Source:  http://durandus.com/phaedrus/2007/11/02/hate-and-discontent/

Phaedrus posted this to his blog this week:

An unnamed but much appreciated member of our class sent me this (slightly edited) email message:

I just feel that during this whole class you give the impression that you have all the answers and many times set in “judgment” of others. I think that you may be interested in knowing that I am not the only one who feels this way in this class and many of your students are setting back wondering “what is this class supposed to be doing” … I think that many of us were under the impression that we would be provided with effective tools for developing on-line teaching environments and the majority of what we have learned is how to “come up” with a bunch of blogs for the purpose of trying to receive a half-way good grade for that week which we have learned is impossible in your class!

The way it was written sounded like it was speaking for most of the class.  I do not feel this way.  This was my response:

In response to the discontent person, I appreciate that this person has expressed their frustration with this course, I think that it will help others who are frustrated as well because Nate gives a good answer to their concerns. I do not share the same opinion as this person, as I have gotten a lot of benefit from this class. I do have tools that I can use with my students, the reading has been very beneficial, I love using the reader to keep track of classmates and OLDaily. I find myself taking several hours to do our weekly assignments because I get sidetracked by following hyperlinks within articles. I measure my success with how much new information I gather instead of my grade. My goal when I set out in this program was not to strive for the A, but to do the best I can. In 72 hours of graduate work to date, I have one B (Research Methods), and I realized that I was putting undue stress on myself by working for the A. At this point, if I got a B, it is not going to adversely affect my GPA, and I am not going to lose my job over it. I was brought up in a society that says A or else, and it is not always a true measure of success. It means that you got a certain number of points. My students get A’s, but some of them, when I have them the following year, have forgotten things I have taught them the year before, they memorized and forgot. Did they really learn? That goes back to last week’s postings on learning. How do we know that students are really learning?

So the bottom line is, are you learning, and if not, what can you do to change it so that you are? Communication is key.

In a student centered classroom, we are responsible for our learning.