Part 2 - Summary Blog

As we progressed through Part 2 of the course, I found I was having a difficult time absorbing concepts and focusing on the work. Sadly, this is because, like many other people, my job situation is in flux. The laying off of two people in my office resulted in both my stress and my work load increasing, stealing my attention away from class.

However, I found that the items we were studying we interesting enough to yank my attention back when time permitted it. I was again reminded that prior to this class, I had no formal education training. While I continue to want to know the "how" of teaching online classes, I once again found the "why" of education to be valuable.

Unit 6 -- Online Portfolios
As I mentioned in the discussion boards, both as a former journalist and a current marketing professional, I found the idea of online portfolios to be a valuable one.

In terms of education, students are able to go back to their previous work to see what they have accomplished and how they have progressed over the time in class. Professors can also view a student's overall work, rather than focusing only on current accomplishments. I feel that the concept of the online portfolio is a valuable one.

Unit 7 -- Learning Theories and Instructional Concepts
Using mini cases to apply the topics was a fantastic way to delve more deeply into learning theories. I have mentioned before that I am a "hands on" learner. For me, applying the items we were learning about was a great help in understanding the concepts.

Earlier in Part 1 we used our own classes/workshops as case studies. I would love to have delved more deeply into learning theories and instruction concepts by formally considering how those would apply to the classes that I am teaching as well as to the case study classes.

Unit 8 -- Online Pedagogy
This was a unit that I got very bogged down in. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, the 7 principles just didn't want to compute and I got very frustrated.

Once I broke past the frustration, I found the concepts to be interesting, but perhaps somewhat outdated. I think applying the concepts to my own class-in-development helped me to wrap my mind around the principles themselves.

Using a case study (in this case my Feminism in Media class) helped me to better apply the concepts and to think about them more deeply.

Unit 9 -- Online Technology
I had a great time with this section, although I didn't have the time to spend on it that I had for our first project. It was a pleasure working with my group again on another project.

As I think I mentioned in the discussion board, working with Wiki Wetpaint was an interesting experience. Formating text in the "easy edit" box was not as "easy" as the name might lead you to think, but being able to comment on each other's items by adding items in a different color font or by using discussion board posts was very helpful.

The project itself was very helpful, especially the development of the rubric for reviewing websites. I found that a lot of websites fell within the "good" category. It took at lot of effort to find some that fell into "exemplary."

Overall, I have been pleased with Part 2 as a whole, and the problems I am having I believe are being caused by outside forces, not by the class itself.