Monthly Archives: September 2013

Diving into the online lake

Before I begin my blog, I wanted to say thank you Jim for the video that has made you think. The comments were very useful and they made me think as well. I agree with Tom that my own blog entries should be posted earlier and that I should contribute more to discussions. I have therefore decided to finish my blogs by Thursday mornings and dedicate Thursday and Friday to adding and respond to comments.

          When I was 10 years old, my brother dared me to jump off a 10 meter diving board into Lake Geneva, in Switzerland. Since my brother was older and cooler than me, I had to impress him, so I climbed the ladder, went to the edge of the board, closed my eyes, and just jumped. In midair, I opened my eyes, looked down, and saw rocks below me. I screamed and tried to climb back up, as though there was a cord hanging from the board. I ended up falling into the water, and I did not get hurt, but I decided not to make the same mistake again.

This year, having volunteered to teach a French 101 course online is starting to feel a lot like when I jumped off the diving board in Geneva, Switzerland. At first, it seemed easy enough, but it is now starting to seem more and more difficult. The biggest difference is the fact that almost everything needs to be planned and designed before the semester begins. I am beginning to understand how important it is to start organizing the course, the syllabus, the objectives, assessments, etc. very early and to seek help from whoever is willing to help.

I am now reading the Teaching Online book from a different perspective. I pay more attention to what I should watch out for, or what they suggest I should not do. As teachers, we are all quite aware of what it takes to define course objectives, design activities or assessments, or to assess student progress. But how do we do all of this online? Or, better yet, how do we NOT do all of this online?

Here are a few things I have learned from my first week of course design:

1)      Videos, Screen-casting, or Powerpoint presentations with audio, are not a very good idea. I like to show rather than tell, or to speak rather than write. This doesn’t work very well online. It is better to have just audio by itself, just PowerPoints, or just text by itself. Videos will appear in one browser but not in another browser, and it is extremely difficult to situate them exactly where you want.

2)      In the “Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever” site, I took away the fact that prompt feedback is essential in an online course. It is not a good idea to provide time-delayed responses to students’ contributions because these responses are the only way that students can get to know the instructor.

3)      In my French 101, I will cover 1 chapter section per week. I will therefore have weekly folders for each chapter section. I will be following Pilar Hernandez and Janeen Apalatea’s presentations.

4)      If you are using Blackboard to design your course, I recommend going through the Blackboard tutorials. You will learn a lot about designing a course in Blackboard.

5)      Creating an online quiz is a very fun but tedious task.

Finally, I struggled a lot with the online aspect of online teaching. I have finally rationalized and resolved this struggle by looking at technology as the cool thing kids do these days. Students love texting, chatting, being on social networks. Let’s take advantage of this and make them use their skills and virtual selves to learn something online. We will learn a lot from our students who wake up and go to sleep with the online world.

Hello all. I am currently working on a French 101 course for Spring 2014, so I will use this course as an example to talk about my pedagogical goals and objectives.

In French 101, students have a set SLO objective, which is to read, write, speak, and understand the French language at the basic level. Students will learn to conjugate the essential French verbs in the present tense, they will learn to write and talk about themselves, their education, their family, their leisure, and the places they go to in town.

I will follow a text, Espaces, and students will be doing homework on the Espaces website. We will be covering the first 5 chapters of Espaces.

I will refer to the Weekly Column Design to organize my class. Each week will have a title as well, so that students know what will be covered.

I am very big on checking students’ progress on a permanent basis and immediately after we cover a topic or grammar point. This will be the challenge for me online, but I think that with the help of Wimba Voice board, I will feel more comfortable about this. I am going to get constant feedback from students through quizzes and voice recordings, and this might put my mind more at ease in terms of their progress. I have learned that it is never a good idea to put off checking in with students to see where they are, as it will be too late by mid-semester to have to go back to the beginning and get tutoring help to catch up.

I have two big questions that I still need to resolve and will probably do so by the end of this course:

1)      How do we test students? I am used to writing my own tests and I am not sure how to implement them online.

2)      How many synchronous sessions should I include in my class?

Since we are asked to share a link, I would like to share the University of Texas interactive French website, which is made to be used by all educators. It is also another example of a course that is organized online.

I enjoyed reading Ko and Rosen’s Chapter 3, and plan on checking out the websites they have suggested for getting help when creating an online course.

I really enjoyed doing the reading of Ko and Rosen’s book for the second time. I think one can never take this class too many times. Every time, I will learn something.

During this second reading, I was able to better understand, outline and summarize what Ko and Rosen talk about. I think that they are slightly too optimistic about the online teaching experience, but I think this depends on their perspective.

The Language of Online Teaching:

The first important point made in Chapter 1 is that the “Online World” has its own language and acronyms that one should learn and keep learning because they will become useful. For example, it is important to meaning of the terms “synchronous” and “asynchronous” as well as “blended” or “hybrid” before getting started with online teaching. During the spring of 2014, I hope to teach a French 101 online course, if given this opportunity, and I should be aware that this course will be entirely online and not a blended class.

Ideally, I would like my class to be partially synchronous and partially asynchronous, but I do know that this will be difficult. I may have students logging in from New York and others from Houston, Texas. I would then need to coordinate with everyone’s time and work schedule to find an ideal moment for our synchronous meeting.

These terms help me ask myself how would be the easiest way to convey my instruction to my students. How can I best bridge the gap between me and my students?

E-Learning or Distance Learning?

Ko and Rosen talk about the reality of teaching online. It is a very different feeling to teach students from a distance and in a “Virtual Classroom” than to teach them in a face-to-face setting. I think, as Ko and Rosen point out, teaching online has advantages and disadvantages of its own. I don’t agree that a person teaching online should be bolder and have a more outgoing personality than a person teaching in a classroom. Being in front of students is difficult for any person who is introverted and shy. I am extremely shy myself but I am not a shy instructor. I believe that a teacher who is excited about what he or she is teaching will automatically become outgoing and will want to share his or her knowledge to the best of his/her ability.

Getting Started.

The Beginning Questionnaire was very important because the way we teach will determine the way we structure our online class. Language learning is very interactive and I rarely lecture to my students. I like to bring variety to my class when teaching. I alternate between using videos and audio to have students repeat, act out, or sing along, and doing in-class small group activities and having students practice what they have learned. A language learner can never get enough practice of the language, so having students interact is essential to language learning.

Therefore, the online class will be very different from the face-to-face class. Students will have to work more independently and will have to organize their time to get as much practice as possible. This is the first goal that I must set for myself. I need to hear students practice what they have learned and give them immediate feedback so that they can keep practicing and improving their skills.

Really Getting Started!

Now that I know and have thought about what and how I want my students to learn French, I need to begin organizing my Blackboard page. Based on what I have seen from the previous POT session I took last year, I have come to the conclusion that I would be best to organize my class by week in a similar way that the POT class is currently organized. The next step will be to determine how much I want the students to accomplish in one week and how to assess what they are learning each week.

I was inspired by Melissa Conrey’s use of PowerPoint and I have decided to show my Getting Started Chart based on what will be important for my class. I think it is important to start organizing one’s class now and not wait until next semester. This way, one doesn’t fall behind and one can ask questions from peers and moderators if problems arise.

The Beginner’s Questionnaire:

I am a language learner; therefore I avoid lecturing as much as possible. I like to see students put into practice what they are learning; therefore I love the small group activities and do sometimes use large activities just to make sure they are learning the correct way.

I have a student-oriented teaching style. Students can produce amazing works of art and can grow if they are taught to use the target language for their own purpose. For this reason, I like it best when students contribute and help me create the class. I do this through presentations, by getting feedback, and by having them create their own PowerPoints or art works for class.

Hello. I am taking the POT online course for the second year. The first year, I was only able to finish one semester. I have decided to return and take another full year because I think I have a lot to learn about online teaching. Online teaching and communication is advancing so quickly that I think I will always be behind and not learn as much as I should. I would take this course over and over until I was able to fully master it.

Why do I want to take this course?

I would like to expand my knowledge teaching and be able to tackle any type of instruction, whether it is fully online, partially online, or in the classroom. This course teaches us tools that will help us with our instruction in a classroom or online. The last time, I found out about sites that could be used to find tools for better PowerPoint presentations, for better communication between students and with the students.

A little bit about myself.

I am currently a French language instructor at MiraCosta college. I am Iranian-American, but I left Iran at the age of 10 and grew up in Switzerland and France. I also hold a Ph.D. in French Studies from Brown University. I really enjoy teaching and thinking of how to make students have a better grasp of the French language. I am constantly searching for ways to improve my teaching and I have learned a lot from colleagues and supervisors as well.

During my free time, when I am not teaching, I enjoy doing small interpretation and translation jobs. I also enjoy watching videos on Youtube, going to the beach with my Minpin, and eating salads. I love salads.

I am excited to take this class again with everyone else.