I’m busy preparing to teach a course in the CSUMB’s Master of Instructional Science & Technology program. It’s online, mostly; a face-to-face weekend bookends the 12 weeks, to meet accreditation requirements (!?!?). And I’m finding that my Just In Time management style isn’t working in a situation where you need to have a site up before it all begins, a syllabus listing all the assignments, coordinated with your fellow instructors.
So, if I’ve been a wee bit quiet of late, this is part of the reason. Head down, beavering away…
On the other hand, it’s a great learning experience, as I have to try to practice what I preach about making it meaningful (without having the resources to do game development), and in particular to make it more social when I’m at heart a solo learner (Marcia Conner’s excellent Learn More Now book was a revelation in many ways but in particular her “learning-together style” assessment instrument helped me realize that learning with a few people at most is my learning style, and more makes me very uncomfortable).
This course is on learning theories, and I’ve read most, but will get deeper on Ausubel and Bandura through the text (Driscoll’s wordy but perfect coverage in Psychology Of Learning For Instruction). It’s more fun than when I designed a similar course for American Intercontinental University a few years ago, since I haven’t to follow their interesting but constrained template (and didn’t teach it).
Still, I think it’s important to give back to the community, and develop the next generation, and keep yourself challenged. And I guess it’s my learning style to take on new tasks.
Ok, back to work…
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