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The first step would be to identify the undesired behavior you wish to change. The next steps are the trickiest and depends on many factors. This include developing a conscious and deliberate plan which includes 1) the ultimate goal, benchmarks (smaller more obtainable goals to reach the ultimate goal), 2) the steps to the first benchmark, 3) the rewards to reinforce desired reactions which approach the steps to the first benchmark, and 4) the criteria to use to mark progress. It may be helpful to work with a partner (someone else with the same phobia or undesired behavior) as a support person or a mentor (someone who has done it or has some counseling background). This is a very difficult strategy to accomplish alone. Reinforce the positive steps away from the undesired behavior and steps toward the desired behavior with the selected rewards. Monitor your progress. Change the size of the steps, the rewards, or the benchmarks if any do not seem to be working. You may hit plateaus or periods of backslides. Accept them as a temporary setback and identify potentials of self-sabotage, negative self-talks, or situations which should be avoided for the time being. Make a conscious decision to continue with your plan (or modification of it). This may be a life-long "work in progress" if you are trying to change a deep-rooted fear or a behavior which feeds an addiction. Again, this is very difficult to do alone. You may need to work with a partner, mentor, or counselor.

. In this environment, teachers become mentors and guides rather than the "all knowing" authority often associated with the traditional face-to-face format. In addition, new issues and challenges have begun to materialize from this new paradigm, prompting investigations related to the quality of online instruction:

engage distance students in their local communities through experiential learning opportunities.

provide community service as part of their academic coursework, learn about and reflect upon the community context in which the service is provided, and develop an understanding of the connection between service and their academic work.3

Virtual adjunct faculty have largely carried higher education into the cyber classroom. Adjunct faculty have always been broadly used in higher education, especially in the community college setting. Nationally, adjuncts teach 30-50% of all credit courses. At community colleges, adjuncts compose about 60% of all faculty (Gappa and Leslie, 1993).

About 80% of all online course offerings are taught by virtual adjuncts. About 70% of the active 250 adjuncts teaching in the program reside in the state of Florida , and the other half in assorted states.

As colleges and universities work steadily to get full-time faculty onboard with distance learning, virtual adjuncts have eagerly stepped up to fill the void, thereby enabling institutions to respond promptly to market demand.

Perhaps a school wants to be able to recognize the master teacher who is caring and constructive mentor to new teachers in her school.    Isn’t that a fantastic contribution that so many teachers make, day in and day out, that, currently, goes unrecognized?  (An aside:  I loved the “Go, Teachers!” thread that ran throughout yesterday’s program.)    Perhaps there’s a national network of auto mechanics that would like to be able to come up with a way of credentialing high school drop outs who happen to be great at fixing hybrid cars but who cannot afford to go to for-profit trade school that offer formal credentials.   I’m making this up, but I can see applications that could help participants and communities to recognize those with achievements “outside the system” and yet crucial, to the community and to their own success in the workplace.   What do we have now to offer? Multiple choice tests, ABCD grades, transcripts, resumes:  that is an extremely narrow r

Our current, standardized systems of credentialing  are very rigid and often restrictive.   Badges allow groups of people—organizations and institutions--to decide what counts for them and how they want to give credit.   Every contribution isn’t measured by ABCD.   If you contribute, you can have a record of that contribution.   That’s the beauty of digital badge systems or eportfolios such as Top Coders where you can actually click on the badge and see all the specific contributions or skills of a person that were recognized by peers in the form of a badge. 

One study explicitly examined the quality of the discourse environment in an online literacy course at the graduate level in a teacher education program (Many, Howrey, Race, Pottinger-bird, & Stern, 2001). The authors noted that with deliberate scaffolding by the instructor and teacher-leaders, students developed a strong support community, provided mentoring and advice, and collaborated with colleagues. In addition, research has focused specifically on the nature of scaffolding that occurred in an online reading assessment course (Many, Bates, & Coleman, 2002). In that study, bulletin board postings included support from both the instructor and the class members and focused on the use of technology; clarification of assignments; strategies for learning online; understanding, assessing, and teaching literacy concepts; and understanding general concepts in education. Online scaffolding processes included modeling, supplying information, clarifying, assisting, questioning, prompting, focusing attention, encouraging self-monitoring, and labeling/affirming.

Instructional scaffolding of course content in online conversations. Instructional scaffolding took place in the highly individualized and elaborative e-mail feedback given by the instructor for all course assignments. An analysis of all such correspondence between the instructor and the members of the focus group revealed the following four categories related to scaffolding: Affirming Probing Providing explicit instruction Clarifying