Bill Osterholt

Final Blog

EDU 654 - Dr. Linton

May 1, 2017

     The input from my classmates was very interesting.  Reading their blogs and interpretation of the literature reviews was helpful in understanding the concepts. In reading the comments on each blog, I was able to better understand the subject as well.                                                          

     The student- conducted classes, including ours on Communication and Feedback, were very informative. I absorbed a lot from my peers' lessons. I feel all of this learning will apply to my classrooms and the class plans I formulate.

     Over the years of my collegiate career, I have been in both synchronous and asynchronous classes.  Online classes, such as those conducted on WebEx, are the most valuable to me. As I stated in one of my blog comments, I felt more engaged and involved with the hybrid-type of classes. I have also participated in gamification-type classes. This includes everything from a Sociological class, where the whole class was inside the game Fiesta, to Dr. Linton’s class on technology in 3D GameLab. I also took a Statistics class in Math Lab. These classes varied on the amount of feedback from instructors. In Fiesta, the feedback was from the game itself, very little from the professor. Dr. Linton’s feedback was immediate. In Math Lab if I struggled with a concept, the platform provided video instruction. I feel old fashioned, but the asynchronous learning is difficult for me: I need the interaction.

     Because of my personal illness, I really struggled with getting started. I feel I let my Literature Review group down.  Nonetheless, I feel the course and the subjects covered in the course were extremely valuable.  I recovered and feel that I made significant progress on the learning objectives.