First Steps...

So for those that know me, they will tell you I enjoy learning. Just as well, they also know that I am extremely busy. So why in the world would I take on something else? Simply put - it will help me be a better instructor online.

Today is the first official day of class although the site has been available since Friday and I actually posted my introduction late last night. I did, however, take time today to go ahead and post as the group facilitator. I was sort of confused as to how 2 participants would facilitate, but as of lunch time today nobody from my group has posted anything in our Group area, so perhaps it doesn't matter.

This exact issue is one of the things that frustrates me about any online course - participant or instructor. Partially it has to do with the utility used to manage the course. In this particular situation, there are already 60 plus posts in the cafe area and it is extremely difficult to figure out which posts are new without looking through the entire thread. An easier way to identify those posts should be available and/or a method to mark posts as read or not. The other part that bothers me is that there are students that are gung-ho about doing what it is they are supposed to and I always seem to get in the groups where everyone wants to do the least amount of work possible.

I am surprised at how much I am enjoying reading the textbook for this course. Not because I thought that it would be a boring read - I just didn't think it would be presented in this perspective. I rarely (never) read for fun, so most of the things that I read are technical in nature and don't deal with the "human" variables like those presented in the reading. Being that my commute requires me to rush to the school in the evenings and rarely ever in time for me to converse with others in this area, it is not often that I get to discuss the issues that we will be covering in this course with peers. I think that is what makes both the reading and the interaction refreshing...