Add to that disruption the four weeks away from home without Internet access, and you begin to understand what an imploding experience the class has been. I would love to follow every link, try every option, beef up my blog with cogent comments, Power Points, cartoons, slide shows, pull quotes, drop letters, tool lines, original Photoshop-enhanced photos all warholled, and much, much more, but I am burned out and have done all I plan to do at this time. I can envision many days next school year when the classes will be on task and I will have time to poke around some more--assuming I can recall my user name, blog address, and password. I think I will add those to my substitute bag right away before I forget them.
As far as the experience went, besides the obvious time drain, I anticipated more comments from other participants than were forthcoming. Perhaps I will get more as other people continue with their blogs, or perhaps, like me, they will not take the time to read through a bunch of blogs belonging to people who took the class at an earlier time, whom they will not get a response from, or whom they cannot identify. I don't know the members of our class, and I don't know how to distinguish their blogs from those out of district. Could I branch out a little and learn from an avatar from elsewhere? Of course, I could. But I would much prefer hearing how teachers locally plan to use the tools, how they think, and what they say and leave them encouragement. The list of participants was so long that I read only a smattering of their blogs and left few comments.
Besides having a more manageable group of people to respond to, it would have been helpful to have more face to face and personal sharing time. While it is a pain to have to be somewhere at an appointed time, I would have learned more if I hadn't had to read and write everything. Speaking and listening is a more expeditious method of communication sometimes. Clearly, some classes run that way, for their group photos are on Flicker. But that's so Old School!
I am getting the tiniest glimmer of why people put personal info on their profiles; it provides something for the anonymous stranger to hang a hat on. "I like sandhill cranes, chocolate chip cookies, and Elvis." Whoever cares? But being forced to try to make sense of someone based upon the little they write makes even a detail like sandhill cranes significant in ferreting out a personality.
Personally, I would prefer to save my brain power, scarce resource that it is, for solving a puzzle like how to create political will to institute Alternative Shoreland Standards, switch to alternative energy sources, or impeach the President. But wait...Hook a seeker with a cute avatar, explain/entertain them with a YouTube video, invite them to contribute to a wiki, and voila! another convert to the cause.
Would I sign up again? Do you mean would I give up a sizable chunk of my summer to sit glued to the computer for hours day after day for twelve lousy CEUs? Not likely! Not unless the time commitments were clearly stated up front and the CEU protocol were followed. Mike, you owe me at least 30 CEU's! I know I don't get the cash incentive, but you could at least award a reasonable number of units! Oh, yes, and do you reimburse for the $270 computer repair bill?
Have a great summer, all. The class is truly a worthwhile experience if you care at all what your kids are doing.
