Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Closing Blog for BOLT 101

I began the blog with a description of a bee swarm and I used it as an analogy for my experiences in the course.  Now I have an opportunity to sit back and reflect a bit.  The swarm will be part of the course I am building -- Beginner Beekeeping Course, and the swarm will be part of the course.  My screencast has already been incorporated as well.

Where did I spend a lot of my time?  Honestly, it was learning the technology.  Sandy was a tremendous help to me.  For example, I visited her three times today with various issues, and she helped me through them, but I also found that things did not work well for her at times either.  The experience made me feel good to a degree, because I did not feel too bad when she had problems as well, and my frustration declined.

One part that took me a substantial amount of time was setting up a new course (beginning beekeeper course) and trying to install it on Canvas.  I tried to copy Dave's page, in so doing, I discovered that tables were involved, tables did not move using the placement buttons, and even Sandy had difficulty.  We eventually decided that part of the problem was the browser I was using.  Then I vaguely remembered that Dave liked Chrome.  I am starting to ponder the change from Explorer to Chrome.

I have concluded that I need to spend more time on Canvas in a consistent manner.  I have not taught an on-line course, and my major experience with Canvas is the grading system.  I have to move to a new level of familiarity with Canvas to move to the delivery of an on-line course.

The course also made me yearn for uninterrupted time.  My phone would ring, someone would knock on my door, a family member interrupted, etc., and I was again reminded how I yearn for uninterrupted time where I can focus, follow a line of thought, and make progress.

Where to I go with the swarm analogy?  My thoughts are that similar to a swarm, there all untold possibilities of what can be done with on-line technology much the same as a swarm -- there is tremendous potential for what can be done!



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