CED0 550 Week 1 My New Adventures in Online Learning

This week I started a new adventure in as my cohort and I met for the first session of our new class, Online Facilitation - Taming the World of Online Learning. We started conversations using a platform named Brainhoney (I love that name), took a Gallery tour to explore a collection of online resources and read articles to increase our knowledge of online learning. Learning for me has always been an adventure, full of wonder, excitement, peril and resolve. I am finding that online learning is not different in that regard. Every time a new journey of exploration and discovery greets me at my door, it is an adventure for me and I know that I will have a good story to tell at the end.

This week I was asked to relate the examples of online learning to my own experience. My own experiences with online learning and knowledge of the subject before this program was very limited, I know this now. I did not realize how many states and districts are actually utilizing online instruction as a part of their curriculum. I have used online activities and assignments with my students, but this has not consistent or to the degree that I learning can be done. As we continued our discussion this week, I had so many questions about the implementation of on-line education; many were answered when I read the report, Keeping Pace with K-12 Online: a review of State Level Policy and Practice. Questions I had about those who make up the population of students enrolled in online learning programs. Districts have populations in their online programs that somewhat mirrors their population of face-to-face learners.

I really enjoyed the Brainhoney system, unlike when I have used PB Works, I didn’t have any problems navigating this course management system and utilizing the discussion boards. I was able to create new post, edit, reply to post and read the posts of others quite easily. For the tasks I was required to do this week, I was able to navigate it with some ease. I also had the opportunity to experiment with Elluminate, I had a ball testing out the tools and sharing funny moments with my classmates. This introduction to the tools of Elluminate went smoothly. I have even told some of my co-workers about the Three for Free as a way for us to collaborate and do some professional development.

I can imagine using Elluminate Live! for a web conference in order to meet and collaborate with my co-workers, work in small groups with my students who are at home sick or need extra help, hold a discussions groups with other educators across the country and have a reunion with my cohort after graduation.

I often think of myself as a constant learner and someone who is curious about new things. Something new I tried while working on this module was the tools on Elluminate and it made me think that I could really use this tool with my co-workers and students. One of my co-workers really wants to plan together but cannot stay after work for very long, this would be an excellent way to work with her so that she can plan with me and we could support each other. As the instructional technology leader for my building, I can also use this tool to provide support teachers learning to use new tools to incorporate in their lessons. Wow … this is exciting for me, co-workers and students. Stay tuned for next week’s story of my learning adventures…I getting my sea legs and it feels great.