Fifth Class: Fri, Feb 6

News Flash…Rec 130 Students Still AWOL

It is a beautiful sunny winter day in North Bay…as students gather for the start of their Friday 8:30am class there is a definite optimism in the air that perhaps spring is around the corner.

With some apprehension, I login to Contact North to begin today’s class. My "in-class" students and I anxiously watch as “e-class” students login…our worst fears are soon confirmed...the original 26 are nowhere to be seen.

A quick recap...for newcomers to this Blog...when this experiment in e-learning first started there were 26 brave souls who registered to take our Rec 130 course by Distance Education through Contact North’s “e-class.” Meanwhile, another 87 students elected to take the course “in-class.” After a few weeks, it was decided to register all 113 students with Contact North and to offer everyone the choice to attend sessions either “in-class” or by “e-class.” Problem is…that at our last class the original 26 students were not able to access the Rec 130 course…sadly, today these students are again missing in action…the good folks at Contact North have been notified and are working to fix the glitch.

On the positive side…for today’s class, a few more students have migrated to the “e-class” option. I view this as a positive...only in the sense that these students have consciously made a decision to try something new and are not afraid to boldly embrace new technology.

Creating a Community of Learners

At the start of today’s class, I inquired if there were any questions about an upcoming research assignment…an “in-class” student wondered about possible research sources…almost instantly an “e-class” student sent us a web site link she had found and highly recommended…this type of quick response and willingness to share is what Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd, no doubt, means when he speaks about harnessing the power of e-learning to create a community of learners.

Also, included in today’s class was a wonderful PowerPoint presentation, complete with music, which had been previously emailed to me by a student. E-technology makes it extremely easy to engage students and to encourage their active participation and contributions to the teaching/learning process.

As part of our discussions today concerning waiver forms, I had downloaded sample forms from the Internet for “in-class” and “e-class” students to critique. Again, the ease of gathering and sharing this information made our class more relevant, timely,and interesting.

A final observation on today’s class...with interest I continue to monitor text chat messages that flow back and forth on our screen throughout class...while most chat could obviously be deemed “social” or to be more polite “non-class related”… nonetheless; I am becoming very impressed with how effortlessly students are able to multi-task…they have the ability to exchange quick text chat with their classmates while still being attentive to what is happening in class…it is most intriguing…is it possible this casual banter may actually have the unintended consequence of helping to create that community of learners…where students are comfortable and willing to share information and help each other succeed?

Prior to signing off today, it was mentioned there will be no Rec 130 classes next week…students are involved in off-campus program related activities.

Our Rec 130 adventures resume Wed Feb 18.