EduFolios

Yes my dears, I now that I’m very late with the assignments, but here I’m trying to catch up.:-)

I’ve been going crazy with all the sudden stuff happening in my life right now, but I have to confess that I got so frustrated with this jing and slideshare thing that I almost decided to quit. It was not until now that my sister explained it to me that I finally understood how to use it!!!!!

Since I don’t have a class to show you I decided to do a presentation of one of my life’s passions: Special Olympics!!! I’ve been working with the athletes since 2005 and here you can see a jing of the Puerto Rico Delegation in the past two World Summer Games.

I hope you enjoy the presentation!!!

Special Olympics World Summer Games

Since last week I didn’t get the chance to play with Prezi and do my post with it, I decided to try it for this week!!!  Here I summarize Chapter 5 most mportant recomendations.  I didn’t know if it was possible to put audio on the presentation, so please let me know about this!!! I’m eager to learn more of Prezi!!!

In conjunction with Chapter 5, I also watched Lisa and Pilar’s presentations and here are my reflections on all this week topic:

• It’s not good to take the syllabus of a face to face class and just copy it for an online class
• We need to take our current syllabus and students FAQ to take action and start an online syllabus
• I prefer Lisa’s interactive syllabus that the kind of text syllabus that chapter 5 talks about
• Every aspect of the class & policies should be clearly stated to students
• I’ll use different and separate tabs/categories for aspects such as grading, communications, assessment, availability, course policies etc.
• I like Pilar’s idea of putting in red the due dates and specify what counts toward grading
• I also like the voice authoring intro before each week schedule in Pilar’s syllabys

In terms of comparing Moodle vs. Blackboard syllabus, I liked Moodle the most. Love the way everything is there in the same page!!

Sorry I’m late with week 4 post, but my new job caught me unguarded!!! Hope not to be affected on my certificate!!!

In terms of course design I think I will use the following elements for my Basics in Notary Law future class:

• Weekly readings or text lectures on notarial topics
• Video lectures on how to draft different public instruments
• Power point and/or Prezi presentations on related topics
• Discussion forums, chat sessions and/or FAQ pages
• Weekly exercises for reviewing and correcting public instruments
• Wikis for group project in which I can see each students contribution to the project
• Assigned online research of jurisprudence and law amendments

I watched the Prezi video and love this different kind of presentations!!! What worries me is that it seems to take a lot of time to get used to it and develop a desire presentation. No matter that, I’ll give it a chance and I’m willing to use it in my classes.

The HTML tutorial was great. Even though I had a website like 10 years ago, I totally forgot it.  It will be useful for my class if I decided to have a dedicated website for the course.  Then I’ll be able to have all course materials in it (syllabus, lectures, etc.) and could build all sections, including the FAQ, by myself.

In general, I enjoy this week’s assignments because now we are getting more specific in the how to’s of an online class.  I’m excited in week 5 theme, the syllabus, ’cause for me it’s like the spine of any course!!!

After doing all this week’s readings and videos, I’ve realized how fortunate I am for taking this course without having teach online before.  Now I have a big picture of how I should  design and develop successful online courses.  I can start from scratch and do my best to implement the seven principles in my teaching.

A possible class that I can give is Basics in Notary Law.  Some of my goals for the course could be:

• That students learn the principles and fundamentals of the Puerto Rico Notarial Law.
• That students discover the most common faults and mistakes in public instruments and affidavits.
• That students understand the highly importance on staying up to date with notarial law amendments and jurisprudence.

Objectives for the class could be:

• Helping students understand the readings of the Notarial Law and its regulations.
• That students be capable of producing a variety of public instruments that will be corrected for faults and mistakes.
• Having them do web based research on most recent amendments and jurisprudence for public notaries.
• Getting students to share thoughts on the subject.

My Begginner’s Questionnaire grade was 16, meaning that I am more presentation focused.  Knowing this will help me achieve my goals and objectives because  now I know which specific strategies to use on my teaching. For example, I would probably use video recordings of my lectures, provide them electronic files of the law, use Google Docs or word processors tools (hidden text) for the public instruments drafts and correction, having students search for information on law search engines and include forums and blogs for online discussion.

The Getting Started Chart reminded me that as a rookie I need a lot of help. The chart will help me achieve my goals and objectives because it help me understand that I am focused in a combination of lecture & discussion/groupwork.  I decided that Moodle is the best and more effective tool for my teaching style and needs, because it will help me organize my materials like a syllabus.

Reviewing the 7 principles, I realized that in order for my goals and objectives for the course to be consistent with them I at least should:

• use email, social networks and/or conferencing tools to encourage more contact and exchange with my students
• use blogs and posts  as active learning techniques
• give prompt feedback to my students through email, videos or word processing tools.

This week’s lecture was definitively what I needed to start thinking on the how to’s for my future online courses.  Now I feel like I’m on the right track and ready to start the race!!!!

Here in Puerto Rico we have been hit by hurricane Irene and tropical storm María in less than three weeks. As a result, I don’t have Internet connection at home and apparently is going to take much more time. Because of that, I had some difficulties on doing the assignments for week 2 in promptly manner.

So as our textbook says in chapter 1, I focused in my teaching and then on how to do it with the online tools that I have. How I did this? For the past 4 hours I’ve been using my iPhone to complete all the tasks for this week.

First of all, I used the You Tube app to see Lisa’s and Alec Couros videos. I liked a lot when he said that formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning, as informal education does. Then, I used the safari browser to checkout the different teaching blogs. From the recommended websites, I liked Delaney Kirk and awyatt’s ‘Thinking Things’ ones. I agree a 100% with the flipping the classroom article in Delaneys’ blog.

The next step was the RSS reader thing. I had no idea how this can simplify my daily web browsing experience. So, after reading the article, I had no choice but to look for an app that could help me with that. Since I don’t want another email account, I decided not to use Google Reader and I downloaded the Free RSS Reader app. It is a user friendly app, so I didn’t had any problems adding the Pedagogy First blog feed to it. And last but not least, here I am fighting with this small keyboard writing this post and going back and forward to edit any errors I made. But after all this stormy circumstances I’m done wih week 2!!

My name is Denise Figueroa Martínez and I am from Puerto Rico.  I have a BSBA in Human Resources and a Juris Doctor. I am a notary public, solo practitioner in civil litigation. and a consultant with various non-profit organizations and small businesses. In order to begin knowing each other, here is a picture of myself with my dearest and precious Brandy!!!

One of my career goals is being an online professor in the business and law fields. I am actually working very hard to get an opportunity to do so with the PR Department of Education and/or other colleges and universities.  That’s why when my sister told me about this program I did not hesitate to become part of it.  This will not only enhance my knowledge, it will be a great asset that will increase my chances of achieving my goal.

Even though I am an internet freak,  I have to confess that I had no idea on how to create a blog and I have never taken online classes. So I am a rookie in every sense and I am super excited to start this new adventure in my life.

Hope to get in contact with all of you soon and be enriched with the knowledge and experience you will all share.

Hasta la vista!!!