I got so excited writing this final paper! I really think that it is a viable project and the written assignment gave me the structure I needed to actually articulate and flesh out my ideas.

I'm often an idea-generator, but don't always follow through with all my ideas, so this assignment gave me the spark I needed. I want to send this proposal to Jim Spencer (with slight tweaks).

I do wish I had more room though. I understand the need for being concise, but I wish there was a little more flexibility and recognition that length does not equal quantity. I think a 900-1400 word count would have been good.

Looking Back

As I look back at my previous 4 weeks of journal entries, I still feel like a newbie at online learning.

I do appreciate the assignments giving me the discipline to actually write out my ideas. I also appreciate the strict page limits, which keep me from agonizing too much, since there is only so much you can do with one page. As a perfectionist, I can endlessly overthink something, and having a goal of 1 page gives me some discipline to my thoughts.

I wonder if it takes other people as long to post entries. I'm still surprised by how long it takes me to process everything and write an original thought. In a classroom, I can spend weeks just reading and listening to lectures. In this online class, I'm daily asked to not just absorb the readings, but to write an original reflection that will actually contribute to class discussion. It takes a lot more time and mental energy than a traditional classroom!

Nearing the last week of class, I feel like I am finishing a sprint. It's been a lot of information and discussion compressed into 5 weeks, I think I might prefer the pace of a regular 12 or 14-week course, where you have a little more time to breathe. At the same time, I do like taking just one class, and not having to juggle multiple classes.

Computer Access

I type this on a Friday night, as I regretfully must part with my Apple Macbook for at least a day or so to get it fixed. My DVD drive has been broken for several months now, but now that my Word/Excel function is on the fritz, I finally must repair it because I don't know how else I can re-install MS Office.

I plan to use a friend's computer instead, but it's definitely highlighted the challenges my online students will face, especially those with spotty electricity/power.

Collaborative Work in a Globalized Economy

Our first group project is complete, and it was a pretty smooth process! I was lucky to work with an agreeable group, where everyone contributed and no one was super-attached to any one idea.

One of the advantages of online group work is that it mirrors the kind of collaboration that students will undoubtedly do in real life work situations.

In an increasingly globalized economy, project managers in Texas will have to communicate with partners in Georgia--or India. Without a face-to-face interaction, workers and managers will have to learn how to communicate and collaborate on projects. Making decisions and writing a common paper online may be difficult, but the strategies that students come up with to facilitate online collaboration will help them later.

I think since we all lived in California, it would have been interesting to try to find a time to chat by phone or chat room, but our schedules would have made it difficult.

I keep referring to the Class Roster that Barbara wrote up, when reading students' posts. I think it might be helpful to have a permanent link on the class page where students could refer back to each students' introduction easily while reading the responses. I also think a picture attached to each students' post, might be helpful to create more a sense of community in the classroom.

Dialogue and Collaboration Online

Online collaborative work--especially collaborative writing--is challenging.

It's difficult to have a dynamic discussion, at least the kind that I'm used to, where you go back and forth. Perhaps it is because we don't yet really know each other yet, don't yet feel like a community, where we can push back/challenge each other's ideas, while maintaining basic sense of trust. Things like humor and tone can get misconstrued online, so it's difficult to joke around like you would in a f2f classroom environment.

How do you build a sense of trust in the group so that students can respectfully critique and challenge each other's ideas, without losing the sense of shared community?

I guess, like anything, these things develop over time.

becoming more resourceful and independent

As I juggle my own work and personal commitments, I can see how my students might also struggle, especially those who haven't had the years of classroom discipline that I received. I was always the obedient student who always did her homework. I have always seen myself as a motivated learner, but the self-directed nature of online learning is helping me develop a new kind of classroom discipline.

I think about what one student wrote in a post, about how online students are more resourceful and independent...Does online education encourage that resourcefulness, or were they already like that, and thus attracted to online learning?

How to create structures that encourage deep reflection and true participation?
Just like in classrooms, I feel like simply grading 'participation' on how many times someone raises their hand misses the point.

Writing the Welcome letter for Mini-project 1, I was really inspired to move forward with USP 102: Problems in Urban Planning.

This was an idea for a class that I've carried for a while, but being forced to really articulate the spirit and format made the class more of a reality for me, and something I could shop around.

A few months ago, I talked with a professor in urban planning who recently got a $553,843 grant from the Ford Foundation for a project titled: “Improving Planning and Urban Management in an Era of Globalization.” The project will focus on research and training that supports urban development, management, and planning capacity building in Vietnam.

Right now, the way they do this is by sending 3 Vietnamese students to the University of Hawaii to study and then bringing professors over the month of June to teach about 25 working professionals in Vietnam for a month.

They would really like to reach more than just 28 people, but they're limited by how many people can physically go to these workshops.

I think an online format for these kinds of trainings might be ideal. This welcome letter gives me something I can show the professor as an example of what they could offer.

I really appreciate being able to read other students' drafts for Mini-Project 1 and the kind of collaborative atmosphere it sets up in class. By reading and offering feedback, it sets up structures for students to help each other, rather than to compete.

Competition and the desire to seek the teacher's approval has always squelched my desire to learn and freely experiment with ideas. I'm still trying to unlearn years of seeing my fellow classmates as competitors for the scarce "A's" to be issued by the teacher. It wasn't about the pursuit of excellence, but always circumscribed by what I thought the teacher might want to see/hear/read.

Observations on my first of week of online classes:

Online classes take so much time!! Perhaps part of it might be just the beginner's learning curve, but I am amazed by how much time I devoted to reading even one article, classroom assignments, and navigating my way around the Blackboard and various discussion threads.

One reason it took so long was that even one sentence would prompt me to stop and want to explore it more. For example, in the first paragraph of one article, they mentioned "Indira Gandhi National Open University and Hong Kong Open University, which made me want to Google both schools, because I have a dream of helping to build something similar in Vietnam.

Also, it's hard to resist sending a quick e-mail or my friends' blogs, while i'm in front of the screen, and before I realize it, 4 hours has flown by! In blurring the lines between "classroom time" and "home life" I feel like I'm constantly in class.

It also takes a tremendous amount of mental energy and time trying to really understand what each student is posting. It's easy to post something quickly, but if my ideas are not clearly expressed, it can take a lot more energy and effort for someone else, who does not share my same body of assumptions, to truly comprehend my ideas.

I actually like the rule of limiting people's number of responses to posts, just like in a real classroom, where there is a limited amount of time, that has to be shared somewhat equitably among all students.

Sometimes people who talk (or write) a lot may need to learn how to really reflect and be concise so that others who are more reflective before jumping in, can also participate.

I do like the online format in that it allows those quieter, more reflective classmates a space to talk without having to compete with those who raise their hand (or don't) quicker.

When I am an online teacher, I wonder how I would encourage participation that is thoughtful...not just graded by the number of times people post, but by the quality of their posts. It's so subjective about what makes a 'thoughtful' post.

I like studying with students from all different backgrounds, with some life and work experience. In many ways, I feel like I've been able to learn more about my classmates in a week, than I would have in a more traditional classroom, where we physically would have only spent 3 hours together, with most of that spent listening to the teacher. It definitely makes the us much more active participants in learning.