Don and Linda Casey

Spring Quarter at CSU Eastbay  is done.  Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning gave me an overview of the process and our professor, Dr. Anne Guptill, made me long for more.  I remember my first few days in class thinking “What am I doing here?”  Then as time went on, I really fell in love with the learning experience.  I now understand how this media can offer as rich or maybe an even richer environment for learning if its done right.  The second class on online teaching models was less fulfilling.  The instructor was disorganized, lacked clarity in assignments and everyone in the cohort had to work harder than need be.  They say that adversity can be the greatest teacher.  If that’s true, then I know how not to run an online classroom from this experience.  The greatest gift of the second class was the bonding of our cohort.  The support and encouragement we gave to each other.  My next class starting in a week is Technology Tools in the Online Environment.  I’m home.

Yikes, I did it!  For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to go to Grad School but every time I think about it, something gets in the way.  This year I will be 53.  Sitting here one night, the question came to me, “if not now, then when?”  I love to teach.  I come alive in the classroom and have a natural aptitude for it.  Then along came online learning and WHAM! all the things I do so well in the classroom became difficult in the virtual world.  The hardest is I can’t see the student’s faces.  When that look of confusion crosses their face, I try a new tact, explain it a different way, draw picture on the whiteboard.  How would I know when they don’t get it?  Asking people to own their confusion only goes so far.  The direction of the responsibility changes and for some students, that’s a deal breaker….It’s OK if the instructor notices, but they don’t want to admit they don’t know something.  So my journey for more information about online learning lead me to a unique program at California State, East Bay.  They offer a M.S. in Education, Option in Online Teaching & Learning.  The program fit me like a glove!  I filled out the application online, paid the application fee, had my transcripts sent from Purdue and mailed off my letter of intent to the program chair.  Good advise, “if not now, then when?”