Week 1

The post below was written by me a week ago. As I am new to blogging, it wasn't clear to me how to divide my texts into different parts.  It was added to another post but I think it is better to move it to a new section. So here it is what I wrote about week one.

It is only the 5th day since the course started but I have already made a lot of progress. :-)

My relatively good result on the "Am I Ready for E-Learning?" survey made me happy and optimistic. Not more than half an hour later I already had to face some problems when I started using Mozilla Firefox. (I used to use Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.) Although I followed the given instructions I kept getting a message “Application Blocked”. I updated the applications, changed the privacy and security settings but it took me several hours to solve the problem with activating Java. What have I learnt during this? Even a seemingly easy task may cause a headache; it is worth being persistent.

I had 100% doing the "Intellectual Property Quiz", which was reassuring for me. I agree that this is a key question and you have to be always fair.

When doing the "Pre-Course Listening Assessment Pilot" I became ashamed. I understood everything but I made some mistakes right at the beginning because I forgot what I had heard. Oh dear, old age! Then I concentrated more and the final result was good enough.

The next step was to get acquainted with Blackboard https://blackboard.uoregon.edu/. I find it easy to use and clear. I can say the same about the eTeacher Program - Webskills - Course Website

 at https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/home as well as about Nicenet.

To tell the truth at the beginning it was a bit unclear how the different sites: Blackboard – Russell’s Wiki – Nicenet – Blogger are related to each other but the more I visit them, the clearer I can see the connections.

On Nicenet we had three topics: Introduction; giving opinion on the Ground Rules for Discussions and writing about our first impressions concerning our Reflective Teaching Blog.

Introducing ourselves is a great idea. I am extremely happy to be a member of this multicultural group and I’d like to get to know my colleagues. I really miss the photos next to the introductions and I am sorry to say that in some cases I even do not know whether my colleague is a man or a woman. I wonder how much the others may know about my country, about the situation in which we teach, we live, how different our backgrounds are. I read the introductions with a great interest and I hope to find not just nice colleagues but friends as well.

From the teaching point of you view my favourite activity by this time is using Google maps for learning. It has been totally new to me and I am still in the familiarization phase but as soon as I feel prepared enough, I will use maps with my students. I think they will like it.

I have already started studying the Sample Blogs and I am amazed how many great ideas there are in them. I am now just at the beginning of this course but I hope the time will come when another teacher will find  this blog as encouraging and helpful as I find the ones I read. :-)