Originally one of my plans for this quarter was to take a class called "eLearning for Educators" at the local tech college. Since so much teaching has turned completely or partially towards the internet, and since I'm on the nervous side of this transition (because I think in-person learning is better at catering to various learning modes, and that one-on-one interaction informs us more than any personae-popping web conversations are ever going to), I wanted to learn how to use online learning opportunities productively. Plus I thought it'd look good on a resume that has been focused away from pedagogy for over three years.

So, in December, I wrote an email to the teacher of the class I planned on taking, and asked her about who her students tend to be (from which disciplines) and how she approaches the topic, and so forth. She turned out to be very forthcoming and I was rather excited about the class. Unfortunately, it was under-enrolled and canceled.

So, I again wrote to the teacher and asked her if she had recommendations for alternative classes or learning forums. She gave me a couple of suggestions, one of which is her own blog, on which she is developing a series of posts discussing the resources of the web and how to put them to use. She's calling this series "Onramp to Social Learning" and since I know that a couple of you who read my blog from time to time are teachers, I thought I'd post the link here.

So far my favorite new learning from her posts (I've only read one post as of yet) has been Wordle. I'm not sure my interest has utilitarian motives, but try posting your blog's url into the feed! Hmmmmm.