iSean

wow, i think i’ve taught an online class for about 15 straight semesters now and i just realized i won’t be teaching one next semester. i coordinate a program and was scheduled to teach 2 online sections of our undergraduate educational technology program as my teaching load in the winter. however, a colleague of mine is taking his sabbatical and i was asked to cover the master’s thesis students. i have enough students that they’ll count as a section. i am also teaching a special education technology course that meets on 3 weekends (not originally planned — saving my wife from taking it as an overload). so, i had to find replacements for my 2 online sections. what a weird feeling it will be to not be online and to not teach the course i coordinate. on the other hand, i think i can finally take some time to update what i do online.

i also plan to put a huge effort into finishing my (our?) wiki textbook for educational technology. i plan to start using that wiki textbook for the program i coordinate starting in May, so i’ll have my work cut out for me. i hope others join in making the textbook. also, i am going to be presenting on this wiki-based textbook at the MACUL conference in the middle of March.

i have been using Drupal as my online teaching tool this semester. it’s worked very, very well. much better than i anticipated when i started. i was fortunate enough to hook up with folks who are very involved in making DrupalED.org with one of the key guys now working at my institution. they have a listserv that was invaluable as i set things up. but now, after having used Drupal for a semester, i better know how i want to set things up in the future. i’ll now have nearly 5 months to really get things set up so that my online learning environment is fully customized to my teaching style and to optimize things for my students. and hopefully the grade book module for Drupal will be ready by May so that i won’t need Blackboard for anything. that would be nice. and i’ll reiterate that i don’t hate Blackboard; rather, i like providing an example for future teachers on how to teach with technology by using tools that are open source and free . . . just in case they don’t have a school sponsored tool (e.g., Blackboard). but i do think Blackboard has some limitations that make it less appealing to me.

so, i hope the american citizens have a happy thanksgiving. i am off to Kansas for some turkey and pumpkin pie. ;~)

Technorati Tags: Blackboard, drupal, wiki, wikitext, online learning