Final Week..Paper..Reflection...Are we still Sane?

First of all, this has absolutely nothing to do with the topic -- just a thought that popped in my head. The older I get, this is happening quite frequently. I think it is a way for me to remember things (hence -- the old age - lol!). Anyway - I think I need a Facebook Intervention. Yep...I am addicted. I spent entirely too much time on Facebook this weekend while I was out-of-town. I should have been productive, but I wasn't for a full two hours. Two hours down the drain, but oh, what fun!

Like Rosalyn (Rosalyn -- I loved your blog about your Facebook interaction -- do you also need an intervention? Perhaps we can go to our own intervention before our family intervene and make us go, uh? lol), I was also tired of writing the term paper.

It was important for me to find relevant research to back-up original thought. I wanted a balance of both. Too much research, quotes would not suffice and too much original thought without validity would not work either. So where's the balance? I won't really get into it because it will probably bore you to tears and not make much sense anyway (I have had too much coffee laced with many shots of Espresso).

My term paper is entitled, "Creating an Effective Learning Community Using Telecommunication Tools in an Online Classroom." Whew -- long uh?

I discussed tools such as a learning management system, email, the discussion board and instant messaging as effective tools that could be used to create a successful learning outcome.

I also discussed the new "millennial student". These are students who were born between 1982 and 2002. They do not know life before the Internet and other technological tools. These students are both incrementally and qualitatively different from previous generations in more way than one and are often difficult to motivate in an online environment. Many of you who are teachers can more than likely relate -- we are dealing with a new breed of student. They are different and they are impatient. Many of them EXPECT an "A" and will argue with you if they do not get one. Many of them do not use appropriate net etiquette when communicating with other peers and/or the instructor. There are certain things that my students have said to me via email that I would still never, ever say to my instructor out of respect! I guess it is a generational gap.

Is this all bad? Not at all. Lessons learned - yes. There is a way to motivate our new millennial student -- one is called, prayer (bow your head, let us pray :)). Seriously - incorporating and using many of the above-mentioned telecommunication tools is one way to provide motivation. It is important to point out that the word "tele-communication" is fundamental -- it means to communicate! Student-instructor, student-student, and instructor-student communication is key. This includes interaction by both parties. Feedback from instructors is essential. I have had class where the instructor turns into Casper the Friendly Ghost. The instructor made an appearance at the beginning of class -- after this, we were on our own - sink or swim. This is not effective. Although the instructor had telecommunication tools available such as the discussion board and email, he or she did not use them effectively and there wasn't a balance. There has to be some type of balance in all of this.

Overall, by the time I did this term paper, I was on my "last leg", unmotivated and just plain tired. This has been a long and interesting summer. So many people have died. Just this week, one of my beloved authors, E. Lynn Harris, died. I chat with him on Facebook from time-to-time and he recently placed a message on Facebook. Two days later, he was dead! Heart attack at 54 years of age!

This week, a popular boxer from my hometown of Atlanta, Vernon Forrest, was gunned down in a robbery. He was in his 40's. I used to watch Vernon box and mentor young boys at a neighborhood local gym. What a great guy. A senseless death.

What does this have to do with my term paper? Absolutely nothing except after I heard of these two deaths, I became unmotivated and just plain sad. Life is so precious and you never know when it is your time, you know? I quickly realized how thankful I am to be alive and involved in a graduate program. There are only a small percentage of us who decide to take this crazy journey called graduate school. Call us crazy, but the payoff is large. We are educators, we seek knowledge, we are special.... Sure, we run out of steam by the middle of the semester, we procrastinate and do things last minute, have more gray strands in our hair that we can count, but get this -- WE ARE ALIVE AND KICKING.

Oprah Winfrey once said, "It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with YOU. Always." This is so true....We survived yet another semester! Next stop: Fall semester..Oh joy...