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.
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