Monthly Archives: May 2017

OTL301 – Post5

Working through this “Teach” course led me through all four phases of critical inquiry.  I found that I worked through the process in a predictable order. My first post of the course reflected a triggering event in that the activity got me thinking about what makes a high quality online course. It also set the stage for engagement during the next part of the course, bringing me back to my initial thoughts on teaching presence.  My second post was a clear exploration of my initial inquiry, reflecting and expanding on my ideas of organization in an online course.  The learning activities created for my third post was an example of integrating the ideals of teaching presence in my classroom. I also categorized it as the ‘resolution’ phase because I had to come up with a solution or a way of using the concepts of this course in real, hands-on activities.

I did struggle with the resolution phase in that the dilemmas presented in this course are mostly directed at online learning environment which truly doesn’t apply to me at this point. I did my best to learn the concepts and alter them slightly to be more applicable to me.

I like the idea of creating activities with the critical inquiry model in mind, and I believe it will take some practice to ensure lessons ensure students work through the entire process. I think starting activities with a question may help students engage by using their cognition skills to come up with solutions, rather than just presenting material straight to them. This would ensure a triggering event, hopefully followed by the other three phases.

I do believe that working on an open platform to share ideas is valuable.  As on online learner myself I really relate to some of the struggles mentioned in the reading material of this course.  It can be hard to be aware of my own misconceptions when I don’t have face to face peers to reflect ideas off of. In general i am an “out-loud” thinker and learn by talking about concepts. Using an open platform is a way to help students share ideas without having to be in the same room at the same time, helping overcome this barrier.

OTL301 – Post4

I continue to alter each of these assignments to suit my face to face workshop rather than an online open learning class. While the assigned reading in this lesson is geared toward blended learning environments, I was happy to find helpful information in regards to f2f classrooms as well.  I was particularly drawn to the section on creating social presence in a face to face classroom. The article made me aware of the importance of creating opportunities for community and collaboration during each workshop I teach.  We usually start each workshop with a group accessioning activity. After reading this article I am going to make a couple small changes to ensure the students must work together even more in collaboration to ensure accurate specimen sorting and processing.

The second section of this article on cognitive presence also got me brainstorming ways to keep the students engaged in critical thinking throughout the class. About half of the workshop is traditional ‘lecture’ learning and the other half is hands-on. I am in the process of creating a presentation to go along with the lecture material to ensure we cover visual, auditory as well as kinesthetic learning styles.