All the feels this week.
The long weekend was nice but it meant that the training sessions for this week had to be a little more compressed. Tuesday I started with an instructor/consultant meeting first thing and then it was BlueJeans all day. Blackboard basics followed by Blackboard content, a quick break for lunch and then a couple of Bluejeans sessions – participant and moderator. I got my Kaltura homework done for Wednesday and was able to close a few helpdesk tickets. No time for much else.
There was a lot of grief and sadness in my feeds Tuesday night. Ed-tech friends experiencing the loss of loved ones. Not covid related but I’m sure that intensifies things. I am not a public griever. I find it difficult to respond to sad posts even if my sentiment is heart felt, but my thoughts are with them and I can’t imagine how sad it must be in this environment where you can’t visit and your grieving happens in quarantine. A reminder to be grateful for my current circumstances, and I am.
We got more Kaltura training on Wednesday morning. It went a bit fast but I think I have a sense of things – it helped to have done the homework. I need some time to experiment a bit more. I’ve created one screen cast so far and uploaded a couple of videos. The instructors who attended with us seem pretty excited about the possibilities. Margaret and I took some participants through BlueJeans participant and moderator training sessions. We saw some new faces and got some good feedback. I sorted through a few more help desk tickets at the end of the day. Next week is looking a little lighter for training sessions and hopefully I can get some other things done.
Thursday started with Bluejeans for teaching and Learning – AKA bluejeans 3. I like those sessions as we get to hear from participants and they do a little group work and it feels more conversational that just pushing content. Mike and I did grade center and assessments sessions and in between I did one on content and communications. Full disclosure, I had set up for a general overview session and an observant participant set me straight. Somewhere in between those I managed a bit of correspondence and cleaned up some help desk tickets. It’s difficult to flip the switch from facilitator to other work when the turnaround time is so tight.
Friday felt a little lighter just for not having to facilitate. Then, a little heavier with the news from the town hall. Still, I’m feeling optimistic about the upcoming terms and fortunate to be part of a team that is helping with this transition. I managed to get some work done on my sample course for trades and now have about 20 instructors enrolled as students. It’s a starting place for looking at how to organize content and I’m using it as a jump off for my ‘sample course template’. I can see a lot of ways to expand it. There’s always a dance between the ‘how’ and the ‘why’. For something general you don’t want to go too far down either road but they are so integrated… I think I could add some ‘for more information on this… ‘ type of links.
I am super excited about next week and planning the next phases of our workshops. I love the studio format and having people build something to take away. It takes me back to doing the studio sessions with instructors from the University of Guadalajara in the Agora project in 2015. Active, hands on, doing, can’t wait. I should qualify that with, I know how busy I’m going to be… It will be fun to create the sessions though and I know that I have some good collaborators to do it with.
So kind of an emotionally up and down sort of week. Onward.
So sorry to hear it’s been a difficult week for you and those around you. There are some fundamental aspects to being human, like needing to be with someone as they take the next step on their journey; not being able to do so must be devastating in so many ways.
Tough times for so many.