Week 18 – POTCERT

Playing catch up….

So looking at this week’s topics; I entered with my pre-conceived notion of, “I’m just sticking with Blackboard, I can’t be bothered with learning a whole new CMS.”  Furthermore, so many colleagues have said, “Just use Blackboard, you won’t be able to get help on campus from anyone if you use Moodle… or anything else for that matter.”  Have I changed my mind? No, not really.  But the readings definitely made me think… this I like 🙂

Chapter 11 Insights:

• Establish criteria for participation (discussion boards, blogs, wikis, etc.).  This is going to be a challenge for me in the online arena.  I know what I want students to get out of certain topics, I’ll need to articulate it in the form of a rubric.
• Discussion board: I create major topic threads: don’t allow students to create additional threads.
• Create a general forum for Q & A (this is a reaccurring theme!)  Also, create one for each lesson so students can ask specifics related to the lesson.
• Address students by name when responding to their posts.
• Make an effort to respond to multiple students, not just the same one or two individuals!    I can keep track of this the same way I do in f2f class 🙂  LOVE!!  not just Like…
• Log on in short periods rather than long periods.  Plan to spend 1 hour chunks responding to posts, etc.
• Schedule “quiet time” when you give students permission not to post but to be working on assignments, etc.  This is a great tip!  There are so many students who feel like they need to be saying something all the time, this gives them permission to focus on what’s important at the moment.
• Various startegies to get quite students to particpate and different ways to get them to particpate in a meaningful way.
• Always have a back up plan for synchronous sessions– ‘aint that the truth!!!??

Article Insights:

• Don’t let your CMS dictate your pedagogy. I’m glad I read these articles, because they articulated the thoughts I always have in my head.  I’ll sit in front of my Bb container and say to myself, “Okay, this is junk…  (a better 4 letter word is usually the one I prefer to use)  how can I change this up to fit my style?”  I dig & dig & dig until I find the right tool that is somewhere embedded in the CMS… or if it’s not, I venture out into Web 2.0 tools.  The point is don’t become tunnel visioned.  Keep your pedagogical vision clear and find a tool that mimicks it.  Don’t adapt to what the CMS has to offer at first glance.
• The moodle tool guide was great…  but I’m not using Moodle, period.  I’m sticking with Bb and making it work for me.  I may change my mind after next fall’s first attempt at teaching online, but for now, that’s my story & I’m sticking to it!  I honestly do not want the headache of trying out a new CMS right now. 

I’m on to week 19, I’ll catch up if it kills me