Elizabeth Dehart

I particularly appreciated the section on professional development.  I am becoming increasingly interested in doing online teaching and the area that I most want more training in is the technology tools.  This is the area where I need to be much more comfortable.

I learned a lot about maintaining effective communication on line.  I think I will have to challenge myself to not get too communicative on discussion board activities.  I tend to want to help and intervene too much.

I learned a lot about being properly organized as an online teachers.  As I get comfortable with courses they can become templates for future courses which will assist with my time management.

I learned how critical time management skilss are for both students and instructors in the on line environment.  Instructors also have to provide some time management guidelines and assistance to the students.  Also tech support will be critical for me as a beginning online instructor in order for me to design and teach my course effectively and support my students.

I learned how important it is help the students to keep from experiencing some of the pitfalls of online learnig.  I will need to stress with them to utilize good time management skills, be willing collaborate and learn from their peers, and to use proper netiquette.

I learned about the wealth of technological tools that are available for online learning.  It will be one of my first challenges to navigate through it all to use the right tools in my class.

I learned about the importance of students' reading and writing skills in an online course.  This concerns me because so many students have issues with their reading and writing-- making it imperative that I have supports in place for these students.

I am an ESE teacher in a middle school setting and I learned how accomodations are used in the online environment.  I also can relate to the importance of organizational skills and time management skills for the students and the teacher.  Organizational skills can be an ongoing challenge for me.

I learned about the importance of developing a sense of community by the kind of communication that is facilitated in the course. I also learned the difference between level 1 communication and collaboration.  I can see how an instructor will need to operate with a lot of finesse to effectively engage students in collaborative activities online.

I learned about how the different generations may experience online learning which will help me to differentiate instruction and communicate more effectively with all students.