You can't see what they're wearing...

The first time I taught a Hybrid course (2009) I fell in love with the format. (I'm the kind of person who falls in love with things like formats.) It was an advanced writing course for ESL students, and I took full advantage of blogging. We met once a week for 4 hours on Friday mornings; went over some grammar points, often doing small group activities to reinforce them, did some sharing of our writing, and started discussing our next topic/writing style. Everyone left with a writing project for their blog; I went over these on Wednesdays and made comments and suggestions. They could easily re-publish their posts, and I encouraged the use of visuals to enhance their writings. I watched in fascination as the combination of blog ownership, the ease of corrections and the joy of sharing their writings (we sometimes went "Blog Hopping") empowered them to become much more confident and effective writers. From there I developed a hybrid reading course. That joy I felt with those classes was the main reasons I felt hesitation when I had a chance to shift to a new position related to faculty development. 

Little did I realize at that point that my new position would take me even further into the realm of online teaching. I was introduced to the Quality Matters rubric for online teacahing in my first month on the job and - you guessed it! - fell in love with the format. Coming quickly on the heels of my training was a deep need at our institution to develop excellent online teachers. I worked with one of our Deans to put together a month-long online in-service for online teachers that highlighted their best practices. The more I worked with community college teachers the more I felt the need for information on utilizing technology and creating inclusive online and hybrid courses. With the need was so obvious and the teachers so interested in learning, I put together a month-long course for educators called "Technology for Teaching and Learning". It immediately filled up; I just finished the second round. And I find that online teaching can indeed be effective and inspiring as classroom teaching. 

Online teaching has a quieter personality from hybrid teaching, but like a lot of people with quiet personalities that take a while to get to know, they end up being your best friend. With online teaching, you can't see what the student is wearing. But you can see what the student is wondering. The excellent online teacher pays attention to discussions, makers herself available to questions, and sets up a course that is easy to navigate with an atmosphere that welcomes (not threatens) students. There are so many ways to connect with students personally online; you can respond to their needs with explanations, links to websites, and images. I always hated trying to draw things on the whiteboard, and frankly my handwriting is atrocious; my online courses have wonderfully engaging images (I use my camera often) and a great selection of readable fonts. 

The more I work with course development the more ways I find to communicate and develop relationships with my students, and for them to learn from each other as well. I am finding that discoveries and sharing from my online courses - which I can revisit whenever I want - reverberate in my mind longer than a ground class. Teaching online means teaching with the world at your fingertips. This means state-of-the-art possibilities with tools and technology. It literally means the best minds in the world can be part of your class materials. It means your students can study anytime, anywhere, and can ask you any question they want without disrupting class. As I prepare to teach the second iteration of the Canvas course "Hybrid Courses: Best of Both Worlds" - a massive online course about hybrid teaching - I reflect daily on these two teaching formats, comparing them as well as reflecting on and building my own approach and philosophy. The thing I look forward to the most in facilitating the course again is the communication and idea exchange that will go on between the participants, as they learn from and inspire each other. We'll be using a variety of technology I'm incorporating into the course - and developing Hybrid Course Planners along the way. I am also excited because we will have a fantastic guest speaker; Jesse Stommel will join us in a google hangout! I can't wait for this next adventure. (Interested educators from any field are welcome! Enroll here.) I created this week's infographic, thinking about online teaching: 

 

Online Ed: 3 Ways to Save Time

There is a landslide of press on online teaching and learning....Who would have thought things could change so completely and dramatically? What. A. Revolution. 

As an online teacher and learner, I have found that there is only one way to succeed: Stop doing everything else. I mean, Everything.  You can no longer go to the store, do the dishes, feed the cat, pet the dog, or vacuum.  You are now riveted to your computer, about to finish, almost ready to be done, just one more post to write, one more website to browse, and oh! a tweet just for me! How delicious.
Surely your husband/wife/partner/kids will undertand that just as sooooon as you finish this, you will be with them.  Just a few minutes more....

Somehow others seem to be able to combine extremely in-depth online teaching and learning with real life (or IRL, they call it) but I have not quite figured out how. In the meantime, What to do?  Here are some time-saving hints I have come up with:

1. Eat off of paper plates.  I mean, look at how much you are saving the environment by going paperless! It is only fair that you are allowed a little paper in return, right? And think of the time it will save you in washing dishes (and putting them away, if you even even wasted time with that.) Think of the water bills you are saving on.

2.  Stop looking in the mirror.  Really it is too depressing, when you see what you now look like. Just keep using the same avitar or that one photo of that one time you looked great, and get on with it. In the online world, it really doesn't matter. It just takes time away from your online presence, and as a teacher or student, that presence is the core of your identity.

3. Start seeing the beauty of letting a sunny day go by without going outside. In the evenings, don't even wonder if there is a moon or not; enjoy that computer glow on your determined face and watch your keyboard light up as day turns to night.  Fresh air is overrated - once you have let the first day go by, the rest are easier.  Stay focused, and keep typing. Don't let the world distract you! If you never, ever look up when someone tries to have a conversation with you, they will eventually give up and leave you alone.

Surely this will get better soon, and I can somehow regain what used to be my life.  I understand Shirkey's concept  of "It's not information overload, it's filter failure"....and as soon as I figure out how to get a filter on my filters,  winnow down the sites, tweets, blogs, videos, discussions and chats, I'll join you at the poolside.

But first, I really want to explore this online education stuff, and the rest can just wait.