End-of-Course Reflection

Through this course, I have learned a great deal about instructional technology as well about effective course design. I especially liked having the textbook to use as the source for discussion material. The information was interesting and relevant and provided a common resource for which our class could engage in meaningful discussion. I enjoyed working on the issue paper as it gave me the freedom to explore an issue with which I have an interest. On the final project, I liked the idea of a group presentation but I have discovered that group presentations in a distance class are extremely problematic due to the varying levels of motivation and work ethic. At best the presentations are just a division of the topic, presented sequentially. I never really got the feeling of true collaboration. I do not think that this is a limitation of the course design but simple a limitation of time and geographical space. Students still need some face-to-face time in order to establish leadership and synergy.
Additionally, I feel that there is too much reading of PowerPoint slides and calling that a presentation. Such presentations are boring in person and insufferable online. I think that is an area of instruction technology use I would like to explore further.

Final Presentation

I just put the finishing touches on the group collaborative project wiki. Our topic is Internet Safety and I took the portion dealing with online, sexual predators. As a father of two daughters and grandfather of five, I find my research very disturbing. It wasn't just what I learned about online predators, but what I learned about sexual predators in general that bothered me so much. While the online problem is horrific, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Most children are sexually abused, not by a stranger lurking on the Internet, but by the very people that are supposed to love and protect them. Sick bastards! If there is any justice in the world, those animals will burn in Hell.
Anyway, the project was very informative.

All Coming Together

I just finished my issue paper. I feel like I have a good product and I can tell that I'm becoming more adept at researching and writing in APA format. I began using MySpace a few years ago. Like everyone else I just gradually migrated to Facebook. In hindsight, I think I can now understand the difference between these two social networking sites. I find that the friends I have on Facebook are former classmates, former students, family, and friends. I don't think I have a singer person on my list that I didn't know in real-life. Conversely, most of the friends I have on MySpace are people I met on MySpace. Some I have met face-to-face and others I never expect to meet. I think that is why many married and family-oriented people have left MySpace completely. Facebook provides them a more simplified format and allows them to interact with their friends and family without worrying about the creeps and weirdos in the world. This has been a very enlightening assignment.

Becoming better informed.

At first I approached the reading assignments with a certain amount of trepidation. However, as I continued to read and participate in class discussions I increasingly found myself including tidbits from my readings in workshop presentations as well as in courses I teach. The last article about employee privacy at work really opened my eyes to the need for employers to monitor the activities of their employees. I relate much of this article to my issue paper on MySpace and related articles. Finally, I want to make mention of the upcoming assignment on the research being done on how realistic robots are perceived by children and the elderly. I found this article so touching in its description of how children will project their needs or fears onto these animated dogs and babies. I will include a more detailed description in my discussion post but just wanted to comment here about how interesting I found that article.

Comfort Medium- Paper

As I begin working through the reading assignments in this course, I am becoming increasingly aware of my particular learning style when it comes to online instruction. I like having the textbook to read, highlight, and take notes before I respond electronically. It seems I have not yet made the leap into exclusively digital and I'm thinking that there may be a limit to my conversion. I still feel much more organized when I print my assignments and take notes on paper as opposed to reading everything online. This leads me to wondering if the same is true for more digital natives. As more and more schools are exploring 1:1 computing with their students, putting textbooks online and in pdf form, will this format be as instructionally sound as with paper? This is an area of concern that I intend to research.
The reading assignments have been enlightening and relevant. I especially enjoyed the article dealing with copyright issues surrounding Google's scanning of out-of-print books. I find it exceptionally relevant and almost daily read something new about the lawsuit. The article prompted me to examine Google Books in greater detail. As a result, I found nearly complete, online versions of textbooks that serve as supplemental sources of information in an instructional leadership class I am teaching. I was able to save my students money by embedding the code of "Failure is NOT an Option" into my course wiki. The online version is even superior due to the fact that it is searchable. Time will only tell if I will be able to use this online version or have to resort to printing the pages.
I find the discussions marginally useful at this point. It seems I am in a group of procrastinators and I find myself with no one to interact. Hopefully this will change as the course progresses. I do believe that discussion forums are an integral part of any hybrid course in that it is one of the few ways that students and instructor can have a feeling of connectivity.