St. Jon of D.C.

My revelation this week is somewhat embarrassing.  I do a lot of relationship counseling (marriages, roommates, folks in churches and even work places relationships), and more often than not, I encourage people to: "communicate their expectations".  The better one becomes at articulating what they expect, the easier it is for the other party to respond.  I've taught two classes now (one each semester last year) and I cringed as I read this week's readings, especially Conquering the Content .  I ended up moving about 4 or 5 major deadlines because students were "unclear" about what was expected of them for the assignment.  It was a dose of my own medicine. As I move forward, I will definitely use the formula of: 1. Objectives (what I want you to learn) 2. Learning guide (these are the ways you will do it) 3. Learning tasks (here is exactly what I want you to do and what it will look like) and assessments (now that you've done this work, what is your at...

This week I got kind of excited about this online class/teaching idea.  As I began making the "map" two things came into focus: The first was that I saw it begin to take shape in my mind.  I got a vision for what this could look like. Until this point, I was basically scratching my head and feeling overwhelmed.  I am still overwhelmed in that I have no idea how to use any of the technology, but I can see it coming to life in my head.  I think this is the major obstacle to overcome. The second revelation was that I found great peace in seeing how "my" style and pedagogical approach can fit within an online setting.  When reading and viewing examples, I kept trying to "fit" myself into other molds and I was having trouble seeing how that was going to work.  As I brainstormed and sketched out my draft for the map I was able to organize my thoughts in a way that reflected how I think and teach. I know I have the hard work of learning the tools and hittin...

Several things "popped" out to me in this week's readings. 1. Mayer's Personalization Theory (pg xviii in the introduction) suggested that our uploading videos helps the learner feel a sense of "connection" with the instructor.  My experience agrees.  The classes where I saw my professors (even if only on screen) seemed more genuine and gave me a more positive approach...as long as their videos weren't too long. :) 2.  The idea that it is "easier" to teach online is a myth.  I think that the online curriculum might actually force us to be more prepared.  I find that it is easier for me to just create a rough outline of objectives and get up in a live environment and "talk"...eventually getting to the point.  It is more uncomfortable for me to have to map it out and provide an online plan, but likely more effective and efficient for the learner. 3.  I liked the idea of "competency" based curriculum designed to go a th...