Whew - Week 3 Web Conferences

It appears that we are running out of things to talk about - I choose to take that as a good sign.  A core few students have logged on this week, mostly in order to clarify what items were to be done and what course assignments to include.  Many people, including me, are excited about graduation and can't resist making some plans.  I remember how silly and off-task I believed that to be on my first web conference:  how times have changed.

Feeling the Pressure

I attended at least a portion of all three web conferences this week, and everyone appears a bit tense.  As I know is the case in my house, I suspect many of my colleagues are suffering from exhaustion, frustration, and revision anxiety.  In some ways, the web conferences exacerbated the problem, layering one set of responses onto another until most were not sure exactly what information applied to their efforts and what did not.  However, between conferences, many of us communicated privately with our professor and/or our IA, so that by today most of us have some obtainable goals.  Life outside of Lamar has made the going more difficult for some than others; so, I feel blessed that my support system is still intact as we move forward into week 3. 
My observations from the conferences:
1.  Answer all of the questions for the reflections specifically
2.  Put a page number on every citation
3.  Check all headings
4.  Focus on the specific assignments

Off I go into the next week.  Hopefully I'm moving towards the right path at a pace that will land me in the target by Week 5.

Close to the Finish Line: EDLD 5370 Web Conference

I can scarcely believe we've come to this place:  this week, I began finalizing my portfolio and writing my comprehensive exam in order to finish my master's program.  I actually attended two conferences this week:  on Tuesday, I simply hoped that someone else might have a question that I hadn't even considered.  In fact, it appeared that most people felt the same way.  Dr. Abernathy gave us some guidelines for getting started on the comprehensive exam, including recommendations for how to most effectively create the paper in APA style.  She also clarifed for the group which items should be contained on the eportfolio (wiki) versus which items should be included in the comprehensive exam.  One bit of a surprise came when Dr. Abernathy told the group to add the curriculum vitae to their comprehensives.  It is certainly not trouble to do so, but I appreciated her pointing it out specifically.

By Sunday, I was feeling some of the pressure and had my own list of questions ready for the final web conference of the week.  This conference consisted of a small, intimate group of students, most of whom I have connected with throughout the coursework.  Consequently, we were able to bounce ideas between each other and Dr. Abernathy for what I consider the most robust, productive web conference of my entire program.  My first main question was answered almost immediately:  Dr. Abernathy told us that our comprehensive exam introductions should maintain a balance between the expression of our own personal narratives and an overview of the types of material to be covered in the paper.  Later on, Dr. Abernathy addressed my concerns regarding the field-based summary reports, indicating that various activities that reflected mastery of several ISTE indicators could be crossed-referenced to indicate the connectedness of our learning and experiences.  Also, she informed us that the signed summary report would not be due on our eportfolio until the final week of the course.  I was immensely relieved to have more time to refine and organize my thoughts for those all-important reflections.  Overall, this second conference allayed many of my fears and allowed me to feel much more confident in my abilities to complete this course in time for the long-awaited December graduation date.