Monthly Archives: November 2013

Hi all. Here’s a link to all my posts this semester. I am sorry that I am always late on posts and comments. I hope that I am finally all caught up.

I think that this semester was a much better learning experience than the first time I took this course. I like the new format and the fact that we have to comment as much as post in the course. The presentation week was especially interesting with all the beautiful and helpful presentations.

The things I remember are the tools for making my course interactive, the ways to create a community online, the sketches I should make before starting to design my course. I learned that it will take many trials and errors to finally get it right. At first, I was reluctant and afraid to teach online. Now, I actually enjoy it and want to dedicate more time to my course online than to my current f2f course.

Week 1: About Me

Week 2: Getting Started Already!

Week 3: The Design and Development of My Course

Week 4: What Did I Dive Into?

Week 5: Can Students Get a Course GPS App?

Week 6: HTML, and Other WWW Tools

Week 7: To Loop Try and Err?

Week 8: Teaching French Online

Week 9: La Chasse au Trésor

Week 10: We Need a Copyright Police Officer

Week 11: Creating a Syllabus Online

Here is my presentation on how to create an online syllabus:

Usually, when I drive over the speed limit and police officer stops me, he/she asks if I know how fast I was going. I then have the option of answering the rhetorical question or saying that I didn’t know there was a speed limit because I didn’t see the sign. If I can argue my way and prove that the sign was not visible, I can avoid the very expensive ticket and traffic school.

I feel as though copyright laws are similar to going over the speed limit. The sign is there, but who really respects it all the time? And if the driver fails to respect the law, is she/he just going with the flow or is she/he really speeding? Besides, is the driver correct to argue that the sign was not visible? In the same light, I feel as though copyright laws should always be stated clearly on each website where the creator wants his/her products to be used according to the copyright laws. Educators have quite a bit on their plate and always have deadlines and will do things at the last minute. Providing them with easy access to these laws helps the creator better protect their property.

I have presented one side of the argument, the driver’s side. The officer is also right to give the driver a ticket because one should be conscious of when one is driving too fast, no matter how vague too fast may be. We also have the responsibility to teach our students that it is not good to cheat or lie, so we should not be borrowing without permission and using materials in our class that do not rightfully belong to us.

As Lessig argues in his presentation, the internet is giving us and our students a new platform for being creative with our ideas and talents. Yet, at the same time, this creativity is being lost in the web of multiple copies of the same work and the lack of recognition for creativity and originality.

I really liked this week’s topic. I personally do not know enough about copyright laws and I am sure that I am using materials without permission. This chapter gives me enough resources to become better informed and be more respectful of materials posted online and at my disposal.

From this week’s reading and other links and materials, I am learning that blogging is the most efficient way to communicate when teaching online. Like Jim Sullivan says, blogging can take different shapes and forms, but it opens communication between blogger(s) and commentator(s).

I am a visual person so my favorite form of blogging is through videos. I love YouTube and could spend hours there looking for teaching materials and even for news and old, forgotten, interviews, movies, and songs. There is a wealth of materials for learning French on YouTube and TeacherTube and I would be a much less effective instructor without these tools even in my face-to-face class.

This Spring, I will experience online teaching for the first time, but I think that I will soon become a very big fan of discussion boards. I think they are also a form of blog, a micro-blog, and can have almost the same function as Twitter and Facebook in Blackboard.

Learning French requires frequent interaction and communication in the target language. Students will have little opportunity to reflect on the course content, and they will be using their time to put into practice what they are learning. However, I think it will be important for them to keep a blog or journal and write a little at a time about themselves in French. This way, by the end of the course, they can look back and see that they are able to talk about basic topics in French.

I liked Ko and Rossen’s use of the expression treasure hunt. Even though they recommend that we not send students on a treasure hunt, I am going to use this title to design activities where students will indeed go on treasure hunts and get points for whoever can find the answers first. This will be a great team group activity.