MAET Course Work
CEP 820: Teaching K-12 Students Online
Prof. Anne Heinzt
Developers Notebook Entry 6: Reflection
Building my own online course module required a lots of thought and decisions. The decisions ranged from small to large, but all could have a huge impact on the course. One of the biggest decisions I faced and the one with the most ramifications was the CMS selection. When I first looked into this, I based my decision on other course that I liked the layouts of. When thinking about different things that I would like to do with my course, I didn’t realize the importance of having a CMS that can easily support different things. For example, when trying to add a blog component to my course, I had go out and find a blog website that I could hyperlink to. Having a CMS that would support a blog component or similar discussion tool would be have been really helpful.
When planning online lessons, I was constantly thinking about my goal of what I wanted students to learn and how to get students there. I needed to make sure that the end goal was clear, and my students had a clear understanding of how everything was related. I also needed to make sure that I used T-PACK to make sure that the technology and media involved in my course facilitated the learning and the overall goal. I incorporated several Web 2.0 tools into my course. Many of the Web 2.0 tools that I incorporated allowed me to incorporate discussion and reflection techniques with my students. Despite the fact that my course was a hybrid course, I still need wanted my students to feel that there were interacting with each other and part of a class.
Incorporating T-PACK into my lessons meant rethinking the different ways my students learn. This meant making sure that there were multiple means of representation for each lesson. To accomplish this, I had notes for each lesson written out, as well as at least one video lesson. Accompanying this, I had various assignments for students to practice what they were learning. These practice assignments had to facilitate different learning styles and allow students to represent themselves in different ways. Throughout this process I tried to incorporate T-PACK and continually think about how the technology I was using to facilitate student learning.
The most important thing to me, when building this course, was my students. I wanted my course to be easily accessible to my students. I wanted them to feel comfortable maneuvering the course, and feel like they understood what was expected of them for each exercise. This wasn’t always easy and not always straightforward. My CMS did not always support my ideas, and trying to work around my CMS did not make my course easier to navigate. In the end, I was able to find a way to use my CMS to make my work for my ideas. I created lessons and activities that supported my students learning and grouped them in such a way that my students could navigate it. While this was not as easy as I would like, and requires my students to navigate away from the course, and I back to it, I feel that they should be able to handle this.
Building my own online course module required a lots of thought and decisions. The decisions ranged from small to large, but all could have a huge impact on the course. One of the biggest decisions I faced and the one with the most ramifications was the CMS selection. When I first looked into this, I based my decision on other course that I liked the layouts of. When thinking about different things that I would like to do with my course, I didn’t realize the importance of having a CMS that can easily support different things. For example, when trying to add a blog component to my course, I had go out and find a blog website that I could hyperlink to. Having a CMS that would support a blog component or similar discussion tool would be have been really helpful.
When planning online lessons, I was constantly thinking about my goal of what I wanted students to learn and how to get students there. I needed to make sure that the end goal was clear, and my students had a clear understanding of how everything was related. I also needed to make sure that I used T-PACK to make sure that the technology and media involved in my course facilitated the learning and the overall goal. I incorporated several Web 2.0 tools into my course. Many of the Web 2.0 tools that I incorporated allowed me to incorporate discussion and reflection techniques with my students. Despite the fact that my course was a hybrid course, I still need wanted my students to feel that there were interacting with each other and part of a class.
Incorporating T-PACK into my lessons meant rethinking the different ways my students learn. This meant making sure that there were multiple means of representation for each lesson. To accomplish this, I had notes for each lesson written out, as well as at least one video lesson. Accompanying this, I had various assignments for students to practice what they were learning. These practice assignments had to facilitate different learning styles and allow students to represent themselves in different ways. Throughout this process I tried to incorporate T-PACK and continually think about how the technology I was using to facilitate student learning.
The most important thing to me, when building this course, was my students. I wanted my course to be easily accessible to my students. I wanted them to feel comfortable maneuvering the course, and feel like they understood what was expected of them for each exercise. This wasn’t always easy and not always straightforward. My CMS did not always support my ideas, and trying to work around my CMS did not make my course easier to navigate. In the end, I was able to find a way to use my CMS to make my work for my ideas. I created lessons and activities that supported my students learning and grouped them in such a way that my students could navigate it. While this was not as easy as I would like, and requires my students to navigate away from the course, and I back to it, I feel that they should be able to handle this.