Wowie Zowie! Today I was honored to teach my very first computer class. It was so different from teaching my regular writing classes! A huge thanks to everyone who attended and for your patience with me in trying something so new. And a huge thanks to Sarah Shera for making these programs possible through CALS.
I spent the first 30 of 120 minutes giving a powerpoint presentation. That info is available in a separate post. The remaining 90 minutes of class was me taking everyone through the step-by-step of making a free wordpress blog, choosing a theme, editing title and tagline, creating a first post with title, text, and an image. For some students I was able to additionally teach how to embed a hyper link to provide the source for the image. Wow!
I quite unrealistically thought there would be time to create blogs on several sites and compare features. I had no idea how hard it would be to lead 25 people through a step-by-step of the process. At every stage of the way, different people had different questions. I’m glad I was able to answer and help with most issues, but I was afraid students would leave feeling frustrated instead of accomplished. I didn’t realize how each additional person added to the class, unlike in a writing class, would multiply the individual questions and concerns. And, also unlike a writing class, 2 hours was simply not enough time to accomplish the basics!
So. I’m definitely not giving up. I’ve learned a lot. Next time we offer this class, I want to cap at fewer students, so I’m not robbing anyone of 1-on-1 time. Maybe we can offer it twice back-to-back, and split students into day 1 or day 2 groups. And I definitely want a longer class duration to be able to cover more ground. Meanwhile, I think I might need to start a video blog (vlog!) so I can show people the step-by-step not in real time, so they’re able to pause, rewatch, etc.
Despite all the unexpected challenges, everyone in attendance did a great job rolling with it and staying upbeat and enthusiastic! I definitely want to do more to help provide information that’s relevant to your needs, and I’m going to be brainstorming on how best to do that. Stay posted here for updates!
You Rock,
Jobe
J. Jobe 