The first course in the program is winding down. The fourth week was tough for a few reasons. It was a little difficult to figure out exactly what we needed to do. It seemed like a busy week and at the same time I think I wanted to make some headway on the final project. One of the assignments was supposed to be brainstormed among the group, but after the prior week's group project it seemed difficult to connect with the group. We all shared a bit of difficutly getting moving on the fourth week's assignments. The group work (brainstorming) for week was a little vague. I think it made obvious for me the fact that it is very important to have a concrete assignment in order for proper collaboration to occur. In this case, it became easier to just bounce a few cursory ideas around and then do the assignment individually. Early in the week we were informed that it was ok to do that, so I think most people in the class took that direction. I do appreciate that we were put 'at ease' regarding the group requirement for this week's assignment.


At first, I was unclear about the expectations for the first assignment of the week (looking at how we would address an accessibility issue). Interestingly, one classmate posted her assignment early. I believe that she set the bar (at least for me) a little higher than I might have without her example. This was a good thing. I found that I put MUCH greater effort into that assignment as a result. In fact, afterwards I felt fortunate that I learned more than I think I would have set out to otherwise :) This is an interesting aspect of posting work in a forum. You can't help but to raise your own expectations if someone else posts something worthwhile. Thanks, Simone :)

On a similar note, for this upcoming week and the final project, I appreciate that an exemplary paper was posted. This provides a nice example of what is expected and also something to strive for.

Week 5 here I come! Looking forward to finishing this class and starting the next!

Another day in my 'classroom'. Today I was able to drop the kids off with my mom in order to allow for about 4 hours of supposed concentrated study time here at Atlanta Bread. Thank goodness for wi-fi. I will be honest in saying that I was very open to distractions including instant messaging (luckily I don't have too many friends that use AIM!) and music. Music might not count as a distraction as I think it helps block out some of the other distractions here in a public place. Music is quite a welcome distraction. I listened to some Rusted Root and Dark Star Orchestra. What a treat!

I do enjoy sitting in this environment to do my work. I believe I was productive. I read an article related to my group project and wrote my piece to contribute to the group. I posted that in our group discussion area. I am rather insecure, however, and hope that I 'did it right' and 'didn't leave out anything important'. I guess that's par for the course in a class. I really do love feedback. One thing I am learning is the importance of timely feedback. I am not as good as I would like to be with getting work back to my students in my face-to-face courses and imagine it is at least as hard to keep up with grading material for an online course.

Our instructor did give us a frame of reference for when we should expect our grades for our first assignment. I believe it is important to communicate such infrormation. I will be sure to learn from her lead (Thanks, Anne!).

In addition to the work on my group project, I managed to post the remaining required posts to date in the discussion boards. I am relieved as I feel like I am up to date.

Hopefully the group project will continue to move forward as my two group mates (who are great!) are in charge of synthesizing and editing the information from this point. I imagine I will still support them and read over the draft before it is submitted.

Well, off to meet the parents and my lovely little ones for dinner!

Goodbye for now.

Threads, Threads, Threads...

Our online course uses blackboard, which has a rather robust treaded discussion feature. Recently, we had an exercise that involved exploring the numerous features available in the threaded discussions. I was not aware of the 'collect' feature which is available. I found this most useful to read through everyone's responses on one screen. I often find forums to be overwhelming when you look and at a glance see all of the discussions and replies together. In order to avoid this, I chose to collapse all so that I only saw the individual responses without the replies. Right off the bat, this made the discussion seem more manageable. I then chose to collect all of these in order to view them all together. This allowed me to read everyone's initial reply and more easily choose which ones to respond to. This feature is wonderful.

As a student, I will continue to first view the collapsed view (to reduce the anxiety!). I will continue to use the collect feature in order to select and view the desired content. I also see the value in selecting a response with all the replies and collecting them in order to follow complete discussion.

As an online instructor, I will be ensure that students understand and use these features effectively. Prior to using them, the overwhelming nature of discussion threads seems to lead a student to neglect entire discussions. In addition, I will be sure to be very clear with students regarding my expectations with regard to the online discussions. I will provide guidelines regarding posting and replying in order to foster communication and collaboration while demonstrating proper writing style and adhering to appropriate netiquette.

By the way, now that I have become more aware of the potential pitfalls, I was a bit more careful with regard to editing my writing. I must have fixed ten typos in this post. Those are just the ones I caught. Forgive me if a few were overlooked.

Frustrations of an online learner...

Today is supposed to be my day to dedicate the entire afternoon / evening to my online coursework. However, due to a family emergency, my mom (the babysitter) cannot come to watch our two daughters tonight. So... I am entirely committed to spending my entire day working on the course. However, due to the supposed flexibility of the online learner, it is me who will have to pick up the slack. My wife is in the alternate route teaching program, which is a face to face course. It is harder for her to miss that than for me to try to rearrange things to be the one to accomodate the scheduling needs. I am not trying to sound resentful. I am just feeling frustrated as I know how important this time is for me to study, but having some 'flexibility' might just be a terrible thing!

I think I have figured things out to accomodate to a point, but it is certainly not ideal. I'll spend my afternoon with the kids (things could be much worse than that :) ) and when my wife gets home I will leave in order to salvage the later part of the evening (i'm a big fan of sleep, so starting at 8:30 or 9:00 pm at night doesn't really give me much time when I have to get up at 5:30 am). However, I will be able to attend the online chat and do a little work.

Part of the frustration is this...

In the online course, I notice that people start reading / posting right away. I find it very difficult to 'catch up' if I post my initial thoughts late in the process and still have to respond to everyone's posts. It makes me feel like I am very far behind before I even start.

Well, that's certainly what's going on for this online learner at the moment.