My Experiences in Online Learning...

Let me start out by saying that this course has been extremely beneficial to me in my understanding of what makes a great online class or portion of a great online class - both by design and course content. Before this course, I certainly had some ideas, but they weren't necessarily backed up by research, rather they had 'worked' for me before or I had liked certain activities, assignments, discussions when I was learning. Now, I feel like I truly have a grasp for why we should push for online courses or portions of courses and the research that can defend those theories.

In my own student online experience, I have had a mix of courses and situations that have allowed me to reflect on what does and doesn't work. The first online component that is prevalent in most, if not all, online courses is the discussion board. After some of the readings for this course, I've realized just how essential the 'social presence' aspect is in online learning. Discussion boards are clearly a great way to foster social presence. However, I feel that the term 'social presence' implies that interactions and discussions should involve a certain degree of being 'social'. In other online course experiences discussion boards were limited to article discussion or simply responding to a classmate's comment. Social presence? Presence, yes. Social...no. This is not to say that I think discussion boards must be a free-for-all party portion of the class, but I believe students need to be able to respond with some personal experience and knowledge. I appreciate being able to relate what I've read to my situation. I appreciate being asked what 'I' think about something when it seems that so frequently in graduate school, I can only tell what 'research' says in regard to a topic. This course has allowed my classmates and I to become acquainted with each other, to relate to experiences others were having, and has even integrated some fun into the discussion board. I have enjoyed the guidelines for this course because they have increased the conversation, but have also led to tangents that have been relevant to the discussion and to our learning.


The other prominent aspect in online courses seems to be how to disseminate information to students. Reading the latest research can sometimes be cumbersome, but I liked how the articles weren't extremely long, were relevant, and raised questions for me as a student. The other way to explain information in many of my courses has been power point presentations with or without audio. Just as I use infrequent power points to teach in my classroom, I'm not crazy about using them to learn from either. I liked the podcasts and videos in this class because they mixed things up and I didn't feel like I was listening to my instructor practically read off the slides of their presentation. When I listen to something and can preview or follow up with lecture notes, or watch a video, it is much more meaningful because I have to process this information as I'm listening. To be honest, during many power point presentations in previous classes, I would simply skim the slides. I don't think this is the best way to learn as either a student or a teacher.  


Overall, I really learned a ton in this class - not only in regard to research and information, but also about teaching online. I LOVED the "yeah, but..." portion in our article discussions. It's something I hope I can use in my teaching, whether online or F2F. Even though there were times we felt rushed (simply due to the short time frame), I feel like this has been a valuable course in that my learning was so relevant with what I am doing and working to do in my classroom and in our district!

Blog #2

So far, my online teaching has been relatively limited to what my students can do online in the classroom. One of the large issues with my district is that not everyone has internet access and if they do, some of them have only a certain amount per month (because they live in some rural areas). I've tried to start flipping parts of units in my classroom and though I haven't been able to flip an entire unit yet, I like the potential. In the future, I am hopeful that I can flip more so that class time can be spent collaborating and doing hands-on extensions of the learning journey they've already begun. As a middle school teacher, I don't know that I could ever teach exclusively online.

Providing more online learning opportunities is a goal of mine and there are a few applications I use so far to help me do this. 

[1] Weebly 

I use Weebly as the website creator for my class website. My students start at my website every day to find the agenda, helpful links to other sites, and a way to upload assignments. Initially this was all I used Weebly for. Then I discovered that I could create student accounts and so I know use this as a way for students to create digital portfolios.

[2] Edmodo

Two Words: Instant Feedback. I love using the quiz feature on Edmodo in that I get feedback so promptly and an pie charts that give me a quick overview of what my students did and didn't understand.


As many people in this class have reported, one of the largest barriers to online teaching/learning is the lack of internet access in many of my student's homes. Right now I'm able to overcome some of those barriers by providing time before school, during lunch, and after school for students to watch the flipped classroom video. Another barrier is administrative support which is ironic considering we will be a 1:1 iPad district next year making flipped classrooms a great approach to work with the iPad.

Blogging In My Classroom (629)

As a computers teacher, I am fortunate in that my students have access to computers in class every single day. Although I currently operate a classroom website with a blogging tool, I am more familiar with blogging for personal use and the one I manage for our district that discusses our 1:1 iPad program (though the blog is in its early phases). I currently use a website for my class (through Weebly) and use the 'blog' page to posts the daily agenda. Therefore, the blog is mostly for student use, but can be helpful for parents to stay up to date with what we are working on in class. Thus far, one of the best features of this blog (and website) has been that students who are gone can quickly see what they are missing. Another great feature has been students' ability to comment on posts.  


The blog is helpful in that it allows me to create an organized list of links and assignments for the day. Because of the nature of my class, I really don't think there is anything I couldn't use the blog for! In fact, when I give assessments using Google Forms, I just embed them into my blog using html code. I've also been able to embed Prezis and any videos I've wanted students to access as I begin to 'flip' portions of my classroom.

Initially when I created my blog I did not allow students to leave comments -- largely because the comments they had first put on there were relatively irrelevant to what we were doing (i.e. 'sup?', 'i like cookies', etc). However, I now approach this differently. I give them one post on my blog where they can post any 'appropriate' comment they'd like. It's a great way to try out commenting and to help them learn exactly how to do it. Then we discuss why people would comment on a blog: to share thoughts, agree/disagree, or to point someone to new information. For the rest of the marking period, students are expected to comment in such a way that is beneficial to their classmates and myself.

Lastly, I do allow my students to create their own blogs. They begin by creating their own websites in weebly and add a blog page to use when we journal or when we have digital discussions. This is a valuable tool for me; students who are normally quiet respond in their blogs, through Edmodo discussions or in other online applications like TodaysMeet. It is awesome! I'm feeling hearing what they think! And because it's online, many of them are more likely to do to the work because they enjoy working on the computers or iPads.


One reason I may start to shy away from the blog a little bit is because I've been using Edmodo and have found that I really enjoy using that as an online tool to work with my students. They like to think of it as "Facebook for school" and I love the tools that are included in Edmodo. This is not to say that I won't use the blog and website anymore, but that I'm starting to split between the two.

Testing 1...2...3...

Sample Post!