Learning curve

At the end of the second week of classes, I am starting to feel more confident about the changes I have made in one course. I moved a lot of the lecture content out of the class time, and have given the students two options for preparing for class. The first option is to read the assigned reading in the text and I do think it is a good text. The second option is to watch a video "learning module" that features slides along with an audio presentation that I have recorded in Camtasia. There has been a bit of a learning curve. I apparently saved the file 3 times in creating the wmv so when students opened it, it looked like the module was 1 hour!

My rationale for making this change was that it would enable to spend our class time practicing the concepts we have discussed and applying the information. How has it gone? Seemingly quite well. The majority of the students seem prepared for class and are definitely asking thoughtful questions. I am definitely coming away from class with the feeling that we have spent our class time making meaning of the concepts rather than me just delivering the information to the students.

Other things that have happened this week:
1. I have continued to explore the journal that will be the best fit for the first article I want to submit and I have narrowed it down to two journals.
2. I have watched several of the archived presentations from ELI 2010. These have really continued to make me think about how I structure my courses and the use of new technologies in my courses. I really would like to contemplate if Blackboard will continue to be the best system for OT process. But I am not sure what the next step could be yet.
3. I attended the BMPR tweetup. The focus was on social media and higher ed. It was well attended and may have helped Luke Rosenberg identify additional participants for an ongoing education-focused tweetup.
4. Applicant interviews started today. It is always so great to see the potential students for next year!
5. I have committed to participate in a learning group focused on research in education. It will be challenge to take on another time commitment, but the topic was too hard to pass up?

Things I need to work on next week:
1. TSAHP board meeting all day on Monday
2. Find a way to increase the rate of data entry for ABCAS (WFOT is in May - yikes!!!)
3. Finalize decision regarding journal for submission
4. Review article for OT in healthcare
5. Identify articles to use for literature synthesis papers
6. Update FLC blog site
7. Find resources to learn about Sakai (sensing another learning curve!)