Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Yes Deanna! I'll take DSEP 7100 totally online!

Deanna had a look on her face that showed worry. "Could one of you teaching this spring be willing to take your course totally online?"

The room was silent. Faculty looked at each other and then eyes looked downward toward agendas. Perhaps they were thinking about the possibility ... or not.

Determined to solve a problem, she continued. "Students in our cohort feel like their spending EVERY Saturday in class. We thought that going hybrid would open up the calendar, but to meet all the contact hours of a three credit course, students are not only working in electronic course- delivery systems, but also are coming to a Denver classroom. Anyone want to try it?"

I felt my courage swell slowly through my armed until I shoved my fist into the air dragging the rest of my arm with it. "Sure - I'd love to go totally online. I don't exactly know how to do that yet, but I'll give it a try."

Now I had done it. I had publicly committed to go totally ONLINE. And I typically do what I say I'm going to do. And, now ... I'd have to do it. What was I thinking?

At one time I vowed never to teach a class totally online. I argued that I had to see the "whites" of their eyes, to be able to see what was going on inside their heads. Now how silly is that? I never could do that in a face-to-face class session, but I guess I thought if I could see the "whites" of their eyes, I'd at least have a chance. In fact, I had been threatening to take my hybrid courses for the principal-licensure program and make them more interactive, but never did. The intermittent campus sessions and a healthy use of email and phone tools seemed to be working just fine (or not). But now, (for better or worse) I was jumping into a totally online experience.

I had no idea if this would be a complete flop, or not, but as of 2-2-10, fourteen fabulous DSEP 7100 students are not only ONLINE in their electronic course delivery system (eCollege), but they have also in two short weeks completed the following logistical start-up activities!

1. Participate in 1 or 2 BlogTalkRadio introduction sessions.

2. Attended (or watched a recording) of a synchronous Adobe Connect Virtual Session.

3. Kept track of their start up activities on a collaborative google document.

4. Indicated book review preferences for an assignment in a google document.

5. Listened to Martina McBride's DO IT ANYWAY music video and added Voice Thread comments to a Voice Thread prepared by ME !! :-))))))

6. Posted You-Tube video links to the threaded discussion section of the DO IT ANYWAY content tab in eCollege.

7. Reviewing other students' music/videos on eCollege and commenting in a threaded discussion as to how those songs/videos speak to them about leaders, leadership, and leading.

8. Took a 3-2-1 Zoomerang Survey about 3 things they learned, 2 things they are doing or thinking about doing differently since that new learning, and 1 take-away idea that will guide future behavior or decision making from the five preceding courses in their program.

9. Participated in a Doodle survey to share preferences for future synchronous class sessions.

10. Created Blog Links in Blogger.com to share significant learning from our Cashman text, Leadership from the Inside Out.

11. And, made it through WK 02 activities focused on Conceptual Frameworks and wrote a response in a threaded-discussion page on their initial thoughts about the usefulness of a conceptual framework to guide future leadership behaviors!

I'd say we're launched! To be sure, we aren't totally CONFIDENT about what we are going yet, but building trust and developing a solid online learning community. During Adobe Connect sessions, students can be seen holding their children, drinking wine, tending to pets and other distractions -- all while participating in a synchronous session that does not require anyone to drive to Denver, to park, to find something in a hurry to eat, and to make your way to the classroom for a scheduled learning experience. Instead, we plan to schedule these sessions as we need them. Learning is happening all over the place.

I'm very excited about the possibilities of this totally online course. I also love the learning I'm doing to acquire facility with these new tech tools. I just hope that these students will be generous with me as I acquire skills at the same time they do! As I listened to the recording of our first class session, I was thrilled to see that students could come in here and watch this recording if that had missed the synchronous session and feel like they had been part of the group. On the other hand, as I listed to what I was saying, at times I sounded completely incomprehensible! Even with a script!

So, in closing this blog entry related to the DESP 7100 Leadership in Education, I'd like to say a special thank you to the students in DSEP 7100 this semester ... for DOING WHAT IT TAKES to get into our course learning environment, for signing up for tech tools that you didn't know how to use, for struggling along with me to learn how to use them, for completing our start up tasks, for checking over book review options, for thinking about the five prior classes and associated new learning, changed behaviors, and the take-aways, for having the courage to put your "mugs" right up there in our Adobe Connect Virtual Class, for doodling your synchronous class preferences, and for getting comfortable with the Monday through Sunday night weekly class rhythm.

"So, Yes Deanna. Absolutely yes! I'm thankful that I volunteered to take DESP 7100 totally online!"