CEP 820: Final Reflection
At the beginning of this course, I was not really sure what to do, or what to use as far as online tools were concerned. I had dabbled in technology, and have used it previously in class to make the students “rise to the occasion” of having their work read by a wider audience, but I had never developed an entire course online. When choosing my Course Management System (CMS), I gravitated toward those I had heard of, but after doing some research I found that I would be greatly limiting myself if I didn’t look into what else was out there.
I initially chose Moodle as my CMS, once again going with what I knew, but then switched to Haiku. Haiku is easy to use, there is no need to have an account through any institution and it’s free. The way the program looks and the amount of features it has were very appealing to me, and I found it enjoyable to work with. As a side note here, the number of free and easy to use applications available for teaching online is amazing, and I have yet to know how to use many of them to the degree I would need to be able to teach them, but the possibilities are endless. I was able to supplement my CMS with websites, and in the future, may even bring a blogging element into the process.
The biggest challenge for me, was deciding what to include in my course. It was hard to determine what was easily transferred to the online world of education. As I worked on the course though, it came more easily, and the amount of support and information available in the online community was helpful. I also had a lot to learn. This course did a lot for me in the way of making me learn more about the world of technology.
The ISTE Standards for teachers were helpful in giving me a starting point, as someone who has never taught an online course. I also discovered Jing, screen casting, Glogster and Pikistrips. There are so many interactive tools that are helpful to me in teaching online and as a classroom teacher. I would also encourage anyone who has not tried Google docs as a form of collaboration to do so. It is easy to use, and it is efficient. Other helpful features that I used in this course that I feel are helpful for offline as well, are the creation of video messages. Though I have yet to use them in a live course, and I was initially a little afraid to try them, I see them as a helpful learning tool.
Advice I would give to others trying to create a course: Use the information available to you. What I mean by this is, go to YouTube and find the demos for the programs you are using in your course. Do not try to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak, use the demos, that is why they exist. Not only could you learn about aspects of the programs you weren’t aware of, but there are typically demos for programs put together by the people who had a hand in creating the program in the first place, and who better to teach your students how to use them?
I had never used the Google docs assessment tool, it’s great. There are many programs create rubrics, but I really found google docs to be user friendly, and aesthetically pleasing as well. Another useful site was that of the Universal Design for Learning. The information provided was useful as both a reminder of what I needed to be aware of in my classroom, and also as a checklist of sorts for my course. It highlights different areas that I am aware of the need to address as a teacher, but that may be overlooked on account of the busy nature of education and teaching.
In my experience with online learning in the realm of online learning itself, I found this course to be most helpful in real time, usable, realistic and helpful resources and instruction. The information was enough that I was educated on what I needed to know, but not so heavy that I had trouble deciphering meaning and intent. The programs I learned to use and the sites I was directed to are applicable in both my physical and digital classroom.
I initially chose Moodle as my CMS, once again going with what I knew, but then switched to Haiku. Haiku is easy to use, there is no need to have an account through any institution and it’s free. The way the program looks and the amount of features it has were very appealing to me, and I found it enjoyable to work with. As a side note here, the number of free and easy to use applications available for teaching online is amazing, and I have yet to know how to use many of them to the degree I would need to be able to teach them, but the possibilities are endless. I was able to supplement my CMS with websites, and in the future, may even bring a blogging element into the process.
The biggest challenge for me, was deciding what to include in my course. It was hard to determine what was easily transferred to the online world of education. As I worked on the course though, it came more easily, and the amount of support and information available in the online community was helpful. I also had a lot to learn. This course did a lot for me in the way of making me learn more about the world of technology.
The ISTE Standards for teachers were helpful in giving me a starting point, as someone who has never taught an online course. I also discovered Jing, screen casting, Glogster and Pikistrips. There are so many interactive tools that are helpful to me in teaching online and as a classroom teacher. I would also encourage anyone who has not tried Google docs as a form of collaboration to do so. It is easy to use, and it is efficient. Other helpful features that I used in this course that I feel are helpful for offline as well, are the creation of video messages. Though I have yet to use them in a live course, and I was initially a little afraid to try them, I see them as a helpful learning tool.
Advice I would give to others trying to create a course: Use the information available to you. What I mean by this is, go to YouTube and find the demos for the programs you are using in your course. Do not try to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak, use the demos, that is why they exist. Not only could you learn about aspects of the programs you weren’t aware of, but there are typically demos for programs put together by the people who had a hand in creating the program in the first place, and who better to teach your students how to use them?
I had never used the Google docs assessment tool, it’s great. There are many programs create rubrics, but I really found google docs to be user friendly, and aesthetically pleasing as well. Another useful site was that of the Universal Design for Learning. The information provided was useful as both a reminder of what I needed to be aware of in my classroom, and also as a checklist of sorts for my course. It highlights different areas that I am aware of the need to address as a teacher, but that may be overlooked on account of the busy nature of education and teaching.
In my experience with online learning in the realm of online learning itself, I found this course to be most helpful in real time, usable, realistic and helpful resources and instruction. The information was enough that I was educated on what I needed to know, but not so heavy that I had trouble deciphering meaning and intent. The programs I learned to use and the sites I was directed to are applicable in both my physical and digital classroom.