Amy’s Blog

Confident and Proud

August 3, 2008

Last Tuesday, I reviewed my course by using Professor Pickett’s Course Checklist For New Online Faculty.  I found this Course Checklist to be a helpful guideline to follow.  It made me realize features I must add on to my course, areas I should clarify and other aspects I must fine tune as I construct my finished product.

Since Tuesday, I have been diligently fine tuning my online course.  I must say at this point I am finally feeling confident and proud of my final product .  Although there are some areas of this course, as a designer I would like to change or add on to some things, but I realize that my course is always going to be a work in progress, so I am not going to sweat the small stuff.

One area of my course I spent a great deal of time on was the presentation and tone I wanted to establish with my students.  Since my course is intended for a young third grade audience, tone and user-friendliness was one of my greatest concerns from the very beginning, so this is an area I know I needed to clearly think out and organize.  Through our class readings, presentations and discussions I realized that elaborate lingo and wordy directions were not going to work with my audience.  Although I wanted to make my point clear, I had to be mindful of my language and length of my discussions/directions because I do not want to discourage or confuse my students.

I also wanted to make the course appealing to the students.  I tried to incorporate a number of visual aids and included voice threads, you tube videos, a webquest, and website exploration so that the students learn the information by exploring different mediums.  My goal for my students is to learn the information constructively rather than just reading and writing. 

While taking this course I have learned a great deal about myself as a person, a student, and as an educator.  As a person, I never realized how long I could sit in front of the computer.  I have worked for hours on end, fixated with creating this course.  I never realized that five hours could feel like fifteen minutes once I get engaged in my work.  As a student, this course has been a phenomenal yet frustrating experience.  Teaching myself how to create links, discussion forums, find relevant information, etc. on a deadline has been an overwhelming challenge.  However, once I learned how to do these tasks, I don’t think I have ever felt so proud or accomplished, which is a great feeling for a student, and I hope that the lessons I create will give my students that sense of learning satisfaction.  I thank my instructor and classmates for their comments, suggestions, and assistance with learning new material.  As an educator, this has been an amazing learning experience.  I have learned how to organize and reflect on what I am teaching in a new light.  Learning how to use new technology based tools has been so enlightening.  I can’t wait to incorporate the course that I have created as well as some of the tools I have learned how into use into my own classroom.        

My course continues to be a work in progress, but one that has been an amazing learning experience that I am proud of.  I can’t wait to share my course and receive feedback from my professor and classmates.  I am also very excited about having the time to explore and reflect on the courses my classmates have created throughout the next week.  

 (4)

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. .