Jen Boisvert’s Blog

So, in less than one week the site admin area of Edublogs changed. It threw me for a loop, but I like the design a lot better. It is easier to navigate. Well, anyway onto my experiences over the last week. So here we go…

The past week has been a bit crazy, but it is slowly getting better. I am very pleased with my course and am very excited about it. I have shown a few people the layout and content of the course and they really liked it. They said it was simple, had a nice layout, and was not overwhelming. this was one of my goals, keeping it clean and to the point. I have been in some online classes where it is overwhelming and it tended to loose my interest. I brainstormed with a few people on some discussion question topics and they gave me some excellent ideas. It took awhile to come up with a few of the discussion questions, but after hours of brainstorming, they finally came to me. I came up with ideas earlier, but I wasn’t pleased with them. I just didn’t want to throw something up there for the sake of having a discussion question. I wanted to have meaning, be thought provoking, and really tie into the content. I am still stuck on the last discussion question though, Final Interview.   I want to use a case study, but I can’t find anything I really like. So, I am going to continue to to search for one or create a case study of my own. Just a few minutes ago Jess responded to my Part 1 of this blog, apparently she is going through the same thing with discussion questions. I am glad I am not going through this alone.

Creating the tutorials, the video Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, and Seesmic introduction was a bit challenging and a bit frustrating.  I have created a great number of tutorials and recordings, but for reason technology was not on my side.  Last Thursday, I decided to stay late after work and work on my recordings. It was quiet and I had the technology needed to create the tutorials and video. I created my PowerPoint presentation and tried to create record with Camtashia and it wouldn’t allow me to. A few weeks back, we got hit with a virus and it seemed to wipe away my Camtashia add-ins. The other problem was that I couldn’t get Camtashia to work properly. I haven’t used the program in a couple weeks so I didn’t realize that the bug plagued Camtashia. I then tried to use another program Adobe Captivate but was unsuccessful with that. I went through recorded my whole presentation to only find out that it didn’t record my voice. So by this point, I decided OK it is time to leave. I then went home and tried to record my Seesmic presentation which only led me to another roadblock. Everything seem to record fine, but when I went to play it back I could only hear audio but could not see myself. So I decided to give up on technology for the night. Luckily, I went back in on Sunday and my Seesmic video (both voice and video) were there. What a relief!

Besides the discussion, I have to update my checklist and my grading rubrics. But other than that, I am all set. Yeah!!! I can’t believe this course is almost over. Where did the time go? I have enjoyed this course and I can’t wait to get every one’s feedback.

Garrison’s article was very interesting and as I was going through the article I was thinking about my course. I particularly enjoyed reading about Social Presence. In an online course, an instructors presence is extremely important. In my course, I tried to create a welcoming and encouraging community. I am using instant messenger, the bulletin board, and a video and written introduction message to get through to my students. In their first discussion question, I allowed them to Google me (you will have to visit my course to see the activity). I tried to stress throughout the different modules that we are all working together and that we will get through it. I really like how Alex has created a welcoming environment in our course and I hope I have done the same in mind. I feel very comfortable in our classroom and am not afraid to ask a question. Classroom community is very, very important in an online course as all of the interaction takes place behind a computer screen unlike a traditional classroom where it takes place in a face to face setting.

Garrison also discusses social presence and learning activities (Garrison, 2007). In all of the modules I try to have them interact with each other where it be through a discussion question or assignment activity like Seesmic. In Module 8, I am having them create a video and interact with a classmate. They will be asking each other interview questions and then responding back to them. After they complete the question and response video, they will need to critique their partners responses. I am looking forward to viewing their videos.

Talk to you soon!

Jen (3)

Very interesting question. I have been pondering on this question and here is what I came up with….I guess I am many things in relation to others, I am a student, employee, learner (as my dad calls me a perpetual student), sister, daughter, niece, cousin, and sister-in-law. I am a type of person who loves challenges, very detailed, doesn’t like to give up, always tries my hardest to succeed, dedicated, can be a perfectionist at times (OK, maybe a good amount of time), and loves to learn. I love deep conversations with friends and colleagues about education. I love to be surrounded by friends and family. I like to travel and explore other countries (going away next month, woohoo!!). I also like to stay on-top of technology. I am also the type of person who always thinks from the student perspective, which leads me into this course/my course.

While taking this course and designing my own course, I have learned a lot about myself. I have learned that it is challenging to be an instructor and that developing content from scratch is a bit tough. I am going on my learned knowledge from my courses and my experiences. I am constantly brainstorming and asking myself questions (from student perspective) like “Would I want to learn this? What am I going to get out of this course? Would I be able to complete the allotted work during the time frames I have provided?” I am constantly reflecting on my experiences as a student and the things that I liked and disliked in my courses. I always try and think from a student point of view, as they are the ones who are going to be enrolling in my course. I also have been in their shoes, so I know what it is like to be a student. This is a first for me as I have never designed a course before or taught. Seeing that I have no teaching experience, it has been a struggle to come up with everything from scratch. But, I am enjoying it and it is a wonderful learning experience.

I have two challenges so far in designing my course, one being still trying to come up with discussion questions that are engaging, interesting, and that really tie in the content and the other dealing with the slowness of Moodle (I try to be patient, but sometimes it just drives me crazy). But, I know I am not in this alone. These two challenges are a part of the process.

I have enjoyed communicating with Alex on Seesmic. It has been fun and Alex has been really helpful in brainstorming and conducting research on how I can incorporate this software into my course. After chatting with her a few times, I have decided to add Seesmic to my course as one of my learning activities. I am going to add this into the module on Preparing for the Interview. I am going to have students generate questions and practice role playing with each other. It will allow students to be able to respond at their (but keeping it within the timeframe), communicate with students in another form of communication, and allow them to gain experience as being an interviewer/interviewee.

It has been an interesting past two weeks and I look forward to the upcoming weeks in designing the rest of my course. Good night!

(3)