Week 6 - Theorist Papers ~ Sharing

Week ended great with two snow days (Thursday and Friday). That's the up side. The down side is that's seven so far this year; looks like it may take our school year beyond Memorial Day.

One of the things I really like about online classes is the sharing of information, knowledge, insight that takes place among the students. This week I feel like I have learned so much more from reading the theorist papers that I did from reading the text. It is always interesting to see other points of views on topics, and helps when evaluating my own point of view. I still have 2 or 3 left to read, but will finish that up this evening.

Don't know if anyone else feels the same way, but I really have a hard time with references. I bought the revised APA Manual, and I have a Little Brown Compact Handbook, and I downloaded sample APA format from the Online Writing Center (Owl). Feel pretty good about the final product, but can't count the amount of time I spent agonizing over the correct way to cite things. Guess that is what happens when you haven't written a paper for a few years.

The readings for next week are timely. Our administration is pushing to get sets of clickers for all language arts and math classrooms. The response at this time has not been overwhelming approval by the faculty. After glancing through Chapter 11, it looks like some of the issues we are dealing with are addressed in that chapter.

Week 5 - Ascending Bloom's Taxonomy

This week I feel like I'm at the Remembering/Understanding levels, and not doing so good at that. Whew - Constructivist vs. objectivist, design research, holistic theory, Gagne's theory, situated learning theory, cognitive information processing theory, schema theory, and cognitive load theory! I really feel like we covered some good background this week that will help down the road. I'm sure most of the class was already familiar with a lot of this, but having undergraduate classes in business instead of education, this was very good for me. I evidently made a major mistake in our group discussion when I wasn't clear enough in a comment about 'rote memorization'. Hey, that should be worth extra points for illiciting responses :-).

Week 4 - Thank goodness for technology

This week started off great, and then I was hit with flu/food poisoning on Friday and have been laid up in bed since and still. Thank goodness for technology; I have my laptop here with me and with wi-fi I can post my blog without being late, or sitting up! Apologies to my team members for not posting the past three days, but was a little busy :-(.

Our conversations about teacher vs. glitz have been very interesting. In a traditional classroom it is easy to project enthusiasm, not quite so easy in an online classroom. I try to focus on things that make the students comfortable - responding to posts in timely manner, clear instructions, examples, all the things that I appreciate as an online student. Have to consider the enthusiasm angle more - I thought I projected it, but I know I can improve and that is why I am taking these courses.

Started collecting reseach on Benjamin Bloom for my paper. I think I already have more than I need. There is so much information about him and the old and revised taxonomy. It's been awhile since I have written a formal paper, so I am trying to work on it diligently. Write, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite...