Lessons Learned

Well, here I am at the end of my last course. Although I had no doubt that I would make it through to the end, I knew it was going to be the most demanding and exhaustive undertaking than at any other time during my PhD journey. This was not because the course work was that demanding or the work load prohibitive ,but more so the demands on my time in addition to the work load requirement. As the President and CEO of two new educational companies, and as the leader with staff dependent on guidance and direction proved to be almost overwhelming...I say almost. If not for the understanding of the professor regarding key assignments, there was no way to successfully complete this course.

This was a great course for me and I learned a lot. Although my experience as an instructional designer brought me in contact with most of the technologies covered, especially as far as the web is concerned, the emphasis here was an academic approach and perspective. My past experience had been mostly in the corporate arena. So there was plenty to learn with respect to the area my business is focused in. For the past three years my company Learning4Today has been the company with the innovative approach to using technology in our curriculum and pedagogical model. We have been dedicated to education, the use of technology and the cognitive development associated with the use of emerging technology. immediately blogging (which was new to me) made sense and I could envision several different uses in my business. And wikis provided an inspiration for a community of practice for teachers that tutor in my program as well as teachers everywhere to share the kinds of strategies/tricks they employ to explain or teach skills to students to help them be successful. For example, while on one of my recent trips to Alabama, I was seated next to a woman who identified herself as a math teacher as we engaged in conversation. When I talked about my tutoring company and my idea about a wiki to share Tricks, Strategies and Best Practices, she immediately shared a strategy she employed when trying to explain slopes in algebraic problems to students that had a problem grasping the concept. She also indicated that she was dyslexic and had a problem all through school with reading. I asked her how did she overcome the problem and she proceeded to explain a technique she employed when reading. WOW! this is the kind of content that I envisioned, would populate the wiki I was developing.

So there was plenty of useful information and ideas from my peers that I gained during this course that made it extremely worthwhile. If you are a teacher please check out and contribute to http://tutorteachingwiki.pbwiki.com/ .