This Dog is Your Teacher

This video is really meant as an introduction to students in my online section of ds106 at University of Mary Washington; I agree its critical early on to help create a sense of identity for all participants in the class. While this class is online, all of my students are there in Fredericksburg… but I am not.

If you are one of my students, do not be scared.

No, be a little scared.

You should know that I have been doing online web stuff since 1993 (here is one of my early teaching sites) and have been involved in technology and education now for 20 years. That makes me old.

I have always used a dog as my icon and metaphor; that brown lab was a real and dear dog of mine named Mickey.

I got very interested in ds106 in the Spring of 2011 when it was first done as an open course, and I wa sone of those outsiders who participated alongside a group of UMW students. Since then I have taught the class twice.

The key places you will find me online, besides here on the blog I have been using since 2003:

On twitter @cogdog frequently is an understatement. If you tweet or DM me, that is the fastest route to find me.
On flickr http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog I post photos almost every day, it is my compulsive habit.
On my photoblog (infrequent updates) http://barkingdog.me
On ~~Faceboook~~ hardly ever.

I have a keen interest in photography, blogging, web programming, but most importantly anything that is in the area of helping people learn how to be creative online, especially in what we call digital storytelling. I am also focused on open sharing of the things we create.

One thing I believe strongly in doing/sharing is a regulat habit of being creative, and you will get a lot of opportunity as part of our ds106 Daily Create.

ds106 is a class, but way way more. You will find it like no other, and you will be connected with an internet community that is like no other. These are just words for now.

You will find it is beyond catbreading

Are you really ready for this? Be prepared for a wild ride.

PS As a side note, it worked out really well doing a video directly in Google Hangouts, and switching to screen sharing to show some web sites. I may do this more in the class to do some demos.