Collaborative Communities Reflections
My condensed posts below outline my personal growth throughout the Collaborative Communities course. Within its content there are two areas of focus; increasing connections among peers through varied media and confronting frustrations. This course is continually challenging my current schemas and pressing me to redefine parameters and perspectives of communicating and collaboration within an eLearning environment.
Module 8 (Posted August 20, 2015)
I have reflected upon the last two months of this course. One, by reading through my weekly reflection posts and two, by reviewing my portfolio artifacts. This course has challenged my opinions and pressed me forward into weeks of disequilibrium. Through review and reflection of both I have realized the power of collaboration and learning with and through others. I have also been afforded the opportunity to appreciate the role and demands of an online facilitator.
A common theme of difficulty within this course has been the discussion posts and arranging synchronous collaborations. The last few weeks I feel I have come to review other’s posts through a different lens, one that is pragmatic yet more confident in critical thinking and analysis. I have chosen to respond to less posts, but take the time to really think through a peer’s post and view it from different perspectives. I have shifted from responding using my experiences and more so challenged thinking processes or what’s missing to make sense of the post. In further reflection this exemplifies the evaluation and analysis critical thinking skills contained with the EASyR lesson model.
An important common thread throughout the past weeks remains to be the creation of relationships and feeling connected with peers on a personal level. The most exciting components of this course were also caused the most discomfort. It is my opinion that I felt most connected with my peers when collaboration included more than text to communicate, whether that be audio or video or both. My experiences within my triad and co-facilitator roles heightened that level. These opportunities offered the humanistic connection I believe is important in building trust, cohesion, and interpersonal relationships however, these collaborations incurred the most challenges. Time zones, work schedules, availability, personal routines, and wait time for relaying of information were all obstacles that needed to be overcome for the collaboration to extend to a level of real-time dialogue. I have been apprised of the intricacies and obstacles with creating and sustaining collaboration on a synchronous level within an eLearning environment. Though those experiences were the most powerful in creating relationships, they demand the most dedication.
I am grateful for these experiences as they have taught me collaboration and grouping structures cannot be haphazard; they must be well thought out and deliberate for success to be achieved. Understanding the challenges and constraints of scheduling global dialogue among peers is a challenge in itself, especially when crossing the date line.
I have gained so many valuable tools and resources through this class. I continually seek to infuse multiple modalities of communication, connection and learning through my artifacts. I realize this will not change as it is a part of my belief and excitement of learning. I feel more prepared to become an online facilitator. I have a clarified understanding of the expectations and demands of an online facilitator as well as have learned new terminology such as androgogy, delete it/defer it/delegate it, aphoristic, and touch it once. Understanding differences of social, pragmatic and argumentative dialogue coupled with learning how to dig deeper into meaning through prompts, redirects and extenders have filled my well of knowledge. I will exit this class with tools in my tool belt to be prepared for my new online teaching experience. I now know what is necessary before the first day of school, the challenges that arise in creating collaborative groups, best practices in building and sustaining dialogue along with the importance of writing with succinct and concise wording, whether an email, discussion post or artifact of learning. The experiences the last two months have expanded my awareness of the difficulties, misconceptions, and confusion that can arise from not articulating clearly. This course has pushed me to find comfort within uncomfortable or new environments as well as develop a new appreciation for purposes of text only, audio and video within the communications of an eLearning course. I will continue to grow and learn, but feel confident that my online courses will be a culmination and reflection of my learning from this coursework.
Module 7 (Posted August 16, 2015)
This module included a variety of impactful learning opportunities as well as challenges to overcome. First, I had struggled with the differentiation of a prompt and redirect question. It was within the peer critique assignment within the discussion post that clarity was provided. I began reading the posts of others and thought, I have nothing to provide as valuable feedback, as I am not sure if I am understanding the concept of the assignment fully and don’t want to misguide another student. However, I was reading and review a post multiple times to increase my understanding and an Ah-Ha moment arose. I realized the order the prompts I was reading was impeding the understanding of the redirect prompt and the extender prompt. Once this ambiguity was unveiled, clarity appeared. In later posts, positive feedback by the instructor further supported my understanding. It seems that I had broached a point many others were wrestling with as well. By sharing my honesty and thought processes within the discussion post, it encouraged further dialogue that assisted others in the class with clarifying understanding of the prompts and redirect delineation. The facilitator included an additional prompt and example, which even further extended the understanding. This was a very powerful experience for me for a few reasons; 1) my honest post of not feeling secure in my understanding of the assignment, 2) my Ah-Ha moment when realizing the order of the prompts was causing conflicts in my understanding, and 3) the feedback the facilitator shared coupled with an extender prompt that actually assisted in further clarification for myself and many in the class. I felt that my ambiguity not only helped my clarity of understanding but may have been pivotal for many others. When I have a solid understanding of a subject or content, I am more apt to offer feedback but when I am unclear in my own understanding, it causes a level of apprehension. Even though feeling vulnerable in this week’s assignment, I am elated that I took the risk of expressing my confusions and my thought processes for clarification of understanding.
Secondly, the online facilitation experience was exciting yet frustrating. I quickly realized that facilitating an online chat follows the same 70/30 rule as starting an online class. The preparation of the activity was key. The need to create a survey for members to determine available times, organizing an available time, determining the format of the chat, working through the progression of the chat discussion and considering pros and cons prior to the activity all were time consuming. To further intensify this activity, have little experience participating and no experience with facilitating an online chat, I felt at times as though I was “flying blind”. The survey was pivotal in keeping understanding among participants. I have learned through this exercise that careful considerations needs to be addressed when collaborating in different time zones, especially when there are members that are one-day ahead or behind. We unfortunately experienced confusion due to the exact time the chat would take place due to the vast difference of time zones.
Working with a co-facilitator provided additional advantages yet challenges. The advantages far outweighed the challenges yet they were still present. Working together allowed us to leverage each other’s strengths and knowledge in different areas. We were able to work through scenarios prior to the chat to determine potential obstacles that could arise. We shared in the responsibility of communicating with the team members and were able to discuss approaches to solving our challenges for the best interest of the group. The challenge however was finding time to collaborate. Due to the short turnaround of the assignment, we were feeling compromised with email and resorted to live phone calls. Our time schedules were opposite and our time zones were different. I was available early in the day and my co-facilitator was available late in the day. We worked together to reach a compromise and our collaboration created a strong peer relationship within the class. The success of our collaboration was key to facilitating the online chat. If we were not aligned, the facilitation would have been disjointed and cumbersome. However, that was not the case, we were a great team and I felt we were a united sources for our Evergreen chat group. Following the live chat we spoke on the phone and debriefed about how we thought the chat went, what we felt we as a team were successful with and how we could modify actions or procedures for additional chat experiences.
In reflection, I have learned that a longer timeframe would eliminate or at least reduce the challenges of coordination we experienced, as time was our largest barrier. Having one week to coordinate and schedule the chat prior to the activity would be beneficial, especially when co-facilitating. As we were sharing in the experience, we needed time to converse and plan prior to beginning the process for surveying the group and establishing processes and procedures for the chat. Additional, respect and understanding of the varied time zones participants were in are helpful in the planning process.
I have become accustomed to feedback throughout my career and enjoyed reading our debriefing session after the chat. All comments were positive in nature and seemed as though the feelings from the group were consistent. This further validated that my thoughts regarding the chat experience.
Module 6 (Posted August 8, 2015)
Within Making the Move to eLearning (2009), the phrase coined by David Allen (2001), Do It, Delegate It, or Defer It (p. 181) has had a large impact within my professional career and one which can easily adapt to teaching within an eLearning environment. It is so easy to remember. I have found within my work week stating this phrase in my mind to choose a route to take action to become more efficient in dealing with daily demands and handling requests once. It also has reduced my stress as it assists in maintaining control of situations and taking action instead of becoming overwhelmed with multiple demands simultaneously. This can be adapted for personal or professional demands. Another tip that I have learned about is the concept of billable hours. I was unaware, until learning this, how online instructors were paid. Understanding that billable hours funnel down to how efficient one is within managing the demands of an online course it is imperative to become as efficient as possible. Further tips for creating naming conventions for email protocols, file folder structure, taking notes while reading discussion posts and backing up weekly are all invaluable tips to increase effectiveness in course management while reducing repetitive actions and increasing value within billable hours.
This week’s most impactful learning experience has been working with my collaborative group to create a tip sheet. There have been many obstacles with this process. Not so much by me but by the members of my group. Unpreparedness, technical issues and conflicts within meeting schedules all have been experienced. My frustrations have escalated and waned throughout this process. However, I have come to realize that these are challenges that will continually be present when working collaboratively with peers in a distance collaboration. F2F classroom include a built in expectation to designate a specific time of the day to attend. This can be considered rigid and restrictive yet also provides a level of consistency. It has been increasingly challenging to communicate within my triad this week. I have made several attempts to email, yet the responses have been delayed and sporadic. This lack of communication has begun to impact the completion of the group project. In my best efforts to begin the project early on and maintain opportunities for communication, scheduling and personal demands by my teammates have made this especially difficult. This group project has allowed me to become proficient in Edmodo, a learning management system. I am grateful to my teammate who shared her password so we could become familiar with the processes. In reflection, when choosing groups, do you choose teams by time zones, working habits or allow students to choose their own. I know there are pros and cons to both. I am unsure which is the best option to reduce the frustrations I have been experiencing.
Lastly, this week I was excited to learn the Replies Only technique within discussion posts. I liked the brevity of the text in posting and not needing to read copious amounts of text. It encouraged specificity yet when all replies were entered a comprehensive overview was created. I also believe it could begin to generate that quick, responsive dialogue that happens when speaking with someone face to face. The jigsaw activity and devils advocate are two activities that could easily be adapted to this type of reply. The downside to this technique is newbie technology users may have difficulty with the copy and paste actions necessary to continue the replies only format.
Module 5 (Posted August 2, 2015)
The 70/30 rule is term that identifies the need for instructors to focus a large proportionate amount of time to pre-course preparation. This focus aligns with backwards planning and instructional design. Both depend upon purposeful and deliberate actions to prepare activities in advance to nurture the success of the student throughout the course. The inclusion of preparing communication activities would yet be another component of designing the course. Communication is imperative within an eLearning environment but I believe it can be the most challenging to sustain. It is my opinion that the inclusion of varied modalities of communication will keep excitement and engagement among students more so that reliance of text based discussion posts alone.
It is this very reason I have chosen to include a Welcome To Class video to share my educational perspectives with my future students as one of the pre-course activities within my introductory email. I believe it will further promote my presence in the class as well as students can watch and listen to me instead of reading. I find short video clips easy to produce, they include closed captioning, students “see” me as their instructor, and monotony of text based reading is offset. I experienced the use of short videos from another class and my engagement was positively impacted by the balance of video, audio and text communication.
I have found that writing introductory emails, and responses to students are time consuming in themselves. I have struggled with reducing my prolific writing style. A peer introduced me to the new term aphoristic, meaning short and to the point. I am trying to remember this new vocabulary word as I write my communications with students. This is very challenging to me. Continual practice will be the best means in which to refine my skills. I have come to realize communications with students must include appropriate tone, specificity, options, and most importantly clear verbiage to reduce ambiguities. This can be quite challenging when trying to write concisely!
Another inclusion I am excited to implement is my icebreaker activity. I have chosen to have students represent themselves by an image. This further promotes variety within communication. I constantly battle with identity of my peers within an online class. I find it difficult to develop and quickly identify them as individuals in the sea of discussion posts. If I struggle with this, I am sure others do as well. I am hopeful the imagery will provide a “hook” where peers can begin to distinguish one peer from another besides their name or writing style. I think when personal qualities can be attached to a name, we as humans feel more comfortable in reaching out to create relationships with others that have similarities. My only concern with this activity is the technological skills of newbies. Will they be successful with posting an image? If they have difficulty with the first activity what impact with that have on their willingness to continue in the class? Though I can provide tip sheets, how to videos, and help desk contacts, will that be enough to mitigate technology issues? These answers are ones in which I will continue to ponder as I do not have those answers as of yet. I will need to teach within an online environment to make further determinations as to the success of my activity. With that being said, with failure or success, I will diligently continue to infuse, incorporate, synthesize multiple modalities of communication within my online classroom as I strongly believe communication cannot be text-based reliant.
Module 4 (Posted July 26, 2015)
This week I continue to balance the duality between the large group discussion and small group discussion. I believe the split focus is compromising my ability to fully engage in the conversations and create threads of learning as the posts are too widespread. I continue to be re-assured that I think too much posting in too many forums negatively impacts my engagement and interest. However, the activity of collaborative research was very effective this week. It was similar to the jigsaw teaching practice whereby each individual brings a piece of information to share. The tools that were shared were valuable to learn about and some that I may entertain their use in my future online class. This component was incredibly useful to me so this is where I felt the greatest learning as well as wanted to continue to participate within.
Content vocabulary such as social, pragmatic, and argumentative dialogue assisted in delineating what types of conversations truly exist within an eLearning environment, but more so, how to identify each and keep a balance of ALL types. I have realized most conversations are pragmatic in nature. Social dialogue continues to remain at a surface level and argumentative dialogue is minimal for many. This point is interesting and leads me to believe there is still a gap in creating a cohesion of learners in the class. One major realization surfaced through my reflection; students’ needs to connect affectively through emotion to feel safe prior to being able to extend into positive argumentative dialogue and honest constructive feedback. It is my opinion that further incorporation of voice and identity through human characteristics can further support the affective domain of students within the class.
For example, my two group members were having incredible difficulty logging into the predesignated online classroom. In trying to assist, the mode of email was increasing frustrations as the time delay and inability to keep a pace moving forward, I researched a manner in which we could as least troubleshoot together. One member was on the road so a computer was not an option. I discovered FreeConferenceCall.com. I created an account, I sent an email with the ID number and we were able to work through our issues in 10 minutes via a mobile device. This experience, though frustrating and time consuming, taught me that distance communication needs to remain flexible and incorporate a variety of forums. This particular instance, a conference call was what was needed. I also felt more as ease after the call. It was comforting to hear a voice on the other end and know these are real people just like me. We actually included a little social dialogue as we all shared what was going on in our personal lives which further increased the collaborative bond we will need as we move forward together as a class.
I used careful selection of the tools within my community matrix. I wanted to invest time into seeking web 2.0 tools that could further support voice, video and text among all participants. A wonderful addition to this particular course would be a module where we as students could be the facilitator using one of these unique tools of voice/video/text before heading into the eLearning environment as a facilitator.
The eLearning environment has traditionally been characterized as isolating with no person-to-person interaction except through copious discussion posts, which may or may not lead to a community of connected learners. I am elated to participate in a shift to bring eLearning members together in a variety of forums where social, pragmatic and positive argumentative dialogue can develop and flourish while nurturing the cognitive growth of the participants. The careful synthesis of video, voice, and text can co-exist to continue to create dynamic dialogue among peers and by using web 2.0 tools within an eLearning environment the physical barriers that previously impeded extended geographical communications and learning are now diminished and can connect people worldwide.
Module 3 (Posted July 18, 2015)
I continue to be confronted by challenges of the eLearning environment. This week there have been two large roadblocks within my learning. One, orchestrating a synchronous meeting for a triad community project and two, a change in managing discussion posts.
Our triad group has had extreme difficulty in connecting for a synchronous chat session in the D2L online room. My previous thoughts of grouping students by time zones has not been as successful as previously thought. The greatest difficulty has been the SAME time of day that is available for each of us. We have succumbed to meeting at 6:00 am on a Sunday morning, least preferable but only option. I have experienced the one advantage to a F2F course, and that is students all commit to a specific time to come to class so initiating group projects secures the opportunity for students to collaborate. This is not the case in eLearning. I am unsure in how best to approach this situation as a future online facilitator. Would it be better to allow students to sign up for a group based upon preset online meeting times whereby I would join the group that will consistently meet at the time frame that is available in my schedule? This supports adult learning theory by offering choice however, if that action is taken, how do we address issues such as working preferences/personalities, group roles, etc?
This course has continually challenged me and my current perspectives on online discussion posts and their purpose within an eLearning environment. I continue to find that I most of my learning within the discussion posting activities comes from the activities whereby my peers post their artifacts or examples and we, as a small group, are able to learn from others examples and perspectives. As possessing visual preferences for learning, this modality allows me to see others ideas/thoughts through practical application artifacts and encourages me to reconsider my own thinking and how I could alter/adapt/expand upon my schemas based upon others feedback and/or application of knowledge. As a future online facilitator I know this will be a staple format for my discussion posts. The activity of creating a facilitator response to a student was very engaging and I found it purposeful. I not only was offered the opportunity to practice the role of the facilitator, I was able to view others responses, but take in feedback from others regarding my own response to learn how to improve.
I have also needed to redefine the length of my copious postings as they are beginning to become unmanageable and are contributing to a level of burn out. One of the most intriguing experiences this week is the support and immediate attention I received from my instructor as I reached out to discuss my concern regarding the discussion posts and my ability to continue to manage the demand coupled with a new job with longer hours. The discussion was pragmatic in nature yet she offered suggestions in which to try to assist in balancing personal, professional, and educational needs. I have taken this advice and begun to redefine my expectation of quantity and quality of my contributing social, pragmatic, and argumentative dialogue with the course discussions.
The creation of my personal learning environment/network was extremely enjoyable to create. Having a visual preference in learning, creating a network map was enjoyable. The process of identifying my current personal learning environment apprised me of one major point where I am currently underutilizing…blogs and use of social media! Though I have access and accounts for them, I use them the most sparingly. This could be due to my current roles do not gravitate to those mediums as well as I am somewhat uncomfortable in their use for professional conversations and learning. My professional, personal and educational experiences demand more content than a tweet or a few sentences. I have come to realize that I need to further embrace these technologies and utilize them further to increase my connectivity with others. This also aligns with my grappling of reorganizing my schema and prolific writing style; I am beginning to consciously write in succinct sentences to reduce wording postings. This is very difficult for me and I am aware this will continue to be continuous cycle of improvement.
Module 2 (Posted July 12, 2015)
This week has been one of the most challenging weeks for an online course. The reason is because we have had to post to a discussion forum for a whole group as well as a small group. I am not opposed to the structure per say yet I am having great difficult managing between the two. I cannot become focused and intrinsically motivated in a whole group (of which I cannot anchor an identity with as of yet) as well as in a small group. I am having great difficulty with the divided attention and discussions. I feel as though I am torn and without having a personal connection with the students within the class, it is creating confusion in talking with peers even before trying to understand the content. I will say that I find working within a smaller group assists in building a collaborative relationship as well as helps me to build a level of comradery with those in the group, much more than when responding to a large group.
What does this tell me? As a future online educator, I will take this experience and support small group structures where permissible within my course outline and activities. I will also keep close attention to not created activities that divide a student’s attention by using large group and small group discussion simultaneously.
Module 1 (Posted July 5, 2015)
The topic of this course is one that I have always struggled with within the eLearning environment. Following the review of the course syllabus I am aware that discussion postings, and many of them, will be the central focus within this course. I have begun to become more comfortable with this process, and though I am realizing I can learn from others within my class, I have not yet been able to find a balance of completing the weekly assignments while keeping up with the reading and responding to posts. In a previous course, the instructor encouraged posting to two peers, which was manageable. I was also contacted and reminded there was not a need for my prolific writing style within posts which also helped.
However, the requirements for this course are opposite. We are to post to small and large group communities along with group projects. I am beginning a new job this week and very uncertain as to the manageability with the postings but I will remain open minded.
We completed a quick Bourne-Bond survey to determine our personality type to be used for matching purposes for peer work. I liked this idea and see how I could use it in the future coupled with the results of a learning styles/preferences inventory to assist in developing communities of practice.
I have learned andragogy, new terminology From Knowles (1998), during this module. Andragogy is the combination of constructivism and adult learning theory which has some variations from pedagogy which is how students learn. This includes six major components. These are 1) the adult needing to know purpose for learning, 2) learner’s self-concept and respect for their ability to choose their learning path and use their experiences to aid learning, 3) role of learner’s experiences and they contribute to the learning for all and their responsibility for their decisions on education and involvement 4) readiness to learn, 5) orientation to learning and adapting the learning to their personal lives, and 6) intrinsic motivation.
I have also been enlightened by the difference between constructivism and instructivism. The former offers student choice and control and the latter follows traditional guided direct instruction. I believe this distinction is important. One, instructivism can be utilized to build background knowledge yet should not be the focus on instructional delivery as is compromising constructivist and adult learning theory best practices.
In regards to ready-use tools, I have created my contact sheet for my professional portfolio and future online classes. I chose a 24-hr response time. In viewing others examples most were 48 hrs. It is my personal opinion that time frame is too long. I know that when I need guidance 2 days is too long to wait. We all have varied schedules. I would like to respect my students’ time as they would respect mine, so I would make a concerted effort to ensure prompt feedback.
Citation:
Lehmann, K. & Chamberlin, L. (2009). Making the Move to eLearning: Putting Your Course Online. Rowman & Littlefield Education Publishers.
Module 8 (Posted August 20, 2015)
I have reflected upon the last two months of this course. One, by reading through my weekly reflection posts and two, by reviewing my portfolio artifacts. This course has challenged my opinions and pressed me forward into weeks of disequilibrium. Through review and reflection of both I have realized the power of collaboration and learning with and through others. I have also been afforded the opportunity to appreciate the role and demands of an online facilitator.
A common theme of difficulty within this course has been the discussion posts and arranging synchronous collaborations. The last few weeks I feel I have come to review other’s posts through a different lens, one that is pragmatic yet more confident in critical thinking and analysis. I have chosen to respond to less posts, but take the time to really think through a peer’s post and view it from different perspectives. I have shifted from responding using my experiences and more so challenged thinking processes or what’s missing to make sense of the post. In further reflection this exemplifies the evaluation and analysis critical thinking skills contained with the EASyR lesson model.
An important common thread throughout the past weeks remains to be the creation of relationships and feeling connected with peers on a personal level. The most exciting components of this course were also caused the most discomfort. It is my opinion that I felt most connected with my peers when collaboration included more than text to communicate, whether that be audio or video or both. My experiences within my triad and co-facilitator roles heightened that level. These opportunities offered the humanistic connection I believe is important in building trust, cohesion, and interpersonal relationships however, these collaborations incurred the most challenges. Time zones, work schedules, availability, personal routines, and wait time for relaying of information were all obstacles that needed to be overcome for the collaboration to extend to a level of real-time dialogue. I have been apprised of the intricacies and obstacles with creating and sustaining collaboration on a synchronous level within an eLearning environment. Though those experiences were the most powerful in creating relationships, they demand the most dedication.
I am grateful for these experiences as they have taught me collaboration and grouping structures cannot be haphazard; they must be well thought out and deliberate for success to be achieved. Understanding the challenges and constraints of scheduling global dialogue among peers is a challenge in itself, especially when crossing the date line.
I have gained so many valuable tools and resources through this class. I continually seek to infuse multiple modalities of communication, connection and learning through my artifacts. I realize this will not change as it is a part of my belief and excitement of learning. I feel more prepared to become an online facilitator. I have a clarified understanding of the expectations and demands of an online facilitator as well as have learned new terminology such as androgogy, delete it/defer it/delegate it, aphoristic, and touch it once. Understanding differences of social, pragmatic and argumentative dialogue coupled with learning how to dig deeper into meaning through prompts, redirects and extenders have filled my well of knowledge. I will exit this class with tools in my tool belt to be prepared for my new online teaching experience. I now know what is necessary before the first day of school, the challenges that arise in creating collaborative groups, best practices in building and sustaining dialogue along with the importance of writing with succinct and concise wording, whether an email, discussion post or artifact of learning. The experiences the last two months have expanded my awareness of the difficulties, misconceptions, and confusion that can arise from not articulating clearly. This course has pushed me to find comfort within uncomfortable or new environments as well as develop a new appreciation for purposes of text only, audio and video within the communications of an eLearning course. I will continue to grow and learn, but feel confident that my online courses will be a culmination and reflection of my learning from this coursework.
Module 7 (Posted August 16, 2015)
This module included a variety of impactful learning opportunities as well as challenges to overcome. First, I had struggled with the differentiation of a prompt and redirect question. It was within the peer critique assignment within the discussion post that clarity was provided. I began reading the posts of others and thought, I have nothing to provide as valuable feedback, as I am not sure if I am understanding the concept of the assignment fully and don’t want to misguide another student. However, I was reading and review a post multiple times to increase my understanding and an Ah-Ha moment arose. I realized the order the prompts I was reading was impeding the understanding of the redirect prompt and the extender prompt. Once this ambiguity was unveiled, clarity appeared. In later posts, positive feedback by the instructor further supported my understanding. It seems that I had broached a point many others were wrestling with as well. By sharing my honesty and thought processes within the discussion post, it encouraged further dialogue that assisted others in the class with clarifying understanding of the prompts and redirect delineation. The facilitator included an additional prompt and example, which even further extended the understanding. This was a very powerful experience for me for a few reasons; 1) my honest post of not feeling secure in my understanding of the assignment, 2) my Ah-Ha moment when realizing the order of the prompts was causing conflicts in my understanding, and 3) the feedback the facilitator shared coupled with an extender prompt that actually assisted in further clarification for myself and many in the class. I felt that my ambiguity not only helped my clarity of understanding but may have been pivotal for many others. When I have a solid understanding of a subject or content, I am more apt to offer feedback but when I am unclear in my own understanding, it causes a level of apprehension. Even though feeling vulnerable in this week’s assignment, I am elated that I took the risk of expressing my confusions and my thought processes for clarification of understanding.
Secondly, the online facilitation experience was exciting yet frustrating. I quickly realized that facilitating an online chat follows the same 70/30 rule as starting an online class. The preparation of the activity was key. The need to create a survey for members to determine available times, organizing an available time, determining the format of the chat, working through the progression of the chat discussion and considering pros and cons prior to the activity all were time consuming. To further intensify this activity, have little experience participating and no experience with facilitating an online chat, I felt at times as though I was “flying blind”. The survey was pivotal in keeping understanding among participants. I have learned through this exercise that careful considerations needs to be addressed when collaborating in different time zones, especially when there are members that are one-day ahead or behind. We unfortunately experienced confusion due to the exact time the chat would take place due to the vast difference of time zones.
Working with a co-facilitator provided additional advantages yet challenges. The advantages far outweighed the challenges yet they were still present. Working together allowed us to leverage each other’s strengths and knowledge in different areas. We were able to work through scenarios prior to the chat to determine potential obstacles that could arise. We shared in the responsibility of communicating with the team members and were able to discuss approaches to solving our challenges for the best interest of the group. The challenge however was finding time to collaborate. Due to the short turnaround of the assignment, we were feeling compromised with email and resorted to live phone calls. Our time schedules were opposite and our time zones were different. I was available early in the day and my co-facilitator was available late in the day. We worked together to reach a compromise and our collaboration created a strong peer relationship within the class. The success of our collaboration was key to facilitating the online chat. If we were not aligned, the facilitation would have been disjointed and cumbersome. However, that was not the case, we were a great team and I felt we were a united sources for our Evergreen chat group. Following the live chat we spoke on the phone and debriefed about how we thought the chat went, what we felt we as a team were successful with and how we could modify actions or procedures for additional chat experiences.
In reflection, I have learned that a longer timeframe would eliminate or at least reduce the challenges of coordination we experienced, as time was our largest barrier. Having one week to coordinate and schedule the chat prior to the activity would be beneficial, especially when co-facilitating. As we were sharing in the experience, we needed time to converse and plan prior to beginning the process for surveying the group and establishing processes and procedures for the chat. Additional, respect and understanding of the varied time zones participants were in are helpful in the planning process.
I have become accustomed to feedback throughout my career and enjoyed reading our debriefing session after the chat. All comments were positive in nature and seemed as though the feelings from the group were consistent. This further validated that my thoughts regarding the chat experience.
Module 6 (Posted August 8, 2015)
Within Making the Move to eLearning (2009), the phrase coined by David Allen (2001), Do It, Delegate It, or Defer It (p. 181) has had a large impact within my professional career and one which can easily adapt to teaching within an eLearning environment. It is so easy to remember. I have found within my work week stating this phrase in my mind to choose a route to take action to become more efficient in dealing with daily demands and handling requests once. It also has reduced my stress as it assists in maintaining control of situations and taking action instead of becoming overwhelmed with multiple demands simultaneously. This can be adapted for personal or professional demands. Another tip that I have learned about is the concept of billable hours. I was unaware, until learning this, how online instructors were paid. Understanding that billable hours funnel down to how efficient one is within managing the demands of an online course it is imperative to become as efficient as possible. Further tips for creating naming conventions for email protocols, file folder structure, taking notes while reading discussion posts and backing up weekly are all invaluable tips to increase effectiveness in course management while reducing repetitive actions and increasing value within billable hours.
This week’s most impactful learning experience has been working with my collaborative group to create a tip sheet. There have been many obstacles with this process. Not so much by me but by the members of my group. Unpreparedness, technical issues and conflicts within meeting schedules all have been experienced. My frustrations have escalated and waned throughout this process. However, I have come to realize that these are challenges that will continually be present when working collaboratively with peers in a distance collaboration. F2F classroom include a built in expectation to designate a specific time of the day to attend. This can be considered rigid and restrictive yet also provides a level of consistency. It has been increasingly challenging to communicate within my triad this week. I have made several attempts to email, yet the responses have been delayed and sporadic. This lack of communication has begun to impact the completion of the group project. In my best efforts to begin the project early on and maintain opportunities for communication, scheduling and personal demands by my teammates have made this especially difficult. This group project has allowed me to become proficient in Edmodo, a learning management system. I am grateful to my teammate who shared her password so we could become familiar with the processes. In reflection, when choosing groups, do you choose teams by time zones, working habits or allow students to choose their own. I know there are pros and cons to both. I am unsure which is the best option to reduce the frustrations I have been experiencing.
Lastly, this week I was excited to learn the Replies Only technique within discussion posts. I liked the brevity of the text in posting and not needing to read copious amounts of text. It encouraged specificity yet when all replies were entered a comprehensive overview was created. I also believe it could begin to generate that quick, responsive dialogue that happens when speaking with someone face to face. The jigsaw activity and devils advocate are two activities that could easily be adapted to this type of reply. The downside to this technique is newbie technology users may have difficulty with the copy and paste actions necessary to continue the replies only format.
Module 5 (Posted August 2, 2015)
The 70/30 rule is term that identifies the need for instructors to focus a large proportionate amount of time to pre-course preparation. This focus aligns with backwards planning and instructional design. Both depend upon purposeful and deliberate actions to prepare activities in advance to nurture the success of the student throughout the course. The inclusion of preparing communication activities would yet be another component of designing the course. Communication is imperative within an eLearning environment but I believe it can be the most challenging to sustain. It is my opinion that the inclusion of varied modalities of communication will keep excitement and engagement among students more so that reliance of text based discussion posts alone.
It is this very reason I have chosen to include a Welcome To Class video to share my educational perspectives with my future students as one of the pre-course activities within my introductory email. I believe it will further promote my presence in the class as well as students can watch and listen to me instead of reading. I find short video clips easy to produce, they include closed captioning, students “see” me as their instructor, and monotony of text based reading is offset. I experienced the use of short videos from another class and my engagement was positively impacted by the balance of video, audio and text communication.
I have found that writing introductory emails, and responses to students are time consuming in themselves. I have struggled with reducing my prolific writing style. A peer introduced me to the new term aphoristic, meaning short and to the point. I am trying to remember this new vocabulary word as I write my communications with students. This is very challenging to me. Continual practice will be the best means in which to refine my skills. I have come to realize communications with students must include appropriate tone, specificity, options, and most importantly clear verbiage to reduce ambiguities. This can be quite challenging when trying to write concisely!
Another inclusion I am excited to implement is my icebreaker activity. I have chosen to have students represent themselves by an image. This further promotes variety within communication. I constantly battle with identity of my peers within an online class. I find it difficult to develop and quickly identify them as individuals in the sea of discussion posts. If I struggle with this, I am sure others do as well. I am hopeful the imagery will provide a “hook” where peers can begin to distinguish one peer from another besides their name or writing style. I think when personal qualities can be attached to a name, we as humans feel more comfortable in reaching out to create relationships with others that have similarities. My only concern with this activity is the technological skills of newbies. Will they be successful with posting an image? If they have difficulty with the first activity what impact with that have on their willingness to continue in the class? Though I can provide tip sheets, how to videos, and help desk contacts, will that be enough to mitigate technology issues? These answers are ones in which I will continue to ponder as I do not have those answers as of yet. I will need to teach within an online environment to make further determinations as to the success of my activity. With that being said, with failure or success, I will diligently continue to infuse, incorporate, synthesize multiple modalities of communication within my online classroom as I strongly believe communication cannot be text-based reliant.
Module 4 (Posted July 26, 2015)
This week I continue to balance the duality between the large group discussion and small group discussion. I believe the split focus is compromising my ability to fully engage in the conversations and create threads of learning as the posts are too widespread. I continue to be re-assured that I think too much posting in too many forums negatively impacts my engagement and interest. However, the activity of collaborative research was very effective this week. It was similar to the jigsaw teaching practice whereby each individual brings a piece of information to share. The tools that were shared were valuable to learn about and some that I may entertain their use in my future online class. This component was incredibly useful to me so this is where I felt the greatest learning as well as wanted to continue to participate within.
Content vocabulary such as social, pragmatic, and argumentative dialogue assisted in delineating what types of conversations truly exist within an eLearning environment, but more so, how to identify each and keep a balance of ALL types. I have realized most conversations are pragmatic in nature. Social dialogue continues to remain at a surface level and argumentative dialogue is minimal for many. This point is interesting and leads me to believe there is still a gap in creating a cohesion of learners in the class. One major realization surfaced through my reflection; students’ needs to connect affectively through emotion to feel safe prior to being able to extend into positive argumentative dialogue and honest constructive feedback. It is my opinion that further incorporation of voice and identity through human characteristics can further support the affective domain of students within the class.
For example, my two group members were having incredible difficulty logging into the predesignated online classroom. In trying to assist, the mode of email was increasing frustrations as the time delay and inability to keep a pace moving forward, I researched a manner in which we could as least troubleshoot together. One member was on the road so a computer was not an option. I discovered FreeConferenceCall.com. I created an account, I sent an email with the ID number and we were able to work through our issues in 10 minutes via a mobile device. This experience, though frustrating and time consuming, taught me that distance communication needs to remain flexible and incorporate a variety of forums. This particular instance, a conference call was what was needed. I also felt more as ease after the call. It was comforting to hear a voice on the other end and know these are real people just like me. We actually included a little social dialogue as we all shared what was going on in our personal lives which further increased the collaborative bond we will need as we move forward together as a class.
I used careful selection of the tools within my community matrix. I wanted to invest time into seeking web 2.0 tools that could further support voice, video and text among all participants. A wonderful addition to this particular course would be a module where we as students could be the facilitator using one of these unique tools of voice/video/text before heading into the eLearning environment as a facilitator.
The eLearning environment has traditionally been characterized as isolating with no person-to-person interaction except through copious discussion posts, which may or may not lead to a community of connected learners. I am elated to participate in a shift to bring eLearning members together in a variety of forums where social, pragmatic and positive argumentative dialogue can develop and flourish while nurturing the cognitive growth of the participants. The careful synthesis of video, voice, and text can co-exist to continue to create dynamic dialogue among peers and by using web 2.0 tools within an eLearning environment the physical barriers that previously impeded extended geographical communications and learning are now diminished and can connect people worldwide.
Module 3 (Posted July 18, 2015)
I continue to be confronted by challenges of the eLearning environment. This week there have been two large roadblocks within my learning. One, orchestrating a synchronous meeting for a triad community project and two, a change in managing discussion posts.
Our triad group has had extreme difficulty in connecting for a synchronous chat session in the D2L online room. My previous thoughts of grouping students by time zones has not been as successful as previously thought. The greatest difficulty has been the SAME time of day that is available for each of us. We have succumbed to meeting at 6:00 am on a Sunday morning, least preferable but only option. I have experienced the one advantage to a F2F course, and that is students all commit to a specific time to come to class so initiating group projects secures the opportunity for students to collaborate. This is not the case in eLearning. I am unsure in how best to approach this situation as a future online facilitator. Would it be better to allow students to sign up for a group based upon preset online meeting times whereby I would join the group that will consistently meet at the time frame that is available in my schedule? This supports adult learning theory by offering choice however, if that action is taken, how do we address issues such as working preferences/personalities, group roles, etc?
This course has continually challenged me and my current perspectives on online discussion posts and their purpose within an eLearning environment. I continue to find that I most of my learning within the discussion posting activities comes from the activities whereby my peers post their artifacts or examples and we, as a small group, are able to learn from others examples and perspectives. As possessing visual preferences for learning, this modality allows me to see others ideas/thoughts through practical application artifacts and encourages me to reconsider my own thinking and how I could alter/adapt/expand upon my schemas based upon others feedback and/or application of knowledge. As a future online facilitator I know this will be a staple format for my discussion posts. The activity of creating a facilitator response to a student was very engaging and I found it purposeful. I not only was offered the opportunity to practice the role of the facilitator, I was able to view others responses, but take in feedback from others regarding my own response to learn how to improve.
I have also needed to redefine the length of my copious postings as they are beginning to become unmanageable and are contributing to a level of burn out. One of the most intriguing experiences this week is the support and immediate attention I received from my instructor as I reached out to discuss my concern regarding the discussion posts and my ability to continue to manage the demand coupled with a new job with longer hours. The discussion was pragmatic in nature yet she offered suggestions in which to try to assist in balancing personal, professional, and educational needs. I have taken this advice and begun to redefine my expectation of quantity and quality of my contributing social, pragmatic, and argumentative dialogue with the course discussions.
The creation of my personal learning environment/network was extremely enjoyable to create. Having a visual preference in learning, creating a network map was enjoyable. The process of identifying my current personal learning environment apprised me of one major point where I am currently underutilizing…blogs and use of social media! Though I have access and accounts for them, I use them the most sparingly. This could be due to my current roles do not gravitate to those mediums as well as I am somewhat uncomfortable in their use for professional conversations and learning. My professional, personal and educational experiences demand more content than a tweet or a few sentences. I have come to realize that I need to further embrace these technologies and utilize them further to increase my connectivity with others. This also aligns with my grappling of reorganizing my schema and prolific writing style; I am beginning to consciously write in succinct sentences to reduce wording postings. This is very difficult for me and I am aware this will continue to be continuous cycle of improvement.
Module 2 (Posted July 12, 2015)
This week has been one of the most challenging weeks for an online course. The reason is because we have had to post to a discussion forum for a whole group as well as a small group. I am not opposed to the structure per say yet I am having great difficult managing between the two. I cannot become focused and intrinsically motivated in a whole group (of which I cannot anchor an identity with as of yet) as well as in a small group. I am having great difficulty with the divided attention and discussions. I feel as though I am torn and without having a personal connection with the students within the class, it is creating confusion in talking with peers even before trying to understand the content. I will say that I find working within a smaller group assists in building a collaborative relationship as well as helps me to build a level of comradery with those in the group, much more than when responding to a large group.
What does this tell me? As a future online educator, I will take this experience and support small group structures where permissible within my course outline and activities. I will also keep close attention to not created activities that divide a student’s attention by using large group and small group discussion simultaneously.
Module 1 (Posted July 5, 2015)
The topic of this course is one that I have always struggled with within the eLearning environment. Following the review of the course syllabus I am aware that discussion postings, and many of them, will be the central focus within this course. I have begun to become more comfortable with this process, and though I am realizing I can learn from others within my class, I have not yet been able to find a balance of completing the weekly assignments while keeping up with the reading and responding to posts. In a previous course, the instructor encouraged posting to two peers, which was manageable. I was also contacted and reminded there was not a need for my prolific writing style within posts which also helped.
However, the requirements for this course are opposite. We are to post to small and large group communities along with group projects. I am beginning a new job this week and very uncertain as to the manageability with the postings but I will remain open minded.
We completed a quick Bourne-Bond survey to determine our personality type to be used for matching purposes for peer work. I liked this idea and see how I could use it in the future coupled with the results of a learning styles/preferences inventory to assist in developing communities of practice.
I have learned andragogy, new terminology From Knowles (1998), during this module. Andragogy is the combination of constructivism and adult learning theory which has some variations from pedagogy which is how students learn. This includes six major components. These are 1) the adult needing to know purpose for learning, 2) learner’s self-concept and respect for their ability to choose their learning path and use their experiences to aid learning, 3) role of learner’s experiences and they contribute to the learning for all and their responsibility for their decisions on education and involvement 4) readiness to learn, 5) orientation to learning and adapting the learning to their personal lives, and 6) intrinsic motivation.
I have also been enlightened by the difference between constructivism and instructivism. The former offers student choice and control and the latter follows traditional guided direct instruction. I believe this distinction is important. One, instructivism can be utilized to build background knowledge yet should not be the focus on instructional delivery as is compromising constructivist and adult learning theory best practices.
In regards to ready-use tools, I have created my contact sheet for my professional portfolio and future online classes. I chose a 24-hr response time. In viewing others examples most were 48 hrs. It is my personal opinion that time frame is too long. I know that when I need guidance 2 days is too long to wait. We all have varied schedules. I would like to respect my students’ time as they would respect mine, so I would make a concerted effort to ensure prompt feedback.
Citation:
Lehmann, K. & Chamberlin, L. (2009). Making the Move to eLearning: Putting Your Course Online. Rowman & Littlefield Education Publishers.