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...
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Week 6 & 7-Whew! Time is not on my side...
Greetings!
Before I forget, here's the link to my webpage:
http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w725361/index.html
I don't know about anyone else, but the last couple of weeks have been a blur. Time is not on my side. You ever heard of the Rolling Stones' song, "Time is on My Side." I will change the lyrics a little (in parenthesis) for you:
Time is on my side, yes it is (Er...no it isn't)
Time is on my side, yes it is (Er...no it isn't I say!)
There are never enough hours in a day. Especially when you procrastinate, right? :)
Okay -- in Week 6, I continued to gather research for my final paper and I worked on my course webpage.
In Week 7 - I continued to work on my course webpage and I had to travel back home to Atlanta. I did not tell anyone but my husband because it was a quick turn around trip to check on my Mom.
About the web page -- I chose the colors -- yellow-gold and maroon because these are the colors of my university and I plan to use this webpage when I teach a portfolio course for the first time in the Fall. I did not use a lot of jpegs or bells or whistles. I kept it pretty simple and conservative. I would like to add more later, but for now, it is simple.
I ran into quite a few obstacles. For one, I did not initially save the home page as "index.html." Because of this, I ran into problems later. I also had to make sure that all jpegs were saved correctly and linked correctly. Why? When I uploaded the site to Ocean, many of the jpegs did not transfer. I had to figure out what went wrong.
I also had initial issues connecting to the Ocean account. I followed Dr. Wang's instructions however, it would not authenticate. I contacted the help desk and was told that I was not in the system. The help desk representative added my information to an Ocean account so that I could upload my website to Ocean. The representative asked me to try again in 20-30 minutes. After trying again, I was able to upload to the Ocean account. I followed the steps and the website did not work. I transferred the entire Website folder versus the files INSIDE of the "Website" folder. And the homepage file was not named index.html. I had to go back to NVU and rename the homepage.html file to index.html. I also had to re-link each page over again.
Word of advice -- follow Dr. Wang's instructions carefully. If not, this activity will become a train wreck waiting to happen. LOL
What a wonderful experience. Now I know how to create a webpage! I feel very proud of myself! Seriously! Remember when you finally figured out the Rubik's cube? Or you finally figured out that Chinese Checker game at Cracker Barrel? lol
Whew! On to the final paper.
Before I forget, here's the link to my webpage:
http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w725361/index.html
I don't know about anyone else, but the last couple of weeks have been a blur. Time is not on my side. You ever heard of the Rolling Stones' song, "Time is on My Side." I will change the lyrics a little (in parenthesis) for you:
Time is on my side, yes it is (Er...no it isn't)
Time is on my side, yes it is (Er...no it isn't I say!)
There are never enough hours in a day. Especially when you procrastinate, right? :)
Okay -- in Week 6, I continued to gather research for my final paper and I worked on my course webpage.
In Week 7 - I continued to work on my course webpage and I had to travel back home to Atlanta. I did not tell anyone but my husband because it was a quick turn around trip to check on my Mom.
About the web page -- I chose the colors -- yellow-gold and maroon because these are the colors of my university and I plan to use this webpage when I teach a portfolio course for the first time in the Fall. I did not use a lot of jpegs or bells or whistles. I kept it pretty simple and conservative. I would like to add more later, but for now, it is simple.
I ran into quite a few obstacles. For one, I did not initially save the home page as "index.html." Because of this, I ran into problems later. I also had to make sure that all jpegs were saved correctly and linked correctly. Why? When I uploaded the site to Ocean, many of the jpegs did not transfer. I had to figure out what went wrong.
I also had initial issues connecting to the Ocean account. I followed Dr. Wang's instructions however, it would not authenticate. I contacted the help desk and was told that I was not in the system. The help desk representative added my information to an Ocean account so that I could upload my website to Ocean. The representative asked me to try again in 20-30 minutes. After trying again, I was able to upload to the Ocean account. I followed the steps and the website did not work. I transferred the entire Website folder versus the files INSIDE of the "Website" folder. And the homepage file was not named index.html. I had to go back to NVU and rename the homepage.html file to index.html. I also had to re-link each page over again.
Word of advice -- follow Dr. Wang's instructions carefully. If not, this activity will become a train wreck waiting to happen. LOL
What a wonderful experience. Now I know how to create a webpage! I feel very proud of myself! Seriously! Remember when you finally figured out the Rubik's cube? Or you finally figured out that Chinese Checker game at Cracker Barrel? lol
Whew! On to the final paper.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Week 5 - I would prefer the Rigor without the Mortis....My Discussion Board Rant
Well hello everyone! I hope you are having a great week!
Did anyone else get Week 4 mixed up with Week 5? Er...I did. At first, I thought it was Week 4 (sorry Kandi, my wonderful group member -- I told you the wrong week, don't cut me! lol). Then I clued in that it was Week 5; I got confused again and thought it was Week 4. Duh? Then I realized a Syllabus and tentative schedule are a terrible thing to waste so I did something that I thought was pretty darn scholarly - um..I read the schedule and Syllabus that Dr. Wang so graciously gave us. :) So now I am on track. But guess what? I didn't CLUE IN until the last day of the course week. Um.. Today. LOL
Okay -- we had a Week 5 discussion question about online interaction this week and here are my .02 cents (er...my dollar's worth).
In a nutshell, one of the discussion questions (did I mention there were three discussion questions to begin with? Silence....) asked us to discuss major problems associated with online interaction and how to solve these problems. My rant and question is this -- Is it really necessary to have a million discussion questions each week in online courses? I would prefer the RIGOR without the MORTIS. In my humble opinion, Rigor Mortis with discussion questions does not provide the instructor and student with a very positive learning experience or environment. Why? Well, here's the deal - too many discussion questions are the equivalent of "over-kill" (or heck -- road kill). In all honesty, it is overwhelming for the student. We have enough going on. Why murder us with a very sharp kitchen knife with so many discussion questions? I want to LIVE! Why does one discussion question have to contain more than one question? My husband gets annoyed with me when I ask him a succession of questions back-to-back. In comparison, students get annoyed when we are given a succession of discussion questions too. **sigh**
One semester, I had the privilege of taking a graduate course and the instructor had 3+ discussion questions per week, plus we had to respond to 4 students each week!! I immediately got out the shovel, went to the funeral home, picked out my pink coffin, and bought my tombstone and burial spot, and proceeded to dig...I was dead....I knew it. Each week, it got worse. I felt like this course was one of those low budget living dead movies -- The COURSE OF THE LIVING DEAD PART I -- the instructor turns into a discussion zombie and zaps all of the students; most of the students turn into zombies and by the middle of the course, we have either dead, or on the brink of madness. By the end of the course, only one or two students are left standing. The instructor survives. Are you surprised? After all the zombie discussion instructor zapped the life out of us in the first place. The instructor proceeds to move on to the next course to kill off the next set of students -- THE COURSE OF THE LIVIN DEAD PART II.... :)
Please help us! One -- no more than two discussion questions per week should suffice. Not one discussion question with a succession of two or more questions. Read my virtual lips -- ONE DISCUSSION QUESTION PER WEEK...ONE. We would really be happy with one every other week. Please do not get me wrong. I am an online instructor. I get it. I really do. However, from a student's perspective, it is overwhelming. To explain, if I am in a course with RIGOR MORTIS, I barely do the minimum and I am not too involved on the discussion board. I'm burned out and I'm bored to tears. It is way too much. Shoot me now.
Is having more than one discussion question per week some type of QM requirement for faculty at USM? Okay, okay -- I know I am being a big baby and I am a whiner. However, I am not alone. I hear this from others quite a bit. I decided to say something about it and stand up for us all. Sure -- I may get burned at stake, but I will die knowing that I got this off my chest. LOL.
Seriously -- the problem is this -- discussion question rigor mortis from faculty does not present a positive or productive learning environment. There, I said it. Here's the solution -- it is pretty darn simple -- cut down on the discussion questions. Advice to faculty -- try not to murder your students. We would really love to stay alive and move on to the next course.
Have a wonderful 4th of July everyone!
Sonya
Did anyone else get Week 4 mixed up with Week 5? Er...I did. At first, I thought it was Week 4 (sorry Kandi, my wonderful group member -- I told you the wrong week, don't cut me! lol). Then I clued in that it was Week 5; I got confused again and thought it was Week 4. Duh? Then I realized a Syllabus and tentative schedule are a terrible thing to waste so I did something that I thought was pretty darn scholarly - um..I read the schedule and Syllabus that Dr. Wang so graciously gave us. :) So now I am on track. But guess what? I didn't CLUE IN until the last day of the course week. Um.. Today. LOL
Okay -- we had a Week 5 discussion question about online interaction this week and here are my .02 cents (er...my dollar's worth).
In a nutshell, one of the discussion questions (did I mention there were three discussion questions to begin with? Silence....) asked us to discuss major problems associated with online interaction and how to solve these problems. My rant and question is this -- Is it really necessary to have a million discussion questions each week in online courses? I would prefer the RIGOR without the MORTIS. In my humble opinion, Rigor Mortis with discussion questions does not provide the instructor and student with a very positive learning experience or environment. Why? Well, here's the deal - too many discussion questions are the equivalent of "over-kill" (or heck -- road kill). In all honesty, it is overwhelming for the student. We have enough going on. Why murder us with a very sharp kitchen knife with so many discussion questions? I want to LIVE! Why does one discussion question have to contain more than one question? My husband gets annoyed with me when I ask him a succession of questions back-to-back. In comparison, students get annoyed when we are given a succession of discussion questions too. **sigh**
One semester, I had the privilege of taking a graduate course and the instructor had 3+ discussion questions per week, plus we had to respond to 4 students each week!! I immediately got out the shovel, went to the funeral home, picked out my pink coffin, and bought my tombstone and burial spot, and proceeded to dig...I was dead....I knew it. Each week, it got worse. I felt like this course was one of those low budget living dead movies -- The COURSE OF THE LIVING DEAD PART I -- the instructor turns into a discussion zombie and zaps all of the students; most of the students turn into zombies and by the middle of the course, we have either dead, or on the brink of madness. By the end of the course, only one or two students are left standing. The instructor survives. Are you surprised? After all the zombie discussion instructor zapped the life out of us in the first place. The instructor proceeds to move on to the next course to kill off the next set of students -- THE COURSE OF THE LIVIN DEAD PART II.... :)
Please help us! One -- no more than two discussion questions per week should suffice. Not one discussion question with a succession of two or more questions. Read my virtual lips -- ONE DISCUSSION QUESTION PER WEEK...ONE. We would really be happy with one every other week. Please do not get me wrong. I am an online instructor. I get it. I really do. However, from a student's perspective, it is overwhelming. To explain, if I am in a course with RIGOR MORTIS, I barely do the minimum and I am not too involved on the discussion board. I'm burned out and I'm bored to tears. It is way too much. Shoot me now.
Is having more than one discussion question per week some type of QM requirement for faculty at USM? Okay, okay -- I know I am being a big baby and I am a whiner. However, I am not alone. I hear this from others quite a bit. I decided to say something about it and stand up for us all. Sure -- I may get burned at stake, but I will die knowing that I got this off my chest. LOL.
Seriously -- the problem is this -- discussion question rigor mortis from faculty does not present a positive or productive learning environment. There, I said it. Here's the solution -- it is pretty darn simple -- cut down on the discussion questions. Advice to faculty -- try not to murder your students. We would really love to stay alive and move on to the next course.
Have a wonderful 4th of July everyone!
Sonya
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