Questions

How are you doing in the course? What do we need to do to make this a better experience for you? Do we need to make adjustments on the number of assignments?

What questions do you have?

Another video for you

Check this out

Tutorials for Bb are everywhere. Usually you can google Blackboard tutorials and find what you need.

http://www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/tutorials/ is the link to tutorials from UT-Austin. This is a fairly comprehensive collection of tutorials that I thought you might find helpful at some point.

http://www.clt.odu.edu/bb/index.php?src=tutorials is from Old Dominion University. This is one that has a large amount of Flash tutorials if you like animation.

http://facit.cmich.edu/workshops-training/blackboard/tutorials.html is from Central Michigan University and features Flash tutorials. Some have PDF versions for printing.

Thoughts on Teaching and Learning Online

I have been doing some thinking about different approaches to teaching and learning online. Right now, I am very interested in experiential learning (I know, sometimes I am interested in lots of things) and how we can begin to move some of this theory into distance courses.

Although I like Kolb's model, I am drawn to Lewin's experiential model for simplicity. Lewin believed that concrete experiences form the basis to understand abstract concepts. Lived experiences, unique to each individual, inform learning by providing a groundwork or baseline for new information and knowledge. It is this lived experience that gives texture and personal meaning to new experiences.

When presented with new information, the learner draws upon lived experiences and searches for similar events or concepts. Reflection leads to tentative hypotheses about how the new information fits with existing knowledge. The learner is then ready to test these hypotheses in a new context. This test leads to more concrete experience and the ability to accept, reject, or modify the original application of previous knowledge to new information.

Although this is a simplification of the theory, I can't help but think that we already have tools in the online environment that might allow us to more fully connect with students. If blogs or discussion boards were used to share experiences that learners believe are connected to the new information - what would happen? If learners were able to read about how other classmates are trying to connect the new knowledge to previous information - what is the worst that could happen?

Metacognition (the thinking about how we think) activities requiring students to intentionally search for previous experiences and knowledge to make understanding of new information may yield some results. We often present and teach from a viewpoint that if we provide information, it is the responsibility of the student to make meaning and connections.

I wonder if the old adage about "You can't teach them until you know what they know" doesn't apply.

Education blogs

I thought you might be interested in a few of the educational blogs out there. This list is mostly former EduBlog award winners.

http://www.weblogg-ed.com/
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
http://elgg.net/csessums/weblog/
http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/
http://heyjude.wordpress.com/

Why I Work in Distance Education

One of the concepts that I push for distance educators is personal disclosure so students get to know instructors at a different level. So here goes...

First, I love to teach. I have a lot of experience with F2F instruction and I really enjoy it. I love the smell of chalk dust and still relish a chalk mark on my pants. I still know how to splice a 16mm film with tape and thread the projector in less than 5 minutes. I still know how to take attendance while starting a class with some sponge activity to maximize time.

I am discovering, however, that distance education allows me additional opportunities to connect and make connection with and for students. I am not restricted by posted office hours or brief bits of time after class. I have time to formulate my response to the student and to emphasize points for consideration. It gives me another way to help students think differently about a topic.

I am discovering that I spend more and more time thinking about how to make a topic meaningful and then how to deliver that via distance. I still have much to learn but I will always be a teacher at heart. Distance education allows me to think about different ways to teach and communicate.

Teaching, to me, is about making meaning. As online tools emerge, I want to use them to help students make meaning.

Promising Practices in Online Teaching and Learning

Hi,

I thought it might be fun to try out blogging while you are in the course. You have the ability to subscribe to the blog and have messages sent to you via email or through a RSS feed. My thinking is that this might be another way to connect the course participants and to give you another experience in the course (I know, I know - you are having enough experiences right now).

This isn't to add to your workload at all. It is just another way to communicate and connect. Feel free to ask questions about the course or about anything you are thinking about regarding distance education at TWU.

Welcome!

This blog is to share Promising Practices in Online Teaching and Learning from Texas Woman's University. Thanks for taking a look!

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