Week 2 Journal

Well, after an exciting start to this MOOC process the first week, things have taken a more meandering approach this week. I had a lot of false starts, reviewing the goals for the week, reading diffimooc and wiki posts in the different groups and beginning to form a decision about which group to join. . .then moving off to another group. So basically lurking.

The same pattern continued with my attempts to find good resources for assessing and teaching different learning styles and abilities. I would look at something, start to read it, then find the list of other resources and go surfing off to other places. This was very ineffective for nailing down actual resources! I did bookmark a few sites and articles, which will post to this blog. But at this point I am really missing big paper-filled buildings called libraries. There, I can stand in front of one book shelf and find a few books with exactly what I need. But, "Que sera, sera".

This brings up a very important tip to remember in my future teaching: when sending students on internet journeys, make sure they have a very good map and they stick to it! I think I need to just use other people's maps from now on to keep me more on track. But I'm not quite sure if that's what this MOOC is all about. How much time should I invest in trying to find my own treasures that no one else in the MOOC has mentioned yet? If I feel my time is better spent just choosing my favorites from the things already posted, is that okay?

These are questions I would love to be discussing and Twittering this week, but unfortunately I have other things going on every evening. It just might come down to doing 2 classes at once on Thursday. . .I wonder if my other professor would mind my dividing the time between Twitter and the Webmeeting?

At the end of Week 2, I have hit a mini-wall. But I decided on a Wiki group to join, so that's a start. And I'm going to keep lurking in other groups, because I'm bound to pick up on some good things. Let's hope for more concrete evidence of progress in Week 3!