Over the last week I feel like I have been overwhelmed with playing catch up. As I try to wrap up and manage all of the end of the school year responsibilities (report cards, field day, moving up day, packing up my classroom, etc), I am still trying to keep up with the course discussions. I must say I am looking forward to school being over next week so that I could give my full attention to designing my online course.
As I think more about my online course and its dynamics, I am beginning to consider a blended parent and student classroom community considering that my course is geared toward such a young audience (third graders).
In this course, third grade students will become detectives and learn about different life cycles of plants and animals. We will focus on the following topics:
The Life Cycle of a:
Plant
Butterfly
Frog
Chicken
In addition to the course modules and discussions, I plan to incorporate parental involvement by creating a discussion blog for them to communicate with me as well as other parents in the course. This discussion blog will post important information that is being covered in the module their child is working on as well as some ways they could further expand on the topics we are coving in the course within their home.
Although managing both student and parent discussions may be a challenge, it is important to keep an open line of communication with parents, especially when working with such young children. This kind of support is essential for the student to reach their full potential in this online learning environment.
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June 22, 2008
I created an awesome slide show using a program called rock you. Unfortunately, I tried uploading the slide show to the side panel of my blog, but I was unsuccessful. Anyhow, I am going to keep trying to figure the right panel out on my blog, but in the meantime if you would like to see my slide show, click on the link below!
http://www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery.php?source=ppsl&instanceid=114865633
June 11, 2008
In a discussion thread from my instructor, she referred to herself as “huetagogynous”.
I must admit the term huetagogynous is foreign to me. It is a word I don’t think I have ever heard before. I decided to research the term huetagogynous through using a google search. I was surprised to see my instructor’s March 17th blog entry pop up as the first result of my search. http://etap687.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/i-am-huetagogynous/
This intrigued me even more about the word. At this point I began to think this is a word my instructor created, however I was incorrect.
After reading Alexandra Pickett’s summary on huetagogynous, I learned that it is a form of instruction. In fact, within a heutagogy learning environment the material that is being learned and how it is learned is established by the student. I quickly realized why my instructor felt as though she was huetagogynous, and in some ways I could identify with this notion as well. In my experiences of online learning, I would have to conclude that they have been primarily andragogy and heutagogy learning environments. In an andragogy learning environment, the teacher primarily acts a facilitator. The teacher provides a course outline and specified topics within learning modules, however the actual learning is self instructed in a heautagogy manner. Therefore I am huetagogynous too! Are you?
June 11, 2008
Today I took my first quiz in the course ETAP 687. I was glad this quiz was not a quiz I had to study for, however it did test me on the skills I have built upon over the years as a computer savvy individual.
I am pleased to say I scored a 93% out of 100. This quiz allowed me to reflect on my basic computer, work processing, internet, and email skills. Although I thought I was quite computer literate, there are some areas I do need to brush up on. For example, I am unfamiliar with what a pen/flash thumb drive and ZIP is. Can anyone explain these to me? I am also unsure of what an auto word wrap is? The truth of the matter is, these may be tools I have used or know, but not sure of their names or functions. As I said, I would be very interested in learning more about these tools if you happen to be able to explain them to me.
~Amy
June 1, 2008
Hello, my name is Amy. I have created this Blog as a communication tool for my classmates and instructor in my ETAP 687 on-line summer course entitled Introduction to Online Learning. Besides communicating with my peers, this Blog will be a great way to log my experiences this semester as well as to display and reflect on what I have learned.
Please feel free to comment. Enjoy!
May 28, 2008
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