3.Online Course Reflection
FET@KU
Forum of English Teacher Educators
of Kannur University
Hi
friends,
My unexpected transfer to Govt. College of
Teacher Education, Thiruvananthapuram, has
brought this new
venture of English Teacher
Educators to a standstill.
There is still hope…. the Online Course
Reflections which I am sharing
below can motivate you to pursue
similar courses…
Warm Regards
Dr.C.Praveen
Course Name: Online Teaching and Learning in K-12
Dates : June 20 to July 31, 2016
Duration: Six Weeks
Course Provider: Canvas
Course
Instructors :
*Dr.Michael Orey, Associate Professor, University of
Georgia
*Ms.Karah Hagins, Instructional Designer, The Office of Online Learning, University of Georgia
Compilation of Weekly Course Reflections…submitted
as one of the must
do assignments –Reflective
Challenge
Week One
I find reading
large texts on screen
particularly difficult and so am forced to get a printout to read. Hence getting a grip of the different tabs and novel
names assigned to activities took almost two days. Even getting
a correct idea of the nature of
the tasks I am expected to do on this course took a lot of time.
Streaming of videos is usually time consuming, so I
always prefer reading the transcript. As
this feature is not available on this course
I had no option but to view the
interactive video. But to my dismay I was able to view only 70% of
the frame of the video and 30%
of the video frame was never
visible on my computer screen.
Further, for some videos,
the space which provides the question and for which answer had to be entered was
not available…Naturally I
found the entire task
disappointing and tedious. Finally, viewing and downloading videos
from the site
to which a link was provided
was particularly difficult
hence I was forced to skip the Technology tool challenge.
But the
introduction to the idea of editing
videos and inserting
questions using the special
software was definitely an Aha moment! Thither to,
I was under the impression that useful videos
available on YouTube could never be incorporated effectively into the course material as done on this Course.
I must also admit
that the links
provided for articles as part
of the Research challenge was a pedagogical treat. Several problems teachers usually face during
Online instruction have been
referred to and solutions for
many questions I intended to ask to an expert
was available too!
While reading the responses of participants, I found that I am at the
toddler stage of using a Learning
Management System with my students. However their responses helped me gain an insight into the kind of problems I am likely to confront in future.
A special thanks to the educators for
offering this fairly challenging and interestingly conceived course.
Week Two
I just missed out on
completing the Reflective Challenge…I would like to share my
reflection of Module 2.
While
taking the Digital Literacy Technology Skills Assessment, I feared that the
questions are going to be tough. To my
sheer surprise I got everything right.
Going through the resources I found plenty of technology tools I
never knew existed.
Browsing through the features of such resources I am
excited and would like to try
them out… As I have
to teach during week days which requires
preparation, I could try
practicing the tools only
during weekends…The pity…I missed
out on completing the Reflective Challenge for the week.
Using PowerPoint
for consolidating major points
of lecture is something I would like to
use on my Online course. The pencil and paper quiz is something my learners are quite familiar with. The
opportunity to use Quizlet or Hot
Potatoes which I have never tried before
would also become essential for
the Online course.
I have tried
creating videos with my mobile phone. Unfortunately the quality
was poor. The video had a lot of
background noise and was shaking too…But
the article on using videos made me re-think…I ought
to use this extremely useful
resource.
Connecting with teachers and expert users, I think would help me improve
my knowledge and ability to use techno tools.
Week Three
Hi friends,
For years I had
been trying to find a way of regularly sharing
learning content and assessing
study of the content by my students
through an online mode. Making
students submit assignments
and write-up for blogs to my email for
revision and upload were so far attempted by me.
The expenses involved in setting up affordable and
reliable 24x7 servers in the government-run college where I teach (which seldom gets funding
for such individual teacher initiatives)
has blocked my aspirations for pedagogy through LMS.
Though I have on
several occasions tried to convince my
superiors of the necessity of an
LMS it
falls on deaf ears. Disappointed with
the stance of the authority,
I started creating
Blogs for specific purposes often in a magazine mode. For
certain personal reasons I have been forced to reserve
a few such Blogs
for private view only. However
most of the Blogs I created
can be viewed at the following
link.
As I have already
created quite a few Blogs, I did not want to add another one for
reflections of this course.
I am at a loss for words
to thank the educators of this
course for illuminating my path to
find appropriate technology and pedagogical strategies
for the 21st century
learner.
The assortment of tools
suggested (some of which I am yet to use) appears sufficient for an LMS which I intend to use.
Once I get the services of a free LMS service for my students, I will definitely make my students use it.
Week Four
Article chosen: Online communities of learning
A couple of years ago
I taught in a college which had a
two-month vacation between a
two-semester course. In previous years I had noticed that the
sixty-day-vacation often resulted in many students forgetting key content
learned in the first semester which they
were expected to apply in the
second semester. This prompted me to form an Online learning community to
revise content during the 60-day
vacation using a social media tool-Whatsapp. I have chosen the article on Online communities of learning to share
my experience by referring to my
experiment.
I have identified three
website articles with links
for those interested in learning more:
No.1
1.An article on Learning communities in the Learning Forward website suggests that effectiveness happens through …A)Engaging in continuous
improvement B)Developing collective
responsibility C)Creating alignment and accountability.
Please view
https://learningforward.org/standards/learning-communities
No.2
This is an article
which says why learning through social networks is the future and it appeared in the website
Teachthought. Please view
http://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/learning-through-networks-is-the-future/
No.3
The third article on education through Whatsapp is available on the
Whatsapp website.
Please view
http://www.whatsappfor.org/facts/whatsapp-education/
I have identified three
journal articles too:
No.1:
Beyond social networking
is an article which appeared in an Online journal and it can be viewed at the following
link
https://thejournal.com/Articles/2009/07/15/Beyond-Social-Networking-Building-Toward-Learning-Communities.aspx?p=1
No.2
This is a journal
article by Yeh which anlayzes
online behaviours,roles and learning communities and it appeared in Educational Technology
& Society, 13 (1), 140–151.
No.3
This article by a faculty of Taibah University is
related to my experiment of using
Whatsapp for social learning and
appeared in European Scientific Journal
August 2014 edition vol.10, No.22 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431
One question that came to my mind while reading
the article I have chosen was the
possibility of integrating assessment of Whatsapp learning with the LMS
which I intend to use.
The experiment which I conducted was
quite successful and was rated as a best practice by an agency of the Department of Education,
Government of Kerala.
The following link takes you to the Blog
entry which I used to communicate
to the
participants of the experiment
the accolades which the
experiment received. Please view
https://brennenbreeze.wordpress.com/2015/12/24/11-our-whatsapp-study/
Week Five
It is only this
year that I started seriously contemplating
the need to master the skills necessary to launch my own Online
course…. So I joined this course to
learn about the whole process of offering an Online course.
The kind of
professionalism displayed in course design
in MOOC’s which
I had already taken in subjects
of my choice through Canvas, Future Learn and edX ,
gave the feel that it
requires team work of the highest
order to deliver an Online course….
Incidentally
during April-July, I came across several MOOC’s
by other agencies
offering to teach the
nitty-gritty of Online courses….And
I must admit, I am
fortunate to have chosen this course. The guidelines
given in each module
particularly related to
learner problems, illumined
a very significant
area which I had completely ignored in my eagerness
to master Online pedagogy…Hence reading
about ‘Instructor Presence’ and
‘Ways of fostering student
engagement’ were real
‘Aha!’ moments…
Relating the guidelines
provided in the modules to my own
experiments in using Blogs and Whatsapp for teaching and learning gave me
the hint that I am on the right track. Finally the
feedback on the work submitted were quite encouraging making me feel elated with regard to the efforts I have put in
so far…
Posted by Dr.C.Praveen
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