Day 4 of the magic continues!

What a wonderful experience I have had teaching the “Distance Education Tools” class for the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences program at USU .  The students are fantastic. The content is usable and exciting. The days just fly by. Just when we think we cannot get anymore into our little brains, someone gives another great workshop on a tool that we no longer want to live without. Part of me never wants it to end and the other part is not sure I can handle one more day.  We are all excited about Kirk and Joey cooking lunch for us tomorrow though. They are the greatest. I wish I had 1/10 of their energy. Of course if I did I would probably be out waterskiing instead of here learning with all of them.  I would definitely have missed out.

Yesterday we learned about Google Docs, Flickr, Skype and Wimba.  All great tools and even better presentations. Today was no different with presentations on Moodle, Powerpoint, Jing and Camtasia. What more can I say than it has just been magical.

Nothing more interesting than a classroom full of excited learners!

The second day of  my “Distance Education Tools” class was full of so much energy you could just feel it in the air. We had mini-workshops on Twitter from John Vasas, Wiki’s from Tina Smith, and Podcasting from Joey Mittelman. I love listening to the questions and watching everyone get excited about seeing something for the first time that they had just heard about before.  I have tried really hard to create a reason for the students to continue to use the tools throughout the week so that they can solidify some of their skills.  I think that too often in a class like this you just see it done, but then you can’t remember how to use it later, so you never do. The continued use will hopefully allow them to ask questions while the experts are still there.  I love to hear how the students are already planning how to use some of the tools in their own teaching and job applications.

When you really think about it, a class like this can be very transformative.  We are now giving our students skills and tools to use, that will change the way they use their acquired knowledge. We (and I include myself in this since I am learning as much as anyone) are gaining power.  Power to make changes for others that will enrich lives.  Very exciting! Can’t wait for tomorrow.  I am sure it will be just as good.

Teaching or learning. It’s a toss-up which one I like best.

What a great day in our Distance Education Tools class.  The students are fun and excited about what we are learning and fantastic to help each other and add to the knowledge base. There is just some kind of synergy that happens when everyone is collectively teaching and learning at the same time.  Every single person has something to bring to the table. We learned about my favorite social bookmarking tool, Delicious,this afternoon from John Sanchez.  He did a great job, especially since we were dealing with some unknown technical issues.  It goes to show you that being flexible and staying calm can get you through most things. I have been bookmarking things for the last month that I thought this class might be interested in and giving them a Delicious tag of INST6105.  We have quite a collection going on now.  Hopefully we can continue to add to a great start.

If any of you would like to see some of the things we are doing you are welcome to visit our class website. From there you can link to our class blogs. Currently it is a work in progress and will eventually house links to all of our class mini-tool-workshops.  These workshops will be stand alone modules that can be reused by anyone to teach about one of these tools.

Preparing for a class can be tougher than taking it. ; )

You know how many times you have heard people say that they learned much more preparing for a class than the students.  Well, I am feeling that way right now.  I have been preparing to teach a Distance Education Tools class at USU for 6 months now.   It has been quite a ride and I have learned an awful lot.  I am sure I will learn even more from my students. Today one of my students, Stephanie Hamblin, is teaching us about blogging.  I will be asking my students to blog each day of the class and review and evaluate the day.  This is a great reflection tool and will help me in evaluating what is going on and make changes during the day.