Class reflections: Past, present and future

I would like to use this post as a platform to reflect on the learning opportunities I’ve engaged in the past few months, as well as learning opportunities on the horizon.

Last spring I took EDTEC 449: Video and Hypermedia in the Classroom through the World Campus. I learned a lot about video I never knew before, both technically and (dare I use the word) pedagogically. By that I mean I learned that video adds another dimension to the learning experience, appeals to different learning styles, and is often a very appropriate means of conveying complex concepts. I’m not a big fan of the “talking head” videos, and I don’t know many that are. It’s a bit of a snooze to have to engage the eyes in a medium that is flat, often poorly filmed and poorly planned, when the same information can be conveyed just as easily through text and/or an audio podcast. Great course and I am much the wiser for having taken it. :-)

Over the summer I’ve attended a few conferences and presented at two of them – the Hendrick Adult Learner conference and Web 2008. They were both worthwhile experiences, as was this year’s Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) conference. I’ve also engaged in decidedly less formal learning opportunities, such as my ever-increasing breadth of rss feeds, twitter friends, and conversations with colleagues and teammates. Summer is always nice. I will miss it though I look forward to my favorite season, fall. And fall, gentle readers, means back to school.

Two learning opportunities with different degrees of formality will be in the picture for me this fall. One is another class I am taking for credit, ADTED 498A, Teaching Adults Responsibly. Sounds onerous but doable. Though I’m sure my thinking on that premise will be shaken up, down, and all around by the time the semester’s through. The teacher of the course has already promised that we’ve “signed on for an adventure.” I’m sure it will be challenging. The other course I’m taking informally (though it follows a decidedly formal structure and can be taken for credit) is called “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” and is moderated (taught) by George Siemens and Stephen Downes: http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivism. We’ll see how well I do keeping up with that one. I hope to participate as much as possible, whether as the proverbial “fly on the wall” just observing the conversations or indeed as an active participant.

Wish me luck.