Module 1: Online Teaching Introduction

This week was a matter of cleaning house and preparing for my mentorship through
GAVS. After taking FERPA training and submitting the completed certificate, a survey for
GAVS admittance was performed. The director of the Georgia Virtual Online School System
then sent an email confirming our admittance, and provided us with credentials for the Learning
Management Site to view our class within the system that we would be monitoring for this
semester's class. I was matched with Edward Averett who is an instructor for the Latin 1-B High
School class. I have provided a brief biography for Mr. Averitt under my GAVS Internship
tab. I then went online to look through his LMS, and I watched a taped recording of his Live
Class Chat for students, and observed him walking the students through the syllabus and
important elements of the LMS.
Mr. Averett appeared to have a great rapport with students in his class, and it was obvious
that most of his students have had his class in the past semester as the familiarity with the site
and with Mr. Averett continued throughout the chat.
I emailed Mr. Averett and supplied my contact information, and we communicated via email
with times that we will meet during the week for the mentorship. (Wednesdays: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.)
I then began to work on my site for this class. I chose to use Weebly, as it is a familiar and
easily constructed site that will enable me to archive my reflections as well as important
information for the class. I will continue to add to this site throughout the semester and update
all information as is needed. My site’s URL is the following: https://itec8136.weebly.com/
The class participated in an online discussion with Dr. Downs for clarification on the
course expectations and goals; and I downloaded the Syllabus and Course Schedule for
clarification and for future reference. Dr. Downs discussed the Project of Choice that is a
requirement for the course, and offered the option of working with her on a topic if we desired.
She will give clarification on this project in the following weeks, and she encouraged us to
brainstorm for ideas that we could utilize for our selected course. Dr. Downs also encouraged us
to utilize our time wisely with this class as well as the Educational Research class, as time will
be of the essence when preparing for graduation in the spring.
As part of the classroom instruction, we are also required to read and prepare for
discussion with the following textbook from our ITEC 8135 course:
Ko, S. R. (2017). Teaching Online: A Practical Guide. New York, New York: Taylor and
Francis.
The weekly modules will be reflective of the chapters that will be required for instructional
objectives. Since I already had acquired the book for the aforementioned class, it was not
necessary to procure this for this class. I also communicated with the other students in this class,
and was excited to see that we are all looking forward to our spring graduation, and I feel
comfortable to share reflections, ideas, and communications with my peers as we have shared
our Specialist classes' concerns from the inception of our degree works. I also feel that this will
be a great culminating class for this degree as the Field Experience may truly represent the
avenue that we have all worked so hard for: the ability to conduct a classroom online, with a
LMS system, and with student interaction based on instructional expectations. I am looking
forward to this experience with Dr. Downs and with my peers.