Observations

**Observations of interaction between master teacher and students, and students and students**
©Animation Library //* How can an online teacher establish a vibrant online community in their courses? Provide examples from your practicum course.//

Tina has a 'CyberCafe; For off-topic Discussions' her first post was a welcome to the course and the CyberCafe, her second post was asking advice on getting a puppy. She included a picture and a little history about how she helps her husband train dogs for show. This choice of topic is an ideal icebreaker for the age of her students or pretty much anybody for that matter. Allowing this social time to get to know each other and to post without worrying about content is important when building the course community.

//* Interactivity is not inherent. It must be designed. What are the instructor's strengths in creating an interactive climate in the online course? What are the instructor's strengths in designing interactive activities?//

This course is a Web Design course. The instructor has done a nice job of pacing the activities from getting to know and understand how the WWW works, to looking at and critiquing pages and graphics to actually beginning to design graphics for their own website. She has broken down the process of web design into practical chunks and has designed activities that encourage the students to study the area and share their thoughts. We are into week 7 and so far the weekly lessons have been organized around the following; Start Here, Search of the Web, Historical Background and Current Trends, Purpose and Function, Website=Navigation+Content, Aesthetics, Graphics and Multimedia.

//* List aspects of the instructor's interaction that contribute most to student learning.//

The Instructor is very active but also lets the students help each other. I have noticed that when students post a technical issue, the instructor is NOT the first responder but she is a first responder when a student has posted some frustration. I believe this is probably the instructor's greatest strength; knowing when to lead and when to let others lead.

//* What is the primary type of student interaction in your practicum course?//

I am not honestly able to judge this completely. The Private Threads of the students are not open to me and there seems to be quite a bit of activity there. I will only be able to answer this from what I see in the Lesson Discussions.

//* What is the level and type of student participation in the course?//

There seem to be a few high posters as in every class. There are nine students enrolled and I feel as though I have talked with 5 of them on a regular basis. I am sure if I could go into Private Threads I would see the others with a variety of excuses:) Participation centers around posting your own work and thoughts, to supporting others to just saying hello. It looks to me like the 5 who are consistently posting and supporting each other are getting a lot from this class.

//* When you teach in the classroom, how do you facilitate interaction between students? Do you have whole class discussions or do you break the class into small groups?//

I do both but I prefer small group and individual instruction. Whole class instruction will depend on the needs of the class. If the topic is new to most of the students with only one or two having background knowledge I will address the whole group but will ask those with prior knowledge to listen for what might be new to them and to feel free to help me out with any suggestions.

//* When you teach in the classroom, how do you deliver the content to the students? Do you use PowerPoint complete with audio and animation, black and white overheads, a chalkboard or video?//

I do not use black and white overheads and we do not have chalkboards. I do not like my handwriting so I shy away from writing on the whiteboard. This is reserved for minimal facts. I use my computer with an overhead projector, an interactive board, PowerPoint’s if I have had time to make one and if I felt it would help, and I do like to use videos from commoncraft.

//* When you teach in the classroom, what sorts of interactive things do you use in the course? Do you have students move their desks around to setup the classroom the way they want it?//

I teach students and teachers who to live and work with technology. The interactive things would be the computers they use to try out the things I have shown them and the online activities they are expected to participate in. In my current position this is not an option, the classroom is not mine. When I taught primary we were constantly changing the setup but I usually had my desk off to the side corner out of the way and available for individual conferences over work and basic pep talks.

When I taught second grade and before laptops I would use the plastic manipulatives from Math-their-Way, individual chalk boards (we now use hand held response devices), and dramatics:)

//* Select artifacts that represent great examples of interaction between teacher-students and students-students from your practicum course.//

This is hard to do because the prior discussions are unavailable. I will need to go from memory. • One student was reminded to be careful of language. He made a statement like, "The graphic on this page s---s because it is too dark." The instructor commented back, "C needs to be careful his language."

• The teacher offers suggestions and encouragement in an unassuming way; " Hi CI I wonder if it matters that you have a period in the name you are using - Cass.lastname. I wonder if it would make a difference without the period - such as Casslastname. Just a random thought."~Mrs. Avery

//* Write reflective statements for each artifact, elaborating on why it was selected and its meaning and value in the portfolio.//

• The instructor could have let this go like teachers often do in the hallways of the school. The student was making an otherwise solid statement that was on topic he just used some language that he probably hears everyday. I believe the instructor made the right call here, she set the tone for better language use and did so in a to the point nonthreatening way.

• The instructor offers suggestions but does not pretend to act like she knows all the answers. Her suggestions are encouraging, food for thought types of remarks. As a student I would be very inclined to listen to and use her advice while adding my own thoughts and ideas to the process.