Colin and Danika are joined by the Kings, Tim and Alana to discuss eLearning in it’s various forms, but in particular the eLearning Ontario system for teaching students in Ontario.
Have a listen!
You can grab the MP3 here – Edupunk Podcast Episode 6
View the video over at Spreecast.
iTunes should be updated very shortly to download all the chatty goodness.
Spreecast now has embed codes, which I’m not sure WP likes, but we’ll try..
http://www.spreecast.com/events/edupunk-podcast-episode-6/embed-medium-520
Edupunk Podcast 
May 29th, 2012 at 8:45 pm
I’m a bit late to the party! I have been listening to all the podcasts in one shot as I walk the dog and I wanted to say that I have really enjoyed all your episodes. This one about elearning was particularly interesting to me since I have been teaching online for about 10 years in the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning program at the University of Alberta (Alanna King is one of my students!)…so hearing your perspectives as students in online environments, but more importantly as teachers who teach K-12 classes online, was really powerful for me. You gave me lots to think about, especially in terms of the importance of some synchronicity in online classes. I have to admit I don’t do a lot of required synchronous sessions in my classes (I teach for 3 different universities, all in online programs) for a number of reasons. Mostly, I guess I recognize that most of my students are busy (working full/part time, many have family responsibilities, etc.) and there is a perception that they won’t sign up for courses or programs with required synchronous sessions. Perhaps that perception is wrong, but that has been my experience. Also, when I have had optional sessions (usually as a way of bringing guest speakers into a class), often very few people ‘show’ up. Hearing you talk about the live class times at some other universities gave me some food for thought.
I also appreciated and agreed with the idea that it is important to have social spaces (synchronous or asynchronous) for online classes at any level. In my own classes, we make use of ‘coffee talk’ spaces on the discussion board, wikis, Facebook pages/groups, etc. And I try to be always available by phone, skype, email, etc. so that students can chat with me directly. I know students in many of my classes also organize group skype sessions or google chat to connect with small groups on a more personal level.
Thanks so much for so many interesting episodes–they have kept me thinking while I’m out walking the dog these last few days!
May 30th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Awesome! Thanks for listening and commenting! 🙂