Going Fishing: Looking for My Online Degree
Posted by Pamela Gustafson on December 17th, 2008
My search for online classes was not about getting a degree; it was more like a fishing expedition. It was about finding courses that would help improve my skills as a teacher. Computers and technology were quickly expanding on the education scene and I wanted to be ready. Having watched my son’s intense interest in computers, I knew computers were a venue to reach unmotivated students (which he was at times). During this time I also switched school districts and found out the new district was ahead of my former district in purchasing computers. I looked for practical courses to enhance my teaching with computers, so I chose courses from different universities.
The search started in 2001. The pond of online courses was smaller then,unlike the sea of online classes available today. The University of Northern Iowa had the biggest lake of online classes for teachers. They understood how many K-12 teachers already had masters degrees and needed courses to improve their skills in the classroom. The two classes I took from UNI were “Excel with Excel” and “Using the Internet for Staff Development”
From a flyer I received in the mail from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I found an online course titled “Using Computers to Teach Reading in Early Childhood.” This course required two on-site meetings; the rest of the class was online. In all three courses I felt much closer to the instructors than I had ever felt in an on-site college class. Instead of a once a week intense three-hour session, I received feedback and messages in smaller sound bites. I felt like I was able to converse more with my professors, thereby enhancing my learning experience.
At the same time I was taking these classes I had a classroom with five computers. I could immediately apply information I was learning in my classes. In addition, I created other learning experiences using computers for small groups of students. I discussed this with other teachers in my online classes.
So, I went fishing and I was hooked on the quality of my own online classroom experiences and the power of computers as a motivating tool in the classroom. The classes paid big dividends.
