Reflection 13

This week we are starting to write our philosophy. I'm sort of loss of what is being asked. When I think of a philosophy, I think of a teaching philosophy, what do I want my students to get out... how do I want to teach, include in my lessons, prep....etc So for this philosophy I'm not sure how to explain it. I think we are saying how learning occurs virtually and online. I know through this course I learned online using the Google Hangout a lot. Whether it was writing to our team after hours, or meeting with the team or 1-1 on a hangout (video call). We researched pedagogy and different learning methods. It's so fresh in my mind, that the big project we created was our online course. It turned out to be an online training course for Survivalcraft which was created through a weekly site.

I have mentioned this before, but to have a successful learning environment especially online, there needs to be communication within the group and relationships built. It's important for everyone to feel apart of the group and receive immediate feedback. Some other things to remember when creating an online course or taking one. Is to stay up with the times. Things are changing all the time. New iPhones are being invented, new computer screens. Now they have a screen that is bent. Which is very cool. During our reading we read about all different countries and their online learning environment. We need to have an area where everyone has equal access, incase they can't get the same education/classes as others.

This week and next I'm gathering my thoughts and aligning them how they connect to the standards from this course. At least I think that's what I'm supposed to do. I feel that our group is kind of confused on the requirements for the philosophy. It would be nice to have an example to go by or an outline to look at when creating our philosophy.

Mia sent questions to go by for this reflection so I'm going to answer them below:

• What are your initial thoughts and feelings about it

I enjoyed this class. There was a lot of reading which made my brain hurt. The online course, which turned into a training course was a much better option that creating an online course and another one to do in a classroom... I think we should work on the online course, slowly and each part at a time (assignments, throughout the week). I think this will make it not be such a huge project at the last minute. Also we can review each part/section at a time and review tweak as much needed. 

For the philosophy, I'm lost, I don't know where to start. I think I know what I'm doing, but I will send an email for clarification.

• what is hard about it and what is easy?
• Knowing what is being asked, or how to start. Reflecting putting my own opinion on the topic.
• what are the resources you think you’ll need,
• blogs, other information that goes with my opinion and thoughts on learning online and virtually
• do you have what you need to write it,
• I don't think so, I'll use the blogs from the course to get an idea, but I don't have an outline to use
• where are the gaps?
• We never really went over any part that could be included, so just getting a topic to write a philosophy, I don't know what weeks we read about that might be irrelevant or relevant to the philosophy. It would  be nice to work on the philosophy a section at a time throughout the course. Maybe we did, but it's not clear to me if we did this.