Self-selected blog 2

The Big City

Like a country girl having her first experience in the big city, who is rendered speechless by its wonders, my first experience with being a student in an online class is somewhat similar. While I have taught online in the past, I have never been a student in an online class. Like our country girl, this city girl was unsure if she was ready to take on a new challenge. As the course progressed, I became a bit more comfortable with the unfamiliar. I wouldn't say that I became less awed at those who did the assignments with ease.

During the time I spent on the course I have had the opportunity to review a number of educational resources that had potential for use in the nursing classes that I teach. Actually, I could use all of them to make the classes more interesting and interactive. I have been introduced to blogs, wimba, and wikis. It was during the last assignment, annotated bibs on wiki, that I found Youtube. I thought that Youtube was only a social networking site. I was led to the site through working on my wiki. Surprisingly, as I have blogged previously the material that I found was really appropriate for nursing physical assessment. The videos were especially useful and appropriate. They would easily integrate with other class material.

Two other thoughts: I will search for nursing research class material on the site and see if there are any useful items. Also, working on wiki made me realize that this is a good way to build a community of learners. This is a phrase that when I began the course, I had no idea as to its meaning.

Blogging was the hardest assignment. I kept getting confused as to what blog was due when. I also had no clue as to what "live" meant for blog urls. I now know. I initially thought the class would blog each other. I even put some text to communicate with the class. This did not happen.

The portfolio assignment was confusing at first. I initially tried to use a wiki for my portfolio as suggested. Unfortunately, because of my inexperience, I thought that the ads on the left hand menu were links for the portfolio pages. They were to other vendors of e-portfolios. I tried this for three or four times, gave up and decided to use livetext. This worked out better, and I was able to create the pages that I needed and do the reflective essay on the first page as required.

The learning theories and instructinal strategies were helpful, in that they lended clarity to a topic that I was already studying for a certification examination. Even though I had had courses in educational philosphy in graduate school, it was a real help to update my knowledge. The videos and articles were informative and enhanced the learning modules.

The "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" was a good review of materials I had been given by our instructional designer to use for creating my own online class. I also used them with the students in the nursing teaching certificate program. Reading the article on implementing the Seven Principles using online technology and the accompanying assignment gave me my first acquaintance with principles of good online instruction.

Summary:

In general, there were appropriate and meaningful lecturettes. The online resources given by the instructor for each lecturette were prodigious. I still need to look and re-look at them. While the course required a lot of time and work the outcome was satisfying as I added to my armementerium for useful resources in my own online classes. The country girl is becoming more of a city girl, although she is not quite there.

End of Course Reflection

Blog Update

My family and I have a favorite vacation spot-Hawaii. Since I have been working on the course and have attained an improved facility with technology as applied to the classroom, I have come into contact with many new concepts. One of these new concepts is the wiki-a way of communicating with individuals or groups. I am particularly intrigued with the word wiki, since it means “quick” in Hawaiian.

Quick is how I would describe my experience participating in part 2 of the course. Time seems to have just flown by. It seems that it was only yesterday that I was nervously approaching Wimba Live to converse with the instructor and other classmates. Of course, because I wanted to make sure that I met deadlines for assignments, I didn’t slowly and carefully follow directions. I hastily read the directions for Wimba and found myself searching the site and when I couldn’t find anything on the general Wimba site, I contacted Wendy the Wimbatech for help. We did text chat and she asked me what class I was in. Then it dawned on me! I should have just clicked on the course icon for Wimba Live which had been in front of me all these weeks. Actually, when I did that it worked just fine. I did have an attack of the nerves when I initially failed to access the classroom for the first guest lecture. I literally drew a blank (screen that is). Fortunately, after the third try, I was in! I enjoyed the interaction with all the participants.

The swift pace of learning continued. I was anxious to create my portfolio. This mysterious entity was not within my realm of reality. Therefore, I was motivated to start creating one early, because I figured that it would take me longer than other students to do this, because of being unfamiliar with the technology. I was able to create a portfolio in livetext, after an aborted attempt at wikiwetpaint. I can see where a portfolio would be valuable to students. Besides keeping a record of my course activities to present to a prospective employer, I could use the e-portfolio with my nursing students in a number of ways. They could document clinical hours and their graduate projects. They could also use the portfolio as evidence of their activities during the job search or for nursing certification efforts. I did feel quite proud of myself when my portfolio was successfully created.

I was glad to revisit the learning theories that I had been studying for a certification examination for nursing educators. The certification confirms expertise in teaching nursing. Reading the lecturettes, and doing the assignments helped me pass the rigorous examination. The readings also confirmed that I was using active learning in the classroom, and gave good suggestions on how to use resources to enhance active learning online, or how to become the guide on the side.

The wiki assignment brought our group together again. Only this time I had a feeling of Ohana, which in Hawaiian means family. Because I don’t do well with first time experiences in technology, I went to a wiki workshop. During the workshop, the speaker spoke of communities created through wikis. I had an aha moment! It was really the first time that I realized what an online community really was. It had been discussed in our online class, but the workshop provided me with clarity. It was a most satisfying moment. In doing the wiki assignment (annotated bib and rubric)I found resorces in places that I had never thought of as appropriate. You tube was a great resource for nursing physical assessment videos. I even found flash cards:. Working with our group in a new format was a great learning experience. It is a new way of sharing experiences.

In looking back over my experience, the things I learned trumped my feelings of nervousness in acquainting myself with technology. I look forward to taking the next course.