Hello, I am a nursing educator from Ontario. I have 3 children and I am a distance PhD student through the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
1.What is your intention for this workshop (why are you here)?
I am here to learn more about how I can use blogs, twitter and other online forums to enhance my teaching experience to facilitate learning with students who geographically distant.
2.What issues do you think are important?
In this course, I am interested to learn more about how to facilitate critical thinking, peer learning and community, leadership, critical questioning, mentorship, and student/educator connection.
3.How will contribute?
I will contribute by posting on my blog and following the weekly activities. I will probably have more of a 'backseat' for some weeks and enhanced engagement for others that are more applicable to my learning needs.
4.How would you like to see community develop among participants?
Critical questioning, peer support, referencing to different interactive online resources
5.These types of workshops are new for most people. In fact about 90% don’t even participate. How will you overcome the fear of learning in the open and the frustration of using new technology, courageously work through any setbacks, and not give up?
I will likely use twitter (totally new for me) to ask quick focused questions and I am fortunate because my sister (Dawn MacDonald) is also taking this course. I can ask dorky questions to her!
Describe your best teacher and your worst teacher ever.
- asked questions that made us think about relationships between concepts or ideas that we already learned
- had clear expectations related to postings
- was available to address all of the student's posted activities
- made the environment comfortable to ask questions that are at a novice level
- facilitated peer interaction
- assignments that were peer critiqued and then re-written for grades
- assignments that were geared to publications
- encouraging but not fake
- engaged and useful feedback
- thoughtful reflections
You identified some great qualities and practices by your best teacher. I like them all and hope to incorporate all of those things into my online class. The ones I think make the biggest difference is clear expectations (overall), facilitating peer interaction, and giving students the opportunity to be peer critiqued and rewritten. I also like your last one and would generalize it as assignments that are geared toward real-world applications. Thanks for sharing your ideas. I enjoyed reading your post.
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