The rest of CEdO550...

Week 2 - 

• Identify at least two synchronous and two asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for your targeted online learners. I would chose Elluminate and Skype as my synchronous tools and a class wiki page and blogs as my asynchronous choices. I like the tools that we've learned in Elluminate during this course and Skype would be good for small group projects or one-on-one extra help sessions. I believe that a wiki page set-up, much like the Brainhoney site that we've been using, would be a perfect tool for an online course. Additionally, blogs would allow for an area in which the students could interact with both the teacher and other students off of the main course page.
• List four different types of activities that you might use with your targeted online learners and identify an appropriate online tool to use in implementing that activity. Participation in a synchronous session using Elluminate, participation in a threaded discussion group via a wiki page, collaboration on a small group project using google docs and researching the subject using google search (and explaining why certain sites were used vice others).
• Is my initial contact warm and inviting (Are there things I did particularly well or could do better in the future)?  Is my initial contact clear and concise and yet user friendly? What are some strategies that help to format your contacts to make them as clear and concise as possible? My draft Email initial contact was fairly warm and inviting and I believe that it was pretty straight-forward and to-the-point as well. It introduced me and the course. It gave some additional sources that we would be using during the course and it gave my contact information right up front. I'm sure that there is always something that could be done better... in this case I think that I could've provided more information on my fictitious course but I made up as much as I felt I could without mixing up science levels.

Week 3 - 

• What is the greatest challenge that I have encountered as an online teacher/facilitator and how did I manage it? (If you have not yet taught online what do you think would be the greatest challenge for online teachers/facilitators?). Haven't taught yet, but I believe that getting and remaining organized in both thought and action would be a challenge.
• Some things that I feel are really important to consider about synchronous and asynchronous facilitation as I prepare to facilitate my threaded and web conference discussions are a clear idea of what it is I wish to accomplish in each session. In the Synchronous session, I am looking to start the discussion and go over the basic parts of it. In the asynchronous session I am going deeper into the assignment and directly tasking the students with a certain goal.
• I choose my particular discussion topic because I was interested in seeing what the trends were with online education and I also felt that it was one of the topics that wouldn't rely on some teaching experience to bring the information out and make a cogent point.
• One thing that I thought about when developing rubrics for the 2 different discussions is the definite difference in what you are looking for as far as participation and quick thought for the synchronous session and for research and well crafted responses in the asynchronous discussion.

Week 4 - 

• In reflecting on my teaching experiences to date, I would say that the proportion of teacher centered versus student centered lessons has been --- no real teaching experience to date. I've given lectures before so I would guess that it would be 100% teacher centered!
• The rubric I created for my lesson clearly defined expectations and scoring for the lesson so that my students could know in advance what was expected on the assignment. 
• While working on this module I had difficulty while doing something new involving creating a rubric that made sense and was actionable... was my first time ever making one!

Week 5 - 

• My experience with online communities has been mainly through this cohort only.  I have a facebook page but it gets updated once in a while, no where near as often as the majority of folks!
• I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is the additive effect of each members’ contributions.  
• I believe the greatest challenge is be getting everyone involved when schedules or technologies don't line up.
• My thoughts regarding the social development and socialization issues are that these are interesting discussion points for the education community as we move forward with online learning. Will the interactions that today's youth have (mostly electronic) translate well into the current professional or college landscape?

Week 6 - 

• My students are gaining 21st century skills by --- I don't have any students. 
• I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am concerned about the fact that we will be running up against the enrollment limit of 5250 within the next few years.
• My district involvement in online learning includes --- no district to speak of. 
• During the module I was excited to learn about the 2007 Wisconsin Act 222 - Virtual Charter Schools. I wasn't here in Wisconsin when this occurred, but I would guess that it was met with differing opinions from the traditional and online education proponents.