Image Source: 7 out of 10 SAISD Blogging Course participants responding

“I have found that this course has made sharing information with my students and their families,” shared a recent participant about their experience in the brand new Virtual Learner Series: SAISD Blogging course, available 100% online. That participant went on to say, “Online professional learning/development for work-related purposes is a great experience. It allows for you to learn at your own pace and still offers support for those who need support. I enjoy trying to solve each task set forth independently and only seek assistance when needed.” As the course facilitator, I was thrilled to read those words!

This May, 2009, I launched a new element of the Virtual Learner Series. The SAISD Blogging online course–6 hours in length, earning participants both GT and CPE hours in one fell swoop–is described in this way:

This introductory course on using blogs in the classroom! You’ll have an opportunity to explore how many educators around the world are using blogs, podcasting, as well as various forms of copyright, to transform how they approach teaching, learning and leading in their specific situation. You will also be expected to join the global learning conversation!

To give you a flavor of the conversations ongoing in these courses between SAISD participants, consider the following:

INDEPENDENCE

• I especially love the independence and flexibility offered by online courses.
• I like that I can earn GT hours on my own time.
• I love this as a mechanism for earning GT hours.
• I would like to have more of these opportunities.
• Online courses make it easy to obtain professional development in different areas of need.
• This makes it easier to work courses into my schedule.

MESSAGE TO OTHER SAISD EDUCATORS ABOUT ONLINE LEARNING

• Give it a try. You’ll learn at your own pace and at a time you can pick. It’s great!
• I would highly recommend this course to others. I think it is a great way [blogging] to have information sent out to the community.
• This online learning experience kept my interest and provided me with learning that I know will benefit me as an educator and, thus, will positively impact student learning. I especially enjoyed being able to login at my convenience and from multiple portals (home and work). The content was challenging and interesting and I found that the activities/projects were relevant and, thus, met my needs as an adult learner.
• Try it. You will be surprised.

MAKING THE MOUNTAIN COME TO YOU

However, it wasn’t all perfect. This was my first time facilitating in the SAISD Blogging course, a course I created and launched rather hastily. I expected to encounter a few obstacles in a perfect launch. One I anticipated but thought I could handle included extensive travelling which limited my time to respond and participate in discussions. However, I was pleased to see that one participant wrote, “The course facilitation was awesome. I didn’t have any problems getting any assistance during the entire course” while another wrote, “Yes, the help was tremendous.”

And yet, I could definitely see the truth of this statement, “Yes and no. I was disappointed that the latest info we had was that the course would end at midnight on Friday, yet it stayed up till Saturday. I sent out 3 questions on the support forum asking for the final part but I’ve never heard anything until now.”

One of the challenges of online communication in a forum is that you have GO TO THE FORUM to find out what’s been posted. In my previous course–Intro to Online Learning–I required emailed copies of the forums. This can sometimes result in overwhelming amount of email to course participants…even with this modification, almost half of respondents shared (check survey results right) that there was a lot of email. So, when someone posted something, I saw it immediately. In this course, I decided to see if just having posts shared on the forum would work…apparently, NOT FOR ME. It’s a valuable lesson I take forward into future online facilitated courses.

Some obstacles I couldn’t foresee were seismic. They included 1) Network Outage over a 4 day period and 2) Blog server going offline. Fortunately, both occurred concurrently, not consecutively or the course would have been “dead.” These two obstacles resulted in comments like the following:

• Have all technical issues resolved.
• I think I would have made it a 2 week course, just in case the internet goes down.
• The main complaints were technical which were out of the organizational range.

Fortunately, these were resolved in a timely manner. Some of the feedback about the SAISD BLogging course that surprised participants included the following:

• I am surprised at how much information can be gained by the online course.
• I didn’t expect to learn about podcast and google reader RSS. I really expected only blogging information.
• All the technology applications were fairly easy.
• How easy blogging and podcasts are.
• I was surprised by how easy it was to podcast – and not expensive at all. Thanks for sharing this learning. I also enjoyed the archive of assorted podcasts – in a multitude of subject areas – nice!
• This is for the VLS Blog course. I was really surprised at how easy it is to get a blog going. I really enjoy everything I learned.
• How useful it was and the many ideas I got from it. I really had no idea how blogging worked or how it might be used in a classroom. Now I do.

Finally, participants were asked to create blogs to use in SAISD. Here are some of those along with feedback (when available) from other course participants about their respective blog:

• Julissa Santellanes SAISD Blog –
  Feedback: Great blog. I loved reading about your classes and all your students. Yes, I’m sure it will be hard to see them leave, but they will come back for carnivals , Back to School Nights and to see their favorite teacher. If they have little bnrothers and sisters you can ask them about your former students. That’s how I keep track of my students in highschool, and sometimes after school I’ll hear a voice say, “Hi, Ms.” and I’ll turn to see a tall, young man or woman and try to remember what they looked like in the 6,7 or 8th grade.”
• Lisa Sparks’ SAISD Blog
• Deborah Guardia’s SAISD Blog
  Feedback: Debbie, nice work on the blog! That you’re using it to disseminate swine flu information is also helpful for parents!
• Sandra Segner’s SAISD Blog
  Feedback: Great Job Sandra!! I just listened to your podcast and I will attempt mine shortly. Nice job.
• Jennie Zaldivar’s SAISD Blog