Week 3 of Cedo 550

For the second half of this class, I will be acting as a Facilitator/Teacher. We were asked what challenges we see we will have as an online teacher.   I have not been an online teacher to this point.  However, I think a huge challenge will be to read all of the postings and assignments the students submit.  As I have been working as an online student, I have submitted a lot of ideas in each of my classes.  I can only imagine what it is like for the instructor to go through all of the comments.  I would want to designate a large amount of time in order to give quality feedback to my students.  

During class we were discussing facilitating asynchronous and synchronous discussions.  When posting an asynchronous discussion, I want to make sure that the questions that I post are clear and concise and my students will understand what is exactly expected of them to share.  As for the synchronous discussions I will be facilitating in the future, I think that the questions I ask as well as my ability to quickly react to anything that is brought up will be a challenge when I first do this.  As with anything, I belive I will get better at it as I do it more.  However, the first time doing this will probably be harder than I anticipate. We were given the option of what topic we would like to teach in our synchronous discussion.  I picked "The qualities of a successful online student" because it fits very well into what my class and I have been doing the past year.  I think it is a topic that will generate a lot of good discussion and opinions. I am looking forward to holding my first online teaching experience.  I am nervous, but I think this will be a great opportunity to practice and see if teaching online is something I would like to do in the future.

Week 2 of Cedo 550

This week, I got the opportunity to see what it feels like to be the facilitator and reporter of an online class.  It was intense yet enjoyable to take the role as the teacher in the online class setting.  I learned that you have to be on your feet and know how to direct the class and keep them interested.  I also discovered the importance of asking open ended questions that can get a dialague going. 

As a class, we also looked into some of the facilitation skills that are necessary to carry out a successful class.  I will make sure that I include as many students as possible in a web conference.  It is important to get various viewpoints shared and it helps the class open up when you have many opinions to work off of. 

Another important point to remember is the vvalue of a proper initial contact.  When starting an online class, I will always make an email invitation that is clear, precise, and provides a warm welcome to the class. 

Overall, this week seemed to be of real value to me.  I'm not sure if I will every teach an online class, but the tools provided the past week have helped me feel I could do it if it is something I do end up doing during my career. 

Week 1 of CeDO 550

This week I started a new course called Online Faciliation.  During this course I will be learning about instruction classes online.  I am excited about this opportunity because it will give me yet more tools that I can use after I am done with this program.  The first activity we did this week was too look at the positives and negatives of online education through the eyes of parents, teachers and students.  There is a lot to take into consideration for each of these groups of people.  Cost and quality of instruction are very important to parents.  Students are looking for flexibility in their schedules, but also looking for classes that are interesting and interactive.  Teachers tend to spend a lot of their day working as an online instructor, but they can do it with a flexibility that they do not have when teaching in a typical brick and mortar building.

We also looked at online tools that can be used with our students.  There really are a countless amount of activities available for use, but I found that you need to study them closely and see if they fit well with what you are trying to do in your class.  It does take time to figure out what activities should be used and when you will use them.

Overall, I enjoyed this first week of class and felt I gained some useful tools that I could use in my current classes I teach as well as some tools that may benefit me in the future.

Week 6 of Cedo 535

The item that I have decided to use fully in my professional life is a class wiki.  I am going on my 3rd week of using this now, and it is working very well.  The students can easily access this and enjoy having a centralized place were they can see what we have been doing in class and have the opportunity to edit any information they feel needs to be changed.  Since I have already started to incorporate this in my classroom, it is very easy to measure how well it is working for me.  I can look at all of the edits made by the students and figure out how much participation the students are having within the wiki.  I feel that this experiment will turn into something I use as a full time tool not just in my current Civics class, but in other classes I teach in the future.  It really does make teaching easier and learning for the students a more interactive task.

Week 5 of Cedo 535

This week, I started a Wiki and used Eyejot with my Civics class.  My wiki coincides with the work that my students are doing in class.  After a week of using it, I would say it has been a success.  The students have enjoyed entering their thoughts and what they have found for their assignments.  I have seen a lot of great collaboration with the students and they have done a fine job of fixing mistakes that students have entered in the wiki.  It really has helped take my class to another level of thinking.  I now plan to use this wiki for the rest of the year and years to follow.  I would also like to start a wiki for other classes I teach.

Eyejot has been really fun.  I have sent two Eyejot messages to my students the past week and posted them on Facebook.  The messages relate to our topic in class The Articles of Confederation.  I have got positive responses from my students.  They said it's fun and also makes them think more when they can see and hear me on the computer asking them about what we are learning in class.  Eyejot is yet another great tool that I wish I had years ago.  It's so easy, yet so useful!

I really can't believe this class is almost over.  We have gone through five weeks already and learned a ton.  I think this class has been one of my most beneficial in the whole program up to this date.  I look forward the last week and any new tools that I will be learning about.

Week 4 of Cedo 535

This week we had to work on a podcast or screencast.  As decided to do a podcast using a site called Eyejot.  Eyejot is very easy to use and is free.  It's a great way to record your self as a video message and either send that message to someone via email or post it somewhere someone can see.  As I was doing this, I came up with a great idea.  I currently have a Facebook page for two of my classes.  I typically post questions on the page for students to answer.  I think I'm going to try to post some Eyejot messages that the students can watch then respond to.  This may be more interesting for some of the kids rather than just responding to some written questions.  They seem to like to see me on video when I share videos of me in class, so this may be a way of extending their learning.  I will have to try this and update at a future time.

Week 3 of CeDO 535

I have really enjoyed the topics we have been exploring in this course.  This week is no exception.  The two major topics we were investigating this week were RSS feeds and Photo sharing sites.  I made my first Google Reader to collected RSS feeds from various websites.  I wish I had known about this earlier, it really is neat and useful.  It basically collects information from sites you subscribe to and sends it to you.  This eliminates the need for you to go out and look for the information.  It's like email for web information.  I can see my self continually using this for my personal and professional life. 

I also added photos to my Flickr account.  I actually did have a Flickr account set up from a few years ago, but never used it.  I now have added more pictures and can share those pictures with others.  I'm not sure if I will use it more, but I may.  At this point, I do put all my photos on Facebook and share them with my friends there.  I also back up my computer with Mozy, so I will have to see if I will use Flickr more or not. 

Overall, this week has been interesting and I am looking forward to the second half of this class!