Freedom is . . .

never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. ~

Captivating!

I went to my first class on the software program entitled, Captivate last weekend. As you can see I am a little black and blue from trying to absorb all of the potential uses for this tool. I can definitely see how useful this program could be for online classes where instructors wish to do demonstrations or "how-to's" and also as a tool for setting up quizzes.

I am a total newbie to the software and am sure that it has many more applications that I have not yet been discovered in the short time that I have worked with it. The most unfortunate part is that the software is quite expensive and the university does not have a license for the use of Captivate at this time so we are forced to use the 30 day trial package.

It does give the student time to familiarize themselves with the tools and settings, but it won't be much help when constructing future virtual classrooms if it is no longer accessible because the trial period has expired!!!

I hope the university sees the value in investing in several of these software programs and purchases the licensing so that they are available to online instructors as the menu of online offerings continues to expand!

Until then I will be forced to try and make lemonade from lemons and learn everything I can about the program during this brief introductory period. Every software program I learn at least gives me exposure to the possibilities that are out there to flesh out and add life and enhance community in my online classes.

The Next Step . . .

In my last post I teased my colleagues about the fact that they would all be engaged in classes this summer and I would not. This statement in fact is not entirely true. I am planning on taking one or two workshops this summer on software that can be used to enhance my online classes.

Two weekends in May I will be learning Captivate and two weekends in June will be devoted to learning something about Dreamweaver. I am an ardent believer in the fact that these types of software programs do a great deal to enhance an online class and breathe life into the communications by adding another dimension. I am very anxious to learn new software programs that I can use to be more creative in my class offerings.

Due to the nature of today's student (a very tech savvy generation), it is imperative that online learning be engaging and challenging by being many faceted. Learning should always be a challenging, enlightening pursuit however, it should also contain an element of excitement and fun for the student. Quite simply real learning should be more exciting than watching paint dry---I have been a student in a few of those classes and boredom does not begin to explain those experiences.

On ground we can "sorta" tell when we are in for a class in boring 101 when you walk in the first day and you wonder if you should take the instructor's pulse to see if they are still breathing. Your immediate impression is they are even less excited to be there than their students. Is it any wonder than students immediately become comatose when the teacher begins to drone on in a monotone about the class expectations (expectations he/she probably has not changed in the last 5+ years of teaching this same class? And then instructors wonder why their students don't seem engaged in the class?

Online engagement is even more difficult because the instructor is faced with developing strong communications with/between students often without the advantage of any f-2-f encounter being a possibility. There in lies the first big challenge----engagement. Making the student interesting enough to have students look forward to logging in to learn. This takes all of the muscle that a good instructor can muscle----so thus I need to start building up my arsenal of exercises that will help me to build a worthwhile cyber class. I envision a place where challenges are offered and communication between classmates occurs twenty-four seven because they are interested in exchanging their ideas with each other. TWENTY FOUR-SEVEN---I once saw a sign in an all night diner that read, HOT COFFEE---Day or Night----24-7. There was something about that sign that conjured up a sense of warmth and security, so much so that I never forgot seeing it. That is part of the beauty I see in these online class exchanges. I have popped online late at night only to find some of my classmates online also. Granted I have had persons from the other side of the planet like Australia who were on because it was already the next day, but it was still comforting to find other students struggling through their assignments (albeit perhaps due to procrastination) online also. I suppose one could say that misery loves company! It is nice to know that you are not alone out there in cyberspace and you can always find someone who is willing to discuss any topic at any hour of the day or night somewhere out there in the cyber galaxy.

So this is just the first next step on this journey in honing my skill level for this endeavor. I do,however, intend to also spend some time recharging my batteries this summer by doing a little reading under that shade tree. Hope you have a chance to do the same.

I Made It!! Now I Can Do My Happy Dance, Viola, Terri and Sharon!! Ha! Ha!

This summer while I am lying in my hammock under a shade tree sipping a Mai-Tai or a Long Island ice tea, I will look northwest toward the university and think of you struggling away at your next class in the series. If by chance I hear swearing from that direction----I will also think of you.

When I am in the pool floating in the warm sunshine, I , too, will toss my head back and grimace on your behalf. If by chance I pass a computer lab, a library or a mental health facility I will also think about the tribulations you are experiencing.

I will think of you when I am reading the latest trashy magazine or eating shrimp on the "barbie", or steak, or whatever. I will also think of you as I lay in repose on my chaise lounge eating bon-bons. And I will stop long enough to mutter----you poor thing----you poor, poor thing". I promise----that this I will faithfully do. Yes I will think of you during the "doghouse days of summer"-----but look on the bright side--- Viola ---your instructor will be in sunny California and she can tell you all about it in class! HEE HEE HEE

IMAGINE - Some say I'm a dreamer . . .

As I come to the end of these four classes in the online teaching certification program, I can only look in amazement from whence I came and wistfully imagine what lies ahead.

I came into this adventure knowing that I knew enough about online learning to easily admit that I loved the concept and the dynamics of cyberspace. Cyber learning was designed for me. I love the freedom and mobility it affords, the open exchange of ideas with the largest diverse community of minds on earth at your fingertips and the up-to-date nature of the prospect of dynamic learning.
I was a child of the btc era (before the computer era) when the best information source we had was a dusty old set of the Encyclopedia Britannica and I happened to be one of those children who was always wondering about something---the “Cliff Claven” of my grammar school. Space travel was one of my fascinations and the information you found on the space program was outdated by the time the encyclopedia was published. You also couldn’t interact with the encyclopedia and ask it for additional information or different points of view. That was a stagnant, lifeless form of learning---outdated and overrated. Couple that with the fact that I was also a child of a remote, rural area and we couldn’t even get good television reception. My parents (by choice) decided we did not need a phone so my solace was in books and I was an insatiable reader but much of the topical information was also outdated in those tomes also.

Thus you can understand why from the first time I touched the keyboard on a computer and experienced the Internet, I knew that it was manna from Heaven---a natural boon for my insatiable curiosity---it was designed for people like me. Why it was like going from a horse and buggy to climbing on board the Challenger. Imagine that now when I want to know where the largest meteor struck on earth, what time it is in Pohnpei, the latest research on ALS or how long Thoreau spent at Walden Pond, I can find it in a moment’s notice. This is learning the way it was meant to be. To say that I was hooked is an understatement!!!

After having taken numerous online classes from the viewpoint of an online learner, I decided it was time to take the love of this medium one step further and imagine the potential of becoming an online instructor. Thus I enrolled in the online teaching certification program. How hard could that be-----WHO KNEW???

This certification program has successfully brought me to my knees more times than I care to recount. Along with that humbling realization came all of the other “quirky little issues that aren’t supposed to happen but occur with technology”. Around every corner on this continuum, I was confronted with new challenges, sometimes I found a bridge across the abyss and sometimes it seemed like I was being swallowed by a black hole. These times generally came around midnight when I had attempted to do something for the 44th time and still was unsuccessful---but if you can imagine it, I was still unwilling to give in to failure and admit defeat.

In spite of all of this my desire to move into online teaching has never wavered. The cyber world have become like an extra appendage. This is a revolutionary change in teaching. This medium is the unchartered wilderness of today’s academic world. We can only begin to imagine the possibilities. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg, much more lies still hidden from our narrow conceptualized view. Believe it if you can dream it.

And as that dreamer, I imagine a day when virtual reality becomes commonplace in the cyber classroom. I have already witnessed crossing the chasm of exchanging views with classmates on the other side of the world. Imagine how great those possibilities? I also see a time when printed textbooks will be as archaic as the slates students used in the one room classrooms of the past. Who wants to be stuck reading stagnant wording in an outdated text when real time changes are occurring everyday in everything from medicine to horticulture.

I also dream of the day when cyber learning will completely obliterate and bridge the digital learning divide for those in remote areas of third world countries. There will be so many more minds contributing solutions to the problems that face our world! Imagine the potential is limitless. The world is our oyster my friend.

I am a dreamer, but I have admittedly waded through some technical glitches---not enough memory----on the pc or in my cranium and I have hurled myself headlong into quagmires that I thought only existed in the Amazon jungle. I have been stumped, chumped and I’ve almost jumped (more than once) out of this program. I have seriously considered the fact that I might have some type of masochistic tendency that kept me consistently propelling myself forward. Granted sometimes, it has just been my own stupidity----wondering why I couldn’t see the text on a black blog page----duh when I had the font color set to black!! (That little gem only took me about ten minutes to figure out!) Sometimes it has been a case of “no ability----big task” and sometimes it has been just the newness of a concept that has caused me to stumble.

Quite honestly, if you can imagine I have been aggravated, deflated, irritated, flagellated, abated, berated, debated, infuriated, dated, agitated, eviscerated, negated, overrated, inundated, intimidated, humiliated, nauseated and animated but I have also been elated, elevated, ruminated, orchestrated, narrated, vacillated, venerated, titillated, orientated, saturated, sophisticated (?), vindicated, facilitated, fascinated and exhilarated just to name a few verbs that occur to me right now and I have persisted. I would tell any first semester student in this program that is just starting on this journey that they are in for quite a roller coaster ride. Every time you slowly have inched your way to a high vantage point and sigh with relief another precipice appears before you and you breathlessly go spirally downward and holding on for dear life and just about when you are ready to give up you are ascending upward again and enjoying the magnificent view along the way.

Can you imagine that my passion for the potential that lies over the next cyber horizon has still never waned? With this fourth class, the real clarity with all of the bells and whistles finally just started to kick in recently. The pieces of the mental puzzle of class four’s technology overload is just starting to come together in my mind.

Yet despite all of the gnashing of teeth, I still have an unswerving desire to see what is around the next bend in this road. How will the dynamics change next? What new innovation will pop up this year? New software, always new software and new opportunities and new and faster computer speeds, better audio visual opportunities, better communication mediums---imagine the opportunity to incorporate better technologies in a basic course to flesh it out and make it more engaging for cyber learners? Look how far the last ten years have brought us and we have only just begun. Can you imagine?

Beyond all of this are all of the people I have coalesced with in cyber classes, many of whom have my deepest admiration. I particularly admire those instructors who are willing to take that risk and move from the comfort of being the sage on the stage on ground for years to the novice guide on the side online. I have seen many of them struggle with the transition, but they have stayed the course and are working hard to become a part of the new order. Instructors who are willing to move out of their comfort zone and meet the needs of a budding new generation of learners instead of try to dismiss the obvious.

I also would be remiss without mentioning the great ONTL instructors. Imagine that I literally never met any of my instructors in person until I was well into my third class, but they were always available to me when I was having seemingly insurmountable problems. Kudos in particular to Jan Engle----she was always there giving me words of encouragement and spurring me forward when I was feeling defeated and unsure of my abilities. Kudos also to Jan for designing such an exemplary series of classes---the honors her work has received are well deserved. Who cannot ultimately prosper with such great role models?

I know that I am still in the infancy stages as an online instructor, but I am truly amazed at what I have learned in just four short terms---everything from a myriad of new technologies to a wealth of information on effective pedagogy and everything else imaginable in between.

Granted this series of classes is not for “sissies”, and I would be a liar if I did not say that this has been the most frustrating series of classes that I have ever taken. Those without patience and tenacity need not apply. But for those who persevere, there is so much to appreciate and so many exciting reasons to imagine what lie in the future. I am already anxious to gain more skills and move from building my meager cyber learning cottage toward constructing cyber learning cathedrals.

For all of my optimism you may say I’m a dreamer, but I am not the only one . . . (using Imagine by J. Lennon)
Just------
Imagine there's no textbooks
It's easy if you try
No desks to seat us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Joining to solve the earth’s ills...

Imagine there's no third world countries
It isn't hard to do
No one’s thoughts unheeded
And no exclusion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday the cyber world will be this
And the global world will be as one

Imagine no lack of learning opportunities
I wonder if you can
No need for physical boundaries
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing with each other in a cyber world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday the cyber world will be this
And the global village will live as one