Asynchronous/Synchronous Presentations

This week, I'm responsible for one of the asynchronous sessions and over the course of my reading background knowledge I couldn't help but connect the issue of professional development to my life as a teacher here in Oregon.  The articles I was reading were discussing what kind of training people felt they needed, and there were differences based on experience and type of virtual school.  They then went into the different models that are used to present training.  My thoughts turned back to my home district and I was wondering what the percentages would look like in our brick and mortar building.  I was interested to see if what teacher's perception of their needs, and what we receive from our district would agree at all.  I have a guess, but I don't want to speak for all the teachers in our district.  I also couldn't help but notice that most of the survey respondents preferred their training in a mix of face-to-face and virtual training.  Wouldn't it stand to reason that would be a pretty similar response to teachers in my building, but that is definitely not how I see training happening. 

As far as running the asynchronous session, I think that I'm pretty clear.  I hope that my initial post will illicit some response, then I have a few directions that I'm predicting the conversation will move in, but that will be based on the groups interactions.

I'm more unsure about my synchronous run next week.  The issue I have is that while I'm pretty comfortable with the material, its isn't something I'm confident enough with to work a whole lot of angles.  I'm also still  looking for a meaningful method for the session, as opposed to 15 min. of listening to our own voices.  I'm hoping that tonight's session will provide some inspiration about the options that are out there.

Virtual Learning - Week 2

 

This week, we got an opportunity to practice what it would be like to work as a virtual instructor.  Out first experience was in running a portion of the elluminate session.  We facilitated a small group discussion on a predetermined topic.  My first impressions were that time flies, sharing the mic requires patience, and watching both the chat and listening to the mic may cause you to learn nothing.  I really struggled with following both the chat and the audio, and found that I needed to focus on listening to others, then during the lag time between participants I could scan the chat to see if there was anything I needed to address.  Another observation was that the synchronous discussion requires a lot of patience in wait time and transition time from one participant to the next.  Finally, when discussing it was really useful and added a degree of authenticity when people recognized one another by name.  In the classroom the name of another participant is often implied, but in the elluminate session it was too confusing when people didn't use names in discussions.

Our second teaching virtual experience was setting up an initial contact letter.  This is the classroom equivalent of the first day of school and serves to make the first impression between students and teachers.  I had to think about what I would want my first impression to be prior to writing the letter, as well as predict what some of the initial needs of a student may be prior to starting an online class.  It was an interesting experience, that will serve me in my classroom as well.

Virtual Learning - Week 1

New Class starting 1/26/10 and we are learning all about teaching in a completely virtual environment.  My first impression is that a good virtual teacher, would most likely make a good classroom teacher, but it doesn't seem to necessarily work going the other way.  It seems as though there are some skills that are critical for teaching online that classroom teachers may not emphasize.  The increased access to help with problem solving was first and foremost in my mind.  In the virtual school it feels as though a teacher needs to be available when students are working.  That can be anytime.  I would think that a virtual teacher would need to make clear boundaries for all to see, about when they are available to help, and when you are going to need to be patient.  The second skill applies to this, which is managing asynchronous participation.  It would be a lot of work to keep conversations going within a class, because rather than discussing face to face over a 45 min. period, this discussion is spread out over a week or more.  On the positive side, this may create a stronger discussion that is well thought out and can be rely more on outside sources and research.

First Week of Stats

I feel like my head is spinning just a little bit.  During inservices when statistics and data are introduced along with terms like standard deviation, and means, and modes, my brain has a tendency to just turn off for a little bit.  I know it is bad, but huge tables of data have that affect on me. 

I felt like I was in and inservice during this first week and as a result I ended up doing a lot of the work at the last minute, and I'm still not sure that I get it all. 

In the end, I'm hopeful that this will help me to use and understand the data I receive at work and I can take that and put it to use in the way I teach.  Today however, I still have that head spinning feeling.  I hope it will go away soon, but I have a feeling it won't.

Wiki vs. Ning

With the start of our next class we are leaving our experience with the Ning behind, temporarily, and moving into a course run on a wiki.  Just today I was signing into the wiki and setting up my page.  I also added my blog address to the sidebar, which got me thinking about which type of tool I like the best for these courses.  The strength in my mind with the Ning is the forums and the community building that can be done easily through the individual pages that all link together and connect in a really intuitive way.  You can share your work on the Ning, but I feel that you are somewhat limited in that they are shared through links to other sites or documents.  Some things can be embedded on the Ning's personal pages, but I feel like the individual page is not designed for content. 

The wiki on the other hand seems like it is built for content, and if ever you don't feel there is a space for your work, you just need to create that space.  The wiki also is highly customizable to whatever the needs of the group are.  Templates can be created, group pages, folders, new files that can be shared by all, images are easily accessed.  I think for our group the wiki is actually my preference.  It isn't as flashy as the Ning, but I feel that its functionality is greater. 

For my 7th graders I have put together a Ning for them to use in class.  I don't know that they are yet ready for the building process that goes into a wiki.  I want to get them used to the Ning and see how communities are built and how they operate before opening up the door a little with a wiki.  I will be doing that sometime towards the 3rd or 4th quarter where they will be discussing novels that are set around the Eastern Hemishpere.  In addition to their discussions I want them to post original content.  They will be researching topics of interest that are linked to the novels they have read.

If you have any experience with novels being used in geography or as inspiration for research work or know someone who does I would love to hear from you.

Ningtastic

This week was solely dedicated to the creation and manipulation of my ning. I create the Ning for a simulation that we do in our class, and I was looking for a way for groups to work together and present their product, but also a way for communication to take place between groups in different classes. I'm banking on the Ning to provide this service to my students, and my initial feelings are positive that this will happen.

I did run into some roadblocks working with the Ning, but they were mostly surrounding my not knowing some of the Ning lingo and where certain tools were and how to manipulate them. The only real issue with the Ning was the text boxes that seem to be a casual mix of WYSIWYG and HTML code. It took me a long time to do and I wish the interface was more like the Blogger interface that I'm using right now. I think the product would be better in the end.

Today is the first day my students have checked in on the Ning and signed up and the initial reaction seems to be positive, although we have a fair amount of work before us in getting them to understand appropriate ways to interact with one another.

The last positive is the character I've developed as the Symaster, he is a strikingly handsome man around 60 years old with a Sean Connery resemblance. I think I'll really enjoy playing this character on the Ning and will have to create a personality to match his appearance. Right now the only adjective I can think of to describe the Symaster is salty. I think the Symaster will bring out the best in some of my students as well as frustrate some who have it too easy normally.