I love teaching, because of many reasons.  Most of them involve the ability to continue learning while I am helping others continue to learn.  Not only in the methods, but the perspectives others bring to the work I put together.

Alex asked me to take a look at the following 5 criteria, and how I am able to use these to stay on track, and which are presenting a challenge.

– Passion for teaching “You don’t need to be an amazing technologist” (Pickett, 2008)

Keeping the language conversational in a-non F2F course has been a bit of a challenge.  However, I’ve learned that if I keep things in the first person, I am better able to get through to the students.  Likewise, keeping from making the website nebulous has enabled me to create a simple design that my students will be able to read.

– Willingness to “rethink” how you teach – reconceptualizing what you do F2F in the online environment (Pickett 2008)

I’ve realized that it can be hard to rethink how I teach if I focus on the format instead of the content.  I’ve got to look at the content differently by using these new tools to present the format in a different manner. It’s been a challenge to put the F2F environment aside and focus only on the distance learning format here.

–Commitment and time to develop (Pickett, 2008)

The time I’ve taken to prep this course has put a strain at times on other things I’d like to be doing.  But it has created opportunities for me to be able to be more disciplined in my use of time (vs. filling time for the sake of filling time.”

– Complete course prior to teaching (the discipline to do so) (Pickett 2008)

It’s been such a joy to be able to look 8 months out vs 2 months out to plan this class.  Although it is due in just a few weeks, I now have been able to plan much further out than I’ve been used to.

– Institutional/administrative support (Pickett 2008)

As a small business owner, it’s been something I’ve been used to to depend on myself vs others for support.  However, it is so important to count on others the busier I get.  Incorporating this step will be the most important for me in developing a routine to focus on what’s most important vs the things others can handle.

Robert (3)