Final Thoughts

At the start of the semester, I didn't like that there was a lack of direct communication between the participants in this class. As the semester continued, however, I came to look forward to the efficiency of having to choose my words a bit more carefully (didn't always do it though!).  I realized that when words are made permanent through their posting in the digital world, people (usually) think a lot more before they write! Words are displayed for all to see; ideas are can be reviewed and evaluated by more than one participant; opinions can be revisited at any time.  The same notion can be applied to the final artifacts that we have all posted to our blogs.  Once an artifact is published, there is often no going back, unlike a face-to-face power point presentation for which you might scribble down some notes to be discarded soon afterwards.  Thus, the online format strongly encouraged us to do our best, which benefited both creator and viewer alike!  Our permanent  artifact archive served as a powerful collaboration tool--communication wasn't necessary: I became a more active participant in the class through what my colleagues were doing!? I learned from my classmate by example, and this was incredibly useful.

I liked the hands on aspect of learning the new technology.  I didn't like that "hands-on" meant putting in a lot more time than would be necessary in a live class and in some cases, at the expense of better competence. Putting it in perspective, the time "wasted" trying to figure out some new technology probably does not even come close to the time I would have dedicated to a traditional class. Most of the tools we used I can still navigate efficiently enough and apply in a learning context because I had to do it myself the first time around.

At times, I had difficulty getting used to the lack of teacher feedback. We've been conditioned to anticipate  the positive, and receiving little in the way of formal response sometimes lead me to think I wasn't fulfilling the requirements of the assignment. But as Dr. Erickson has pointed out, we know better than anyone what has been learned and more importantly, what from this can be applied.  The question is, Can we be honest with ourselves?

My answer to this is a resounding "yes!"  I know that I have a cache of new tools, ideas, and strategies acquired through my participation in this class. In my future classs, I'm certain that my students will benefit from what I've learned this semester. I've gained a lot from all of you, and I thank you for the ideas, opinions and projects you've shared with the class.

As a final thought, if I were to teach a class like this, to me the perfect way to introduce each week's task would be to present it using the same technology tool that the students must master for that project!