Fall Semester Reflection

Do you read your colleagues’ work online?  How often? What is it like to read their work? How does being able to see everyone’s work online at any given time change the way you do your work?
 Yes, I read colleague's work online, about once a week. I often only go to those blogs I know well, or those of my friends. If anything, this approach makes me put a slight bit more effort into creativity, for anyone to read and enjoy, and not directly for a grade.

How has the publicly and always visible course blog made this course different from one without a blog?  How would the course change if the course blog disappeared tomorrow?
When it's visible to everyone, the first thing I think of is not to bust through for points, but to offer something valuable, or evocative for everyone else, and it would lose this slight edge.
 
Has publishing your work for the public to see changed your approach to completing an assignment? How so?  How would your feelings about the course change if you couldn’t publish your work that way?
I would most likely be working more out of a points formula. Involve all points off of a checklist, and continue. 

Has your experience of the physical classroom changed because of the open & online aspects?  Where does your learning actually happen?  
A majority of my learning comes through free flow thinking. Beginning with one aspect of a subject and allowing interest to  continue the education, followed by reflection and work onto these interests.

You were described in the Macarthur Foundation/DML  interview as “a pioneer”-- how do you describe the experience on the edge to people who haven’t been there (friends and family)?
This experience is not for everyone. It's not. Then again, no one approach will be able to fit a hundred AP students. It does allow for innovation that other courses can not, and we try to promote innovation as much as we can. 

How do they respond when you describe the brave new world in which you’re working?
Generally they are very interested in the whole process and how it works.

What do their responses mean to you?  What effect(s) (if any) do they have on you?
It has an interesting effect on perspective on me. There is no way to actually understand the process without participating in my own opinion.