Well, approaching the midpoint of the class is giving me some time to reflect about the web and myself. Learning online is such an ever-expanding and changing place. I knew what Web 2.0 was going into the class, but needed to experience it. Generally, for web-usage, I go to my daily sites. I would see all the buttons, knew what they were, but never really played around and figured out the interconnection of it all.
Online learning has some benefits and drawbacks. The idea of working on your own time and not having a scheduled "class" allows me to be flexible where other things in my life are not. The activities have covered the basics and I am sure there is more to come. Knowing how to use something is just as important as how to teach others to use it. I would like to incorporate more technology into my curriculum, but I am not working with college nor high school students. I work with middle schoolers. Not everyone has their own laptop, parents have programmed their leisure time, and the whole maturity thing is challenging.
One drawback to this is communication. It is great having a central virtual classroom like Moodle. However, because we are mainly doing this via text, I miss the verbal learning. I like face to face interaction. I would also like to meet all my classmates so we have a better understanding of each other. We have had some communication errors: instructions and points misinterpreted. This is the nature of the beast and why they invented emoticons and Skype. The weekly videos are helping me get to know everyone. I look forward to making them.
Different browsers and OS's also sometimes hinder the technological portion of the class. I had never used it before. Perhaps a quick orientation would help. I had a devil of time trying to post correctly on Moodle initially. Chrome did not play well with it and IE8 had problems with making links in my blog. Finally wound up using FireFox. I like using Chrome, particularly with my iGoogle account. Life is so much easier (since Google keeps buying or implementing Web 2.0 applications)
The web is evolving as we migrate to Web 3.0 (that is an upcoming blog post). Using my Droid has allowed me to keep up with all the emails. However, using the forum is the key to survival in this class. With many opinions and people, it can get challenging. As a student of Web 2.0, I would like to see the instructor's end of Moodle to see how it is set up, applications you can do, etc. and compare it with Blackboard and other systems. A few of us at my school anticipate using Gaggle next year and I would like to know how to deliver instruction via it.
One thing I would like to see is more of a syllabus. This is my third class in the program. Web Design and Multimedia already have their modules posted for the whole semester. I feel I would produce more quality work if I at least had an outline of what topics we will cover. Even if it is only the titles of the modules (which I like because it allows to understand the learning point) and a few website names (tagging?). As a teacher, I can understand not posting all the assignments ahead of time. Things change quickly, particularly in the Web 2.0 world. This is a course based on a dynamic, evolving curriculum, not something static like how to use DreamWeaver.
The web has evolved and so have we. Remember how we used to sweat over writing a 500 word essay?
I miss the face-to-face communication aspect, too! Though the online classroom setting is great and flexible with a working, busy schedule outside of school, there really isn't anything like a real classroom. It's like a newspaper compared to online news...
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