I’m glad I had the opportunity in learning how to create a blog. If it wasn’t for this course, my blogs will not exist!! This course has opened my eyes to more than I ever wanted to learn. I can’t believe we are near the end!!!!!! I will grasp this knowledge in hope of retaining it for use in teaching online courses in the future.
In the last half of this course, I have learned different methods/techniques to assist me in my online learning from synchronous conferencing, digital portfolios, learning theories, online pedagogy and the 7 principles, student/teacher-centered teaching models, instructional strategies and online technologies. Since I’m limited in my posting, I will make reference to only a few of these topics. Here goes………….
This course introduced me to Wimba (What is Wimba?) as I never heard of or even had the pleasure of using it until now. I have learned that Wimba would be great to use in online courses because it can be used for group collaboration, guest lecturers, special discussion topics, virtual classroom sessions and virtual office hours. I also found that Wimba is great for the online community because it help to create a sense of community for distant learners, provide more flexibility in delivery and help with accessibility issues.
As I recall, I had some computer problems when we used Wimba for our guest lecturer. Even though I missed the lecture, I was still able to listen to the archive recording of the lecture. The entire lecture was recorded, even the side jokes. The only thing that I was missing was the real-time interactive audio contact from the class. Go Wimba!!!!!
Let’s not talk about Wiki’s!!!!!! My first time using a Wiki was in this course for our group project. Let me say I was SOOO confused!!! I had no idea what a Wiki was or what it did. I had problems navigating the Wiki, attaching documents as well as trying to view certain documents posted in the Wiki. Thanks to my group members, Nancy & Gigi, who were patient with me and explained to me what they knew of Wiki. I later found out that we learned how to use Wiki together. It was definitely a learning curve for me. I think my biggest problem with using Wiki was trying to make it do things that it wasn’t suppose to do and I became easily frustrated with it. Nevertheless, I made it and overcome my fear of using Wiki’s.
This half of the course has also taught me that people learn different things in different ways because the variety of learning styles. As a result, people respond better to certain types of teaching styles than others because they think and learn differently. I also learned that some people need information presented in a variety of ways because most learners have their own unique perspectives and experiences and it will affect how they understand certain material. From our course online reading, it explained there is no single learning theory (Learning Theories) to follow and one can use a combination of theories to develop online learning materials. Furthermore, I still think it’s highly impossible to incorporate every learning theory into a specific teaching/learning situation.
I have learned how I would be able to use the 7 Principles (Seven Principles) to guide my online teaching and course development in the online environment. These principles would allow me to recognize and apply the best teaching practices in online teaching environments such as student learning, retention and outcome assessments. One of the principles that stick out to me is “Develop Reciprocity and Cooperation among Students” which includes allowing student collaboration on group projects and assigning weekly assignment that would definitely encourage cooperation among students. Also, this would allow students to share experiences and sources of information resulting in them building a strong sense of community among class members and increase students’ willingness to interact and cooperate with each other online.
I remember our in class discussion on student-centered instruction. There were long discussion threads on this topic. Some classmates had different views on whose responsibility was it to making learner-centered environments work (instructor or student). I agree that students are responsible for constructing their own personal knowledge and need to be able to think critically, independently and be responsible for and involved in their learning. Also, students need to be self-directed and become active players in the academic learning environment. However, studies have shown that the responsibility is on the instructor for making learner-centered environments work because student-centered instruction requires the teacher to exercise the necessary guidance to foster students’ interests and academic success according to their abilities.
In closing, I just want to say that it has been a blast learning in this class as well as learning from my fellow classmates. I enjoyed reading everyone’s postings. I am very thankful for the timely feedback and encouraging words from our instructor. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
While others are embarking on new tasks and goals, let’s not make this the end to our learning!!!!! I will be taking a break before I start the second course because I will be working towards my PhD next semester. I am determined to finishing the remainder courses soon. Let’s continue to share our knowledge and learning with each other.
Until we meet again…………………….
