CEdO 550 - Week 6 - Teaching Online

As part of the last two weeks I have completed the synchronous and asynchronous facilitation for the group.  This was an enlightening experience.  Both challenged me in ways that I had not considered.  The synchronous presentation was fun, but it was also hard to come up with a good prompt that would cause discussion in the group.  Once the discussion started it was also hard to keep everyone focused on the points that I wonted to bring out.  There certainly were some other good ideas brought out, but they were not necessarily the ones that needed to be covered from the article that I covered.  In the end I was able to keep the class on track by  asking leading questions that steered the conversation back to the points I wanted to cover.

For the asynchronous discussion I was better able to moderate the discussion, but here too there were some surprises.  The responses I got were not as specific as I hoped.  My biggest take away is that it is important to be very specific in your questions in the rubric.  Overall this class was a great experience, and I am looking forward to taking these skills into my first real online teaching experience as my company develops the new software training.

CEdO 550 - Week 5 - Collaboration

This week was all about collaboration in online learning.  I think this is a necessary part of the online learning experience, as it gives students a way to connect with others.  Especially for those students who might be struggling, a collaborative group will give them a way to get help outside of going to the instructor.  Some students might not be willing to speak up in a large group setting, but will be more willing to do so in a small group.  Also by requiring online discussions they will have more people to share ideas with, and to explain concepts that might be confusing.

Two lessons that I have learned about using these groups through this program.  First the instructor should assign the groups.  If left up to the students you may end up with groups of uneven size, and some people may be left out.  The people left out are the ones who most likely will need the help.  Also groups should be set up early so they have adequate time to set up a meeting.  Second the expectations for the group should be clear and should involve significant leeway for discussion.  The group should be able to work together to arrive at an answer, preferably one that will require all members of the group to contribute.

CEdO 550 - Week 4 - Meeting Students Needs

This week we had to rework one of our existing class lessons and make it more student centered.  Student centered learning involves the students teaching each other, and learning though experiences, more than the teacher lecturing from the front of the room.  It certainly has some great results, although you do have to think about creative ways to present the lessons.  Really abstract concepts are harder to convert, but it can still be done.

Another really interesting part of this lesson was the concept of Authentic Assessments.  Rather than test someone's ability to guess the best multiple choice answer,  they would apply the skills from the lesson in a real world scenario, or at real as possible.  In my case I would like my students to use their knowledge of electronics to pick out the best device in a category from an actual ad.  This skill will help them anytime they want to buy a new electronic device, and give them real world skills that they can apply in the future.  This si the best demonstration that they have mastered a concept.