The Path to my Masters

I loved seeing the SLN curses as they brought back fond memories of my undergrad work at Oswego. I think they were easy to use and although very redundant in some cases, and I guess limiting, the discussion format was the easiest to follow I have seen. I actually used the link to Onondaga Community College to link up with their Director of On-line Curriculum; Pam Young-Maher, who was the one who got me interested in all this on-line stuff way back in 2004.

The one thing I have learned in every curriculum development course is that there is a process and it is time consuming. I have learned from previous co-students who think they could slap together something from a course they use in a classroom, that it often does not work. That is why I start from scratch each time. All three courses (which includes this one) have elements from each other, but are structurally different. That is because I have used the SLN format, WIKI and now Moodle. The first course I took was in 2004. A lot of research has gone on since and there are two major changes that have been proven and that is teacher presence and the tone of the classes. This is what I am reflecting on in this blog.

The first thing I read that I think is important and I think has changed for the better is the amount of time and involvement from the teacher. Personally, the more contact and interaction the teacher had with me and the rest of the class the better the class was in general. From taking the tours of the various courses in this module, you could tell that the teacher had a personal touch and would probably be very involved in their courses. I can remember courses that teacher did not participate in the discussion and I can remember being told by teachers not to expect it. As Scorza humorously describes the amounts of discussion reading a teacher may have to read and respond to can be over whelming and put a teacher off. That is what a student pays for and should expect, in my thinking.

And the second thing that I am pleased to see is that research is proving that the personal touch is also a good thing to have in an on-line class. The development of community is also enhanced when the teacher’s tone, language and examples all have a personal touch to them. As Scroza explains that it is a component that is difficult to inject and he quotes, Daniel Pink as saying, “Since empathy depends on emotion and since emotion is conveyed nonverbally, to enter into another’s heart, you must begin the journey by looking into his face” (Pink, 2005) I think that you can set a tone of nurturing and kindness, and build a rapport with your students and that is what I am strving for in my course. I can remember being chastised for using first person and now I see this is the preferred method of communication. As Alex discusses in the “A Series of Unfortunate Online Events and How to Avoid Them”, starting off with a “chatty voice” will encourage the student to reciprocate. Students will model what the teacher demonstrates including spelling, tone and time commitment.

One of the things I am already changing in my original plans is to simplify. I was planning on doing more modules and now I am going to do more in less modules. Setting up a class without a clear picture of the target audience is tricky. But as Scorza commented, “My thinking, as I recall, was that I needed to tell my students everything they needed to know about their assignments by answering every conceivable question in advance.” I thought that too, but now I see that fallacy in that is just like in a classroom. Although you cannot answer the questions as immediate as you can in f2f, you can and should plan on being available to answer questions somewhere and somehow and in different levels of privacy in the on-line class. Alex explains that you should plan out and prepare for questions as it is “easier and smoother” for the student if you do give clear and concise explanations. This I think evolves as the class is given and developed from usage.

The other thing that Scorza brings up is the idea of using rubrics. I hated creating them until I started teaching in a college where many of the students made whining an art form. They would go to the Dean and complain that so and so teacher was unfair, prejudice, didn’t like them, and so on. With a rubric, there is no discussion after the grade is assigned and even the pudding head Dean couldn’t fault me. I will incorporate one or two in this class.

My initial reaction to this course was to drop it, which is something I never have done. This module was so much better as it was not overwhelming…although there was a lot to do. I am amazed by the great tools Alex is showing us and using. I loved the Jing videos for setting up the first part of the class and I hope she uses them a lot. I do not see the use for me to use Twitter, but I have already used Jing at my job. The one thing that holds me up and has me worried is using these tools myself. I would like to use Breeze but I am not sure how to do that in this moodle course. So that is one of the tools I am going to experiment with.

Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind: Moving From the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. New

York: Penguin, 2005.