Um, who stole my summer?

Wow, it's August 4th already!   Not that it hasn't been a productive summer, I passed my comps and am now ABD - and now the vast abyss of dissertation research and writing is all that I can see.   It really is daunting to think that I am going to need to structure my work using only my timelines for goals and deadline setting.

I presented at SIDLIT last week, it's a local tech conference and a great sharing and learning opportunity.  My presentation was titled "Online teaching presence and student achievement".   I have been thinking about what  "teaching presence" is in the online classroom and  it really helped me organize my thoughts about it by having to share my thoughts with others.   I think the presentation pretty well, and I had fun creating a Wordle.   I also recruited my hubby to record a snippet of music to embed in it.   I'm still working on making sure that the diagram that I used is not copyright protected, I'm pretty sure it's okay, but well no reason to take chances.  If I can clear it, I'll post it here.    Here's the Wordle that I made,  and it's not perfect, but I think it gets the message across.

I received positive comments on my approach to my audience to think about the concept of "teaching presence".   I had everyone close their eyes and be very quiet and I just waited a while and we sat there in silence (well, except for the two attendees who slipped in late, but they were fairly quiet, too).  Then I said okay, now open your eyes, and asked how did you know I was still in the room?  I stepped out of the room - did you know that?  (Actually I didn't but should have).  I asked, " How would you know that I was still here?   You didn't really know if I was there because you could not see me or hear me.  I played the music which asks "is there anybody in there?"   and it made the point, if you do not communicate with your students in the online class, then how do they know you are there?

Now I have to be honest, I haven't blogged for a while (no time!)  but, I've been reading Jane Bolker's book, "Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis".  I think it's helpful  and in it she talks about about writing, and how important it is to write every day.   I also agree with her comments on the challenge of sharing what you write--- it's quite scary to step out and share what you are thinking, especially if there's a chance that experts out there might run across your writing.  So, in a leap of faith, I'm going to try to work here a bit more than I have and work on writing my background materials some each day - probably more than 15 minutes, though (grin).   Wish me luck and if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them.

Duke's Physiology MOOC

Well I decided that this course would be quite interesting and perhaps offer some new ideas to add to my physiology classes.   The first problem is that one of the questions in the first problem set it incorrect.  Several students posted to the discussion area regarding this but I haven't gone back to see if it has been corrected.  This is the same problem that I'm having using the online resources from the same publisher.

I got it the first day - worked a bit and have peeked in here and there- they now have added a "signature tract" - Signature Track which certifies your success in this course. The Signature track adds authenticity to your accomplishments by linking your real identity to your Duke Coursera course work. To learn more about the Signature Track, visit the Signature Track Guidebook by clicking here.(link included)

I haven't done  that yet, I'm not sure I'll have time to take the tests, but may check it out just to see how it works.

So, it's the end of the second week and I finally got a chance to pop back in - I just don't have time to watch all the lectures - I watched part of one the first day but need to revisit those again.  - They have done those pretty well - with the longest one so far being 24 minutes - I didn't really evaluate them for mulitmedia correctness- just read about that again.

Okay, just checked it out - there is a cost - it's usually $89 for this one but is $49 - probably won't do it but that's not a bad price for credentialing.

At the end of the day - Day 7 #MOOCMOOC - last blog

I’ve been thinking about how this all fits together and I would describe this MOOCMOOC as a kaleidoscope.  As the pieces tumble around there are a lot of fractal views and depending upon how you turn the chamber, it looks different.  Also, I can look in and see what I see,

and you can look in the viewer and see what you see  –but are we seeing the same thing?  Possibly not.  Is this bad?  Definitely not.   So there were times I felt like I was walking through the kaleidoscope as the picture in this link shows http://www.flickr.com/photos/va_wild_rose/4962067547/

I’m glad I was able to carve some time from my busy schedule to be able to participate – this was great and although I enjoyed what I did, I wish I’d had more time to devote to the class.   I really like to work through my writing and creating as one scholar says – “writing is rewriting”, yet I felt as if I was rushing all of the time just trying to do what I thought had to be done.  As I read through discussions, etc. in the course, I realized that the demands that I put on myself were just that – demands that I made, not what the course “required”.  This loosely woven format is one that will definitely take some time to adjust to – should I decide that I’d like to participate in another MOOC.    I’ve also already decided that I liked the content of my video (but the talking head was not good) so I’m splitting out the audio and creating images to go with it and when I get that done, I plan to upload the “revised” version and delete the old one. 

I’ve enjoyed meeting others interested in the things that I am, and I made sure to “follow” them on twitter so that when this course closes, I’ll be able to stay connected with them.  

I will admit, I’m tired, it seemed that every time I’d read one article, I’d find three others related that I just had to explore as well.  I also feel like I’ve been to an amusement park – “oh, look at that”, “wait I want to see this”, “what’s that like?” where there is so much to see and to do that you have to realize that you can’t possibly do it all.

I saw several other MOOCs coming up that I’d like to participate in, but I’m going to be busy working on my degree, so I may have to shelf those ideas for a while.

The depth of discussions and ideas presented through the blogs was just amazing and I hope to have time to visit some of those bloggers that were so authentic.

I’ve stretched my mind, now it’s time to get some physical exercise in – by MOOCMOOC – it’s been great!

Oops! #moocmooc Days 5 &6

Hmm, well it appears that I totally forgot to blog yesterday - not that it's required to blog each day but I was hoping to chronical my journey.  Thinking back - the assignment yesterday was to create a storify story.  Did it and it came out ok - again new technology, figure out how to use it - and how to find my older twitter feeds and then how to save so that I could work on in between my real job activities.  Once again, created a product that is in the first phase, would not release one at that level under normal (i.e. non-MOOC) circumstances.  However, learning did occur and that  is the goal of the MOOC MOOC for me.  :-)    Oh, also participated in several discussions, which were quite interesting but again since this "course" is all over the place, a certain feeling of chaos still exists.  In fact, several participants are very unhappy with the structure and the execution of the class. 

Today's assignment is much more up my alley, creating courses is what I love to do.  I don't know if I'd every actually deliver a MOOC but if I did it would be structured quite differently than this one.  I would compare the way I teach online to the way this MOOC is conducted is if you were listening to music, this MOOC is so Bartok (not my favorite composer - too much chaos), my courses are always  more like Mozart (you know where you should be, where you are going and it's quite pleasurable).So let's play a MOOC.  I'll put the link here after I finish it.

THIS is what MOOCs are about! MOOCMOOC day 4 #moocmocc #post

Oh, my gosh - how exciting - I was in the discussion area and reading discussions and one of the posts  is by Terry Anderson, whose work plays a major role in the theory behind my research for my dissertation.  Outside of attending a national conference, my chances of "meeting" him are nil.   The ability to make connections and see what those on the cutting edge of the theory have to say is one of the major affordances of MOOCs.



Of course, all hasn't been great - I had meetings all day and the few down times I had, the internet was out - and I worked on this blog, but it seems to have not saved.  Now I've got to think about what I was saying to finish this up and it's much later than I'd care to be working.  Maybe I'll just hang around in the discussion areas......


Oh, wait - I found it - my two cents

I agree with the concept that all learning is active however to use the term "participant pedagogy" doesn't work for me for does it not make all other types of pedagogies nonparticipatory?  If so, then are they pedagogies since the pure definition of pedagogy is "the art, science or profession of teaching" according to Webster's online dictionary.  So I think we need to dig further and look more at learning and how to define it.  Of course, since there are many types of learning, it helps to first decide are we looking at informal learning, structured learning, institutional learning.  

Getting better! MOOCMOOC Day 3

Yesterday was quite frustrating - trying to contribute to a document with 50 other (mostly anonymous) collaborators was not fun.  Thinking that my little contribution was going to be included and at the last minute some anonymous player just deleted it because it didn't have a reference link (complete reference, yes, linkable, no).  Sigh.  It just didn't seem to be a productive experience.

Also, I forgot that I was going to blog each day - it definitely makes sense to have a calendar and check lists (which I've decided I need to do for my online students) to just keep track of what all needs to be done.  It also makes sense to have everything housed together if at all possible, so that when I'm in the course I have visual cues - "oh yes, I need to blog" or "oh, don't forget about the discussion area" - you just don't have those strong visual cues when you are putting your blog in one place, tweeting, and discussion in two others.  

Today was a bit better, although I really wish I had read ahead and noticed that I needed to create a video before I went to work.   I could have taken my laptop to use for the video since my desktop doesn't have a camera or microphone - sigh.  I wrote my scipt and then tried recording my video several different ways.   The camera on my ipad isn't the best, and the light in my office sucks.  Then I tried to use a computer in the mac lab, but it didn't have facetime and there were other people in there chatting etc.   Then I tried to do a Voki - well they changed the program and you can only record for 60 seconds in the "free" area.  My script was about two minutes - and I don't want a subscription since I don't know how often I will want to use that medium.   So finally, I went ahead and wrote the script and after several takes -I did get it done, and posted - hmmm now I wonder if anyone will view it.   Here's the link (although it's not as good a quality as I'd like - but when you have several hours to write, record and produce a video - what you see is what you get.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwBKQQ5W13c

Monday, Jan. 7 - Day 2 of MOOCMOOC
  I now see the value of keeping all content in the LMS!   I'm collaborating on a paper - and forgot to bookmark it - had to go to work for a while and now can't remember where it is.  Sooo much easier to go to the LMS and think "now what do I need to do?"  and then just open that file.  I've wasted ten minutes going through different areas and still no paper.

MOOC on MOOCs part 1

MOOC ON MOOCs

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Blog for MOOC

Sunday, Jan. 6  3:25 pm

Wow didn’t realize I would need a blog – so I’m going to just write right now and decide what platform to use – thought about blogger or wordpress but wordpress is tricky on a mac.

Also needed to set up a twitter acct.  I think I did this a long time ago but am not a big twitter fan – sigh did so anyway – now gotta figure out how it works

Set up my profile, I’ve often been a bit careful with my public profile but went out there on this one, hope it doesn’t bite me.

I’ve been working about two and a half hours, reading the articles and viewing the videos.  It makes more sense now as how it can work, but we’ll see.

Back to deciding on a blog site…..

Hmm, popped into twitter – argh!  Not sure it’s my cup of tea – it’s almost schizophrenic!

So now I see the importance of a clear course map and perhaps even a "heads-up" note BEFORE class starts letting students know if they need things like twitter or a blog site.

I think I've done most of what was required - it's now 4:06 - hmm three hours spent just getting set up and starting to read.  This may take more time than I expected.

Am also glad that I can go back and edit - typos - shesh!