Module 8 - E-Learning for Educators

Writer’s block…..UGH!!....What can I write about accessibility? Yes, I think all education should be accessible to students, but how can I find time to make my courses more accessible?  My biggest frustration in my new position is the lack of time I have to improve my courses or make any changes.  I feel like I am not teaching to my fullest potential.  By having to teach 7, 3 credit transferable courses, I can barely keep up with the grading and prepping.  I want to use more universal design in my courses, but I have only been able to add one or two things here and there.  I wish I had one whole semester to devote to upgrading all of my courses to reflect additional universal design principles.

I have really enjoyed this course and have learned many, many news things.  I thought it was enlightening to be able to discuss academic learning concepts again.  I thought it was uplifting to be able to discuss education concepts with other educator’s at all levels of education. 

My biggest regret was not having more time to participate in more discussions and more time to write in my journal.  I wish I could have included more ideas in my journal as they came to me during course readings and/or when completing various course projects.  Next time, I am going to carry a small paper journal with me to jot down notes when they pop into my brain.  This semester I made the mistake of thinking I could remember my ideas until the end of the week, but by that time, they had already drifted off into la la land!

I wanted to do more and read more about the topics presented.  I am hoping that I will have the opportunity to focus more on my studies when I take the second course in the E-Learning certificate series this summer.

Until then, I bid you adieu! See you all next summer!

Module 7 - E-Learning for Educators

E-portfolios!

I am excited to start working on my e-folio. I enjoy creating e-folios, but the problem for me is I can easily get sucked into spending hours designing and adding information to the e-folio! Hopefully, I can remain aware of the time!

I had my students at Augsburg College create online e-portfolios in my Business and Professional Speaking class. Learning the MN e-folio program was very frustrating for students at first, but once students understood the software, it became easy and fun! The programs can be frustrating to learn because the format of the e-folio requires students to think about information in a different manner.

I am planning on adding on to my current employment e-folio and will add a section specifically devoted to online teaching. I want to maintain the integrity of the original portfolio and expand it to allow potential future employers to view my online teaching tools. I want to group the tools by categories versus classes.

I really do not have much more to say this week. Besides, I better get to work!! E-folio here I come!!

Module 6 - E-Learning for Educators

Thoughts on Building a Customized Search Engine.........
Although we only needed to post a revised bio for this week's reflection, I still wanted to jot down some thoughts I had regarding the customized search engine assignment. 

One of the biggest struggles for an educator in the information age is instilling critical thinking in students.  A large portion of my job is to teach students to be credible writers and speakers.  This is not an easy task! 

As an instructor, it seems students only want to search the Internet for information because this method of research “seems” easy.  Yet, in reality, searching the Internet is much harder than searching an online database or perusing through books because then you need to sift through mountains of online un-credible information.  I want students to learn how to effectively mine data.  If I give them only credible sources in a customized search engine, how will they learn to know the difference between accurate and inaccurate information?  Students need to have practice viewing and sifting through both sources of data.  I need to teach them the tools to quickly filter out the junk and find the diamonds in the rough.  Although, I think the search engine would not work well for my instructional purposes, I do believe that creating a customized search engine would work well in an elementary classroom setting.

I really enjoyed creating a customized search engine.  The CSE was easy to create and fun!  Now, if only I could think of a way to include it in my courses…..Hmmmm……

My e-folio biography 2nd draft.....


Welcome to my electronic portfolio!

I am currently an enthusiastic instructor who strives to use industry experiences to reinforce communication theories in both the face to face and online classroom environments.  I have had the privilege to work with over 1,000 students and watch them develop as proficient orators and writers. To aid in the students’ progression, I incorporate innovative technology to assess student academic achievement and deliver interactive curriculum.

Furthermore, I have had the opportunity to teach diverse student populations in various instructional formats. I continue to instruct first generation students, non-traditional adult learners, students with learning disabilities, and students from across the globe for which, English is a second language.

I have created this portfolio to allow potential employers the ability to review my career goals, view past course syllabi, and to experience the educational technological tools utilized in my classroom.


Thank you for visiting!

Module 5 - E-Learning for Educators

Self-paced learning…..Boy, what can I say about self-paced learning?

When do I like self-paced learning?

I adore self-paced learning when it comes to learning new hobbies and participating in leisure time interests.  I like being able to log onto YouTube, watch a video, and try a technique by myself.  This type of self-paced learning allows me to make mistakes without fear of any judgment from others.  I can complete the task at my own pace and try, try again if I fail.  Yet, this technique does not allow me to ask questions and receive valuable feedback.  Therefore, this style of self-paced learning can cause some frustration and the lack of a perfectly polished project. 

When do I not like self-paced learning?

I am not a huge fan of self-paced learning when I am completing new employee training at work.  I intensely dislike watching safety videos and then completing quizzes to make sure I learned the information.  Completing these self-paced learning exercises is like watching paint dry on a hot, humid Wisconsin day in July: Slow and boring!    

As a student, self-paced learning seems to take vast amounts of time and I just want to get right to the point!  I find myself wanting to always take the easy route with this style of learning.  I want to speed through the information and just get to the test.  The problem with rushing through the information is that I am not taking the time to comprehend and retain the information being presented.  Watch out!!  I might be very unsafe in the workplace!  Don’t call me if there is a chemical spill!   

Self-paced learning can seem very boring because of the lack of interaction with other humans.  As a communication scholar, I am a huge fan of discussing ideas, roadblocks, and theories (or perhaps, this is my preferred auditory learning style shining through).  As a student, I feel that this type of learning can be devoid of meaningful interaction.      

A self-paced learning program lacks the ability to receive immediate answers to questions so frustration for students can run very high.  If you become frustrated, it is easy to stop learning and walk away.  When completing the information fluency self-paced learning activity, this style of learning did cause me aggravation because I was unable to get the function to access the list of external links to work.  I tried 4 different web browsers to no avail!  I tried both techniques listed in the first aid kit.  Finally, I closed the program and walked away.  When I returned a day later, I was still unable to complete the task, thus, I gave up and kept moving forward with the lesson.  Then, when the test rolled around, I still could not get this function to work, so consequently my grade was lowered.  Was taking the exam an accurate assessment of my learning?  Hmm…….

Perhaps, I was too stubborn, lazy, apathetic, and at a loss for time to go a step further to contact someone for help.  I would have liked to have had been able to view a screen shot or a video tutorial to assist me with how to perform the external links function.  I think that this could be helpful for students.

I do like the interactive style of this self-paced learning module for assessing the credibility of web sites.  I think this exercise would be fabulous for my students to complete.  I actually did learn many things that I had not known before.  Since this self-paced learning was more interactive than the self-paced safety learning I have done in the past, I do see the value in this tool.  If educators take an interactive, kinesthetic approach to self-paced learning, then I believe that students will be able to learn effectively from this method.  If instructors create static, passive self-learning modules, then students may succumb to the frustration and not learn the needed skills. 

Module 4 - E-Learning for Educators

Did I achieve my learning objectives this week? If yes, what did I achieve?
Creating the online quiz was interesting and is an essential online assessment tool.  I was glad we had the opportunity to create a quiz or survey.  I have created surveys in D2L in the past, but have not used this tool in Moodle before. 

I believe I achieved my objective, even though I took a mini-detour.  At first, I was unsure if I wanted to put together a survey or a quiz.  My first thought was to create a survey.  Then, as I was constructing the survey, I changed my mind and decided to do a quiz.  Unfortunately, I forgot to back all of the way out of the creation menu and start over.

I am glad that Anna alerted me that I had created the wrong assessment tool before the end of the week so I could correct my error.  Thanks Anna!

Module 3 - E-Learning for Educators

Did I see myself as an active member of the group? 
Facilitating my own discussion was a bit of a balancing act.  I did not want to respond immediately to every student’s posting because I wanted them to comment on each other’s postings or ideas.  I felt as though some students in this course may have felt that they needed to immediately respond to each posting and I think that this can curtail the interdependence of students in the group discussion.  Therefore, I did not want to be overly responsive, but also did not want to seem like I was ignoring my forum. 

I think I may have also posed a difficult question for students to answer and that might have curtailed some discussion.  I really wanted to push other students in this course to think on a philosophical level about education.  

I enjoyed facilitating discussion immensely!  I am looking forward to implementing online discussions in my Oral/Interpersonal Communication course.  Instead of having students complete a 2 to 4 page reflection paper, I am going to have them participate in 2 or 3 online discussions about their readings instead.

I really appreciated the great links to web sites about creating effective discussion questions.  These links are very helpful and I will continue to utilize the information in the future!    

How well did I participate in this week's discussion? Am I satisfied with my level and quality of participation?
I felt I improved my participation this week and did a better job of posting throughout the week.  I think this has been a struggle for me since my workweek is so uneven, with the majority of my hours being worked in the beginning of the week.  

Module 2 - E-Learning for Educators

What did I learn about my own learning process during this module?

I went home sick yesterday from work and I still feel horrible today. UGH!  Teaching seven classes this semester and taking this graduate course have already begun to take a toll on my health.  On a more positive note, I think I am finally getting the hang of this course!  I am feeling better about my online class today!  Too bad my body does not feel the same way!

I am really enjoying the discussion on introverts and extroverts.  I am fascinated by the analysis of others and I feel like I am starting to find my way.  I am very excited that I have that graduate school ‘itch’ to learn back in my blood and that the discussions have gotten deeper.   

In the article, Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace, I just learned on pg. 22 why it is I struggle with the reflection or discussion part of online learning.  I am an extrovert therefore; it feels more difficult to communicate in an online discussion.  For me, online discussion feels like a lot of unnecessary extra effort, whereas, I am sure for an introvert CMM must feel freeing.  For me, CMM feels constraining.  As an extrovert, I want to be a part of all of the course conversations in an online environment, participating in all discussions is not feasible.

In the Paloff and Pratt article, pg. 27, the authors’ state that people are more likely to be “freer” to enter into conflict in an online environment because of the lack of nonverbal communication with others, yet, I disagree.  For me, I feel I am less likely to be free about my feelings as I realize that the information I am writing could be come public information at any time.  Written e-mails or electronic discussions postings could easily be forwarded to anyone.  Then the potential “hurtful” communication is set in stone and can be distributed to others for interpretation.  In an online environment, which lacks non-verbal communication, my written thoughts, ideas or comments have the strong potential be taken out of context.  The intention of the message could easily be misconstrued.   

Personally, I am much more likely to be engaging in conflict in a face-to-face environment.  I am much less likely to confront someone using an online medium because of the ability to save, reproduce or disseminate my words.  Thus, I would argue that some online community members might be more apt to avoid conflict versus engage in conflict.  I have no doubt that

Did I see myself as an active member of the group?

I feel like I am missing out on several valuable conversations by not reading all of the postings.  Yet, I know I do not have time to read all of them.  I wish I had more time to read more of the postings and be a more of an active member of the group.  How do I know which postings to read or not read?  How do I regulate my time in this learning environment to get the most out of the course?  

WEB 2.0?? Said What?

Wow!  Where have I been!!!  I had no clue there were so many great resources out there for instructors.  I can’t wait to explore these programs during the summer to see which programs I can incorporate into my courses.

I have a few concerns and questions about Web 2.0 online tools though.  How ‘safe’ are the Web 2.0 free resources from viruses?  How secure and safe is my personal information?  How safe and secure is my content?  Have there been any concerns about intellectual property rights with any Web 2.0 software companies?  What happens if the Web 2.0 software company decides to close up shop, then what happens to all of the content that I built into their program?    

I found some great Web 2.0 tools on my Google Chrome account.  The only bad thing is that many of the programs that do look useful, also cost money.  Bummer!

P.S. LOVIN’ Diigo!  This cloud sharing web tool will be great to share with other instructors.  I have a Drop box account where other communication colleagues and I share syllabi, assignments, and activities.  From time to time, we share web links.  I think this would be a much easier way to share web links with other colleagues!  I could also incorporate Diigo into my online courses.  Students could share resources as they do research on their speech topics or research papers with other students.  Thanks for sharing Dennis!

P.P.S.  A short question about online communities.....

Dennis is there a different sense of community for each online class like there is in a traditional classroom?  Does each class have its own personality or culture?

Module 1 - E-Learning for Educators

Let the online learning adventure begin!! 

This is only week one of my E-Learning for Educator's course and I have already learned many, many valuable lessons! 


How did my thinking about teaching change this week?

I am surprised by the instant level of frustration that I experienced as a new student to online learning.  I can imagine this is how many of online students feel during the first week of classes since they are unsure what to expect from the course or the instructor.  Students may feel very disorientated and will have to re-arrange the way they learn and THINK!  I wish I had had this experience when I was an academic advisor and recruiter so that I could have advised new students about this possible reorientation to the learning process.  This changed my thinking about teaching online in that I will need to account for and expect a certain level of frustration the first week of an online course.

Although I was not partial to filling out the module one self-evaluation survey, I do believe it is a great educational exercise for instructors. This activity forced students to deeply reflect and evaluate their own work.  Furthermore, this exercise provides educators with additional practice at accurately assessing online discussions.  Unfortunately, by the time I had reached this activity for the week, I was totally exhausted. 

I learned from the self-evaluation survey that I was missing key elements in my primary and response postings.  I will adjust my responses for next week.  I appreciated this learning experience because I realized I did not read all of the instructions correctly.  I hoping this exercise will have given me the ability to improve my grade next week. 

What did I learn about my own learning process during this module?

I know that graduate classes are very time consuming, but I am not used to having to type everything I am thinking in a discussion.  Typing my thoughts takes much longer because I have to spend additional time editing my written work.  When taking face-to-face graduate courses, I was able to instantly vocalize my insight and ideas from the course readings, which seems to be less time consuming.  Although this is only week one, I miss the instant idea generation and feedback from other graduate students that I enjoyed in my master’s program. 

I feel like the discussions I am having with students online are only occurring in my inner self and it is a bit weird that I am not actually hearing peoples’ real voices.  I am missing the non-verbal communication and vocal inflections I usually rely on. 

Today, I feel like I want to quit, give up and wait until summer to take a graduate course.  Perhaps, next week will get better!