OTblogger

I continue to find this class fascinating and I love the video and links it has provided. I gain new ideas weekly about how to make my class more interactive. This week, I am experimenting with voice announcements and instructions for my online class. So interesting how much more personable this feels and how the students are responding. Makes me realize how completely boring my last class was!!!
On to TWITTER and FACEBOOK’S POT GROUP. While I have come to learn the beauty of facebook and twitter for connecting with others, especially those with a shared interest, I am finding my time dwindling by the minute. During my first encounter with Twitter, the home site stated that I had to chose a new user name and email address since these were already taken….hmmmmm. I am stumped. How could that be, since I have no desire to open a twitter account and I am only doing so for the sake of this class. There is no way I would have opened an account under my email and forgotten about it. So, after days of frustration and searching, there is an account with a different username and my email address. I changed the password and now have access to twitter. I am a little unnerved that this account has been open since 2009 and I have changed the password, so now the poor sap who thought he was shellie@sbcglobal.net is no longer able to use his account! We’ll see…maybe we will just keep changing passwords and block each other out!
So, my next adventure was facebook’s POT group. I actually joined this group in august when I signed up to take this class. At first, I was completely excited to be part of something new and was finally feeling like I could master this online teaching gig. After a week’s worth of posts that left me in a state of dizzy confusion, I opted out of the notifications. The information was too fast and too over my head! I now check the group at my leisure for pertinent information, but I am finding that in my beginner status, I need to focus more on the weekly content than the seemingly advanced posts that are coming through.
I am off….to learn more about twitter and how it is relevant to my teaching! Wish me luck!

/Users/shelliereeder/Desktop/pediatrics popplet.png

Attempted to put out a study guide using popplet. I took a picture with Jing and uploaded it to my site. I asked my students for feedback. Would love any from you as well!

I am still experimenting with my blog, trying to add video and pictures and links….this is all so new to me, I am finding it hard to keep up. The readings and videos have been helpful because I am a concrete, visual learner. Multi-modal is more like it…I need to see it, hear it, feel it….before it sinks in. The chapter in Ko and Rossen this week could not have come at a better time. I realized that if I need all these things, then of course my students do…..DUH! It was a big a-ha moment for me. I know…sounds ridiculous…but, I am getting there.

There are several things I learned from the readings and the video:
1). The syllabus should be a contract between teacher and student. It is a great reference for the semester and should clarify the needs, progression and expectations for the class. That being said, I need to beef mine up a bit.
2). Grading expectations, particularly interactions should be clarified in the syllabus.
3). I love the idea of doing a video introduction that includes going through the syllabus. I have not done this yet and will do it for my next class.
4). The interactive syllabus is too much for my class. However, an interactive schedule would work. I am looking forward to using this.
5). Making my announcements in Bb interactive. I am going to experiment with linking my announcement for an assignment or discussion to the actual assignment or Bb.
Still feeling like a rookie….but getting better trained.
shellie

Reading.was informative for my basic understanding of HTML. He presented the tips and teachings in a very user friendly way. I feel confident to add so spice to my lecture content in a much easier way. The made me nauseous! Too much zooming and rotation. I was too distracted by the movement to even comprehend what was being said! Good lesson in “more is not always better”.
I am still struggling with the course design of my class. I would like to add more links and images to the text and I am slowly learning how. I am also experimenting with audio as another means of communicating the infomation. I found a handy little tool called that has been helpful in giving more visual organization to my class. I like how the class is evolving and changing with these new additons. Looking forward to learning more tools.

I found this week’s readings particularly helpful. I am not trained as an educator and stumbled onto teaching at the request of a friend. I “filled in” for her in her moment of need and I am now teaching her online class permanently. The beauty of it is that her class was already designed for me! As i have stated in previous posts, I am here to learn new strategies and designs to make this class my own.
Not surprisingly the beginner’s questionaire informed me that my class is heavy on the presentation side. I realized after doinf this questionnire and watching the video on design, that I need to rework some thing in my course to reflect more interaction and discussion.
The readings in chapter 3 were right up my alley! As a therapist we write goals and objectives DAILY. So this process is not new to me.however, I found the clarification I neede for why we do this in education. The article by Cickering and Ehrmann was just a bit over my head. Maybe I should re-read it for clarification.
This week’s assignments were definitely more motivating and informative for my own class.

First, thank you to all of you who helped me figure out  what the heck DIIGO is and how to use it……very helpful!

I just watched the video from Alec Couros.  Being an occupational therapist is a bit like a teacher in that we are teaching our clients how to gain skills after surgery, illness, or disability.  It was not hard to make the leap to classroom teaching, however, the technology gap between being in a clinic with face to face interaction versus coming from a screen with only the written word has been challenging.  Not only for myself, but for other colleagues as well.  The video totally opened my mind to all the options that I have at my fingertips!  In recent years, I have used technology for treatment to engage a client, but never thought about the interconnectedness via technology such as twitter, blog, even skype.

The one concern I have for technology, particularly the constant availability is that we forget how to be social, appropriate and present in our face to face connections.  I find this challenging even with my own kids as they watch TV or play video games.  I remind myself to be present in the moment and not always on the screen.

Wow…..

I am feeling like such a rookie at this stuff!  I actually opened a diigo account, but really have no idea what to do with it!  It was fairly easy and I figured out how to join the mccpot group.

A little background….I am an Occupational Therapist and have taught an online class at Santa Ana college for the past 5 years.  The class is a history class, so the concepts don’t change over time.  I am interested in learning new ways to present the same old material!  so far, the POT has been helpful and informative!  Thanks fellow bloggers!

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