We Are Not in Pleasantville Anymore . . .

As we have progressed through this series of online teaching classes, I have seen my understanding of this medium continue to change. Long before I began this series of classes, I ventured forth into my first experience with online learning. Looking back on that first class, it was more like a correspondence course online.

It was taught in the Wimba environment, but there was little communication with the instructor or my other classmates. There was a syllabus online and through that single electronic document the students were instructed what to read and accomplish; and where to submit the papers that were due in the class. The class was shrouded in silence and lack of communication between members.

Submissions were returned days later with red marked comments, both good and critical about the contents and a red number grade was posted at the end of each submission. There was no discussion about the materials studied and only on rare occasion would a student venture to post a question of his peers about the course. It really seemed taboo to do so.

You could e-mail the instructor, but generally he would not respond for over a week and sometimes it would be to admonish you to follow the information he had provided in the syllabus. The class was very bleak and gray. I really don’t know what kept me moving forward at that time, perhaps the dream that there could be something more.

One day recently while driving home on a foggy, rainy gray evening, it dawned on me that online learning and now the experience of online teaching has reminded me of the book and movie entitled “Pleasantville”. If you have ever experienced the book or movie, you will know what I mean. (If you have not, I highly suggest that you do).

In the beginning of the movie two young teens were transported through time to Pleasantville only to find themselves in a “nineteen fiftyish” world that was very gray and drab. Everyone lived the same style of life (original thought was completely discouraged), wore the same clothes, ate the same foods, did the same activities and lived the same gray existence.

The library books were all blank and if anyone questioned the system the town’s people were appalled and the wrongdoer was admonished and shunned for his actions. Life was very dull indeed. During one scene, one of the new interlopers asked where the road led that went out of Pleasantville, and the flat reply was, “nowhere the road just goes in a circle to Pleasantville”.

People there lived stagnant, uneventful, albeit pleasant lives and had learned to settle and adapt to the colorless vista. Settling for okay was good enough---it was wrong to question or expect more.

That is why when our two young interlopers came to town and started to awaken people to the fact that life did not have to be lived in such a dull, gray landscape where all of the people were even depicted in black and white, suddenly some of the people started to think for themselves, develop new ideas and show curiosity about what life could be like and as they did they began not only to see a vivid colored world around them, but they also turned from black and white into beautiful , technicolored, animated individuals themselves.

Of course, the people who were fearful of change and accepted the gray world became immediately shocked and fearful of their transformations and demanded that things turn back to the status quo and they turn back to their original black and white demeanor.

However, the people who had experienced living life in color could no longer accept living the gray all too pleasant life in Pleasantville and were unwilling to be forced backward into that bleak, drab, lackluster albeit safe existence.
Living in Pleasantville, reminds me of entering the learning environment in cyberspace.

When I first entered this other world, everything was quite gray. There was no color in the online classroom and every student was surrounded by a deafening silence. People who questioned the silence were made to feel odd and were ignored or admonished by others and everyone seemed accepting of his fate.

When one spoke about online classes in on ground classes the uneasiness was palpable, both from on ground instructors and on ground classmates. The notion of learning anything online was dismissed as frivolous and as utterly impossible---a waste of time and energy. Something that was not worthy of the time it took to openly discuss it. Students were ashamed to admit they were taking classes online. Pleasantville was alive and well all around and few people were willing to challenge that theory.

However somehow, through that bleak, gray environment I had managed to dream that what I had experienced could become something much more than what I was currently witnessing. I drew this hope from what I knew from the past. The first telephone transmissions, the first television broadcasts, the first radio shows had all been primitive but they had grown and transformed beyond their inventors wildest dreams. Why couldn’t this medium expand and develop in the same way?

At that time the College of Business had no online courses. There was some part of me that wanted to see more possibilities breathed into the program and that is what drove me to question the status quo. I penned a letter to the President of the University and asked quite simply stated, “We are moving into the 21st century----why didn’t the College of Business offer any classes online? Was GSU not afraid of being left behind in the gray dust of the past century? Could they afford not to advance into the future if they wanted to keep their enrollment growing?” The following fall term the first online classes were offered in business.

Thus began the catharsis for me. I have seen the transformation begin and continue. I have sat in on those first poorly executed drab gray online classes.

And then slowly I started to see the first glimpses of color as people were encouraged to post comments on an open discussion board. I have beheld the reluctance of people fearful to post their thoughts online or have their ideas exposed to their cyber classmates fearful of a Pleasantville rejection. I have also had people scoff at me for choosing to learn online. Pleasantville people who have forgotten that learning is not a "one trick pony" and that it can be accomplished in many ways in many venues.

The road OUT of Pleasantville has brought me here, to this series of classes, to this venue, where my once gray surroundings have become much more color specific.

I have had color breathed into this environment through lively interactions with my classmates. I have had color breathed into this environment by having exchanges with people real time on the other side of the globe. I have had color breathed into this environment by seeing a video commentary of one of my classmates, breathed into his blog journal. I have had color breathed into this environment by having real time talks about ideas and challenges with my classmates who have proven to be kindred spirits who though sometimes fearful, are not willing to settle for living in Pleasantville.

And through the support of my online colleagues, my forward minded cyber instructors and my own dreams of what might be, I am approaching the potential of the unlimited color spectrum that can be created in cyber classrooms with an open mind and an open heart.

Teaching can go from the sage on the stage of the on ground environment, to the guide on the side of this new medium. A diverse population in a global setting can all converge together in this classroom and not be fettered by location or time zone. Real time cyber discussions can be enjoyed between people of different dialects and different cultural persuasions. Audio and video presentations can be jointly or individually broadcast and enjoyed. (I have even learned a little about the behind the scene language---HTML).

Virtual worlds can be mastered and used as simulations of real world events and practice exercises can be emulated for everything from surgical to historical events, and used as learning or practice tools. Teamwork can be successsfully carried on, without once meeting your team members f2f.

I have also learned that from shared experience and trial and error, one can create a diverse set of learning tools that can reach out to a diverse population of learning styles. I have learned that common sense and a grasp of good netiquette can go a long way in engendering healthy relationships in cyberspace. I have learned that close relationships can be built in the cyber classroom.

I have also had my moment as “King (Queen) of the World” as I experienced my first attempt in a real time classroom as the official “guide on the side” in that classroom. I have relished in the exchange of ideas that were brought forth as people busily bantered back and forth and the class was less about leading and more about sharing. I have also enjoyed the laughter, warmth and humor of my fellow cyber classmates although I have never physically met any of them.

And probably most impressively, during the last two terms I have seen these same people who were once in Pleasantville, start to move from gray, drab, timid beings almost devoid of form to very colorful, vibrant human beings who are animated and vivid well rounded human beings in their new cyber presence.

For you see, these people are not satisfied with pleasant; my fellow cyber trekkers are adventurous risk takers who have moved through the shroud that surrounded them and thrown aside the admonition of “pleasant” scoffers and decided to move from fearful to fearless. They no longer need to ask where the road leads that exits Pleasantville because they have ventured unabashedly beyond the city limits and they have seen all the bright colors and ideas that are there, they have glimpsed the possibilities that lay in the future.

Together we will move forward unwilling to just settle for a Pleasantville “bleakosphere”. Each of us has left Pleasantville behind and I am confident that each of my cyber classmates will add their own rich, colorful gift to the new milieu that is evolving here.

Because the fact is, that once you have left the gray, drab city limits of Pleasantville and the people who wish to continue living the gray, drab, uninspired lifestyle there, there is no turning back. . . The reality is that once you have stepped out of that gray, drab, pleasant world into this VIVID, BRIGHT, NEW CUTTING EDGE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT----who COULD or WOULD want to return?

Are You Going to Take a Seat on the Bus or Remain Immobilized at the Bus Stop?

I am constantly whirling, swirling, cutting, pasting, adding and deleting ideas from my cranium as I move forward through this series of online classes. I have come to realize that with the onset of many instantaneous technologies, globalization and all its sequelae are creating a different
world where people need to be more than just competent to survive in this rapidly evolving environment. Turbulence and rapid change are the bywords of today’s reality.

The world is no place for the inflexible, the unprepared, or the ostrich with his head in the sand. Standing still is not an option. So I have stepped forward, punched my ticket and gotten on the bus, the cyberbus that is.

You, too, are welcome to board the bus, but preconceived notions must be left behind as excess baggage. There are many seats still available. People from all walks of life are boarding the bus, however, if you wish to take a seat on the bus, flexibility is not optional, it’s a necessity.

Capable, open minded people are much more likely to be found on this bus. Passengers are people from all over the world; all races, creeds and colors, male and female, young and old, there are no preconceived notions. Passengers comprise people with many styles of learning (and all will be attempted to be accommodated).

You will find passengers on the bus are more likely to be able to deal with the turbulent environment in which we are traveling by possessing an ‘all round’ capacity centered on self-efficacy, knowing how to learn, creativity, the ability to use competencies in novel as well as familiar situations and working well with others.

Do not be alarmed, but there is no designated driver on this bus. All passengers can and do take the wheel at different times on this trip. The end destination is not predetermined. This trip is not about a destination but rather about a journey.

Getting to know your supportive fellow travelers is critical to your well being, because this journey will be perpetual, literally an elearnity---there is no end in sight. However, if you sit back and look out the window the views are expansive, spectacular and constantly changing and the discussions among the passengers are always enlightening and engaging.

Traffic along the way is mostly created by e-learning ephemera: e-mail, ebooks, and other egadgets. Blogs, wikis, ipods, iphones, iTouch and other mobile devices may also be encountered along the road. These are not roadblocks, but communication devices to smooth the way. The potential for multilogue is e-normous.

If you are a passenger you understand the rules of the road: learner centered learning overrides teacher centered learning and teachers assume the seat next to the learner. Every passenger is required to face forward/including the instructor; as all are grasping to be affective learners together on the bus.

The role if you are an instructor on this bus, is not to drive the bus or to map out a “one way only” route. You may be called on to facilitate during the journey. You must be willing to “steer” if a co-passenger asks for assistance. You have a part in the road to be taken, but other passengers also are asked to contribute worthwhile stops and alternate pathways. You can comfort the other passengers when they become anxious if the road gets bumpy and you can warn fellow riders about the potholes of which you are personally aware, but you are not solely in control of this bus---that obligation belongs to all of the passengers.

You also must know that there may be detours, (many of which will be caused by technological malfunctions) some will be arduous and frustrating and some will be fun. However, all detours will be potential opportunities for learning.

This bus is open to all, but many seats still remain empty. Some educators are choosing not to board and to stay at the bus stop. Those educators stuck solely on the ground who once spoon fed knowledge to captive students who were expected to swallow and regurgitate the facts have been cautioned that they risk extinction in the future if they choose to remain at the bus stop.

Riders of the cyberbus enjoy charting their own course. They know the instantaneous knowledge afforded by the Internet and as learners reach for knowledge from many sources unwilling to accept the role of the instructor as he/she was once considered as the all knowing purveyor of wisdom.

Roadside signs tell us that there were 2.35 million online learners in the U.S. in 2005 and that enrollments in online courses have grown approximately twenty percent per year since 2002 (a number that far exceeds the overall growth rate in higher education). The flashing billboard message is clear---cyberlearning is here to stay. The earth is revolving and you must continue evolving.

Are you boarding the bus or choosing to remain behind at the bus stop? Time waits for no man (or woman) . . . and neither does this bus. Is your ticket punched?



“The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence [the world] out.” . J.R.R. Tolkien

"You're going to shoot your eye out, kid!"

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.- Mark Twain

I love Mark Twain. He was not only a brilliant writer, but he had a wonderful self deprecating sense of humor. I can identify with that completely---the sense of humor that is.

If you were me, you, too, would have to have a sense of humor. I am notorious for “belly flopping” on “first” attempts. We won’t talk about the first time I drove a car, the first time I skied or the first time I tried parasailing.

Let’s just say that I am not a quick starter in the gate. It takes me a while to warm up to something different, to feel comfortable in a new role, to succeed in my own mind.

The first time I stood up in front of a group of people to give a lecture that I had practiced incessantly and on a topic that I was very familiar with, I felt like the entire Russian army was walking across my tongue in their stocking feet. My manner was stilted, I stuttered and I almost forgot my name.

Other than the physical obstacles that will evaporate (hopefully) with time and practice, I am primarily concerned about making the class enjoyable and comfortable for my colleagues. Horrors! What was I thinking?

I am going to be facilitating for a room of seasoned PROFESSIONALS for Heavens sake, I must have masochistic tendencies that are laughing “themselves” to death in my gut right now!

It ultimately reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Story, when Ralphie is mockingly told, “you’re going to shoot your eye out, kid”!

My fellow classmates are going to be saying, “she couldn’t teach colors to Crayola”.

Now slooooooooow down, I need to turn this thing around. What’s the worst thing that can happen? I can set a judicious example for my colleagues of the mistakes that one can make facilitating. Even at the worst, that does have some merit, doesn’t it? I would be teaching by example, albeit bad example . . . that’s the worst case scenario, right?

Back to Mr. Twain, and I quote, “Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.” I have to look beyond the risk and focus on the opportunity for training---be that peach, transform into that cauliflower.

After all even if Ralphie was warned that he was “gonna” shoot his eye out, he still had that tremendous passion, took the risk and he only broke his glasses . . . and life went on, right. Life went on.

Ahhhhhhhhh yes, that feels better. Okay, “Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor” . . . I have to take that risk, . . . even if I may shoot my eye out!

Piecing Together A MAZE into AMAZE

As I reflect on the second half of the course, I think about all of the new concepts I was exposed to and attempted to assimilate into my realm of understanding.

I had often read wikis, but had never thought of contributing to or creating one. I was not familiar with e-portfolios, although I had been required to create my own webpage before in other classes.

I was overwhelmed and intrigued with all of the dilemmas and ideas that my online classmates brought to the table as many of them strived to reinvent themselves from f2f instructors into online “guide on the side” cyber instructors. Their experiences gave me a better perception of the problems that cyber instructors face as they try to model a virtual class that reaches and is meaningful to as many students as possible.

I struggled with new technologies and contemplated the best approach to each problem as it arose. I was very familiar with being an online student and yet had not attempted many of the new projects that challenged us. How to negotiate the maze? How to master the technologies? I have such a passion for this medium and yet I have so much to learn.

I love the potential of wikis. What a great way to corroborate on and build new bridges of collaborative knowledge. I can see the possibilities for e-portfolios. How many more dimensions can be explored with an e-portfolio as opposed to a paper resume’? It gives each designer the opportunity to continuously improve his/her portfolio through reassessment of where he/she is today as opposed to where they were yesterday. There is also the availability of the use of so many varied mediums to enhance its content, add new dimensional qualities and make it much more interesting and engaging for potential readers.

Maybe that is what I love best about the world Online, the new dimensions that it adds to each of our worlds. Virtual classrooms force us to stretch and to form new dimensions of education. As an instructor, it is no longer enough to be the sage on the stage. It is no longer enough as a student to read a text and regurgitate the content.

There is a huge web of knowledge dangling in front of students in cyberspace and it has many different routes and many different angles. It is up to the cyber instructor to help to create clear maps to help students navigate through the maze.

This body of knowledge is like a huge body of water, constantly moving and changing with immeasurable depth. One can learn to surf the waves and appreciate and respect the depth of the currents or one can be swallowed up by its power.

I think the greatest thing that I have taken away from the second half of this course beyond the teaching and learning principles and the new software is an even deeper appreciation for the power that the Internet has and the power that it has as a potential lifeline of educational advancement for so many.

When Jacque talked about the student who is gaining an education in a rural area in Africa online, my heart leapt at the potential. That is the complex power and the simplicity of the potential this medium holds. It can literally move mountains and open doors for those who have not been able to scale these obstacles in the past. It can bring knowledge to their doorsteps with the simplicity of the click of a button. And that potential is not just a stride for that singular human being, but it is a stride for each and every one of us because their ideas can add to this one giant wiki we all are a part of called humanity.

I hope to improve my skill levels as we move forward into the next class. Hopefully, I will polish the skills I have began to develop and continue to learn how to successfully translate learning into learning and teaching.

This class has been “a maze” but piecing the puzzle together has enabled it to become an “amazing” experience.

The Velveteen Rabbit and How Online Classrooms Become REAL

I just finished reading Margery Williams’ “The Velveteen Rabbit” to my young niece. It is her favorite book and the book like the rabbit in the story is getting pretty shabby, but it is still such a beautiful, meaningful book and just as poignant as the first day that my mother read it to me. As I dim the light the words echo in my mind . . .

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?” “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.

It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

What a wonderful story. It is an analogy of how I feel about creating an online classroom. I don’t want it to just contain proper text and content or proper formatting I want it to have personalities and feelings.

In the book, the velveteen rabbit becomes a real living rabbit at the end and visits the boy. I want to do whatever it takes to breathe life into my online classroom so that students enjoy visiting, chatting and freely exchanging thoughts and ideas so that it can become a REAL classroom experience, one that they can refer back to and one that evokes pleasant memories of a relaxed learning environment.

I think this is the single most important and most difficult element of online classrooms to successfully achieve. After you understand that, you must work hard to offer many differently shaded rooms of learning where individual students can walk through and congregate in and get comfortable with the learning style that suits their needs.

You also know that although you must create different opportunities and venues for different learning styles, you must also infuse a spirit into that online classroom that will meld students into a singular REAL unique entity that exhibits a well worn comfortable atmosphere where they feel alive and where communication flows freely and easily.

The perfect REAL online classroom won’t feel forced or stilted, it won’t feel campy or contrived, it will feel natural and easy as the discussions and chat rooms continually generate “AHA” moments and “OH NO” feelings, and comforting reassurance from other students and guidance from encouraging instructors.

But just as the skin horse said, “It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time.”

This is encouraging for a novice like me, because I know that it will take me awhile to be comfortable enough with all of the teaching methods and learning styles for them to become second nature and to not feel manufactured and plastic.

I will have to work hard at making the learning comfortable and inviting to all learners especially those who approach with trepidation.
I always have to remember that every student who enters my online classroom may be coming to my tiny room in cyberspace as a first time online learner.

The atmosphere may be as scary and unfamiliar as that first day of on ground school was for me when everything and everyone seemed so daunting and unfamiliar.

I have to work at creating the same warmth that I felt from the smile of my first on ground teacher as she made me grow and develop a sense of belonging. That is an important part of the online environment---the moment when students realize that they are integral parts of making an online classroom REAL, that they truly belong.

Their foibles, their thoughts not always so gingerly stated, their mistakes, their uniqueness, these things are all part of making it REAL. Imperfection and impatience, excitement and elation, candor and cohesion, small words and big ideas, languish and levity, doubts and dilemmas, missteps and giant leaps---there is room for all of these; in fact they are needed if I am to ever hope to make my online classroom REAL.

I am busy now searching for the right “chairs” that will be comfortable and suitable for all visitors and the right brew that will be inviting to everyone who knocks at the door and enters with a wee bit of reluctance and a dab of fear.

There has to be a big fireplace where people can congregate with others and feel the warmth of the ideas as they are heaped upon the fire to fuel the flame and heat the room. A fire that burns brightly enough to illuminate the room and cast large shadows that will create memories and a valuable learning exchange and with flames that leap and dance excitedly toward the ceiling and draw other students near.

If the elements are right, students will feel comfortable enough to visit often and to take off their coats and sit awhile and exchange ideas and REAL learning will take place. Hopefully they will leave an authentic part of themselves behind when they leave and that part will be valuable to the next learner. Maybe just because of my intense love of learning, it can become REAL for someone else.

I know my online classroom may not be the most elaborate or the most eloquent, it may not have “things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle”, but I hope that the carpet in the entry is well worn and the comfortable chairs show their constant use and may admittedly sometimes appear shabby, because as the skin horse so aptly put it, “But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are REAL you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”