reflections....

This final week has really given me an opportunity to revisit my own style as an online instructor. The idea of having a voice as well as being a cybercoach sort of has me really excited. This is a chance to look at my best qualities as a f2f instructor and really examine available tools for ways to translate those strengths into an online environment. It's also giving me the chance to examine my own educational bias and stereotypes in terms of learning styles and modalities. It's strange that as an honor student in high school I could be so effective teaching learning disabled students. I don't think that this dichotomy of opposites holds true for me in terms of learning style and multiple intelligences. As a verbal learner I have a very difficult time adjusting for the kinesthetic mode. I also have a difficult time including the more physical level of multiple intelligences and so probably don't balance my own lessons as much as is needed by my students. It gives me a lot to think about.

Ongoing projects...

This week has been very informative. The opportunity to see a wide array of applications of different tools is really invaluable for any teacher. You do not always have the time to fully explore a tool and examine all of its unique potential for your classroom situation and consequently might overlook using a particular tool. This exploration of other students' outlines has given me an opportunity to see how certain tools not only fit certain functions but could also be adapted so that I could use them. A second benefit to this week's work on the course outline has been that I receieved authentic feedback to help guide me in creting my own plan. The questions asked by my fellow classmates really made me stop and analyze the elements in my porject again. I am thankful to have the chance to see my work through someone else's eyes. Things that seem obvious to me may have been muddy and unclear to others and this preliminary work has provided a new chance for peer editing in a virtual environment. Now that I connect those points, a little light bulb has gone off in my head:) This same technique could be used in a virtual classroom to teach and practice the skill of peer editing within the writing workshop model. I can transfer the model we are practicing with very easily into a classs I could teach. Practical, applicable, and enlighteninging all at the same time!!

Cybercoaching

In thinking about the model of cybercoaching, with its emphasis on guidance and support for individual efforts, I am remindered of a concept that I knew more than 30 years ago. Teaching is an ART and not a SCIENCE. We have all had teachers who were considered world class experts in the subject area. They may, however, have been horrible teachers. Just because you are erudite in a particular area of expertise does not automatically mean that you can transmit that knowledge and those competencies to others. Hence teaching becomes an art. If it were a science anyone could merely follow a recipe and be a great teacher. This is not the case. Instead there is an ability to make a real genuine supportive human connection that transcends the art of teaching. Many of the qualities of a cybercoach serve to make those connections. Whether a teacher is in a f2f class or online, the connection can be made. The tools and strategies might need to be varied because of the environment but the objective of the process is the same.

There is a HUGE distinction between a trainer, and instructor, both of which by definition imply the transfer of knowledge on the lower end of Bloom's Taxonomy scale. The difference between these and a teacher and finally an educator are vast. To me an educator deals with the student as a whole person bringing a unique set of prior experiences to the learning environment. An educator seeks to help students develop analytical and critical thinking skills at the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. This is similar to an integrative doctor who deals with mental, emotional,spiritual, and physical elements of a patient. Contrast this to a specialist who might say the patient is fine because one sytem, his specialty, is fine. "This patient has no heart disease and so is healthy." This said despite a cancer eating away the patient's liver. When we wear blinders, not matter our occupation, we miss vital elements and so any true professional seeks to expand his/her vision. This is what an educator does by assessing a student's prior knowledge and then analyzing how to get from there to the class objectives.

Midterm Reflection

After taking quite a few online courses I am forced to reflect on the role of collaborative activities. In a F2F classroom such activities are quickly and relatively easily organized first by the instructor and then by the student participants. It is then relatively simple to monitor performance and achievement within collaborative groups as the instructor can circulate or even observe from within the class and evaluate the working process of any group or even any individual student. But in translating the collaborative process into an online environment there are a number of drawbacks and pitfalls. Depending on the available tools the instructor may not know of problems until long after they arise. For the student, or at least for me as a student, both synchronous and asynchronous formats are difficult.

Synchronous chats can be especially difficult to arrange if students are spread over a wide geographic terrain, i.e. our upcoming Breeze session. Furthermore synchronous sessions must deal with the material at the most basic level to accomodate beginning students. This is extremely frustrating for learners with some background. The tendency to withdraw and not comment also becomes an issue, much as it could in a F2F class. Asynchronous tools are more immediate for each individual but there may often be a lag in responses from all students, particularly when using an e-mail based communication system. All of these drawbacks lead to what seems to almost be inevitable, some form of gap in communication or misunderstanding that takes valuable time and energy to resolve.

Perhaps on reflection I am the student who needs to control my own learning experience. It is not that I can't work as part of a team for I have been the team leader for an 8th grade team for the last 5 years. I think it is rather the idea of being evaluated based on someone else's performance that I cannot control. This is the reason I am fervently against merit pay for teachers based on student performance. Teachers of honors classes will always have higher scoring students than those who teach ESL or special education students and so teachers cannot control the performance outcome of their students. I really hated F2F classes that required working in collaborative groups. The online environment has been somewhat better but even here there are many frustrations. Often instructions leave job assignments within the group to the group itself. Without the benefit of F2F visual cues and ice breaking activities to develop a level of trust, this can be difficult. Furthermore, one student often jumps ahead, perhaps due to a difference in time zones, and posts materials while there is always one trying to catch up. And again maybe it is me but I have generally found males to be less supportive of the group process itself. So I think that I really would have to question how much collaboration should be included in online class design and how formal or informal an assessment I'd use for evaluation. The class activities have to address a variety of learning styles and allow options for each type of student to shine in her/his performance.

Online Collaboration

I have now taken a number of online courses and all of them seem to have some component for collaboration. Often this is simply through a discussion forum or message board. Some of my past courses used wikis for collaboration, or synchronous live chat, or even Moodle laboratory. All of these tools have a role to play in establishing successful communication among the members of a class. But in this module I have found that the collaboration in our group has been unparalled. I think that this is in part because the group itself is small. Furthermore by only having one group there is less pressure to expound upon the creations of other teams. It also seems that the rapport created among the members of this small class is much deeper than what might exist in a much larger group.

The creation of our team toolbox was in itself a learning process. But the activity also opened up an exploration of new tools that could be incorporated into online learning environments very easily. I am very excited about hosted systems such as WebEx that contain a variety of programs that enhance communication between group members and also allow an instructor to use vitually any application on a PC to present class materials. This is a whole new world that can extend online education into new roles for the future.

Week 3 Ends

This week's discussion of emerging technologies and tools that might be applicable to education is quite thought-provoking. The tools that allow for peer-to-peer collaboration are beginning increasingly more sophisticated, even allowing instructors to create break out groups and then virtually drop into those groups. This is truly interactive. Within new tools such as WebEx are many of the features that previously were only available as separate applications. So the advent of simulations, mmogs, and fully hosted applications is extending the capabilities of online teachers without the need to provide their own Internet servers and tech support programs.

I think this is a very exciting time to enter the world of online teaching simply because the possibilities and capabilities are making online education, whether it is a one day webinar or an ongoing class, much more equitable with face to face classes. Students who previously were unable to physically attend classes for a variety of reasons now have a world of educational opportunities available to them.

The Second Week Reflections

I can't believe that 2 weeks of class are already finished. Time is going so quickly. There is always so much to absorb that I feel like I haven't grasped all the nuances and implications of the strategies yet. I will freely admit that although I created a blog for Dennis' class I had not gone back to it since class ended. In setting up a blog for this class I decided that I wanted to try a different venue and so chose Blogger. It was relatively easy to set up and manage. I'm even setting aside some time to add new blogs on a fairly consistent basis.

The reflective nature of a blog was fairly evident from my first exposure. Even though I've used a variety of reflective and personal response logs and journals in my f2f classes as a means of assessment, it never occurred to me to make the transition to the online environment through blogs. It seems to me now that I've had some time to work with the tools and to think through its uses, that my learning disabled students could especially benefit from the use of blogs. First of all writing is always a chore for them usually due to their poor mechanics. The computer would help with spell check and grammar check to alleviate some of their concerns. Additionally poor motor skills can make the actual physical writing process difficult and typing could address that concern. Last but not least, the fact that blogs are published on the Internet means that there is an immediate real world audience out there that could provide feedback. This is a more authentic audience than simply the teacher in the classroom.