After facilitating a small part of last week's discussion, I was surprised at how difficult it was to run the discussion. There were so many things that I needed to keep my eyes on. It was difficult to ask meaningful questions, keep the discussion moving, and include everyone in the discussion.
Not being able to see individual's reactions also make facilitating difficult. I am a very visual person, who is quite animated in real life, and I thrive on interpersonal interaction. So, not having immediate nonverbal feedback was challenging for me!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
550 Week 1
I am shocked at the degree that online instructors are making themselves available to their students. I facilitate a group of online students, but I do not make myself so available to my students. I remind them to breathe, and that few things are so important that they cannot wait until morning.
As an online facilitator, I do not, and will not, make myself available to my students during all of my waking hours. I know that instructors need to be accessible, but I feel that sometimes I am walking a very fine line. I want my students to be successful, but I need to have some separation between work and my personal life. The first year that I taught, I was working 12 hours a day, and going in on the weekends. I was miserable. Having balance in my life makes me a much happier and more content instructor who can meet the needs of her students!
As an online facilitator, I do not, and will not, make myself available to my students during all of my waking hours. I know that instructors need to be accessible, but I feel that sometimes I am walking a very fine line. I want my students to be successful, but I need to have some separation between work and my personal life. The first year that I taught, I was working 12 hours a day, and going in on the weekends. I was miserable. Having balance in my life makes me a much happier and more content instructor who can meet the needs of her students!
540 Week 5
Good news to report! My Dell laptop came back to life. As much as I wanted to have a Mac, it isn't really in my budget. I need to pay for grad school first!
This week, we were working on Google Trends. But, I have a different question that is completely unrelated. I have my junior/senior sociology kids working on a ning right now. And, I would like to create a wiki/ning/moodle (or something similar) for my 90 freshmen history kids. However, I am trying to figure out the pros and cons of each.
I used a wiki with my 7th graders. It worked for what I wanted it to do. But, I am not sure that it is the correct forum for my 9th graders.
The ning that I created for my 11th and 12th graders works well for them, and they appreciate the break from moodle. However, do so many teachers in my district use moodle because they love it, or because they are familar with it? Is it worth exposing my students to the ning, just so that they can become familar with something else? Can the ning do all that I want it to do for my kids? And, if I couple that with Google Docs, will that meet all of my needs? I will continue pondering. If you have any advice, I would love to hear it!
This week, we were working on Google Trends. But, I have a different question that is completely unrelated. I have my junior/senior sociology kids working on a ning right now. And, I would like to create a wiki/ning/moodle (or something similar) for my 90 freshmen history kids. However, I am trying to figure out the pros and cons of each.
I used a wiki with my 7th graders. It worked for what I wanted it to do. But, I am not sure that it is the correct forum for my 9th graders.
The ning that I created for my 11th and 12th graders works well for them, and they appreciate the break from moodle. However, do so many teachers in my district use moodle because they love it, or because they are familar with it? Is it worth exposing my students to the ning, just so that they can become familar with something else? Can the ning do all that I want it to do for my kids? And, if I couple that with Google Docs, will that meet all of my needs? I will continue pondering. If you have any advice, I would love to hear it!
540 Week 4
This week, we looked at Bill Tancer's company, Hitwise. If I worked in marketing, I would appreciate Tancer's information. However, as a consumer, who does not work in the marketing department, I wonder where Tancer draws his line. He seems to follow our every action online, and it concerns me that the information could fall into the wrong hands. I am not usually so paranoid, but I am concerned about how slippery this slope could become. Doesn't the library already tell the government which books I am checking out?
On a totally unrelated note. I have been having difficulties opening the Wiziq helpful hints for completing the Z score table. Any ideas?
On a totally unrelated note. I have been having difficulties opening the Wiziq helpful hints for completing the Z score table. Any ideas?
540 Week 3
I really liked creating the survey on SurveyMonkey this week. It was much easier to create than I thought it would be. Well, the actual creation of it was easy. But, it was difficult to decide how to word the questions the best responses. I never thought that writing survey questions would be so difficult. Additionally, it was difficult to determine how to balance close and open-ended questions. Closed ended questions provide quick feedback that is easy to chart and analyze. However, open ended questions might offer the opportunities for better answers. And, will some people shy away from the open ended questions, because they require more work? Or, will others be frustrated with the inability to offer as much constructive feedback as they desire?
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