![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.superpages.com\/cities\/weathericons\/smoke.gif?w=648\")
The smoke in So Cal has given me some time to think about last Friday’s workshops (it’s not like I’d go outside or anything!).<\/p>\nThe smoke in So Cal has given me some time to think about last Friday’s workshops (it’s not like I’d go outside or anything!).<\/p>\n
Jim<\/a>‘s plan for the workshop went well, though we did have to remind people that their big goals should focus on pedagogy rather on content. As people talked about their needs, I created a list of issues and possible solutions<\/a>. The list was organized as we went along, according to the categories I semi-remembered from the current e-learning research. Because each presenter had different strategies, a lot of possible solutions emerged.\n<\/p>\n At the Showcase which followed, I had expected instructors to show off their online classes, but since each only had 10 minutes, they each showed one<\/i> special thing they’re doing. What was really apparent in both workshops was that two key strategies for online instructors are:<\/p>\n For example, one instructor wants to do foreign language conversation online, and becomes an expert at Skype and Elluminate to achieve that goal. Another wants to duplicate work in groups, and becomes expert at the Groups feature in the course management system. Another loves podcasting, and begins recording lectures and posting them with RSS syndication. They ask questions, they Google things, they play with applications. After the initial learning curve, creating materials or facilitating interaction takes very little time.\n<\/p>\n The smoke in So Cal has given me some time to think about last Friday’s workshops (it’s not like I’d go outside or anything!). Jim‘s plan for the workshop went well, though we did have to remind people that their big goals should focus on pedagogy rather on content. As people talked about their needs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37,10,13,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","category-online-teaching","category-pedagogy","category-program-for-online-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9854,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/9854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.circuitcity.com\/IMAGE\/product\/detail\/wac\/EC.WAC.PTZ431WCCS.JPG?w=648\")
Historian Karl Golemo demonstrated not only his PowerPoint with Audio, but also talked about having students submit assignments as PDF files, then commenting in handwriting on his electronic Wacom Intuos Pad tablet using Bluebeam PDF Revu<\/a>. (This approach, it turns out, is featured in recent research<\/a> by Vicky Morgan and Cheri Toledo<\/a>). Julie Harland<\/a> demonstrated how she’s integrated Pearson’s Course Compass<\/a> CMS into her classes. Louisa Moon<\/a> showed us her illustrated lectures and how she runs discussion in Blackboard (she’s been my inspiration for years!). Karen Smith<\/a> showed how she structures discussion for hospitality students (who often have English as a second language). Kit Hudnutt showed how she has used Articulate<\/a> software to create interactive units inside the CMS for internship orientations.\n<\/p>\n\n
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.web-sters.com\/sweetspot\/images\/sweetspot.gif?w=648\")
In other words, each of us has a “sweet spot”, something we care about or a technology we love to use. We get really good at it, and it provides the core of our online classes. This was enlightening to me — none of us are great at all of it, but our sweet spots keep our enthusiasm going and that communicates to students, even (or especially!) in an online environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"