Week 3 of Online Facilitation

As I have not yet experienced what it is to be an online facilitator, I can only speculate as to what would be the most difficult challenge of this profession.  If I had to wager an educated guess; I would say getting used to interacting with my students in a different form would be most difficult.  It is certainly not impossible to interact with students in an online setting; but I imagine that it has more to deal with emailing, once a week conversations, and digital participation.  This would be challenging for me considering that I am used to interacting with students by talking with them on a daily basis, or reading their non-verbal cues.

However, since I am going to be facilitating both a synchronous and asynchronous discussion there are some things that I need to consider.  As far as my synchronous discussion is concerned, I feel it is of the utmost importance to be prepared.  Preparation can help calm anxiety, anticipate previously unforeseen problems, and make the flow of discussion run smoothly.  I think having access to an Elluminate classroom will help tremendously with my preparation.  In terms of the asynchronous discussion, I think the best way to ensure that the conversation runs well is to establish very clear parameters.  By taking away the guess work of what I am expecting, the students can easily meet any established criteria while simultaneously creating a discussion worthy of participation.

My topic for consideration for the asynchronous/synchronous discussions is the Authenticity of Submitting Online Assignments.  I chose this particular topic because it was very interesting.  I feel there is much gray area with this topic, making for a great conversation starter.

Finally, when constructing my rubrics for both the synchronous and asynchronous plans, I truly tried my best to make rubrics that lacked ambiguity.  I figured that when I do an assignment, I like the directions to be as straight-forward and objective as possible.  Now, I understand that there is typically a degree of subjectivity when it comes to any assessment, but keeping that to a minimum (I believe), allows students to know exactly how to preform the task at hand.

"Hands on Learning" in Week 2

Whereas this class discusses a lot of topics that we have used in the past, it differs in the sense that we are much more active.  Starting with the Elluminate session that we had last night, we are trying to practice what we preach.  By being split into groups, with each member having a specific role, it was quite eye-opening to feel what it is like to be the teacher in charge of an online classroom.  It was also interesting to be the recorder, trying to utilize the "whiteboard," and its capabilities.  As far as the work for the week was concerned, it was nice to be able start off by taking a little quiz.  This helped me realize that were still some aspects of this particular week's content that I had not mastered.  I also like the way that we are running our ideas for initial class announcements by the rest of our classmates.  As we all have different backgrounds, this should be a great way to gain some insight from a previously hidden perspective.  Finally, this class has truly broadened my horizons in terms of learning about an asynchronous vs. synchronous online environment.  I think that in the asynchronous environment, where meetings don't match up, it is essential to utilize tools such as message boards and emailing (or a common space to check for class updates, such as a website, or wiki).  This type of environment, albeit non-traditional can very efficient due to the progresses of technology.  Conversely, a synchronous environment (where most meetings take place face-to-face) benefits also from the use of message boards, but most importantly from real-time classroom discussion and conversation.

Brand New Class

The first week of our new class was certainly a good one.  As we are using a different site (Brain Honey), I have already learned how to navigate an alternate hosting site (as opposed to the Stritch site, or a wiki), which has expanded my technological horizons.  I also think that it's pretty innovative to have two instructors, both of whom seem to have something unique to bring to the table, in terms of technological "know how."  The exercise during class that I enjoyed the most was the Elluminate tutorial (from the perspective of the moderator).  We've been using this web tool for over a year now, but it wasn't until last week that we finally got a chance to use some of its most useful features.  Finally, the readings/work for the first week of class was a good refresher.  It was beneficial to not only read about benefits of online learning, but also to think about it affects my classroom.  I am very interested to see what we learn about in the forthcoming weeks!