It is an interesting
choice to start a blog. What do you talk about? Who do you seek input
from? Will it have a driving purpose or just be a realm for your brain to
expound upon the world that you live in? Today, my choice to start a
blog has been facilitated by my online course "Facilitating Online
Learning Communities." Which
proves that my best motivator is apparently necessity.
Today's
topic is: Online Learning
Recently I have begun
teaching a computer applications class and because I was sitting in a room full
of internet connected computers I thought it would be a great idea to
incorporate that Internet access into the course. So, without much thought, and barely any
effort I jumped through a couple of hoops and voilà, a blended classroom.
It has been an up and
down process with A LOT of learning do's and don'ts, but in the end I have
started to discover the magic that is a blended classroom. I suppose, if we are lucky, we learn from our
past experiences and make the future better than the past. While I haven't spent much time as an online
learner I have had a couple of experiences that have shaped what I would like to
see in the future of my online classes. So
that leads me to ask: "How
will my past experiences with online learning impact the goals that I have for
future students?"
First, we all seem ill
prepared for this journey we find ourselves on and when I started taking online
classes I was as lost as one could get.
For my future students, I would like to ensure that they are at least aware
of the path they have chosen. Ideally, I
will be able to give them a clear map that shows them the way through their process
of learning, along with a realistic image of what the class is going to take in
order to be successful.
I would also like my
online classroom to contain the same open and welcoming feeling that my brick
and mortar classroom has. My biggest fear is that I will lose someone in the
cracks of cyberspace. My students need
to feel free to ask any question and know that we will work together to ensure
that we all can leave the class feeling that it was time well spent.
Then I wonder "How do you engage students effectively in their
online learning?"
When I
think about online learning I feel that it would be a mistake to attempt to make
it altogether the same experience as one gets in a brick and mortar
classroom. To that end, I find that I
spend a great deal of time re-working lessons, not just digitizing them. This extra effort is needed to ensure that the
students in my online classroom are able to maximize the positive aspects of this
online world without me trying to force the class experience into the square
peg hole of an on campus education.
Additionally, great care
is needed when communicating with the students as they take the class. Online discussions are often like trying to
feed a wild animal in that you will need good plan, a bit of practice, and a
little luck to keep the experience working.
Oh, you don't believe in
luck? Well, I hear fortune favors the
prepared. So I ponder, "What might be the most challenging aspect
of online/blended teaching?" So much of the communications that we do with
each other are face-to-face, so how does a teacher "stare down" a
disruptive student when the student cannot see you? How do you anticipate the needs of a class when you never really have a "feel" for who they are? I see nothing but problems when I think about
the future of online classes, but I am not discouraged. I will meet these challenges head on, work
through the murky problems and ferret out solutions that might even shock myself. However, the best solution that I have for
problems will be talking with my peers, taking more online classes myself, and continuing
to perfect my teaching skills both virtually and in the real world.
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