Kristina Lattanzio’s Blog….

Two interesting topics have come up in discussions so far this week:

-How to establish teacher presence?

-What it means to be a passionate teacher.

Establishing teacher presence in an online course is a difficult task.  I understand the importance of being available to students and how the interaction between instructor and student is important in determining the success of a course for both.  During the presentation for module 3, I became more aware of what students are looking for as far as interaction with instructors and what instructors need to do in order to create a greater sense of teacher presence.  The presentation discussed both quantity and quality of interactions.  Adding those elements that show students that we are mentioned in the presentation such as links to talk with professor and culminating activities are thinks I would like to add to my course to contribute to its success.  I think establishing a presence was not something I really thought about in as great a detail as I am now.  I sometimes forget how differently I have to think when creating an online course as oppose to the f2f class where it may be easier to establish that presence and availability to students. 

Discussions in this module so far have caused me to reflect more on what it means to be a passionate teacher.  Is teaching with a passion for the subject something that is a natural gift of the teacher.  Is it something that is gained throughout the process of teaching as the teacher becomes more comfortable with what they are doing?  My discussions and personal feeling reveals that passion already within you.  It is something that shows more and more throughout instruction and as you become more comfortable as an instructor.  I was happy to come across an article that discusses preparing k-12 teachers to teach online.  The characteristics that describe effectiveness in online teaching are those that set the best and most effective classroom teachers…..these characters are a bit more difficult to achieve in the online environment.  I imagine trying to accomplish this through a frequent, known presence and meaningful feedback.  Overall the way you present yourself and your materials is what is going to spark the interest of students and show them that their success if most important to you.  (4)

I’m having some troubles thinking of ways to incorporate audio into my course.  Dictation is going to be such an important part of my course and it’s necessary that I include, but am a little stuck on how to go about this.  On another note, the noteflight website I came across will be a very useful tool to have a student complete creative assignments and assignments where they are required to notate music in some way.  This site allows the user to compose music, play back, edit and share compositions with other users. 

This second module has helped me learn more about the students I will teach.  In particular the article “Do Online Students Dream of Electric Teachers” helps us get to know our students before we actually “meet” them.  While developing my course materials, I refer back to some thoughts in this article to make sure I am keeping in mind, the thoughts and obstacles my potential students may bring with them.  I still am quite a bit concerned in offering an online music theory course…..especially to high school students. 

The most important for me in developing all parts of my course is making sure students know what is expected of them at all times.  Repetition of expectations is necessary for student success and clearly explaining directions and processes for my activities in each module/week/lesson is needed to ensure students will be staying on task.  I have always known that I must not expect that people will know what I expect and not to assume they know how something will work but this module has reminded me of how important it is to put every direction and everything I would normally say in a face to face classroom into a document of some kind in the online version.

The moodle course development area is sometimes challenging for me to use…..however I think this is just a matter of getting use to.  The most difficult part is figuring out how to use and set up the various activities. (3)