Summary of Week 1: General Feedback

I feel that I am getting addicted to our class. Coming back home at 10.30 p.m. after my evening classes I promise myself to go straight to bed and have a good sleep before my morning classes, but when I enter my room I feel so tempted to see what has been happening here – I push the taboo button and spend three to four hours with you. I don't want to miss a single line of you, my dear friends, both teachers and participants, because I realize that just in a nine-week time this wonderful opportunity will be gone and I should value every minute of it.

The end of a week is a good time to reflect and summarize. 

Following advice to give information is manageable chunks (Guidelines and http://umbc.uoregon.edu/eteacher/webskills/material/webskills_discussion_guidelines+rubric.pdf) I will split my reflections into three parts:

1)         General feefback (down here)

2)         Experiences with using Nicenet

3)         Experiences with blogging

So: General Feedback

This is my first experience taking a distant learning cause. I was mentally prepared, as back in 2003 I was a participant of an International Visitor Program offered by the U.S. Department of State, most of which was about distant learning, a buzz word at that time. Besides, a couple of my friends took distant learning courses and let me see how it goes. However, knowing things and doing things are two different stories, and my first experiences gave me a lot of positive emotions. I find it highly effective and convenient (we can do things when we have spare time).

One thing I definitely like about this course is its practical orientation.

The second good thing is that there is no spoon feeding. There are guidelines, but we feel free to decide how and when to do things. At the same time, in case of difficulties, our tutors give us timely replies. Thank you, Sherie and Jodi, for that. I know that it’s a challenge to timely see what is requested by every individual here.

I like that the course is highly interactive. I wish all the participants were active. There are people I was fascinated to meet who, unfortunately, seldom pop up. It's a great pity. I wish I could hear from EVERYONE. 

In the middle of the week I started started experiencing difficulties with matching posts with people. So, I decided to compile a table with the names, photos, location, professional data and hobbies for each participant. I copy-pasted the data from the Introductions and from blogs. I found it VERY helpful!!! Now, each time I read something I go to this “registry” to have a look at the photo. After a couple of days of doing so I feel that I can already clearly identify all active participants.

The tasks given have been useful and manageable. However, I don’t think I have performed them with excellence. Here is what I wanted to do, what was done and what remains on the list.

Planned	Done	Remain
Reading the instructions Week 1	+ (missed the rubrics, had to go back and re-read)
Exploring the course website	+	Have to read more materials suggested there
Filling out the needs assessment survey	+	Would like see the results after everyone fills it out. Please, suggest how I can do it.
Introducing myself	+
Getting to know other participants	Have an idea of about 10 participant, interacted with 8 (only half of the group – what a pity!)	- Look forward to more details about others - Read Vijay’s poetry- Explore the map to see the place where people live (I did that only with the first ones, and I find it rewarding) - talk with Hassan about encouraging  students while teaching technical writing
“Registry” of Participants	Have created it and half compiled	Have to complete 9 entries Paste in online for others to check the data and use it too.
Ground rules discussion	+
Nicenet	+	Have to paste fun links I promised to Yuliya
Creating my own blog	+
Reading other blogs	Have visited 17 blogs	Visit the 3 blogs that are missing  now- Check the links suggested by Salam (http://salam-sparrow.blogspot.com/) -Continue reading blogs

The reasons why I could not complete what I wanted were: 

1)      I didn't have a CLEAR idea of how to set priorities. Solution: better planning

2)      I wasted a day and a half, because I had to repeat the creation of my blog, as the first version of it was made inaccessible by local IT providers (a technical problem)Solution: resolved

3)      Having several email addresses made it difficult to handle my mail. Now I have one address for this course, which has made my life easier.Solution: resolved

4)      I spent too much time trying to follow everybody’s posts and blogs, which is time consuming. I still don't know how to get to the last postings straight away. If someone knows it, please, advise.Solution: discuss this on Nicenet

5)      Trying to compete my “registry” I kept visiting the blogs, which were not completed by the time of my first visit at the end of the week, in hope to find the missing photos and subscribe to. I found this on some blogs, but entries for 9 (!) people still remain unfinished, which mean I will have to make another round. I think respecting deadlines would save time of others. Or, at least, letting other people know when we are going to do what is expected from us. Solution: talk about it on Nicenet

The conclusions I have made:

1)      I should be more attentive when reading the assignments and do more reading of the materials.

2)      Each week I have to create a detailed check list

3)      I should reverse the order: fulfill the assignment first, and then do interaction

4)      I will check the postings close to the deadline.

5)      I should better proofread my texts (oh, that’s a burden for me!)

I have to stop now. As soon as I have another gap in my schedule, I will write about using Nicenet and blogging.

I look forward to your comments on what I have written here. Have you experienced the same problems or different? How did you cope with them?