Always Learning

online teaching

ogradym — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:51:43 +0000

I think that online teaching is a good thing. For one, it expands the pool of eligible students. It also expands the pool of faculty to facilitate these courses. These outweigh the potential for less-than-adequate professors – who should be thoroughly screened and mentored by an accredited university before being permitted to post a course, and who need to be mentored throughout their online teaching tenure. Having never taught beyond work seminars, I can only imagine how difficult structuring an online course must be. This would be daunting, and I would want guidance along the way for both me and my students.

Unfortunately, as both readings brought up, money (for the institution) as an incentive has to be controlled. What I mean is that an institution must have the infrastructure to support professors in this type of education rather than offering a mediocre course because it is good financially. This is a difficult arena to navigate.

influential teachers

ogradym — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:55:00 +0000

Last week we discussed how people learn. There was a lack of consensus, which is as it should be with an open-ended question. As present/ future academics, we all need to find the areas where our abilities match the needs of the students.

One thing we talked about at our table was influential professors. I don’t think most professors are influential because of what they say, but more importantly how they say it, who they are, and what they stand for. I wonder if it’s not the social attributes of the professor that makes her/him appealing. In essence, it’s how they make students feel as learners. I think that a good professor first and foremost makes a student feel comfortable with what each student knows and is not afraid to (gently) push students out of their comfort zones of thought. A good professor encourages us to try new things and grow from that experience. Any thoughts? Agree or disagree, I’d be interested.

learning systems

ogradym — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:42:34 +0000

The articles for today’s class were very interesting. In one context, they posited the question of academic freedom against institutional and even market control of online learning resources.Without having considered this too much, I think the most important aspect to this is the professor. With other internal and external constraints, how much time is he/she willing to put into learning all of the possibilities and intricacies associated with a specific LMS? Does this help or hinder their teaching style? Are they willing to change their style to fit what may be more appropriate for this generation of students? On the other side of the coin, a teacher is ultimately respected not for the information they provide, but how they guide. Nothing can take the place of a clear goal and organized classroom/ online presence, although we want to allow individual exploration and variability along the way. Structure of content is key. The use of learning platforms will either help or hinder us in the classroom. As future professors and growing professors, we have to merge our abilities with the individual abilities of students while enhancing each along the way.

Tweeting

ogradym — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:31:24 +0000

I am still a little skeptical of these new forms of learning, but they are making more sense as I read more. Is Twitter just another form of staying connected in our hyper-busy world? I recently spoke to a friend – on our cellphones, granted, and we were both in our cars (using headsets) driving to our homes -he and I separated by 400 miles. We had been trying to connect via phone for 6 months (no joke) and we had had minimal email contact b/c neither one of us had time. While the details of our conversation are not important here, do we move to things like Twitter to feel more engaged or be more engaged in a very busy world? Is Twitter a new device for staying connected that is being used by the academic community b/c it is sign of our social and time-constrained inabilities that are not dissipating anytime soon? I’m still a fan of face-to-face discussion and talking ont he phone, but I realize the difficulties of these simple social pleasures in a world that is overwhelmed.

new education

ogradym — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:10:35 +0000

I have a question for my more-experienced science educator colleagues out there. OK, I understand the idea that we can all create valuable knowledge. I certainly look to teach so that I can be “part of the bigger conversation.” I’m sure I’ll gain as much as my students. But in a science discipline, how do you effectively engage entry-level students in a conversation that they supposedly know very little about? In addition, my profession has a certification exam. While theories and ideas are what drive new discoveries, how can I help students in an open environment in which they find the answers, or at least ask deeper questions? I have to provide some of the foundational knowledge, and the way I was taught in grad school, it was all about understanding and application of that science-based and theoretical knowledge. Much of the artistic flexibility of my science in the health professions is beyond the curriculum for entry-level students.

technology in learning

ogradym — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:08:30 +0000

Doesn’t showing up for class and being prepared to share your ideas and knowledge still count for something? While technology opens education to many in various parts of the world, one of the things that both articles mention is that education is social and collaborative. We still need to discipline ourselves to come together and share ideas face-to-face. There is something innately human in this, and while it can be improved with technology-based material prepared for a variety of people, you cannot take this away without changing the essence of what it means to be human. We learn by doing, but we also learn, especially as youngsters, by following examples. Technology in isolation, maybe even in majority, sets a poor example.

blogging question

ogradym — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:06:36 +0000

When does information that’s available to students/ people become irrelevant and/or overload? Should we all blog? I see real value in blogging, but, if used improperly, I see a siphon on our education system. There may be conventions, but those … Continue reading →