Before making a transition into teaching online, I think I will reflect on how my teaching experience began. I received my California Secondary Teaching Credential in 1969. Yipes! Has it really been that long?! My teaching career began at a middle school in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. Teaching art to junior high school aged students when you're only barely past your teens is not something I would recommend to everyone. It was a fairly rough school and I suddenly realized that paints, plaster, paper, crayons, and glue can be used for more things than artwork. It was time to re-evaluate my future.
I enrolled back in college and received a Master's Degree in communication disorders with a specialty in audiology. I was hired by L.A. City Schools as an educational audiologist. This was certainly more like it! I enjoyed the hearing impaired students and learned that teaching them, their teachers, and their parents about hearing aids and hearing loss was continuing in the field of education, but was more in line with what I wanted for a future.
Jump ahead to 1982 and I am living with my husband and first child in Northern California. I was working two jobs as an audiologist. The first was in a developmental center where I assessed the hearing of the residents. There was some teaching involved, as I was able to convey to the staff working in the residence halls how the client's hearing affected their ability to learn. The second job was in the office of an otolaryngologist where I was testing hearing and counselling patients about their hearing loss. So, again, my life as an educator was continuing. I retired from the field of audiology in 1999.
Starting in the early 1990's I began to take classes in computer graphics at the local junior college. Photography had always been an avocation of mine and I was interested in the digital darkroom. I became an Adobe Certified Instructor in Photoshop and in 2001 landed a job as an adjunct instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College, where I had studied. It was great fun and I had come full-circle back to the classroom. I moved into teaching Adobe Photoshop Elements in a hands-on class with each student sitting at a computer and me helping them understand and use the program.
I'm finally up to my current job! Whew! I bet you thought I would never get to the point. I'm continuing as an adjunct instructor and teaching HTML and CSS. For those that are not sure what that means, it's the code used to put together Web pages. Many of the classes in our Computer Studies department are taught online. I would dearly miss working face-to-face with a classroom of students, but time marches on and teaching online is now a part of the field of education.
Teaching online certainly has its good points and I'm looking forward to developing the skills that it involves. It would appear that online students might be a bit more motivated to learn than those who actually have to physically go somewhere to sit in a classroom. Experience will tell me whether this theory pans out.
I have been surprised to learn that online classes can involve small group collaboration. This chance to provide a social experience in a class where people don't actually see each other sounds like an exciting direction for online teaching. I was not aware that online learning can become a group activity.
As I embark upon this study of the process of online education, I will add to this blog. Bye for now! Diane
Hello Diane,
ReplyDeleteIn my blog post I commented on how the online community can be used in traditional classrooms as well as its obvious uses online. We are in a time when instructors should use all avenues of teaching available to them in order to reach as many students as possible. I believe a blog such as this is a good way to get through to students in the traditional classroom as a means for: group discussion, supplemental reading, and keeping students current on how the "real world" applies to what they are learning in the classroom.
Thank you for your post.
Ben Beshwate
Diane,
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great history! You have been a busy person. I work with Photoshop almost everyday in my full-time job of designing brochures and class schedules and updating the website for the college. I think it is really cool that you teach courses on it. I also use and teach Adobe InDesign.
I would agree with you that it seems most online students are more motivated than students in a face-to-face classroom. And I say most because not all online students are motivated. Some students think online classes will be easier, but in fact they are sometimes a little more difficult. I think to be a successful online student you have to be motivated and a good manager of your time.
In an online class I was taking last fall I was also surprised to have a group assignment. This assignment was a group paper, and I thought we would have to meet in person to complete it. But, we each took a different section of the paper and turned it in to the group leader who put it all together. We shared our thoughts and feedback over emails, and it worked out really well. I think it saved a lot of time having this group project online because we were all focused with our comments and the awkwardness of having to get together never happened.
It's strange because as a student I really enjoy online classes, but I am not sure I will like it as an instructor. I think I will really miss meeting students "face-to-face" as you said. But I haven't taught an online class yet, so I really don't know what it is like yet.
Leah Unruh from class
Hi Diane,
ReplyDeleteWow, you have had an interesting career in different areas of education. I haven't been in it nearly as long, as I got a much later start. I did start though with middle school students as you did. But I was a little older and it wasn't art. Middle school students can be a pain, especially if you have 30 or 40 in one class, but I love teaching them. I currently am teaching K-12 in an charter school so my contact is much different with the students than it would be in a regular classroom, I work either one-on-one or small class settings of 10-12 students.
I love photoshop and photography, having worked some with digital photography in the past. I am currently taking classes in digital imaging and would love to get certified in it and teach it.
Online classes are a definite part of the future of education. Even in face-to-face classes are now using the internet and many aspects of the online environment.
Toni Kirby from class
Ben: My daughter is a graduate assistant at the University of Michigan and I wondered why she created a blog for her class. Now I understand! A whole new world is opening and it's very exciting.
ReplyDeleteLeah: An InDesign user! I love that program. It's even with Photoshop when it comes to coolness.
Toni: Your current teaching experience sounds like fun. There's nothing like a small classroom for making you remember why you love to be a teacher.
Thanks to all of you for posting comments! I enjoyed reading them all. Diane
Diane, I really enjoyed reading about your experiences. I have never taught online, only taken online classes. I am learning so much about how to structure classes. I agree with you, I was surprised about the group experience in online classes. I found it a little difficult at first; however, now in retrospect, it was just different, not difficult. I look forward to reading more! Heather
ReplyDeleteDiane,
ReplyDeleteWith your background in communicatinve disorders and audiology I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can create online courses that recognze the diversity of student needs.
I have not taught online either but when I've taken online courses they have been as if not more social then f2f courses!
Raquel