Facilitating Online Learning - Week 5

Whew! This week is finished. All that is left is to put the final touches on the group project. Seems like there has been a lot of work in this class compared to others. Not that this is a bad thing, just an observation. This class has been probably the most beneficial of all in the program. I am looking forward to putting some of this to use.

I finally got my 15 minute presentation out of the way. And, of course, I was worried about nothing. It went fine, the discussion was good, and I had plenty of material. I could have gone another 30 minutes on what I had prepared. Glad it is finished.

This week has focused on collaborative learning and groups. My experience with this has been mainly positive. For the most part, all of the collaborative work has been evenly split among the group and we have produced real quality material. There was one class where I took the lead and asked for participation from the group and got no response. I was responsible then for finishing all three group assignments myself. That was frustrating but I was not willing to take a zero for the assignments.

I am not so sure about the socialization aspect. I think social networking is fun but I struggle with this in an educational setting. I see how it can work but I can also see how one could lose control of the situation. I think that schools using a LMS are in a better position than those using places like Facebook and other public social sites. The LMS can be better controlled and does not allow for outside interference.

Now, off for a couple of days for Thanksgiving then back to work on week 6 assignments.