CED0 550 Week 4

While I haven't taught an online course, I have used many of the elements in my face-to-face classes, especially my Web Tools course which has a natural fit to organizing the course in this type of manner. Many of the classes were exploratory time working with the various web tools as well as putting together projects. As I continue to teach this class, I will modify how the content is organized. While still having the students in my classroom, I hope to organize the content in a way using some sort of LMS so I can transition more into a facilitator rather than the teacher.

So far I haven't had any problems navigating the course management system and utilizing the discussion boards. In the beginning of the course, I did have trouble accessing a Google Doc but after contacting the instructor I was able to open it up. Since then, I haven't had any issues but know that if I do, the instructor is only an email or phone call away which takes away any anxiety of encountering tech issues.

I can imagine using Elluminate Live! for a web conference in order to meet for various committees and groups. I am part of the WI Business Education Association and we meet a few times a year for an executive board meeting. It becomes pretty costly for the organization because they pay for mileage for everyone to travel to attend the meeting. If we could meet virtually with a tool like Elluminate, we could accomplish everything that we need to. There are sub committees but even those could meet in breakout rooms and then bring the conversation back together as a whole group. I know there is a cost associated with Elluminate with over 3 users but it would be interesting to do a cost analysis to see what the subscription fee would be in comparison to the money spent to cover everyone's mileage/lunch cost to attend the meetings.

I tried something new while working on this module and it made me think that . . .I sure have a lot of work and research to do on online learning but the resources shared in this class have been very valuable. In fact, many of the sites and resources I've also shared with my principals who are forward-thinking and interested in online learning. I wish I could dedicate more time to doing the necessary research to set up an online class/program but there are only so many hours in the day!