Online learning with ETAP687: Summer 2008

I have been spending hours of time off line researching ideas for my hiking 101 course.  I’ve been thinking a lot about the required reading.  I found two good choices that I recently purchased and I’m reading them now as part of my homework for this course.  I’m also generating a bibliography of suggested/optional readings.  This is most fun for me as I’ve collected a lot of works on the Catskill Mountain trails and history.  There are some great web resources too.  I’ve been working on the orientation documents for my course this week.  I don’t think Moodle is all that easy to learn, do you?  Perhaps as I use it more, I’ll get more comfortable.  I think I operate like Alex a bit when she said she doesn’t like to use manuals, but rather just push some buttons to find her way around     I might have to break down though and look into the dingo group area for that manual.  Aside from doing my own readings on the chosen textbooks for my hiking 101 course, I’ve also been out there on the trails with hikers.  I’ve been telling them about this course and how I’m developing a hiking 101 course.  I feel like I’m experiencing the course that I want to create!  I’m taking photos like I’m my own student! I’m making sure I complete one to two hikes in a two week period since this course began.   I even want to create the hiking portfolio that I’ll be making my students create.  I should do that so I can use it as a model for the students to view so they know what elements I’m looking for in the project.  I think the area I have to work the hardest on is the evaluation part.  I want to make sure I’m clear with my expectations and that students know what and how they will be evaluated on. 

–Geralynn (3)