong learning…

This week has been very motivating for me as I have worked to build the learning activities in my course. I have been using diigo so much more and and I think more effectively now that I am more secure in how to use it to share resources with the class. I think I have finally figured out how to tag and annotate my bookmarks, though I’m sure I will keep improving as I use it more and more. Diigo is really a cool tool, and so helpful when searching for links to add to my course. It’s so much easier to bookmark them in Diigo and pull up the sidebar to look at what I have to work with. I used to compile web resources in my word processor, and I had to move back and forth between documents all the time. Diigo eliminates that hassle!

What I did not know before is that I would agonize over the details of creating my learning activities and want to edit them constantly. I found myself thinking about how my original plan has morphed so much over the past weeks in this course and I am beginning to understand more and more how creating teaching presence is so important. I think that I am getting the hang of it, but I am worried about how the students are going to respond to one another. I know that everything takes time, and my first experience teaching an online course will be at a par with the students taking an online course for the first time. We’ll have to learn together.

In my course, I have been applying the ideas that learning is knowledge centered, learner centered and assessment centered. As I look over my course, I think that I have addressed all of these items and hope that I can find ways to continually improve my course design to make learning better for everyone. I have provided students with resources to learn, areas to discuss and interact and assessments to gague what they have learned. I have also tried to add a few new things like “choices” and tried to add a database, but couldn’t figure out how it worked. I don’t have much experience with wiki’s but think it would be fun to use in my Tone Color Module for students to create a database of instruments and their characteristics.

In presenting myself to the class in the online environment I have been trying to use emoticons and a conversational tone to communicate to students that I am a human with a sense of humor, just like them. I want to convey to students that I am here to help and willing to provide them with feedback. I am also encouraging students to review the work of their peers and provide feedback about how they can improve. I have created assessments that use rubrics, which I can use to grade them, and I also encourage students to check out their classmate’s assignments. In presentation of content, I am intersted in finding ways to imrpove my own presentation. I reviewed the art history course today and was inspired by the dialouge presented in the content section, but wondered to myself, “how much time did this person spend creating this document?” I just have to think that the finished product that I see is a reflection of constant revision and creativity. I’m sure what I see wasn’t developed in a few weeks.

I have been realizing more and more that as a learner I am very interested in facts and how to present them in a creative way. I also realized that I enjoy challenge and hope that what I have created in my course will be challeging enough for students in 6th grade. It’s sometimes hard to remember what it was like to be a learner at this age, and hopefully the way I present knowledge is at a level that students can understand. I also know that sometimes I need to be pushed a little and feel a bit of pressure to improve my own performance. As a musician I am always preparing for performances, and always feel that the performance was a big light at the end of the tunnel of preparation. My hope is that I can transfer this to thinking about assessments as performances and pace content in an organized way to lead students to the final goal.

What I have observed about myself during the completion of the learning activities in this course is that I can tend to be impatient with the CMS. It just seems to take so long to return to areas I am working in, and I get frustrated with the speed of it all, I want it to go FASTER! I also realized that I need to give myself more time to build the activities, and come to terms with the fact that what I create I am always going to want to edit and make better! I need to remember to give myself breaks and enough time to think about activities while I am building them so I can really think them through.

From the observations of myself, I am hoping that my students will give themselves enough time to really think about the information being presented to them and be disciplined enough to pace themsleves. I think that I have broken down my activities relatively well, but there is no telling how the students are going to respond until they are in the learning environment. I realize too that I need to be flexibly firm with students and allow them extra time if they need it, but within reason.

The most challenging thing for me in this course is managing my time wisely. I find that I am spending hours and hours each day on this course alone, 5 days a week. I know everyone is doing the same! I revisted the course information documents and noticed that we are expected to spend 144-150 hours on this course, which is a lot of time, but so worth it! I am so proud of my course so far and feel that the amount of time I have spent on it has challenged me to become a better teacher and student.

The most difficult and uncomfortable thing for me in this past week was trying to work through my course with the knowledge that my 38 year old cousin died of liver cancer on Monday morning. Everyone in my family found out only a week ago that she had 3-6 weeks to live…she only lasted one week. She also has a 13 month old baby. This was one of the most shocking events of my life. I was close with her, she groomed my dogs and I talked with her often. So, needless to say, I know this is a very personal thing, that perhaps I shouldn’t share here, but it made it difficult for me to focus on developing my course. My thoughts kept getting the best of me and I had to take a few breaks to refocus. This experience has showed me that if you set your mind to something, you can get through it. Sometimes a committment, like being in online courses, or a job can help get you through a traumatic experiene.

I am a student in a Moodle course, and I am creating a course in Moodle, so being a student in this course has really helped shape the way I structure the learning activities. It is also nice to be able to think about how I want to structure something and then notice that in the course, the instructor has already decide to use a similar format. I think that I am sometimes unconsciously influenced by Alex in how she sets up the Modules. As I looked at my course today, and went back to look at the discussions in Alex’s, I noticed that I have followed a very similar structure in organizing learning activities. I also think about how much time and effort went into constantly revising and editing the ETAP course. There is so much information in there, and Alex even developed multiple Breeze presentaions and screen casts, which must take so many more hours. I am in awe of how she is able to pace herself as she is assessing us and giving us feedback. How does she have the time to make this course so awesome and still interact with her family? I am still learning so much, and this is proving to be one of the most rewarding educational experiences I have ever encountered.

BTW Alex- Thanks for sharing the personal pics in your blog. It’s so nice to be able to see you with your family, friends and doggies! You certainly know how to enhance your presence in this course.

Thanks for reading!

-Aubrey (4)