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This could also be due to my “millennial” nature and my “self-absorbedness” when it comes to my grades—something that Luke (4) also mentioned.

A lot of what I was saying had to do with the instructor facilitating instruction rather than purely teaching it…something very common in our discussions. By the end of this course, I learned that along with being a facilitator, the instructor must be a supporter and help the online learner throughout their successes and struggles—something that I often do not experience in asynchronous learning.

My discussion postings have gone from “skimming” the top of empirical research to truly digging into the topic and making my learning visible for my professor and my classmates. I learned how to research topics properly and write my findings in a clear, conversational way.

so maybe I’ll work on developing my very own perplexity fairy. 

In this course not only will I remember my instructor’s name – I will also remember my classmates’ names. That’s pretty remarkable!

I think I will learn a lot about the students’ thought processes and understand which concepts they are grasping (or not).

“I think that we take for granted the huge amount of information that we pass on to our students in a F2F classroom just by our presence and interaction with them (bathroom passes, appropriate conduct with each other, respect for the work and management of time) the aspects of education that never finds its way into our lesson plans. In many ways in learning to teach online we are having to learn how to teach again, to focus on the minutiae that is generally accepted we do, to take nothing for granted, assume nothing and to take the entire content of our and every moment of that course (every moment of 8+ weeks) and place it in text form in a virtual environmen

them.

I understand how and why I did it, and I could do it again. 

One cool thing about this course is the ‘meta’ quality. 

what is best for the students.  How can we serve our students?  Are we doing the best we can to teach them? Are we teaching appropriate and relevant courses? Are we being interactive, engaging, are we even able to keep up with our students technology-wise?  Do we adapt and change our methods to keep up with their demands, or try to force our students to adapt to our methods? 

Certainly, some of the most important roles of online discussion moderator/tutor revolves around their duties as an educational facilitator

Twitter

~I continue to be astonished every week with how much I am growing and learning in this course.  Not only am I learning how to be an effective online instructor and everything that it entails, but I am also learning a lot about myself.~

I lose track of time and hours have gone by without me even realizing it. 

“What young children perceive that their teachers do plays a more significant role in their socio-emotional outcomes than what teachers report they do” (p. 30).  We have an EVEN bigger impact than we thought!

“Am I providing a bridge for my students from their prior knowledge to where I want them to be and where THEY want to be?” “What am I doing to facilitate their growth not only in building a positive self-image, but also as learners in general?” “Am I REALLY taking into consideration their interests, passions and motivations?” And finally, “What Would Alex Do?”

“I really like how you tell them you are there for them.  A lot of my teachers give us confusing assignments and I never feel like I can ask them questions.” 

When she was done going through everything she said, “Are you actually going to teach this class? Can I take it when you do?” 

  I was spending so much time figuring out the tools that I felt like I wasn’t spending time on content.  I realize now that I needed to spend that time and those tools were part of the content of this course. 

I LOVE learning in general!  I liked learning before…well I never disliked it anyway…well unless it was math…or science…I had no idea what it was like to truly LOVE learning.  Its sad to me that it took me 30 years to experience this.  Did I work A LOT in this course?  Did I give up much of my social life?  Did I stay up too late?  YES, YES and YES.  Was it worth it? Absolutely!  Did I mind? NOT ONE BIT…Reflecting on the fact that I worked so hard and so much on something and not only wasn’t bothered by it, but enjoyed every moment was a HUGE wake up call to me. 

You just have to have passion and a belief in yourself.

This was the only course I have EVER taken in which I will walk away having truly internalized knowledge.  I know that I internalized what I have learned because when I was reviewing my classmate’s courses I didn’t have to refer to a book or a checklist, it was all in my head.  When I look back at my undergrad education, I have always said that I didn’t feel like I actually “learned” anything until I student taught and learned by DOING.  That’s exactly what happened in this course, I learned by doing.  This is only course that has ever provided me with this type of experience and it has shown me what quality education should be, not only online but in a face-to-face situation as well.

We(myself, my classmates AND Alex) worked together in this course to contribute to the construction of our knowledge. 

It wasn’t until this summer when I turned 31 that I finally experienced being a student in a student-centered, constructivist environment that actually got me to THINK.  Not just think, but think critically…It took 31 years for me to experience a true community of learners!  I don’t want other students to have to wait 31 years to experience what its like to REALLY LEARN!

I want to CHANGE someone the way that Alex, ETAP 640 and all of you have CHANGED me.

I realized that the online environment is actually a type of classroom; is that why course language includes such terms as “area”, and “room”?

The resulting ah ha moments became the core of my entry …

One activity that I am especially excited to observe is the students tweeting from their placements when they make a course- to- practice connection.

How am I simultaneously learning how to be an online student and instructor?

Something that has been proven to work is frequent, immediate instructor feedback.

Aug 04 2012

Reflecting on the online course design process, I realize I have made a tremendous transition from first-time student to instructor in the space of one semester. What I have learned about myself is that I have an affinity for designing in the online environment. 

I am technology-proficient.

While I am not yet a full technophile, I am surely no longer a technophobe!

  I so deeply enjoyed the reading and studying portion of this course … it opened a new world of theory to me, made more exciting by the historic proximity of the leading researchers in the field. 

I kept telling myself, “You need the experience if you want to be an instructional designer!”

So, reflection has proven its worth yet again:  reflecting on my work in designing EED406 thus far is proof that research-based best practice works.

discussion is the heart of online learning. 

students’ learning is demonstrated through the vehicle of discussion.  

blog posts are personalized records of learning, thinking, and being. 

It is not about what the instructor wants to hear, it is about hearing the student’s articulation of what is being learned that is essential to evaluating the content of a blog post.

Through trying to be “fearless” about using technology, as Alex advises, I have come to learn that confidence is something that one must exercise in all spheres of the online environment.

we can not help but to teach when we learn and to learn when we teach.

“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” This is certainly true of discussion forum.  We learn with and for each other: as  you learn, I learn. 

(Think Twitter, Irene!) 

It causes me to reflect on the similarities between online and physical communities, something I had not thought of before.  Could it be that we really are, slowly and steadily, growing into a genuine community?

Teaching presence also involves anticipating students’ needs based on monitoring progress and being ready to find that perfect something to support the student’s learning.

I have spent my academic life I believing that I have to ‘go it alone’, since I walked home from school alone the first day of first grade.  Strangely, this course, in which I spend so much time alone, is teaching me that I don’t.