503 Recap
As I ponder the process of facilitating a seminar this week, there were a few key elements of the activity I found to be particularly poignant. I found that I loved collaborating with a great partner, I felt a great satisfaction in the results of the seminar, and I have a gained a healthy respect for the amount of work and analysis that goes into the development of a coherent and rich experience in which others are to be engaged.
It was great to work with Kris on this project. It made the task so much more enriching. We were able to readily connect in ideals and in the direction we wanted our seminar to develop. I think we each brought valuable ideas to the project that may not have occurred if we had been working individually.
It was heartening to find, from the comments of other students, that the information we supplied was helpful. A lot of comments referred to how helpful organizing their emails into files and using filtering systems helped them to keep on top of the ongoing onslaught of emails.
As I was researching appropriate support material to include in our seminar, I found that what I thought was going to be a fairly easy job, turned into being a daunting task. How apropos that I was getting “overwhelmed” with the amount of time it took to find the perfect information. I found that after hours of non-stop searching, I was losing my direction. I shudder to think of the wasted time because I pushed myself to continue when I clearly should have taken a break to refocus. Ahh the restrictions of work and family obligations.
I realized that Kris and I definitely achieved the “Development” stage of Salmon’s “Five Step Model of Teaching and Learning” (Kear: 2011) with not only our own partnership, but with the students as well. Kris and I already were at stage two before we met for this assignment. We were quick to share our information and ideas through “Skype”. We then worked on our parts of the project and succeeded in developing our online seminar. I feel that we also brought the students through to the development stage as they were engaged with the information we supplied and they were also able to supply the rest of us with valuable information regarding the topic. The students were able to write comments/”wishes” on the “Wallwisher” which enabled them and us to respond and provide additional links and ideas that went beyond what was provided.
Kris and I found ways to try not to overload our students by trying to keep the “learning” items short and trying different ways to post comments and ideas. I think this worked quite well. Also, working asynchronously was beneficial for this seminar, because we felt that to add to the work stress by having everyone “meet” would defeat the purpose of this seminar. Would I have felt that to do this at the very beginning of the program during 501, probably not. We have had a chance as a “whole” to get to know each other. I feel that our students were more comfortable sharing more intimate details about their lives than they may have been early in our program, again reference to Salmon’s five step model.
Aside from a few technical details, I wouldn’t change a thing in our seminar. Great information, lovely “Weebly” site, and awesome partner!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWnoJW6bEjs
URL to Kris and my powerpoint recap for 503
As I ponder the process of facilitating a seminar this week, there were a few key elements of the activity I found to be particularly poignant. I found that I loved collaborating with a great partner, I felt a great satisfaction in the results of the seminar, and I have a gained a healthy respect for the amount of work and analysis that goes into the development of a coherent and rich experience in which others are to be engaged.
It was great to work with Kris on this project. It made the task so much more enriching. We were able to readily connect in ideals and in the direction we wanted our seminar to develop. I think we each brought valuable ideas to the project that may not have occurred if we had been working individually.
It was heartening to find, from the comments of other students, that the information we supplied was helpful. A lot of comments referred to how helpful organizing their emails into files and using filtering systems helped them to keep on top of the ongoing onslaught of emails.
As I was researching appropriate support material to include in our seminar, I found that what I thought was going to be a fairly easy job, turned into being a daunting task. How apropos that I was getting “overwhelmed” with the amount of time it took to find the perfect information. I found that after hours of non-stop searching, I was losing my direction. I shudder to think of the wasted time because I pushed myself to continue when I clearly should have taken a break to refocus. Ahh the restrictions of work and family obligations.
I realized that Kris and I definitely achieved the “Development” stage of Salmon’s “Five Step Model of Teaching and Learning” (Kear: 2011) with not only our own partnership, but with the students as well. Kris and I already were at stage two before we met for this assignment. We were quick to share our information and ideas through “Skype”. We then worked on our parts of the project and succeeded in developing our online seminar. I feel that we also brought the students through to the development stage as they were engaged with the information we supplied and they were also able to supply the rest of us with valuable information regarding the topic. The students were able to write comments/”wishes” on the “Wallwisher” which enabled them and us to respond and provide additional links and ideas that went beyond what was provided.
Kris and I found ways to try not to overload our students by trying to keep the “learning” items short and trying different ways to post comments and ideas. I think this worked quite well. Also, working asynchronously was beneficial for this seminar, because we felt that to add to the work stress by having everyone “meet” would defeat the purpose of this seminar. Would I have felt that to do this at the very beginning of the program during 501, probably not. We have had a chance as a “whole” to get to know each other. I feel that our students were more comfortable sharing more intimate details about their lives than they may have been early in our program, again reference to Salmon’s five step model.
Aside from a few technical details, I wouldn’t change a thing in our seminar. Great information, lovely “Weebly” site, and awesome partner!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWnoJW6bEjs
URL to Kris and my powerpoint recap for 503