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I believe if I didn’t have this opportunity to reflect, it would have been a thought but I would not have acted on it. At first I thought blogging and journaling was just busy work and I wasn’t too excited to do them, but I have found great benefit from thinking about how I learn, why I learn and how I can use this to improve my contributions as an educator and student and that deflated feeling is going away with every week that passes and it is renewing my faith in education and where it is headed.

The course was developed in a way that the harder you work and the more you participate the better the experience and the more you will get out of it. I can guarantee that all of us were nervous and scared the first time we entered this course. The first day we knew that it was going to be a challenging, but we have made it to the end with a lot of rewarding experiences and a lot of lessons learned along the way.

Table 2. Survey responses – rating-scale item (N = 22) Question Very Easy (1) Easy (2) No Problems (3) Some Issues (4) Very Difficult (5) 6. How difficult was it to create your VoiceThread account? 19 3 0 0

Table 3.Survey responses – open-ended item (N = 18) Question Comments 7. Anything you would like to share about VoiceThread? Positive comments (n = 12) "Very easy and convenient." "I think that once I was able to get into the system it was easy to use. Now I need to understand why the mic[rophone] does not work, maybe my laptop." "It was actually very interesting to learning [sic] how to use VoiceThread. It was something different." "I like the way I can participate by using text. As English is my second language, speaking is really difficult for me. Also, VoiceThread is really easy and simple to use." "It was really easy to navigate and use." "VoiceThread was very easy to use and it could be beneficial in the future." "VoiceThread is easy and pretty interesting!" "I like that it is very easy to use." "It seems like a good tool to utilize for some classes." "Easy to navigate and good review before the exam." "Never done it before but I think it's pretty good tool." "Seems like a great tool we can use." Comments expressing reservations (n = 4) "I think it was very easy to figure out. My hesitation about using in the future for a course to do a presentation or recommending my peers to use it is that I don't really know much about it so that is why I responded no to those questions. I don't know how to add graphics and things of that nature like on PowerPoint." "VoiceThread is easy to register [on]. However, I'm not too sure about making a presentation." "I think it's a good form of technology. It's not my first choice of communication though. Plus if you're typing your answer the font is super small, not sure if I can change this setting." "[There needs to be a] bigger text box" Unfavorable comments (n = 2) "I do not like the interface of the VoiceThread ... [The interface] makes it hard to use on anything besides a computer." One student found it slightly difficult to "figure out how to answer the questions or how to comment on others' answers."

10. Childhood Dream. Ask the students to share their childhood dream (what they wanted to be or do when they grew up) and then ask them to reflect on how their current coursework correlates with their current aspirations.--Charles Collins

the best way to teach students how to write more effectively is to have them write more often.

In the traditional F2F classroom, the instructor asks a question, and the same four or five extroverted students inevitably raise their hands. They offer spontaneous, often unresearched responses in the limited time allotted for discussion. In the online environment, discussions enter a new dimension.

explain, share, comment upon, critique

unresearched responses

However, I have heard from very few faculty members who are not energized by the creative process of achieving the same instructional goals in an entirely new format.

On average, online courses are far more writing-intensive than traditional classes have ever been.

he first response that comes to mind rather than the best possible response

Many online students have indicated that this is the first time they have ever "spoken up" in class and that they enjoy the opportunity

Geared to lifelong learning

as a result of the relative anonymity

online education can be done well,

In their everyday lives, individuals do not have a teacher at their side to direct them in their acquisition of new information. One of the roles that we need to perform as educators, then, is to teach students to find and learn information on their own or in concert with their colleagues. The online environment fosters self-motivated education. Students direct their own use of Internet links, search engines, discussion boards, chat, e-mail, and other media. While such resources cannot guarantee student initiative, they establish a framework that gives precedence to the autonomy of the learner.

develop course materials among themselves in a manner rarely seen in the F2F classroom.

specific attribute—

kind, straightforward tone,

omparative language can damage students' relationships. By holding May and Justine up as exemplars, I implied that the other class members were less commendable

But John will feel embarrassed, and his trust in this teacher will diminish.

communicate a belief that students want to—and know how to—listen, cooperate, and do good work

I don’t accept laziness or haphazard work, but I usually reject it with a smile and a joke

At this point, I need stick notes to track down sticky notes

I resisted activities where the students “taught” each other for fear that they would leave something out

I will be extremely busy

I am eliminating much of the homework requirements so students can work on the online course

It will be an enormous challenge for me to let students take the lead and not dominate the airspace. If I want my students to make it to that “performance” or “resolution” stage I see this stepping back as being essential. I want them to “Perform” in the sense that they build their learning into webpages. If I dominate their peer critiques, for example, they might as well become my webpages. The intent is for them to run wild with their creativity, and to step away from me as the direct instructor. He also discusses the steps groups take to make decisions, “forming, norming, storming, and performing.” Garrison emphasizes that groups not only need time, but also clearly stated goals to function productively. I am very familiar with his claim that, “groups do not naturally coalesce and move to integration and resolution phases.” I loathe group work for this very reason! I have avoided it much of my teaching career, afraid of losing control of the classroom and the content, and often seeing little progression in student learning when I do venture to use it. He goes on to argue that, “direction and facilitation is required to establish cohesion and ensure messages are developed.” I guess I assumed this, that you need to give clear directions, state your goals for the activity, and facilitate its progression. I’m concerned with how this will go online.

This reminds  me of Kelly as a “thread killer.”

time consuming

whether I’d catch the next episode of the “Backyardigans.”

On top of it is that it allows the Professor to reach to individual student in a personal tone. I am so used to read assignment and feedback in written format that I don’t remember when was the last time a professor went through my assignment in front of me. Almost always the case that the feedbacks were scribed down on the tiny margins of the papers, with often less then eligible handwritings. I did the same thing to my students when grading their papers and exams. So, using Podcast to give feedback is marvelous. It can easily create a strong sense of connection and trust between the instructor and the student. It helps out the most for those students who may be on the brink of feeling isolated from the learning community or fall behind in the middle of a long and demanding semester.

, I also assign a discussion forum dedicated to the topic: how does the online learning work? How to succeed

guess I am not the only one in the class who feels weird not be able to share thoughts and reflections as we’ve been doing for weeks. I miss it very much.

Larry was right

detach themselves

Peirce suggests that, since students come to class with loads of opinions about the topics (even more so moral issues, I’d say) whether they are well-informed or not, a way to generate interest in assigned readings is to take a survey of their opinions, or to pre-test their knowledge of the information. (p. 310) I find this suggestion interesting and it leads me back to my earlier reflections on quizzes. Quizzes may not be needed in taking attendance, nor reliable in assessing whether students come to class well-prepared or not, but quizzes may still be useful in inspiring curiosity among students.

Provoking discomfort (point 5) is very useful.

Creating cognitive dissonance is also a very useful triggering event that may eventually lead to the completion of the cognitive inquiry.

I’ve been trying to reflect on my learning process in a very personal way, and I will continue to do this even after the semester finished.

Given the opportunity, the learners are more likely to express their true selves on consistent basis.