The things I'm taking away from this course are a better understanding of better assessment methods in online classes. With most of the learning happening in a unmonitored environment more involved assessments using higher order thinking makes it much more difficult for students to use dishonest methods to answer the questions, lower order skill questions can be easily googled and copy and pasted.
I also saw how the discussions over materials for this class was to dispersed much of the time due to having so many resources to discuss at once. This had lead me to have more focused materials for students to have discussions over in class to get more interaction in their discussions.
I also really liked the idea of curating materials for students to use to come at a lesson from their preferences.

The one tool I want to expand the use of is Jing based discussion boards where students can use voice or print to have a discussion. I am developing a unit for the scientific method where students will design experiments. I want to encourage them to be creative and think about studying anything using the scientific method. Examples of experiments will involve zombies, superheroes, and other pop culture references. Such as an experiment to see what supplements help Capt America to maintain peak condition, what materials could help Ironman have better armor, or how much force is required to dispatch a zombie. The students will design their experiment and send it to me. I will then respond with a couple of data sets that could have come from their experiment and they will analyze the results. Then they will post their experiment in a journal like format and other students will respond to it and design follow-up experiments. I want a lively discussion about the experiments and for many students typing their response is a drawback to getting them to really respond to what other s have done. I see a lot of potential to being able to have students respond verbally. I want them involved to really understand what the peer review portion of the scientific method  is an how it works to keep science advancing. I also see potential to turn what is often typically one of the most boring sections of a science class into one of the funnest to start the class.

I think the authentic assessment is very applicable, not only in online or blended settings but in traditional setting also. It builds on the development of higher order thinking skills and that is what all teachers should look to build. I really like the idea of building discussion boards into the classes as a way to encourage interaction be tween students and myself, and as a way to bring in bigger ideas to explore as a group. The problem I see in implementing this is the time dilation factor. In the on-line classes I currently teach the students are greatly scattered in where they are in the class. This will be a problem when I want the students to bounce ideas off of each other like in a traditional class discussion. I debate if it is worth putting hard cut offs in place as far as due dates, for some it would keep them working that wait until the very end now, others it would just bring about the point where they quit sooner. I can't help but think about the students I have had that I thought there was no way they would make the end of class guideline and then they do. Will I loose these students in a class with hard due dates that make them keep up or will they keep up because of the due dates?  I will probably compromise and make late assignments only worth 80%, then bend the rules some when the 20% makes a student slightly below passing. I also want to work in some padlet discussions, but this again brings up the time issue, some students will be waiting for others to respond to their padlet pads, while others will get there late and just read others and not get the discussion portion of the class since all the other students will be done.

My Big Campus is a great tool that I have been using to build entire classes in. I teach mostly computer based classes either online or in the night school computer lab. One of the issues with this is the lack of interaction between students in the class. My Big Campus is formatted like popular social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter and students can respond to what other students have done in posts and responses that students are used to from using Facebook. My Big Campus is web based and allows students working separated by time and distance to interact. I'm hoping to see this increase student engagement.

I have built the lessons into MBC to take advantage of the ease I can incorporate videos, both clips made from science TV shows and screencasts of myself going through a prezi. I also can provide a link form them to go through the prezi on their own. They can then make posts on my big Campus about the videos and comment on other students observations of the videos.

I am at the adaption stage of technology and approaching the infusion. I teach online computer based classes. I am changing the classes I inherited with the position this year away from using the computer as an expensive slide machine and pencil and letting the kids use tech to do more challenging assignments that are more applicable to real world activities. I have started to loosen the reins and allow them to more independently do a project to demonstrate their understanding of concepts in the class. The biggest tools I need are more varied tools to allow the students to express themselves how they want. Often they can't afford pay options to do things or they struggle to find access to free tools online. We need a cheap easy to use toolbox of programs that allow more creative lessons, like programs to make diagrams, or programs to easily do chemical reactions as a program.

Foundations of blended learning

In my experience the ability to blend online and traditional classroom can be a big help to students who march to the beat of a different drummer, be they students with attention issues, hyperactivity issues, bipolar issues, and behavior issues. Many of these students can function in a classroom on a limited basis, but at times need to be able to be by themselves and still be able to progress in the class. A class that has an parallel online component fits this need well.  Allowing students who can be a distraction and/or detriment in a busy classroom environment the ability to get away from the environment in either time or space and still make progress so they can rejoin the class when they are ready. Attention issues students can break the class down into smaller chunks, bipolar students can put off the work until they are in a mood to do the work, Behavior issues students can be removed and still have the ability to progress in the class. A pure online class can be used to teach home bound students. I have seen this used many times in my experience in alternative brick and mortar schools.
 In science classes the largest barriers is the issue of labs. Labs in a traditional class room can be a big plus to student understanding, often being a great way to differentiate the lessons to fit all students. This can be replaced with some of the online tools such as gizmo labs, I would like to be able to send a kit home so students can do hands on labs there. I am developing great online classes for the night and online school now, but I often think a lab could be a quicker easier way to get content to students.