Communicate THIS!!!

I thought my week two blog posted and well obviously it did not....so I had to think of NICE FURRY Walls so I would not harm my computer.

So I will try to recall the awesomeness of my first blog. 

I fully intend on continuing the use of virtual conferencing with my students. Our university wants everyone to at least have a black board set up as a backup since we live in hurricane ally. I am trying to get used to this program and thought I might try out their online chat for conferencing with students.

For the past five years I have used regular online services like AIM, YAHOO, skype and FB to virtually conference with my students. This has worked well as I also require my students to copy the conversation and review it later and/or include it as part of t heir evidence within their e-portfolio. I am happy with the results of using these mediums and plan on continuing their use. But the University wants me to try it out so for sure I will use virtual conferencing in my blended course.

Now I mentioned in my previous blog I planned on using the discussion feature in my class. I am not really worried about students sliding by in my class, because well some will and they will fail. The readings that we are requiring for the fall semester require them to be in class for the exposure to new theoretical approaches to writing. The discussion that would be required online would be dependent on their involvement in that class discussion. The discussion prompt would be designed so that the students could and would demonstrate an understanding the meaning of the assigned texts.  They would have to acquire tools for successfully responding to varied discourse conversations and genres.  This is something that can’t be faked. I mean it will not surprise me when a student tried to post BS. But I look at it as quick evaluating.

I also plan on using video and live video sessions.  I like the whole adobe thing we have going on right now.  It is so awesome. Since I can’t make it to the blended learning one due to the comp; but I can still get down with all the information and conversation. This is awesome; well until my computer fails me and does not post my blog. UGH!!

I think right now it would be premature for me to add any more features into my blended learning course. I say that because I am still working out the outline of a blended course. I have read the material thus far, but it is still a blur to me.  I mean I want my focus to be on learning and have technology to support the learning process. So right now, I am limited at answering this question fully. Like the text brought out “Creating a good online learning experiences requires effort.” So fortunately I will have several months to create this good experience.

(No this one is not the same as the first...sorry....trust me it rocked)  :)

“Oh yeah, you blend.”

“Oh yeah, you blend.”


Please take a deep breath before you continue reading.  When I blog usually a whirl wind follows, so consider yourself warned.  :)

The initial question of what one will blend into their "blended course" seems easy enough, but is it a whopper! I have been drafing this blog all week.

Although it seems simple to say, "Blended learning is not simply adding an online component to a face-to face course" it required me to reflect on what exactly did I intend to do for my course.
I love using technology in my courses but I don't want to use it just for "TECH OF IT."
I learned so much about how I have been using technology in class.  I questioned why my students seemed to always need me to hold their hand in using technology. The flurries of frustration revisit me even as I write this, "Do they really need me to show them step by step?"  I mean it seems logical to click the bold letters POST.   So I really appreciated  that students should be able to perform online tasks wi th little prompting.  This meant I needed to reflect on what I was doing within the classroom that seemed to foster my students wanting me to hold their hands "technologically speaking."

So the promt for this blog just seemed to get bigger and bigger with no way to tackle it. So I will try to attempt to explicate my blend ideas.

I would like to create a way to discuss the case studies , lecture, live chat and live discussion. Collaboaration is a must in my classes.

I believe the element of online discussion will be one of the most important part of my blended course.
I feel so much pressure to post something significant and to respond to others in a coherient manner when I participate in online discussions. I think this is good peer pressure and we all need this type of pressure to keep us reflecting on what we know and how to use it.  The discussion element is important also because even if a student does not know what is going on, they can visit other students posts and get a clue. It forces them to become active learners and accept responsibility for their critical thinking process.

It is my belief that when students are involved in online discussions they start to see the connection between what is discussed in class, what they are writing about and the online discussions. This connects with the previous thought about discussion being so important.

The discussion element should follow up what what done in class that week. This way they see the connections and why this type of writing is important.

I also would like to incorporate live chat with students. Virtual Conferencing is something I have been doing for the past 5 years and students really respond to it. I have my reservations about using stickly within the limitations of BlackBoard, but I am willing to try it out.

So what I have decided at this point in time about "My Blend" is I want to use discussion as a means to engage students and virtual conferencing. This leaves many gaps, I know, but one has to start somewhere and this is my begining point.

My ultimate goal is of course to blend, but thankfully I have several months to design my awesome "Blended Course."
-

Photo Credit:

Vidani, Peter. "Alexandra Ewing Is on the Internet. (gravityismyenemy: “Oh Yeah, You Blend.”)." Alexandra Ewing Is on the Internet. Web. 18 July 2011. <http://alexandra-ewing.tumblr.com/post/2483027492>.

Writing about Writing??

My name is Felicia, and I have been teaching Composition and Rhetoric since 2003. I was the Writing Coordinator at Texas A&M University -Kingsville for three and a half years, and I definitely learned what "teaching in the trenches meant" while instructing Developmental Writing  The job as Writing Coordinator was the perfect job in the wrong place; I began to teach my son at home (in Corpus Christi), so I had to leave my job in Kingsville. The FYC instructors at TAMUCC graciously hired me as an adjunct where I have been teaching for the past 3 ½ years.  I am a major fan using online teaching tools and programs to enhance the learning and engagement of students. I have been researching for several years virtual conferencing with students and have been able to present several times at Conference about my research.

The most surprising things I found in the readings (honestly) was how much I felt what they were saying is just plain common sense.  I found  myself  irritated because these are thoughts I had been suppressing for some time, and I felt upset at myself for not taking that leap and voicing my opinion.  Well, actually I had voiced my opinion, but I found myself being squashed into the writing for the Learning Communities discipline.  The  GA “Karen” in Elizabeth Wardle’s article “Mutt Genres” encountered the same issues I have encountered, knowing little about the writing within the a triad’s (discipline). When I was a graduate teaching within a history learning community, I did not feel the dissidence as I do presently within the Political Science triad.  I was familiar with History writing because I was a History major (double Eng/His). The issue of writing competence came when I was placed into a Political Science triad.  I was tirelessly working to create assignments that fit within the mold, and I found myself spending hours upon hours researching about everything regarding writing and research within this discipline. I felt like my lack of knowledge with regards to writing put my students at a disadvantage. Many of my students were and are not Political Science majors and they were being forced to write within this discipline. It was a relief to know that others too felt the same feelings of inadequacy as a writing instructor.

I love the idea of the focus being on writing in a writing class. That sounds so simple, yet in reading the articles it made it all to apparent that something needs to be done to change this trend of generic composition teaching. I personally have felt a certain, je ne sais quis, has been missing in my pedagogical approaches of teaching writing.  I really liked what Ms. Wardle said towards the latter part of her article with reference to Writing about Writing,

In such a course, the subject is always writing; how people use writing, how people learn to write, how genres mediate work in society, how “discourse communities” affect language use, how writing changes across the disciplines,[…] the course is to teach students the content of our discipline (784).

I must admit, at first the articles seemed a bit depressing and it was not until I read the following excerpt it did I really grasp the full intent of the previous readings. No offense to the other writers, but I was not connecting with the information.  I am feeling a bit revived at the possibility of being able to share my passion. Is there anything else that matters besides language and writing? J

Work Cited

Wardle, Elizabeth. "Writing in Genres of the University." College Composition and Communication 4th ser. 60 (2009): 765-87. Print.