Wow! What a whirlwind semester this has been! I feel like we've accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.
My e-learning initiative... If I was in a position to implement this (which I hope to be in the next few years) I would make a push for it. Every bit of information I used to complete this initiative was with my county and the struggles I know we face right now in mind. Designing an e-learning professional development for teachers not gaining a degree or some sort of stipend is a real hurdle we face. There are very specific rules in teachers' contracts about PD happening outside the required time. Designing something like this would be a great challenge in our system.
I also have thought long and hard about a "points system" for participant involvement in gaining knowledge and implementing assistive technology. I first heard of a system like this at the Spring MATN conference last year. Fairfax County's AT team presented and I've since been very intrigued by there system of gaining involvement.
I tried to make my e-learning initiative effective while requiring a minimal amount from participants so they would be more likely to find time to participate. I also tried to incorporate some of their needs into the wiki ( links to support and the Kurzweil library) so participants would be more likely to "stop in" to the site and might get curious before leaving.
This course has really challenged my thinking about online courses. Throughout the semester I have often felt overwhelmed by the amount of course work. However, looking back I feel this was by far the most effective online course I have taken. Group work was by far the most difficult to navigate for me, especially as we are not all full time students and struggle to log on more than a few times a week. It often seemed like a bit of a waiting game. I appreciated the open endedness of the assignments and felt free to create something that would work for me and also teach me.
