CEDO 550 Week 1

I have no experience teaching an online class but certainly have some experience from the student perspective since starting this MEIT program. I did take a few online classes during my undergrad but they were very sterile and not interactive at all. Basically those classes were this format - read your text, take a quiz/test online, participate in a few forum posts, and that was it. The format of the CS courses is so much different. They are still the online format but now I feel like I know my professors and my cohort colleagues. I've never met any of them but I feel like I have. If I ever have the opportunity to teach an online class I hope my students feel like they know me just as they would if I were standing in the classroom with them. With the Internet and technologies changing at such a rapid pace, the interactivity, communication, and collaboriation certainly will continue and improve the entire online learning experience.

Reflection points:
Identify at least two synchronous and two asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for your targeted online learners.
*Target audience: high school students
*Synchronous online learning tools: Elluminate & Skype
*Asynchronous online learning tools: Blogs & wikis

List four different types of activities that you might use with your targeted online learners and identify an appropriate online tool to use in implementing that activity.
*Reflection – blog
*Discussion – forum
*Group project (paper) – Google Docs
*Group project (presentation) – Voicethread

Is my initial contact warm and inviting? Are there things I did particularly well or could do better in the future? Is my initial contact clear and concise and yet user friendly? What are some strategies that help to format your contacts to make them as clear and concise as possible?

I tried to cover all of the suggested points when scripting my initial contact email draft (Brief introduction of the instructor, Contact information for the instructor, Broad Overview of the course, Supplemental resource information, Course schedule or pacing, and General expectations for the course). Just like when responding to parent emails, it is difficult in this email script to write it in a manner that comes across as warm and inviting since they are just black and white words on a screen. However, I really spent some time choosing my words and hopefully they come across as warm and inviting as I intended them to be. If I were teaching this online class to high school students, I would want to also have a videoconference with each student and at least one of the parents/guardians prior to the start of class to serve as a brief introduction to me and the class as well as go over the expectations of the course and questions from the student/parent(s)/guardian(s).

In regards to making the initial contact clear and concise, I also tried to do this. Instead of giving all of the information, I asked the students to go to the class wiki where much of the class information, expectations, syllabus, instructor bio, etc were housed. The students would be able to explore this information prior to the first class and send any questions they might have to my email or call me on the number provided.