Hello. Have you heard about Church at the Crossings?
Why no, I have not. Where is it located?
It is in the same complex as the old WalMart building. We meet at 10:30 AM every Sunday.
Really? That seems earlier than other churches in the area.
You are correct. Because we meet earlier, we are also out earlier and you can beat the lunch crowds.
That is awesome. How is the music?
We have very upbeat music with electric guitars and drums - it is more of a band atmosphere.
Excellent - but will my kids enjoy that type of service.
Your children are always welcome to stay with you in the service. However, we have a superb Crossings Kids team for babies and toddlers, preschoolers and school age children through twelve years of age. This experience is geared towards their age group so that they can experience worship and learning on their level.
Wow - this sounds like a place perfect for me. I will see you there next Sunday! Woo Hoo!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Friday, May 7, 2010
Day 4 Reflection
This entire Certified Online Instructor experience has really given me some insight into how to design my courses to be taught online. There are some difficulties, and I think that if I change my thinking to more of a discussion based model instead off just regurgitating the material back to me through review questions and non-informative assessments, I will have a better experience as well as the students. Most of the courses I teach require some prerequisites with computers, so every person I interact with in the online classroom should have something to contribute.
Taking this approach should also help me overcome the issue I mentioned in an earlier post with the grading timeline. I should be able to judge the quality of work and not make it about the quantity. I believe that if I make the structure very clear and give good examples of my expectations, the students should be able to hit the ground running with communicating with me and their fellow classmates without hesitation.
Utilizing this model will also allow me to push the students to dive in a little further with their research and really debate their peers on the things they are passionate about. I can play devil's advocate and even see if I can push conversations along where students clearly have a valid or invalid point of view. I think this will be much easier to do in an online environment because it will give students time to really think through their answers and craft them before reacting emotionally in a face to face situation.
All in all, I am excited to be able to revamp some off my course models to better fit this new environment. I am certain I will make my work less stressful after the initial headache, but I do believe it will give me a nice foundation to build upon from this point forward.
Taking this approach should also help me overcome the issue I mentioned in an earlier post with the grading timeline. I should be able to judge the quality of work and not make it about the quantity. I believe that if I make the structure very clear and give good examples of my expectations, the students should be able to hit the ground running with communicating with me and their fellow classmates without hesitation.
Utilizing this model will also allow me to push the students to dive in a little further with their research and really debate their peers on the things they are passionate about. I can play devil's advocate and even see if I can push conversations along where students clearly have a valid or invalid point of view. I think this will be much easier to do in an online environment because it will give students time to really think through their answers and craft them before reacting emotionally in a face to face situation.
All in all, I am excited to be able to revamp some off my course models to better fit this new environment. I am certain I will make my work less stressful after the initial headache, but I do believe it will give me a nice foundation to build upon from this point forward.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Day 3 Reflection
One big problem that I currently have that should be taken care of in the online environment is participation. By requiring the learners to involve themselves in discussion in an online environment, I should be able to more evenly evaluate the level of participation because it is more tangible.
Another issue that I experience now but may be even more apparent in the online environment is the inconsistent pre-defined objectives given by the Department of Education required for the students to complete the course. Most of the objectives that are set up for the Information Technology field actually are more geared to a semester type course and we are expected to squeeze in 16 weeks of material in 10 weeks.
The most strenuous issue that I currently deal with is the "last minute" decision to give a course to me to teach by the administration. Being an adjunct instructor, I am usually one of the last people to get a course to teach. I specialize in databases, but there is someone else that is available during the day that also is a database person. Because I enjoy teaching, I am open to teaching any Computer class that is offered, and I have taught just about all of them. However, it is rare for me to teach a certain course twice or before the curriculum or textbook changes. When I do find out that I am teaching the course, it is usually a couple of days before the term begins and it offers very little time to prepare. I am not sure how to get around this one, but I have repeatedly asked for more notice to no avail.
Another issue that I experience now but may be even more apparent in the online environment is the inconsistent pre-defined objectives given by the Department of Education required for the students to complete the course. Most of the objectives that are set up for the Information Technology field actually are more geared to a semester type course and we are expected to squeeze in 16 weeks of material in 10 weeks.
The most strenuous issue that I currently deal with is the "last minute" decision to give a course to me to teach by the administration. Being an adjunct instructor, I am usually one of the last people to get a course to teach. I specialize in databases, but there is someone else that is available during the day that also is a database person. Because I enjoy teaching, I am open to teaching any Computer class that is offered, and I have taught just about all of them. However, it is rare for me to teach a certain course twice or before the curriculum or textbook changes. When I do find out that I am teaching the course, it is usually a couple of days before the term begins and it offers very little time to prepare. I am not sure how to get around this one, but I have repeatedly asked for more notice to no avail.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Day 2 Reflection
Moving a course from a classroom to an online environment seems like a massive undertaking. To make sure that students are understanding the concepts, the requirements are a little different. If a student is in the classroom, unless they have a cheat sheet or you offer an open book test, it is much easier to determine the retention of the information. Online assessments don't truly gauge how much a student knows because they could be sitting there with the book or, if the test allows, they get crafty and print out the test, go answer the questions, and come back and complete it. I am certain there are some tools available to take care of the latter, but having that complication will be tough to overcome.
Having an asynchronous environment will also make assignment grading interesting. No matter what class I have, if something is due it is turned in when it is due. However, in an online environment you may have students that are gung ho and get it done early, some that turn it in right on time and some that are late. That could make grading a complete nightmare, especially if you are having them turn in answers to matching or true false questions or even essay questions.
The other thing that I will definitely have to think about is the capability of the users home computer. In a lab environment, I have a pretty good handle on what software is there and available to the students. If I have an assignment that requires the use of a certain piece of software, it should be available to the student in the lab. You don't get that guarantee in the online environment and students may have to come up with creative ways to submit assignments.
Having an asynchronous environment will also make assignment grading interesting. No matter what class I have, if something is due it is turned in when it is due. However, in an online environment you may have students that are gung ho and get it done early, some that turn it in right on time and some that are late. That could make grading a complete nightmare, especially if you are having them turn in answers to matching or true false questions or even essay questions.
The other thing that I will definitely have to think about is the capability of the users home computer. In a lab environment, I have a pretty good handle on what software is there and available to the students. If I have an assignment that requires the use of a certain piece of software, it should be available to the student in the lab. You don't get that guarantee in the online environment and students may have to come up with creative ways to submit assignments.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Day 1 Reflection
I have been thinking over the reasons why I teach the way I do. I seem to keep coming back to the idea that my methods all coincide with how I personally like to be taught. In all of my courses I require the students to complete a READIness document that was first introduced as I began my post-secondary instructor path. Among other things, this tool simply allows me to view a students preferred learning style and where the rank among other learning styles. in the IT world, it is interesting to me that most of the students are Aural and Logical.
Although all students don't fall into one specific category, I always try to make my course adaptable for the other learning styles. If I see a student works better in a team environment, I will usually try to pair them up with a more advanced student so they won't drag other students down. I am certain that this allows me to be a more effective instructor and is usually a foreign concept to my fellow instructors.
It is more difficult to transfer these things into an online environment because, unlike a classroom, it is easier to tell when students are not able to catch onto concepts or terms with facial expressions. Also, a lot of times roles are reversed - meaning that someone who may be outspoken in a physical setting is more reserved in an online environment whereas the publicly restrained student is more vocal online. I think that, as long as you meet the needs of the students and they are able to leave with more than the started with, you've been effective. Being flexible and accommodating allows for that.
Although all students don't fall into one specific category, I always try to make my course adaptable for the other learning styles. If I see a student works better in a team environment, I will usually try to pair them up with a more advanced student so they won't drag other students down. I am certain that this allows me to be a more effective instructor and is usually a foreign concept to my fellow instructors.
It is more difficult to transfer these things into an online environment because, unlike a classroom, it is easier to tell when students are not able to catch onto concepts or terms with facial expressions. Also, a lot of times roles are reversed - meaning that someone who may be outspoken in a physical setting is more reserved in an online environment whereas the publicly restrained student is more vocal online. I think that, as long as you meet the needs of the students and they are able to leave with more than the started with, you've been effective. Being flexible and accommodating allows for that.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Class 1 Summary
Building Online Learning Communities has come to an end. I am very happy with the feedback I received from my peers. Most confirmed that my ideas regarding my future course were on the right track not only based on their experience, but also the things that we all discovered throughout this course. The interesting thing is that I just received the course "shells" for the classes I will be teaching next term. The Master template for one of the courses became available and I was able to load it up. It is amazing to see how minimal the interaction expectations were for the builders of the course. Other than some work ethics discussion (which does not count towards a students grade), there is absolutely no discussion requested or even set up for the students. I will definitely be changing that!
It is interesting to talk to my wife about these issues now because she is working towards her degree currently and is experiencing some of the same frustrations that I did in this course. How is she supposed to post 4 significant discussion posts each day having 2 being responses when she is the only one to post anything for the day before her bed time? The exact same issues we had to deal with as learners seems to be the norm no matter where you go. The issue that we dealt with of having other students in various time zones could be part of the problem she is experiencing. It is nice to be able to encourage her and to have discussions about what I just learned regarding these issues from the other side of the keyboard!
Overall I am very pleased with the course - I hope that some of my fellow classmates that I teach with will be able to continue this discussion beyond this experience so that we can build on and encourage one another. Looking forward to the next course!
It is interesting to talk to my wife about these issues now because she is working towards her degree currently and is experiencing some of the same frustrations that I did in this course. How is she supposed to post 4 significant discussion posts each day having 2 being responses when she is the only one to post anything for the day before her bed time? The exact same issues we had to deal with as learners seems to be the norm no matter where you go. The issue that we dealt with of having other students in various time zones could be part of the problem she is experiencing. It is nice to be able to encourage her and to have discussions about what I just learned regarding these issues from the other side of the keyboard!
Overall I am very pleased with the course - I hope that some of my fellow classmates that I teach with will be able to continue this discussion beyond this experience so that we can build on and encourage one another. Looking forward to the next course!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Day 5
Wow - this class is over... I do believe I was correct in stating that this was like a "drive by" class!!!
The last chapter we were assigned for today was discussing self-reflection, I conveyed to the group how I struggle with reading so slow because I do read to proof. The other issue that I have when I am reading that I did not mention in the discussion is falling asleep when I am reading and also having to go back and read paragraphs over and over again because it is like the first time I am seeing them. I have not always been this way, but it is VERY frustrating.
The other point I conveyed was regarding how the technology for the discussion posting in this particular course seemed to frustrate everyone. How can I be comfortable creating discussions for my students if I am not sure if the technology is behaving as it should for them? There are too many great CMS systems out there for something this simple to be the downfall of an entire course.
I will say it was nice to see our group pace pick up and I feel as though we came out shining there at the end... the beginning was a bit rocky though!
The last chapter we were assigned for today was discussing self-reflection, I conveyed to the group how I struggle with reading so slow because I do read to proof. The other issue that I have when I am reading that I did not mention in the discussion is falling asleep when I am reading and also having to go back and read paragraphs over and over again because it is like the first time I am seeing them. I have not always been this way, but it is VERY frustrating.
The other point I conveyed was regarding how the technology for the discussion posting in this particular course seemed to frustrate everyone. How can I be comfortable creating discussions for my students if I am not sure if the technology is behaving as it should for them? There are too many great CMS systems out there for something this simple to be the downfall of an entire course.
I will say it was nice to see our group pace pick up and I feel as though we came out shining there at the end... the beginning was a bit rocky though!