As the title of the post indicates, I finally feel like I'm starting to "get" online teaching. Facilitating a week really helped me reach that point. As I mentioned in the previous post, the trepidation felt prior to facilitating for a week was far worse than the reality. I think we were all a little nervous going in, but for me the nerves were compounded by a firm belief that I would be the one to crash the entire global Blackboard system in the midst of our Wimba lecture.
Alas, no such calamity occurred and the presentation went off without a techno glitch. I had taken the lead on preparing the Powerpoint, starting a couple weeks ahead of time with the research and designing of the presentation. I mention this timetable because I rarely have much time to work ahead. But this was not an effort to be put off until the last minute. As a novice at Powerpoint I knew it would take time. The hours started adding up, however, when I started gussying up the design of the pages. Ultimately, I decided a clean simple page is best with easy to read text and minimal graphics for a little visual eye candy. It's easy to get caught up in the endless possibilities and bog down the page. Resist the temptation.
I also strongly recommend open and frequent communication with your facilitation partner (if you have one) since two heads can be better than one. As a professional writer I tend to work alone in my head too much so it was good to work with someone else for a change. I was tempted at one point to "cheat" and try to meet in person. But since she lives hundreds of miles away that was not possible so the temptation passed.
My only disappointment in facilitating was the lack of interaction or "spark" with the students who attended our lecture. We built a few ice breaker exercises into our presentation but they didn't elicit much reaction. Of course, you don't always hit a home run in a face to face class either but I hope in the future I can infuse a little more energy into a group presentation.
I think I was most surprised by the discussion posts during facilitation week. I honestly did not expect to enjoy the reading and posting as much as I did. But we really have an intelligent and interesting group in our class and I learned a lot from them and got some great ideas. I suspect the same could be true for any online teacher. I did realize toward the end of my facilitation class that it would be better if my responses were occasionally questions or suggestions to draw out more responses from folks rather than simple comments. But just like the Wimba lecture, it will take some practice to develop a teaching style that functions like more of a guide.
When I started this learning adventure I was luke warm to the technology but wanting to offer opportunities to a wider array of students. Now I'm starting to really warm up to the genre and enjoy it! The one thing I do find surprising is the time necessary to really develop and run a successful class. I never thought online teaching was easier than tradition classroom teaching. But I could easily see it taking over someone's life if personal parameters aren't established from the outset. Otherwise you could be checking and posting all day every day and creating elaborate Powerpoint slide shows for lectures. And we haven't even touched on the time necessary to develop a course with syllabus and all the supporting materials yet. But just as time management is critical for students, it is essential for the teacher. We all need balance.
