“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
~Søren Kierkegaard
~Søren Kierkegaard
Week 1
The first week was more challenging than I expected.
I used trial and error when I first navigated around the Desire to Learn software. There was much to take in at first. I needed to breathe and to spend more time critically reflecting upon the assignments. I began taking detailed notes on the articles. Feeling my pace was too slow I needed to step back a minute and reevaluate what needed to be completed and by when. The only choice was to speed up because I was behind. What caused this back and forth feelings that was controlling my thinking? Upon reflection it was feelings concerning the grade and the assessments.
I spent time this week engaged in the Ice Breaker activities. I wanted to respond to everyone's' posts. Even though there was an article on time management, I felt I needed to respond to every post. As an online instructor I noticed these are feelings that I have experienced before. How did I handle this situation when I taught? I prioritized and selected which emails I should respond to..
Week 2
The second week was involved in wanting to respond too much.
I spent time this week engaged in the ice breaker activities. Again, I wanted to respond to every post. Even though there was a note to use time wisely I felt I needed to take a big deep breath and relax. Perhaps I needed to give myself a constant reminder that everything was okay.
Signing up late for the course placed me further behind. I began the course by introducing myself to my fellow colleagues. This first second week was much more time consuming than I imagined. Assessing myself in an online class was new to me. My previous experiences as an online instructor never mentioned assessment. However, I see assessment helps improve your performance online. Using the rubric makes my writing become more concise and clear.
Using the Diigo software program was time consuming. At the beginning of the week I spent considerable time creating a username and a password. Diigo provoked anxiety. I tried to use the menu key and Diigo disappeared from my computer screen. In addition to this, the Diigo program kept exiting from my user interface.The only response was the return back to the sign-in page. Would Web 2.0 work with Diigo? After several attempts I was finally successful linking the two.
Week 3
The third week was learning I lacked experience crafting good questions.
Learning how to use Moodle was beneficial. At first I struggled on what to write about. Examining other examples and further readings gave me an assortment of topics to chose from. At first my questions were too general. They also required too many Web 2.0 applications. Responses to my questions took longer than I anticipated. I received a post from another student who wanted clarification. I revised and clarified my original question.
Re-crafting my questions was an important lesson for me. Questions need to make sense. The allotted time was not sufficient for what I was asking them to do. Was I being unrealistic? Was I focusing on what was important? Do I need to transform the objectives to the learning needs of students? Do I need to read more concerning instructional design?
Feedback from other students was extremely valuable. Being clear and succinct is important. Crafting questions on Moodle was educational. Learning this on Moodle allowed me to make immediate changes. I need to spend more time crafting questions.
Week 4
The fourth week was assuming more responsibilities in Moodle.
This week was about transitions. Changing from an online student to an online teacher was the goal. Where should I focus? I still do not think I have mastered all of what is required. However, goals are important. I will work hard to master all areas of the course.
Where do I enter the questions in Moodle as a teacher? How can I edit the questions I ask of my other colleagues? How many hours will it take me to learn how to become familiar with my role as a online facilitator? Finally, I discovered the drop down menus where I could link my questions to the Moodle website.
Week 5
The fifth week was deciding how to become as a self-directed learner.
Self-directed learning was the goal for this week. In other words, learning Independently. We were encouraged to ask for help if needed. I felt empathy for other fellow online students. Knowing how others felt gave me insight. Although this learning is valuable to some type of online students who want to work independently, it would be a challenge for others.
The 21st Century Information Fluency Certification was a challenge for me. I became more confident as I progressed through this activity. Each question involved new challenges. It helped to reread the questions. These questions involved deep searching. My goal was to obtain the best score I could possible receive on this test. Although I received 70%, I expected more from myself. The errors included not searching the properties of the PDF file and not clicking the available hyperlink.
Week 6
The sixth week was attempting to master the material on the internet.
There were many challenges involving power searches. I developed a customized search engine for game based learning. Clarifying what to search for saved time. Choosing what web sites to search for was a challenge.This required experimentation. I became comfortable searching through game based learning search engines.
As a youth I was always interested in electronic games and had spent hours playing games. As a teacher I began to use them to engage students. Attitudes toward learning improved. Essentially, the pay off was worth the time spent.
Scoop-It software was practical and useful. I was able to curate articles on game based learning. Scoop-It allowed me to curate the best articles on the internet about game based learning. I found many gems such as the "One Laptop per Child" program and "Teaching Physics using Angry Birds" which were both extremely valuable.
Locating four relevant blogs that are interesting for other colleagues was challenging. Discussing topics with those who share similar interests builds collaboration among colleagues. Podcasts also provide needed information. Through these audio files, I am hoping several colleagues will listen and respond to my posts.
Week 7
The seventh week was my first attempt at working smarter and not harder.
After some reflection, I knew I was doing too much. This was not the solution. I needed to shift from quantity to quality. There certainly were not enough hours in the day to respond to everyone. I needed to choose. Who should I respond to on the discussion board? What criteria would I use?
Reflecting on what I wrote in my E-Portfolio took considerable time. I noticed it read like a syllabus. Certainly this was not what I intended. By rereading my E-Portfolio, I changed my focus. Now my portfolio will be the vehicle I will use to launching my E-Learning career.
Week 8
The eighth Week was my last attempt of evaluating my e-portfolio
Upon reflection these eight weeks went by quickly. I learned a lot about myself as a E-learner through this E-Portfolio process. The E-Portfolio helped me look into who I was as a learner. Certainly I was not always patient. I found myself engaging in tasks I normally would put off. I discovered deadlines are there for a purpose. Deadlines push us to do our best. Managing deadlines is what is required of being an E-Learner.
My Favorite Reflections
The final culmination is the attempt of looking for themes in my reflections
These are my two favorite journal reflections. As I learned much later in the course, I should have spent time learning and digging into both of these issues earlier. Time management is a central theme in my life. Creating priorities is the only way I will be able to successfully manage. The second central theme is developing empathy for those who decide to become online students. Since this requires us as online learners to experience the 'sink or swim' methodology of self-directed learning I can see the frustration and anxiety that can develop. Thank goodness for the' kitchen' which was included in D2L and Moodle so all of us could vent.
First Favorite--Time Management: Module 1: Knowledge Seeker
I spent time this week engaged in the Ice Breaker activities. I wanted to respond to everyone's posts. Even though there was an article on time management, I felt I needed to respond to every post. As an online instructor I noticed these are feelings that I have experienced before. How did I handle this situation? Should I prioritized and select which emails I should respond?
Second Favorite: Developing Empathy for Self-Directed Learners: Module 5: Activities to Engage
Self-directed learning was the goal for this week. In other words, learning independently. We were encouraged to ask for help if needed. I felt empathy for other fellow online students. Knowing how others felt gave me insight. Although this learning is valuable to some type of online students who want to work independently, it would be a challenge for others.
The first week was more challenging than I expected.
I used trial and error when I first navigated around the Desire to Learn software. There was much to take in at first. I needed to breathe and to spend more time critically reflecting upon the assignments. I began taking detailed notes on the articles. Feeling my pace was too slow I needed to step back a minute and reevaluate what needed to be completed and by when. The only choice was to speed up because I was behind. What caused this back and forth feelings that was controlling my thinking? Upon reflection it was feelings concerning the grade and the assessments.
I spent time this week engaged in the Ice Breaker activities. I wanted to respond to everyone's' posts. Even though there was an article on time management, I felt I needed to respond to every post. As an online instructor I noticed these are feelings that I have experienced before. How did I handle this situation when I taught? I prioritized and selected which emails I should respond to..
Week 2
The second week was involved in wanting to respond too much.
I spent time this week engaged in the ice breaker activities. Again, I wanted to respond to every post. Even though there was a note to use time wisely I felt I needed to take a big deep breath and relax. Perhaps I needed to give myself a constant reminder that everything was okay.
Signing up late for the course placed me further behind. I began the course by introducing myself to my fellow colleagues. This first second week was much more time consuming than I imagined. Assessing myself in an online class was new to me. My previous experiences as an online instructor never mentioned assessment. However, I see assessment helps improve your performance online. Using the rubric makes my writing become more concise and clear.
Using the Diigo software program was time consuming. At the beginning of the week I spent considerable time creating a username and a password. Diigo provoked anxiety. I tried to use the menu key and Diigo disappeared from my computer screen. In addition to this, the Diigo program kept exiting from my user interface.The only response was the return back to the sign-in page. Would Web 2.0 work with Diigo? After several attempts I was finally successful linking the two.
Week 3
The third week was learning I lacked experience crafting good questions.
Learning how to use Moodle was beneficial. At first I struggled on what to write about. Examining other examples and further readings gave me an assortment of topics to chose from. At first my questions were too general. They also required too many Web 2.0 applications. Responses to my questions took longer than I anticipated. I received a post from another student who wanted clarification. I revised and clarified my original question.
Re-crafting my questions was an important lesson for me. Questions need to make sense. The allotted time was not sufficient for what I was asking them to do. Was I being unrealistic? Was I focusing on what was important? Do I need to transform the objectives to the learning needs of students? Do I need to read more concerning instructional design?
Feedback from other students was extremely valuable. Being clear and succinct is important. Crafting questions on Moodle was educational. Learning this on Moodle allowed me to make immediate changes. I need to spend more time crafting questions.
Week 4
The fourth week was assuming more responsibilities in Moodle.
This week was about transitions. Changing from an online student to an online teacher was the goal. Where should I focus? I still do not think I have mastered all of what is required. However, goals are important. I will work hard to master all areas of the course.
Where do I enter the questions in Moodle as a teacher? How can I edit the questions I ask of my other colleagues? How many hours will it take me to learn how to become familiar with my role as a online facilitator? Finally, I discovered the drop down menus where I could link my questions to the Moodle website.
Week 5
The fifth week was deciding how to become as a self-directed learner.
Self-directed learning was the goal for this week. In other words, learning Independently. We were encouraged to ask for help if needed. I felt empathy for other fellow online students. Knowing how others felt gave me insight. Although this learning is valuable to some type of online students who want to work independently, it would be a challenge for others.
The 21st Century Information Fluency Certification was a challenge for me. I became more confident as I progressed through this activity. Each question involved new challenges. It helped to reread the questions. These questions involved deep searching. My goal was to obtain the best score I could possible receive on this test. Although I received 70%, I expected more from myself. The errors included not searching the properties of the PDF file and not clicking the available hyperlink.
Week 6
The sixth week was attempting to master the material on the internet.
There were many challenges involving power searches. I developed a customized search engine for game based learning. Clarifying what to search for saved time. Choosing what web sites to search for was a challenge.This required experimentation. I became comfortable searching through game based learning search engines.
As a youth I was always interested in electronic games and had spent hours playing games. As a teacher I began to use them to engage students. Attitudes toward learning improved. Essentially, the pay off was worth the time spent.
Scoop-It software was practical and useful. I was able to curate articles on game based learning. Scoop-It allowed me to curate the best articles on the internet about game based learning. I found many gems such as the "One Laptop per Child" program and "Teaching Physics using Angry Birds" which were both extremely valuable.
Locating four relevant blogs that are interesting for other colleagues was challenging. Discussing topics with those who share similar interests builds collaboration among colleagues. Podcasts also provide needed information. Through these audio files, I am hoping several colleagues will listen and respond to my posts.
Week 7
The seventh week was my first attempt at working smarter and not harder.
After some reflection, I knew I was doing too much. This was not the solution. I needed to shift from quantity to quality. There certainly were not enough hours in the day to respond to everyone. I needed to choose. Who should I respond to on the discussion board? What criteria would I use?
Reflecting on what I wrote in my E-Portfolio took considerable time. I noticed it read like a syllabus. Certainly this was not what I intended. By rereading my E-Portfolio, I changed my focus. Now my portfolio will be the vehicle I will use to launching my E-Learning career.
Week 8
The eighth Week was my last attempt of evaluating my e-portfolio
Upon reflection these eight weeks went by quickly. I learned a lot about myself as a E-learner through this E-Portfolio process. The E-Portfolio helped me look into who I was as a learner. Certainly I was not always patient. I found myself engaging in tasks I normally would put off. I discovered deadlines are there for a purpose. Deadlines push us to do our best. Managing deadlines is what is required of being an E-Learner.
My Favorite Reflections
The final culmination is the attempt of looking for themes in my reflections
These are my two favorite journal reflections. As I learned much later in the course, I should have spent time learning and digging into both of these issues earlier. Time management is a central theme in my life. Creating priorities is the only way I will be able to successfully manage. The second central theme is developing empathy for those who decide to become online students. Since this requires us as online learners to experience the 'sink or swim' methodology of self-directed learning I can see the frustration and anxiety that can develop. Thank goodness for the' kitchen' which was included in D2L and Moodle so all of us could vent.
First Favorite--Time Management: Module 1: Knowledge Seeker
I spent time this week engaged in the Ice Breaker activities. I wanted to respond to everyone's posts. Even though there was an article on time management, I felt I needed to respond to every post. As an online instructor I noticed these are feelings that I have experienced before. How did I handle this situation? Should I prioritized and select which emails I should respond?
Second Favorite: Developing Empathy for Self-Directed Learners: Module 5: Activities to Engage
Self-directed learning was the goal for this week. In other words, learning independently. We were encouraged to ask for help if needed. I felt empathy for other fellow online students. Knowing how others felt gave me insight. Although this learning is valuable to some type of online students who want to work independently, it would be a challenge for others.