This week I found both readings very interesting, however I was drawn to the Major reading the most. I found the involvement of the personal accounts of courses from other universities to be very intriguing to me. As I am a Sociology major, many of the courses I took throughout my program were electives from different disciplines, really anything I found super interesting. I found myself spending hours online at UVIC looking up the descriptions of classes and enrolling in the ones I found A) interesting from an academic standpoint, but also B) that were created in a way that I knew would facilitate my best learning.Ā
I spoke on this last week in one of my pod groups discussion posts, I believe it was Claire, and I stated that I have always been drawn to online, asynchronous classes. When I was in high school, I actually had the opportunity to take many of my classes online, and this is where I believed I built a foundation for time management and self-teaching. I enjoyed the flexibility of being able to produce work when I was feeling the most motivated, and I enjoyed that I could make my own schedule and complete modules on my own time. Reading through some of the professors personal stories, I realized that in my head I was deciding whether or not I would be interested in taking the courses based off of their descriptions. The class and professor that stuck out to me the most was Lisa Lane, page 88. I think the Moodle layout is what drew me in initially and made me feel the most comfortable, as this is the type of system I have the closest connection to (through working on BrightSpace, D2L, and other similar systems). As I am a very introverted person naturally (which is super interesting considering I am going into a very extroverted career), I enjoyed that the focus of Lisaās course wasnāt on community (Major, 2015, p. 89) (as harsh as that sounds). I think I enjoyed Lisaās take on inviting people to participate in online discussions, but not having an entire course focused on building a community of the class a whole. When I continued reading through other professors classes, I could not believe how uncomfortable and out of place I felt reading their descriptions. It wasnāt until page 98 when a quote was brought forward that stated āAll of this technology would have been daunting just a few short weeks ago, but Iām starting to realize now why weāre pushed to get out of our comfort zone and try it. My students are definitely going to benefit from this knowledge. . . . Try new things. You never knowāwhat you learn could change your lifeā (Major, 2015), that I realized how important it is for me as a student to push myself to places where I donāt feel as comfortable, because this is where the best learning can actually occur.Ā
What Majorās reading made me think was that when I become a teacher, as much as I am going to facilitate what each individual student needs from me, and focus on working one on one with them to allow them to engage with the best version of themselves, I am also consciously going to push my students outside of their limits so that they can feel that breakthrough when they learning something new, something that they originally felt may have been very uncomfortable or daunting. That is truthfully what learning is all about.Ā
Major, C. H. (2015).Ā Teaching Online ā A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved fromĀ http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)Ā
August 11, 2021 at 7:34 pm
Hi Jordyn,
I really enjoyed your blog post. I was drawn to reading Teaching Online ā A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice too. As a future teacher, I found the course descriptions very interesting.
Itās so great that you were able to experience online classes in high school. I wish I was able to have that experience. I was introduced to online learning this past year, due to the pandemic, and I really enjoy it too. I agree that online learning is a great way for students to build a foundation for time management and self-teaching skills. Since online learning is so flexible, it really gives you the opportunity to be productive when you feel your best, which I have really been enjoying this year.
You said that you really enjoyed Lisa Lane’s class. As I read through the course descriptions, I think the course that stood out the most to me was Open Course and Community in Digital Storytelling. I really enjoyed how the web was used as a genre for storytelling itself. I thought it was very intriguing, and a great approach to teaching literature in the 21st century.
August 11, 2021 at 8:10 pm
Hi, Jordyn
Great job on your reflection!
You definitely echo my sentiments regarding the benefits of open learning including asynchronicity, flexibility, freedom to explore, and self-motivation. I also enjoyed Lisa’s coursing veering away from the need to build communities out of every course. As much as I value, group collaboration, I find that I’m able to produce high-quality work when I have time and freedom to create and explore.
August 12, 2021 at 5:17 pm
Hi Jordyn,
I like how you mentioned the course from Lisa Laine, that one stuck out to me too. I like how this course follows a centralized pathway so it’s structured and organized. I also appreciate that although creating a community is not an articulated goal, the forums support interactions among peers.
The course that stuck out to me the most was from Patrick Biddix on page 92. His course was closed, online, asynchronous, DIY and followed a decentralized pathway. I mentioned in my own post that I am more drawn to decentralized pathways as they are a middle ground between a structured centralized course and a fluid distributed course. The focus of this pathway is on groups and communities of learning. It also has a course centre but is still flexible to pursue one’s own interests.
Patrick chose to design his course using social media. He ran his course on Blogger, a site that allowed him to use features like multiple contributors, privacy settings, social media widgets, and hosting discussions. On his course website, he had an updatable calendar widget and a Twitter feed where everything related to the course was categorized under the hashtag of the course code.
As a future teacher, I am very interested in social media integration in the classroom. Using social media supports our 21st-century learners because it provides authentic real-world learning experiences. Additionally, it’s inevitable that our students will be using social media whether that is with or without school support. I think that it’s essential teachers intervene and show our students how to be positive digital citizens who use technology safely to further their learning.
August 12, 2021 at 11:54 pm
Hi Jordyn,
I really liked reading your personal feedback about your own experiences with online learning! It was very interesting to read. Which classes did you find best facilitated your learning, and what about it made it work for you? I agree that although the self-paced nature of online learning can be challenging, at the same time it also helped develop my time management skills and ability to learn independently. As you correctly mentioned, being pushed out of your comfort zone can be incredibly rewarding because of the things you learn from the experience. Thanks for the great post!
August 15, 2021 at 3:45 pm
Hi Jordyn,
Like you, I spend hours poring over the different courses available to find one that is the best fit for me. I have found it incredibly frustrating to be in a course that is the wrong fit for my personality and preferences. I know some instructors really like making course trailers (e.g., Alec Couros from the Major reading has this trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVbO2q0ZSok). I could imagine a course trailer with an explanation of the course structure and format being really helpful for students choosing courses.
On the topic of pushing outside of your comfort zone, it is true that this is when learning really happens. Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development” relates to this. The key, as a teacher, is to push each student in the right way AND in the right amount. That is difficult, but so powerful when you can do it!
Ryan