i need to clarify about the personalization comment… see this screencast for more info : )

http://screencast.com/t/whCXu3oj4b

to improve this blog any your blog, you need to personalize it a bit more.

personalize your about page so we/ the world can know who you are.

add links in your blink roll to all the blogs in this course : )

get rid of the default edublogs ones…

add categories to your posts and begin to tag your posts, so you can organize and search and sort your posts.

: ) me

you are almost there with this blog…

I LOVE that you have articulated your reflections – for example: ” I have also given a lot of thought about my teaching style in my FTF classes and how I vary the classes to take advantage of different types of learning domains, something that I didn’t realize that I was doing. ”
- the insight is great… buy you also need describe how you teach f2f and how you take advantage of different types of learning domains so that i can “see” it too. I don’t know how you teach f2f, how you vary to take the advantage you describe… Though this is your blog… it is also a directed learning activity for my course with specific objectives. I need to see and understand you, your thinking, your process, your progress, your feedback, your assumptions, your counclusions, etc. it is also the way that i can “see” how you are applying what you are learning and how i assess your engagement with the readings and other learning activities in the course… also, it is a place were i can give you feeback, diagnose misperceptions, ask questions, etc.

“So far through this course and in this module, I have given considerably thought to consistency between modules and sequence of modules and activities, trying to anticipate where students might have questions as they interact with the course. ”
-a couple of examples would be good here so that i can better see/understand what you are thinking. what are you grappeling with specifically, what are the issues you face? is is all working out? or not…what questions do you think your students will have? what in your mind are the things that your students will be most challenged by in your course and that you will need to anticipate with some aspect of your course?

“Perhaps my biggest realization is that I emphasize 3 out of 4 things in my FTF class environments that Bransford, et al. identify as being necessary for students to learn best: knowledge centered, community centered and assessment centered. An area that I need to develop is the learner centered.”
-what are the 3 our 4 things that you emphasize in your f2f courses and how do you do it? what are your thoughts and feelings about designing a learner-centered teaching and learning environment? what does that mean to you?

…for this blog activity to be of value as a metacognitive exercise for you and as a feedback mechanism for me, you need to not only state your reflections, but delve into the process of how you got there and provide a bit of context/ detail.

(ps. don’t forget your self-evaluation rating : )

I have heard you mention your reaction to Kassop’s article several times in different places in the course. And i am not sure i understand completely. Could you lay it out for me… ? what did Kassop say specifically that makes you feel that your curriculum should not be online… i just want to be sure i understand completely what you are saying. what kassop said and what conclusions you came to as a result? what are the 8 out of 10 reasons you mention…? i am just not following you.

Also…fyi things are not so black and white… you have my permission to not be so hard on yourself : ) This is absolutely your blog for you to use as you wish… i provide guiding questions (to get you thinking and to get the reflective juices flowing) that i am interested in hearing your response to and hope that you will engage some of those questions and that you will continue to give me feedback on what is working in the course and what needs improvements and that you will allow me and the world to witness your “process” as you design your online course…So that i can give you feedback : ) and improve as an online instructor : )

I know things have been rough for you this module… and sorry you had to start over, but you are doing a great job.

me : )

I liked the SLN setup before it moved to WebCT, now Blackboard. Great design, easy to use and get comfortable with. I did read through your reflections and I understand why you made some of your choices. It is just very different than what I am familiar with and remembering to check each place that is outside of the Moodle shell is sometimes a problem since I get so caught up in the discussions and work within Moodle. Navigation is getting better for me, even with the discussions and following them.

I also just wrote a post in my blog sort of inspired by your reflections on the use of all the tools in the course, hope you will read it and understand better why i made the decisions that i did. I have early posts in my blog that detail some of that to if you are interested in my design process for this course.

Thanks for persisting.

Likewise, I’ve found Moodle to be lacking some of the “friendly features” I miss from WebCT. However, I am getting used to it now. I’m looking forward to reviewing the new tools that Alex has posted to see how I may be able to add a little more life to my rather bland 1 font show I have going on right now.

One of the things I enjoy about WordPress and also the Edublogs page is it has the built in WYSIWYG editor which makes like so much easier when you are trying to format pages and the like.

I have yet to figure out how to do WYSIWYG in Moodle but I am sure tonight I will do so.

Being a Mac Guy, I kind of like looking to Mac people for some feedback on products, so I found this handy bulletin board which shared some thoughts

http://www.macupdate.com/reviews.php?id=12048

Some of the comments that struck me were “Moodle is quite flexible and powerful. I know of at least one state university that is using it as their on-line platform in preference to Blackboard just based on its capabilities” and “I have used Moodle for three years as a teacher with no programming experience. It was simple to set up my own server using the excellent installation documentation.” This is evidence that there are tremendous possibilities with this program, but obviously it’s going to take us a little more elbow grease than using programs that we are more familiar with.

Robert
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