Week 6

Week 6
The last week of semester and teaching and learning course is ending with some excitement of holiday season and joy of learning new technologies. Playing with new technologies was fulfilling. I am glad with my current course organization; however, incorporation of newly learned technologies will be an additional feature for the course design. Learning about visual technology was frustrating initially but turned into a joyous experience later on with colorful diagrams and charts. I can think of one of my activities in the current online course where I give freedom to my students to be creative while designing their lifespan development chart. I will try to give an example of some students’ use of visual technologies on course group page. Most of them love this assignment with some typical frustration as I experienced lately.
Guan’s article about Confucius is really interesting, however, I cannot totally agree with Mr. Confucius’s non-instructional coaching and mentoring, especially for entry level courses. Students do need mentoring and coaching with combination of instructions. I believe on structured and organized design that also gives some freedom to online learners to use their unique talents. I also do not support behaviorist approach in online and f2f teaching and would rather go for cognitive and humanistic approach that promotes understanding, insight, freedom, and respect for human unique potential.
I agree here that the path to achieve the ultimate learning goals as being different from one student to another. While focusing on these individual differences, I will try to establish an eclectic approach for my course design with incorporation of videos, audios, visual designs, and structured lectures.

Week 5

The week was kind of hectic in checking final assignments, completing and submitting grades for four online classes, preparing new courses for next semester etc. This week's technology RSS seems interesting and useful. Subscribing feeds and blogs saved me from wandering around to find my frequently visited sites, classmate’s blogs etc. I realized that Google Reader has replaced my del.icio.us page to some extent. Not quite sure the difference between the two. I am planning to make my Google Reader more specific and organized. I have feelings that I like Google Apps NOW :)!
Visiting FERPA, http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/FERPA-Overview.htm
Flickr.com, and ePortfolio.org pages was very informative. I really need an ePortfolio for myself. I like Cole’s blog and appreciate his contribution and passion for technological advancement. There is so much stuff to learn and I don’t think I can ever know everything. Legalities is a vast topic of the week with focus on privacy, copyrights, and ADA. I personally feel that this vast topic should have been covered into two separate ones for in depth exploration. I am kind of “take one thing at a time” person. Anyways, I got to know a lot about the topics with some extra time devotion. It was surprising to see the amount of research and practical work done for ADA compliance in distance education at University of Washington. I have feelings that we need more training workshops for instructors at community colleges for better understanding and application of ADA. Main streaming is a good option for students with disabilities in higher education but well equipped, well trained, and empathetic faculty and staff is required for the success of mainstreaming.

Week 4

I really don’t like doing things at last moment like writing this journal but it is unexplainable why I am doing it now, the last day. Anyways it has nothing to do with technologies, or assessments and evaluations. May be something to do with "non-technical world!"
Pondering over evaluations was fun, especially when I worked on Bloom’s. I am glad that the criteria I use for evaluation in my distance learning and f2f classes is a standard one but I still want to try more. Not sure what this “more” could be. I might have better clarity by the end of this course or at the beginning of the next one. I am fine with my online tests with time limit and trial control. The idea of proctored tests is difficult to implement for a “distance” learning course as many students contact me before registration to make sure that they don’t have to be on campus for any of exam.
After in-depth exploration of WebCT (LMS) I realized that there are some other tools that I should use for my spring semester. Learning modules, calendar, and chat will be my new tools next semester.

Week 3: Communications

Wiki is a new communication tool for me and I had difficulty at the beginning to track others wikis but I am getting used to it now. Thanks for the small group. I still like WebCT’s threaded, blog, or journal type discussion tools better. They are more structured compared to wiki. (I still like structured stuff better in today’s informal world and still having difficulty with abbreviations, slangs and informal writing style). This is my fault not others. However, I have learned a lot about NEtiquette. Interestingly, when I write NEtiquette the way it is written here, my auto spell-check corrects it but I want to write it in a way it is on the web (wrong way). Again a conflict between formal and informal style!

I enjoyed instant messaging today with some embarrassment of my slow typing and “formal style.” One day my daughter was logged in and I started working on the computer. My niece came online from Canada and started chatting. I wrote few sentences and she replied, “oh its my dear aunty.” How did she find out?

I always use hotmail instant messaging; and found gmail chat a little different. No problem in one-on-one chat but needs better clarity on how to join a group chat.

Overall, this week made my online learning curve a bit higher. Got the good news of the DLMG grant approval and excited to use my current learning for next semester’s course development experience

Did I Really Learn Something?

Yes, I did.
I actaully count a smallest piece of new information in a day as a learning experience and by the end of a day this smallest unit becomes a bigger one while adding with other small units. I felt good when I added my new discussion topic in my current online course in a blog format. Yes, something small but an addition in my practice of distance learning.
This week was busier than the previous one with checking assignments, participating in discussion groups, and updating gradebooks. I did not hear from others a lot during this week and want to see more postings in journals and wiki.
Making an account at Wetpaint wiki was easy. I just followed the directions and get there. Watching ytube video was helpful. I like the idea of making a camping plan using wiki. Best for coordination while making a plan. As we have a family get together in BC next Summer, I will use wiki to collaborate with other families on wiki’s forum. It will be fun!

What is Wiki?
From Website: "The simplest online database that could possibly work. Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by non technical users."

Tagging and Wiki-ing

Tagging on del.icio.us is fun, its quick and easy, which is quickly replacing my favourites from the computer. I am still exploring how to make my tags more organized and trying to create bundles to put similar pages together. Jut realized that tags don't accept spaces. When I tagged "Class Roster", "class" AND "roster" became two separate tags. Anyways, I am on my way to organize recommended webpages in separate bundles to use for my online courses next semester. Will recommend my students to use it even when they are using WebCT mode.

Already had my wetpaint account on Friday but having some issues with my username and got a new one today. Talking a lot about Wiki at home (viki is my nephew in UK) and my twins always correct me that its "Wiki" not "viki". Never mind, talk to Viki soon and talk about Wiki in few days.

Social Bookmarking Video

Just watched the Social Bookmarking video and found it helpful. I realized that completing the assigned work of the week in order (1,2,3,4...) will help me to be more organized and better understand the contents covered.