Season Finale

How cool! I thoroughly enjoyed reading through my blog entries from the semester! It was interesting to "revisit" my reflections and observations from the time I wrote them, and gauge how my impressions and sentiments are now after the semester. One thing is decidedly clear from reading my blogs - how much I loved my Flickr team! Rereading my posts made me realize how much I miss our constant interaction now that the webinars are behind us. Thankfully, we'll have the opportunity to have lots of quality time next semester!

Some other comments I have regarding the blogs - it's funny to recall how stressed I was about the webinar before we really got going on it. At the time, the thought of presenting our web 2.0 tool to the class was so daunting! Now I feel as though I could deliver a webinar tomorrow, with much less stress and anxiety. Funny what a semester's worth of confidence can do for you!

My feelings about Horton's book are pretty obvious in my entries- not my favorite, but I have to admit that I did get a lot out of his model and insights. I still feel that the length of the book could have been cut down by at least half and he still could have made his points sufficiently, but that's my opinion and so far, he hasn't asked me. I also laughed out loud remembering the webinar we watched by Downes and reviewing my commentary. My head is still spinning from his diatribe!

I'll be curious to get the final comments on my EdWeb A&D. I hope that it has evolved to a place where Jackie and Patrick feel that it is ready to build upon (yes?). When I consider how the initial concept existed in my head, and where it stands now, I feel good about it. It's much more educational than my initial thoughts were and I feel excited to expound upon my proposal. My anticipation of how the heck I was going to put my thoughts on paper in a clear and concise manner was also something I fretted quite a lot about. I wonder what unnecessary anxiety 5670 will bring?

Something else was apparent to me in this exercise. In a traditional learning environment, a student develops relationships with fellow students where they can bond over what transpires in and around the class. With this eLearning course, I found that I (and is this going to sound CHEESE-Y!) bonded with myself over those experiences more than I have in the past. What I mean to say is, by rereading my blogs, I felt as though I was sharing the experience with myself in a way that I haven't before in past classes. It's kind of like rereading a diary - you reconnect with yourself and your reflections in a personal and meaningful way. Going through each of them, I really don't feel like the semester has been that long - when I have my voice in my head narrating each week's post, I can be brought back to exactly how I felt and what I was experiencing when I wrote it. It also makes me reflect on the rollercoaster of emotions and events my husband and I experienced this fall. The blogs are a wonderful aspect of our instruction, and I hope that they continue in the next semester.

Drawing To A Close

I can't believe that the semester is drawing to an end. Where did the time go? Seriously...? I think it's good that the time has gone so quickly, if it were slow going there might be a problem reflective of my motivation or enthusiasm for the class. Despite what I might say below, both are still very much in tact, and I am excited to kick off next semester and start to build on my development tools.

So much has happened in my personal life this fall that the past 6 weeks in particular feel like a blur. I'm happy to report that I'm still standing at the end of all of the chaos, but I'm left feeling a bit stunned and somewhat numb from so much happening in such a short period of time. It's been said, but it bears repeating, that that's life. Always unexpected. Nothing we can do about it but hang on and go along for the ride.

Now onto school stuff. One observation I can't help but make is the distinction I'm noticing in recent discussion boards between the classmates who are certified educators and people like myself who are not. Not to paint our class in such broad strokes, but it seems as though recent assignments have been less challenging to experienced teachers. To me, this distinction is apparent in this Unit more than in any previous. For example, I feel like I have had a difficult time with the act of stating my learning objectives. I read in the discussion boards where other (certified) classmates said that it was easy to define their objectives since they have to do it all the time in their classrooms. It's frustrating to feel that I can't clearly state what my students are supposed to come away with following my EdWeb. Perhaps it's because I don't entirely have my EdWeb defined yet. Perhaps it's because I don't think in terms of instructional strategies. Perhaps my program isn't educational enough? Perhaps, well, perhaps I'm just clueless. Haha. But really, when I feel unable to state something so fundamental to my project, I start to feel like I'm not going in the right direction, or even that I'm not cut out for this program. I'm sure that I'll feel better about my place in the MA program once my Analysis and Design document is at a place where our instructors feel it should be. It's not there yet. I appreciate Jackie and Patrick giving the additional insights into writing instructional objectives in Unit 11. The latest website definitely was more helpful in terms of making the connection to our own projects. Maybe that's part of my problem with Horton - that it isn't always easy for me to come away from his writings with a clear understanding to how his concepts relate to my own program. I should stop harping on Horton...but I must confess I'm hoping he hasn't written any of the required readings for next semester...

ok, enough "talk"...time to get cracking!