Successful learning activity and one not-so-much

A successful learning activity has been a Diversity Immersion project that students participate in to learn about a culture or population with whom they have little experience. Students pick a culture, ethnic group, religion, lifestyle choice and then locate a group/club/congregation with whom they can interact. They are required to do some research about the "group", participate in at least two events/meetings/services, and interview two members of the "group". They then prepare a presentation for the rest of the class about their experience and what they learned that would be beneficial to know in the event they might work one day in a social work capacity with a person from that "group." I have seen students go from having strong negative biases about a group, to gaining a sensitive understanding and acceptance. It tends to be a powerful experience and one that most students really enjoy.

In the "Not-so-much" category is a learning activity that has worked really well with large classes, but has flopped when attempted with a small size class. The class is about group counseling. The text only covers some mainstream types of groups. I have some chapters from an alternate book that address speciality types of groups, i.e., eating disorders, feminist interventions, domestic violence, grief and loss, and substance abuse. I ask the students to break into small groups and take on one of these specialty areas and do a teach back. In my large class, there was competition and interest in being "the best." They utilized outside resources and computer graphics and put on quite a show. In the small size class I tried it with, there was a distinct lack of interest in doing anything extra. The presentations were limited to the chapters I gave them with very little outside resource information. The students talked about it being just another drudge chore. I suspect part of the problem is that there were only 2-3 students on each topic where with the larger class there were at minimum 4 students in a group so the work was spread around.

Portal for my course

I think since the course I'm going to teach this fall is for our cohort students, I need to keep the portal in a simple to access format. They are in very small village communities with little IT support. Also my own technology skills are so limited I need to make things simple for me. So, I'm thinking that the Blackboard site makes the most sense. With the tutorial we are receiving from Heidi and having access to the Instructor Manual, I should be able to make Blackboard a useful portal.

Pros and Cons of Public Assessment

In the SW ethics course a public presentation/assessment makes sense to me as it is a way to expand the knowledge and information of the rest of the class. One assignment is for students to immerse themselves in another culture, ethnic group, religion, lifestyle, etc. and learn from that participation combined with research. They then present to the entire class about their learning and experiences. They are asked to provide the audience with ideas to keep in mind when working with that population, culture, group, etc. The presentation provides them with opportunities to explore with their peers the aspects of the assignment that were, perhaps, uncomfortable or enlightening and why.

If the presentation were simply a paper read only by the instructor, the student would have a limited audience from which to obtain feedback. There may be others in the audience who have additional information or expertise.

Add-Ons from Firefox

In an effort not to overwhelm myself with options I have limited myself to only a few add-ons. I put Zotero on my computer as well as Clear Cache. The purpose of the Zotero I hope will be to gather the resources I will be using in the development of a web based course on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

Day 1 Morning

Intriguing - The idea that information is just a node and without the connection of knowledge that goes with it, there isn't much usefulness. This was reiterated in Chapter 2 from the Understanding by Design text. Helps me to think about how to teach differently - to help the students have the knowledge they need to make the information useful.

Irritating - that I know I am a digital immigrant coming into this new culture kicking and screaming. Really need to reduce my anxiety.

Head-scratcher - how to even begin to have a network at multiple levels that would become my personal learning environment. Want/need to stop reinventing the wheel (when really in my reality it is barely a round stone).

If information was food,...my balanced diet

For me, balanced means some reading, some listening and definitely some doing to reinforce what I see and hear. I read journal articles and textbooks for work as well as surfing the net and library databases for the latest techniques and research. I tend toward novels and autobiographies at home along with patterns and instructions for crafts and sewing. I wake to NPR and drive home to it as well most evenings. I watch documentaries, the history channel and the occasional prime time comedy. I like old movies. When my partner and I are doing chores around the house we blast golden oldies to make it easier to keep working in time with the music. When our launched kids come over to visit they make fun of our choice of tunes and TV favorites. Their loss for not having good taste! Ha Ha!

Introduction

Hi! I'm a fairly new faculty (August 2006) to the UAF Social Work Program. I've been an adjunct instructor for the program since 2002, so have a bit more experience teaching than being a faculty member and all that entails. I'm excited to have the opportunity to learn more about technology that can assist me in the courses I'm already teaching as well as in the development of some web-based elective courses for the program. Anxiety is ever-present as I approach this i-Teach class as it seems that I stumble whenever new technology is involved. Perhaps the cohort's positive energy will help me along.