As we near the end of the first of a series of four classes for certification for online teaching, I am pleased with what I have learned thus far. Of course, there have been challenges but I was able to overcome them. At times I felt a little overwhelmed but never gave in. Persistence was in my favor. Who would have thought that I would have been able to build my own e-portfolio check it out http://lorac7.wetpaint.com it was easy to build and edit. I enjoyed working with the e-portfolio more than I did the wiki. Only thing is that I was very skeptical about given my e-portfolio my regular name. The internet has enough information about me without me giving it more. It is easy to direct someone to my e-portfolio without using my name. If I decide to use it for more than school purposes I can easily edit the title.
Using theories is not new to me because my profession uses theories as its framework. Cognitivism learning is one of the online theories that is used most frequently in nursing. On learning.theories.com expresses cognitivism as being the metaphor of the mind as computer: information comes in, is being processed, and leads to certain outcomes. That sounds like critical thinking which equates to the nursing process. Assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation are the steps of the nursing process. That process can be compared to the metaphor of cognitivism information going in results in plan of care beginning developed, put into action, and then evaluated.
As we move to a patient centered care model, humanism which is learning that is student centered and personalized, and the educator’s role is that of a facilitator sounds much like it. Adjusting to patient centered care model was met with challenges the same as adjusting to student centered learning. Humanist aligns with the practice of holistic nursing care both of which believe that the person should be treated as a whole. Online, teaching reflects humanism because the instructor is truly a facilitator of learning.
The seven principles of good practices in undergraduate education speak to developing relationships with students and the level of communication and feedback and needs to happen. Time of task and respect for talents and diversity of learning takes me back to prior learning this semester. If I were to address this in my online teaching I would have to include readings and activities, perhaps even some exploring of other websites to help drive the understanding of the lesson. Seven principles also mention the advantages of group learning. To facilitate this in my classes I will utilize small discussion groups that have assigned times and to be either in chat room or live classroom. They will have an assigned topic and questions to answer I will be present in the session only as a coach not to lecture.
Group processes aren’t not easy online. Connecting with the team members or just getting them to respond is difficult. I am a visual /verbal learner so feedback on a regular basis in a group project is important to me. I am also a serious learner and like to get my assignments done in a timely manner which is not good for me in group projects. The study of text – static images and multimedia for a group project was a good assignment and called for collaboration that was limited. http://www.nytimes.com/ is a great example of text- static images. It has a great variety of articles where the text and images appropriate. It makes reading the newspaper on line more eloquent than having the paper in your hand. I looked at multimedia as being the websites that has lots movement and interactive activities going on. However, text and static image are part of multimedia as well. The website that has an abundance of multimedia pages is http://www.youtube.com/ . The group developed a wiki and my role in it was writing the introduction and having input in the wording of the rubric. The wiki is also on wetpaint.com. and can be viewed at http://group2wiki.wetpaint.com/ .
I signed up for instant message (IM) in class but never used it. When I was online and was able to be on there for a while there wasn’t anyone on line. I have used instant messaging to chat with my friends. It will probably be a good tool to use for group projects. The problems I have found with instant messages are that everyone doesn’t speak the same language. If IM is used for the classroom there needs to guidelines set to assure that everyone understands the language.
I read the five expectations an online student can have of their instructor. I know that one area that requires the most development is the technological aptitude. I have learned so much regarding the functionality of blackboard and even something’s on the internet that I would have otherwise never explored. The wealth of information and ways the internet can be used to assist learning is flabbergasting. As an online instructor I will make work diligently at giving my students feedbacks in a timely manner, I will set scheduled times for consultation as well as use a course question location on the discussion board. Emailing and instant messages will also be an option of communication.
I am looking forward to moving on to the next course. I believe taking these courses will help me to be as effective as an online instructor as I am as a traditional instructor. As I previously, mentioned in my blog my greatest concern was relationship building with my students. Taking this beginning has helped me to overcome that concern simply because of techniques I have learned in this class that will help me to construct relationships with my students. Farewell for now stay tuned to share with me my continuation of learning to teach online.
