Donna Marqués

Thank you POT leaders for sharing your knowledge & expertise!!!!!

 Week 1: 

This post was an introductory post in which I shared a little bit about myself and talked about my excitement for online learning!  It was fun to look back and remember that enthusiasm.  I still have it today 🙂

Week 2: 

This week we organized a getting started chart.  I have noticed that my vision has changed a bit, but I continue to like my initial thoughts on course organization and believe I will keep it this way.  I may not incorporate everything listed into each week’s activities, but the general outline will stay the same.

Week 3:

This week I fully developed a lesson plan in week 23’s post.  My guiding force continues to be the SLOs and the textbook.  I shared my initial documents with some of my colleagues and received invaluable feedback.  This week was the starting point for my course design.

Week 4: 

This post is INVALUABLE and I must re-read it as I develop my online class this summer.  I have great ideas in here!  The question is whether I will be able to reach all my goals in my first class.  My guess is that it will be a work in progress and will be continually evolving as I gain more experience in the online teaching world.

Week 5:

Looking back on this post makes me smile.  Why? You ask…  because I have so much of this already done!  Halelulyah! I have created many of this documents that will just need to be uploaded to Bb and posted.  Exciting!

Week 6:

Ha ha!  This week reminds me of the difficulties I had posting a video in WordPress.  Ah-hem, I never quite learned how to do it because I had the same problem in last weeks post.  I have read the tutorial and followed everything to the tee and it still doesn’t work!  This is a good lesson for me.  I will know how frustrated my students feel when they can’t get something right!

Now, anyone out there want to sit me down and help me with this??

Week 7:

I got lots of good feedback on this week’s post.  Namely, the texting issue.  I am going to poll my students to see if they would like to receive communications via text or e-mail.  What will be important and challenging is the way I choose to build community.

Week 8:

Hey!  I met a goal from this week’s post and I didn’t even take myself out for a glass of vino!  Ha!  I stated using BB’s gradebook this semester and boy is it easy!  Shoulda done that semesters ago… but MTG served it’s purpose for the last 10 years ha!  Using voice threads for sure next semester!!!!!

Week 9:

I posted this question in this post:

Do students have to have Diigo accounts in order to see my notes?   Or can I share a special url with them?

Does anyone know the answer to this?  I want to use Diigo for sure next semester.

Week 10:

By re-reading this post, I was reminded to not just throw something up on my Bb site without knowing and reviewing “Why” I am doing it.  I also need a rubric for commenting.  I must say I wasn’t a very good at commenting in the class.  I just didn’t know what to say so often.  This will be invaluable experience for me as an instructor when my students come back telling me the same thing 🙂

Week 11:

A valuable lesson on copy writing.  Guess what ?  I haven;t changed my practices a bit!  I’m still “stealing” images from all over the web.  This was a good reminder to get it together!

Week 12:

This was the half way mark when I revisited the last 11 posts.  Most of my views have stayed the same, but with a little more knowledge under my belt this time.  I must say that going back and blogging about each post is invaluable!  I wonder if any of my colleagues have their students go back and view their beginning posts?  It would be great for studnets to see how their language skills have evolved!

Week 13:

In this post we annotated photos on Flickr.  When I clicked on my link it asked me for my user name and password!  Anyone sick to their stomach about all the damn user names and passwords we have to remember??????  Just read my finger print for goodness sake!  Anyway, will use Flickr for my class.  The idea I have is placing a photo on Bb and having students “chat” about it.  I’ll place little notes on it to engage/spark conversation.

Week 14:

I like the slideshare idea quite a bit, but my PPT didn’t upload correctly and all of the spacing was off.  It looked terrible. Also, the colors were changed on many of the slides.  I’ll have to continue to play with that site.  Can I just say I looked awful in my eyejot?  haha!  I will be using this great software to e-mail students.  Maybe weekly??  To start out each week of the course??  Oooh cool idea!

Week 15:

This was by far the heaviest week in the program.  Potheads:  you might consider spreading this out over various weeks….  this post took my 8+ hours to complete.  Just sayin…  I loved eveything we learned in this week’s material.  Surveys are used in my f2f classes to see how students are doing.  The brain is cool software, don’t know how much I will use it, but love the concept.  Prezis rock!  I have made and copied and modified many since I learned about them.  So thanks!!

Week 16: 

This post rocks!  It’s ready to go on to my Bb site.  All I have to do is link a few more items and we’re ready to go!  Love!

Week 17:

This post is perfect for me. When I’m setting up my class, I will revisit this post to remember all of these tidbits of information.  It also reminded me to e-mail Louis to get her syllabus.  Doing that now…

Week 18:

This is another invaluable post that I will revisit when creating my class this summer.  So many great time saving tips I learned this week!

Week 19:

This weeks post made me think quite a bit.  The first thing I have decided to do next semester is require an on ground midterm and final.  These will be mandatory and held on Saturday mornings.  I know this will limit my audience to local people, but this is the way it has to be for now.  I will be rallying for a proctoring center as I move forward as an online instructor.

Students will also be required to attend a mandatory orientation session which will also be held on ground on the Saturday before the semester starts, but they will have the option of joining virtually through Elluminate.   This post has got the ball rolling for me in various ways!

Week 20:

This week was more of a “think” week for me.  I’m assuming that was the point…  ah!  can’t get much passed this genius!!  🙂  I did enjoy taking a blast to the past and remembering how history always repeats itself, sometime wearing a different mask.  This was refreshing to review and see with inspirational lecturers.

Week 21: 

This was a great review of instructivism, constructivism, and connectivism for me.  It helped me to look into myself and put things into perspective.  Plus, I got to read some comments from colleagues that I missed somewhere along the way!

Week 22:

I enjoyed reading about sharing.  That’s what our POT team is doing with us right now!  If they weren’t inclined to share their knowledge with us and put together this awesome program, we wouldn’t be here learning right now.  So thanks guys!  I will return the favor…  In fact that is already happening, a dean at my college asked me to put together an online teaching workshop for fall FLEX week.  🙂

I also ranted in this post and I’m glad I got that off my chest!

Week 23:

This week helped me to put together some documents for my class and share them with you all.  I also e-mailed them around to various colleagues to get their feedback!  I got so much wonderful feedback and I am so excited to get my course started.  I need to wait until the semester ends because I’m up to my eyeballs in work!

Overall Reflection:

This has been a wonderful learning journey for me.  The best parts were experimenting with all of the web 2.0 tools, listening to experienced colleagues share their experience and tips, and finally having the chance to put them all together to create usable documents for my online class.

I love the stress free environment that allows you to post late and catch up along the way.

I needed to make better comments….  that’s my own fault!

I’ll be back in the fall to help mentor other newbies!  I’ll probably be buried in work, but I’ll make it happen 🙂

Thanks again for the great opportunity & experience, you’ll never know how much I truly appreciate the thoughtfullness that went into this certificate program.

Hello all,

My video is on Pedagogy & Course Design. Enjoy!

http://screencast.com/t/jjIpFxlsn

I’m sorry people, but I can not get this darn video to embed properly. I’m giving up!  You’ll have to click the link 🙂

See you next week!

Sharing:

I was really excited to watch the video about sharing and how we are morally obligated to do it as professionals!!  I couldn’t agree more!  As a new teacher, I started teaching in a low income high school.  I had only an emergency teaching credential and basically didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing!  Not a single teacher shared anything with me!  I was literally left to fend for myself.  I took my teacher credential classes at night and did my student teaching in my own classroom.  I had no master teacher and not a single administrator observed me.  I could have been teaching Chinese basket weaving for all they knew and/or cared.  How sad!!  I didn’t know any better at the time and just assumed that was how the teaching world worked.

Four years later, I transferred to a much more affluent high school… welcome to a new world.  I sat with language teachers at lunch and shared ideas, discussed pedagogies and bounced ideas off of each other.  Everyday there was a new lesson idea in my mailbox ready for me to try in my classroom.  Once a month an administrator  was in my class observing me and giving me genuine feedback.  Had  I died and gone to heaven??  This is the way it should be!!

I then started teaching as an adjunct at various community colleges…. back to my lonely world of autonomy.  Everybody was so busy hustling from one campus to another, who had time to share ideas and discuss pedagogy?

Fast forward fourteen years and I am a full timer….  back to heaven!  I’m discussing pedagogical practices and trying out new ideas almost weekly.  I love it!

But we are in a new world now…  the information super highway is at our finger tips.  Does anybody even call it that anymore??  😉  We can share with each other in so many different ways, we no longer need to be face to face.  From all of my past experiences, I do believe it is our moral obligation to our profession to share what we know so that all teachers and students can benefit.  It takes a village!!

I loved Alec Couros’s video.  He’s a very charismatic and dynamic presenter! This particularly caught my eye:

Stephen Downes wrote for Huffington Post, should move beyond the idea of education as being something provided for us, and toward something we create for ourselves. Schools are valuable, but schools need to make the transition or will be only one node of possibilities instead of the primary node for learning. We are on the cusp of a revolution and can contribute to that.

Student centered!  Isn’t that what we are striving for?  Students must create for themselves…  not have everything spoon fed to them.  I am so excited to be part of the revolution!

Gardner Campbell’s video put me to sleep.  Did anyone else feel that way?

There’s one other thing I want to blog about this week and that has to do with a discussion I had with my colleagues regarding the proper training for online teachers.  There is a push for all community college teachers to be certified to teach online.  I do agree with this; in fact, that  is why I am taking this course.  However; many people drop out of the courses, as we can see here in our own course.  Why?

According to the colleagues I spoke with, they believe that instructors should take these courses in order to be able to teach online.  However, there is no financial incentive to do so.  My point being that the instructor is not receiving any credits in order to be able to advance on the pay scale.  Why not?  This course is rigorous and those taking it are advancing themselves professionally. Why shouldn’t they be compensated for this extra training?

My colleagues argued that the incentive for an adjunct professor is that he/she does not have to drive around the county and can teach from home in his/her pajamas.  Really?  You spend an entire year taking a course and the way you are rewarded is by staying home and teaching in your pajamas?  To me that is like saying, you have earned a master’s degree and now you get to teach at the community college level instead of high school, but you will not be paid anymore.  It just doesn’t seem right to me.  Education is education and this online teaching degree is no different from a teaching credential, for example.  By not receiving credits for this degree/certificate some how devalues it and sends the message that “this is not a real program”  and “online teaching certificates are not that important.”  I couldn’t disagree more!!

I didn’t want to make waves with my new colleagues, so I left it at that.  But I truly believe that an online teaching degree is just as valuable as any other degree.  Instructors should be able to use the units to advance on their pay scales.  Especially adjunct professors who work just as hard as full time professors.

Done ranting…  see you next week 🙂

Adventures in Online Pedagogy:

Lisa & Jim discussed instructivism, constructivism, and connectivism.  They then asked us to classify ourselves into one category.  IMPOSSIBLE!  Depending on what I am doing, I am constantly incorporating all three into my classes all the time.   When I lecture on certain grammar, vocabulary, culture, etc. points: I’m feeding my students knowledge and they are taking it in.  (Hahha– who am I kidding?!)  In theory, that is happening.  Later, they take that knowledge and apply it to their writing, reading & speaking skills.  Finally, they connect with each other and the world and put it into use/context.  So there ya have it…  All three are in work, all of the time.  So I guess I’m going to need a lot of different online tools 🙂

Individual Knowledge in the Internet Age:

Just the other day in class, this conversation ocurred:

Student: “Profe, I really have problems with spelling in Spanish.   What can I do to improve my spelling?”

Me:  “Do you ever read in Spanish?  Reading will really improve your spelling.”

Long pause…

Student:  “Does reading Facebook posts count?”

Me: Long pause, stare hard into student’s eyes…

Student:  “I don’t even read in English, forget Spanish!”

I am more and more inclined to believe that if it is not a Tweet, Fb Post or 2 minute (or shorter) YouTube video, students really can’t be bothered to read it…  and it’s not just students, a lot of people (myself included sometimes!) Our worlds are moving at the speed of light and it is just too time consuming to actually read a textbook, novel or even a poem!

Memorization: really?  Because you can memorize something and regurgitate it on to a test, this makes you knowledgable?  Blaaaah!  Pure garbage.  I rarely remember anything I have “memorized.”  I certainly don’t have a bunch of dates memorized, what for?  I can look them up on google :).  I know basic dates of major happenings in the world:  WWI, WWII, Spanish Civil War, my birthdate, my kid’s birthdates, etc.  What else do I need to know??!! Lisa, stop gasping!

I think we need to have a balance in education; use technology when we can, keep learning the basics.  Who cares if students “read” their textbooks on an iPad?  Colaborate through social media, wikis, etc?  The idea is that we keep teaching and learning the traditional material in non-traditional ways.

Connectivism:

Hello class, think of me as your mother, sister, auntie, teacher, cheerleader, coach, dictionary, encyclopedia, network adminstrator, Blackboard administrator, and anything else under the sun…

This is what students think we are, these are the misconceptions we must clear up from the beginning of class to help students to be self sufficient and resourceful.  Help them to become critical thinkers and solve problems on their own.

This concludes this week’s post.  See you next week.

History of Educational Technology:

As I sat listening to the lecture in the background while doing 100 other things in the frontground; I couldn’t help but wonder why on earth Lisa and her crew were making me listen to this boring old lesson.  Then I thought, “Oh yeah, Lisa’s a history teacher… that must be it!”  Until wala!  The light came on!  Rick discussed the time his boring old science teacher was giving a monotone lecture on the importance of grasshoppers.  His class was then wisked away to the “science lab” to watch his “teacher’s brother” give the same old boring lecture on grasshoppers, but this time it was on an old black & white fuzzy tv.  So it just seemed so much more exciting.  Take away:  don’t deliver the same old boring content through a new medium.  Make the medium work for your content.  Make the medium deliver your content in a different way while using that medium to your advantage…  hmm easier said than done.

Another thought came to mind regarding MOOCS.  The unions are all up in arms about MOOCs and how they will replace teachers, they think MOOCs are threatening our jobs!  There will no longer be a need for professors…  the same thing Rick points out was said when film came into the classroom.  Everybody needs to relax!

I did enjoy this rather long lecture, it certainly helped to put things into perspective for me.  Plus, Professor Rick is a dynamic presenter!

Does the Digital Classroom Enfeeble the mind?

“Right now, many of these decisions are being made by the geeks of Silicon Valley, who run a lot of things that other people pretend to run. The crucial choice of which intergenerational information is to be treated as computational grist is usually not made by educators or curriculum developers but by young engineers.”

Didn’t this just come up in our reading about CMSs?  It’s hard to think outside of the box when we are boxed in our offices, classrooms & institutions everyday…  But reading articles like this one, allow us to spread our pedagogical wings and fly!  “More Spaceships, please!”

As far as our textbook reading goes for this week:  poof!  Not much captured my attention, which is a rarity.  I think I’m beyond the blended class notion… I’m jumping in with both feet next semester and it’s fully online for me.

Now, on to spring break…  ahh!

 I’m catching up little by little….  Whole lotta interesting reading this week.   I started by reading chapter 13.   I would say that my current f2f classes are web enhanced.  I post lectures, links, videos, tutorials, syllabus, extra credit assignments and grades on Bb.  The textbook we currently use has all the assignments online as well as a Vtext that students can access.  I notice that my students could give a hoot about all the cool technology.  I am constantly amazed at how underwhelmed they are.  Really?  I can’t help but think back to the days of when I was a student… none of this stuff was available.  Heck, we thought fax machines were cool!   What the hell is wrong with these students??!!  In fact, when I did create more techy assignhments and embedded them into my Bb site, they complained!  Whatever!!  :/

As far as lecures go, I post pdfs of my PPTs and links to my Prezis.  I constantly tell students thay are there and to feel free to print them out and bring them to class.  That way when I am lecturing, they can just add interesting notes to them.  Rarely do I see any students taking my advice.  Really?  They just scatter to write everything down that is on the PPT or Prezi….  I need to rethink why this is?  Lazy students or outdated methodology?  When I ask them this question, they look at me like I have 2 heads… 

Looking forward to incorportaing the discussion board and/or blogs into my online class this fall…  Freaked out about testing since my college has no proctoring center.  I’m going to have to get really creative until I can convince the higher ups that we NEED a proctoring center…  Office hours: planning tio use Skype or Wimba, I’ll see which one is better.  Wikis… LOVE them for group projects!  I’ve used Pbworks in my f2f classes and it is very easy and user friendly!

On to the articles…  What I got form the Grahm article was that it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference who is in the class, unless of course the instructor makes it his/her business to foster a relationship between participants.  This will be essential in my Spanish class as students will need to be paired for oral practice and group projects.  What I git from Siemen’s article is that MOOCs are here to stay regardless of what the teacher’s unions say!  Ha!  The unions have been up in arms about these MOOCs.  If people want to join in on a class with 3,000 other students, feel free!  They just won’t get any personalized feedback from the instructor.  Michael Wesch’s class page gave me a headache at first glance.  As I dug deeper I found it fascinating.  I expecially love the “the wall.”  For now, I am sticking with good old fashioned Bb.  The students at my new college are far less sophisticated technologically speaking; no way in heck I’m going to add that page to their plates… they’ll drop like flies.

On to week 20… only 5 weeks to go fearless compañeros!!

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

It seems appropriate that I would get behind on the “Classroom management” topic…  ie Time Management… something that got away from me this week 🙂

Major take aways for me from the reading and videos this week:

• Pedagogy first!  Not tech 🙂  the theme of our class!!
• I am NOT tech support…  that is what the help desk is for
• When answering individual e-mails, post answers to a public area so that all can benefit from the answer and also so you are not answering the same question over and over
• Make it CLEAR how to reach the prof & the hours you are available.  If you do not make it clear, students interpret this as you being available 24/7.  Make sure to tell students how long it will take for you to respond to the message (ie. Mon-Fri/ 24 hours)
• Test on syllabus: cuts down on questions
• PRE-CLASS: Have a static webpage that students can go to gather all the info they need prior to the commencement of class (ie. outside of Bb so that crashers can access)
• Due dates: same time/same day of the week: plan to be around a couple hours before something is due (tech problems, etc.)
• Hide pages in Bb and reveal as necessary, no need to overwhelm & confuse
• Rubrics cut down on grading questions
• Build community and allow students to interact and make comments/corrections on each other’s work
• Assessments: test generator, copy & paste comments: think RE-USE
• Group projects!  Better for you, better for students
• Don’t spend time on things that aren’t teaching!

This week has been invaluable…  I want Louisa’s syllabus!  I need to e-mail her.

On to this week’s content…  ¡Hasta pronto!

PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES (FAQ)

1. Determine if you are ready to be an online student by taking this test. 

2. Here are some tips for online success.   Here are some tips for netiquette (how to be respectful online).

3. Yes, I am ready!! But, I feel overwhelmed…. Where do I start?  Click here (link to the getting started page)

4. I need help with Blackboard.

5. I need a better computer. Come try out our state of the are computers at the Cuyamaca Open Computer Lab. Make sure to bring your own ear pods!

6. How can I see the Vtext?

7. Where do I find my workbook, lab & video assignments?

8. I need to talk to my prof!!  How can I get a hold of her? E-mail her or Skype.

9. I want to ask a classmate a question. E-mail (link to e-mail tool in Bb) or Facebook.

10. I need extra help! Cuyamaca Tutoring Center.

Can I just say something??  My BRAIN hurts from all that I have learned this week!!  I’m on BRAIN overload!!  So I started out by doing the reading which was wonderful.  I love the idea of having students use all of these Web 2.0 tools.  It will be so beneficial for them to experiment with them, just as we are.

This week’s lessons were very time consuming and very frustrating to me….  just needed to get that off my chest!  I think part of the problem is that my computer sucks and my interent connection sucks even more!!!! 

I decided to create a survey about the lesson I just taught to my second semester Spanish classes.  I am currently grading their tests and compositions right now, so I’m going to send them the survey once I have handed back these assessments.  I think they will be able to give me some honest feedback once they see how their assessments turned out.  Here is my survey:

Click here to take survey

Next, I explored the brain!!  I created a brain on a food unit I am teaching to my second semester Spanish class this week. 

I will use it to create my first prezi.  Here is my jing video about “La Comida:”

 http://screencast.com/t/dId3GqpqFH

Here is my Prezi  presentation:

http://prezi.com/fxfyektl2mye/untitled-prezi/