I'm continuing to teach here at NIU until I begin the program (hopefully Fall 2010). This semester I teach 3 courses: Geog 101 - Survey of Physical Geography, Geog 256/556 online - Intro to maps and mapping, and Geog 359/557 - Intro to GIS. This week will be our second week meeting. I'm excited, because this is the first semester I feel prepared enough in advance that I can breathe between lectures and assignments. I've always been able to keep up, but I've found that it truly does take a few years of experience, gathering info/examples and redesigning lectures based on how they preformed to really find your niche.
I'm excited to teach an online course this semester since it has allows me to explore new teaching strategies and will provide me overall experience in a variety of teaching realms. I've also been able to learn about and incorporate fun technology into that and other courses. For example, my newest find has been Wimba (Pronto & Classroom) which integrates very well with the student course site: Blackboard. For now, I am experimenting and familiarizing myself with the program by using it primarily for my Online office and providing them with an Online student lounge/study room. I will hopefully be able to branch out and use it more extensively in the future as I become more familiar and comfortable with it.
Prepping my first online course has gone smoothly so far, because I was lucky enough to receive amazing tips from another Faculty member who has lots of online teaching experience (Thanks, Tonya!). I feel much more comfortable about the structure of the class and eager to see how the technology will hopefully improve their overall experience with online learning. I've also tried to integrate a bit of it into my face to face classes, so hopefully its a great experiences all around.
We'll see how it goes.
