Teaching vs. Training

Teaching vs Training had a lot of similarities but yet differences, as well. Teaching and training both have students and participants in mind. As a teacher or trainer the idea is to reach the most amount of people and have them understand the concepts. However, the time may be different between teaching and training, as well as the structure of the lessons. For example, trainings usually are longer days but in short amounts of time - weekends or an evening. They also may been more structure of time. A lot of information needs to be crammed into the weekend training. On the opposite side, teachers usually have a semester to teach or an entire year. They can also plan lessons in shorter spurts and try not to cram as much material into each lesson, but instead spread it out over the course.

The way we talked about teaching vs training was through an online form, and that's what I want to spend some time on. We used wikispaces and google to develop our class outline of Teaching vs Training. There were a lot of differences between this and an in class discussion.

The part I loved the best was being able to be at home. I was cooking bread and sipping hot tea while interacting with my classmates. Also, I was able to use the restroom whenever I needed, and I didn't feel like I was distracting from the class. (Little things like that make a difference, and I wouldn't think they would, BUT they do). I also, liked having technology at my finger tips. If I didn't know something I would look up a definition or an article.

The parts I didn't like as much was missing out on our laughter together. I couldn't hear anyone's voice or see anyone's expressions. I feed off of that interaction, and I definitely felt a lack. I also think that since I was the only one (at least I think) who was in a different room I felt a little out of the loop. I believe I was at home and the other students were in the grad office.

But overall it was a fun experience. I got to feel what it's like to interact in class online. (That's a funny sentence). If I were to use this is any class I believe it would have to be with a more advanced class. I think if I were to try this with a 101 level some students wouldn't have anything to do with it, and they would use it as a free time instead of work time. But I do see how beneficial it would be for more advanced classes because they could look up articles or definitions while they were interacting with everyone online.

Challenge: Advanced classes try an online class where students get to interact virtually with materials at their fingertips.