I do not have time for said navel gazing given I am teaching a real class of 23 real students, mentoring a few hundred other open participants, and building out the platform that enables this.

Multiple modes = multiple points of entry, which increase access and options. I work with/blog for a number of local users who are not comfortable online (or, worse, think they are but have huge gaps in competencies) and try to accommodate all of them as best I can. Accommodating one group can turn away others. My own situation, is, of course much less structured.

The same goes for higher ed types in my NewFac cohort and among its wider audience. Rural grannies and proffies are not as different in this as one might expect. It’s important not to let accommodating turn into dis-accommodating yourself and eating up time you don’t have to spare.

I would also add that some of the newbies might be in the class because they are expected to start teaching online and do not have the option to do JRees imitations.

Yes. The assignment is NOT to make a animated GIF. The assignment is to figure out how to make an animated GIF. This is precisely the place where I struggle as I inhabit the web instead of just using it. I would probably feel more comfortable if you asked me to figure out how to frame a window, though I have about as many web skills as carpentry skills. Maybe more. Perhaps the trick is feeling free to fail–to think of it like paint: “It’s just paint. You can always paint over it.”

Very important observation, beautifully put. I wish more people got this. Thanks.

I completely agree that people who don’t know much about the web shouldn’t be teaching online. But they do, every day, at many institutions, public and private. We’re trying to do something about that. But our method has never been to throw people into the pool, despite the fact that I myself learn quite well that way. Professionals who already have a calling and are now changing environments (often by force) do not, by and large, benefit from being thrown in the deep end.

I don’t like the term “novice” either, I don’t (and didn’t) like labeling and dividing, I am totally uncomfortable with so much of it. But at the end of the day, we are trying to do something different than ds106 or cckxx or Coursera or many of the models we’ve had to reject. I think at this point we’re closer to EC&I831.

And of course your post IS a criticism, and of course that’s OK, and needed, and important. And thanks for removing the frothing. What would be awful is if we all went through the past few days without reflection, communication, respect, or cogent thought about all these issues.

BTW, I’ve left several classes myself because they didn’t fit me and of course one should not have to suffer in any environment that doesn’t help one grow. (At least not now that we’re not undergraduates any more.) I recall something taught by someone called Bonk…

And for the record, having watched your work all summer, I never saw that you needed any help being an online teacher.