I communicated these new understandings with my teachers and learned more about online communication and how it feels to be an online teacher! I’m learning to just try stuff! Self-confidence in succeeding follows letting go of the I can’t belief! Because what I’m finally learning here is that I’ve had a lot of conditioning and mind habits that say I can’t do this. And it’s time to let those tapes go. I’m done. I can do this. And I am! I appreciated Kevin’s 5 tips to spar

Caring for people’s feelings when chatting online (participating in online forums, etc.) produces an inviting tone and helps make safe space online. This is one thing I want my students to learn. SOS – Safe Online Space! Wednesday, January 21 was my Waterloo Day. I completely hit bottom with online learning – on two levels. First of all, I was frustrated with the learning process. Second, my daughter’s been sick for four months. Third, learning the material and the new t

Since writing is the major way we communicate on line at this time (!), and since we're all basically solitary sitting at our computers, not in a face-to-face (F2F) class together, how we write to each other is essential. On the other hand, taking risks is important, too, in order to really communicate. So empathy and positive communication are essential parts when playing on the online stage. This is a discussion post I wrote about creating community online. Green Group Di

“To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding, in spite of distances or thoughts expressed, can make of this earth a garden.” Goethe (1) said this beautiful thing about community, which can also apply to an online community. We create an online garden, or safe haven, when we follow the Golden Rule as we do in life: Do unto others as we wish others to do unto us. And because we’re working online and primarily with the written word, its corolla

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. - Henry David Thoreau (1857) Don’t merely write to be understood. Write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood. - Robert Louis Stevenson I’m learning that learning is an emotional thing because we’re being vulnerable. Words like emotional, spiritual, sacred, freedom, creative, and awareness are in our writing this week. Our posts are intellectual discussions that must be communicated wit

​"Embrace the frustration. It is evidence of learning." - Paul Mugan, course intern, E4E So completely excited about taking this course and this certification! I’m so looking forward to learning about a field that requires my entire skill set. Also, getting into the eLearning and On-line Certification is itself a miracle. I worked so hard for this and am entirely glad to begin. Ah, but now as I begin “real” life intrudes and I feel frustrated. I find myself unable to und

Myths- Did They Try It? It totally surprised me that there appear to be so many educators who don't favor online teaching and learning and I wonder if they've tried it yet! It makes sense from a very human level that we don't necessarily like to try out new things - on that level it makes sense entirely. OK. But teachers kind of specialize in new things, right? New students, new info, new technologies - in this day and age, especially, knowledge is being constructed and re

In this discussion we were to post a number of memories about the year we graduated high school as a way of getting to know each other and learning how to post! Ruth V. Barton's Memory Lane Ruth Barton Jan 5, 2015 9:11 PM During the heart of Rock'n Roll we thought the coolness of the 1960s was completely over but of course in hindsight the 70s were really cool, too. In 1978 the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out, as did Saturday Night Fever. Disco was still g

I am so very happy to be creating my very first blog! It will be about education - specifically online and brainbased learning. Here's a photo of my absolute favorite place to be: I later inserted writing in other blogs and dated them according to the writings' dates. #photo