[MUSIC] Hi, I'm Cindy Carbajal and I'm your facilitator for Foundations of Virtual Instruction. I wanted to start out by introducing myself and telling you a little bit about me, in hopes of answering some of your questions. So you may wonder what made me choose online learning. I actually come from a family of teachers. My mom and her mom were both traditional classroom teachers and I expected to be a traditional classroom teacher as well. But when I was looking for a teaching job in 2005, I stumbled upon a virtual charter school. Previously I didn't know such a thing existed, but upon researching it and thinking about it, I decided there was nothing I'd rather do. You may wonder where I went to school and if I have any formal online teaching training. Well I was born in Minnesota. I grew up in Carlsbad California and attended traditional classroom based public school my whole life. I attended Biola University for my undergrad degree with in liberal studies with a minor in biblical studies and concentration in math. I completed my teaching credential at Cal State, San Marcos and one of my courses was a hybrid course. And our normal eight hour class period was cut in half, to send us home to do some independent learning and discussions online. I loved it. My first online teaching training was from Connections Academy, once I started the position. Then I cleared my credential by taking online courses and earned my masters in instructional design and technology, fully online from Cal State, Fullerton. I love online learning and a lot of it has been fun for me to figure out how to translate the best practices I learned in my teaching credential program to the online world. Now there are more and more resources available. So what is it like to teach online? Every year teaching for Capistrano Connections Academy was different, in a good, stimulating way. The school grew from 100 students to over 2,000 students. And so the teaching staff grew from three to ten to over 80. I enjoyed joining in the team, or the family, in its second year and taking a role in learning and establishing some of the best practices. My second year started to incorporate more synchronous instruction, which we'll discuss in this course. I started what, holding what we called live lesson sessions for second graders. I taught the students the greater than and less than symbols, with an alligator and I showed them how to type it on the computer at the same time on the keyboard. I had the privilege of starting the Gifted program at Capistrano Connections Academy and teaching third through fifth grade gifted students. What a great fit for gifted learners. Using the Junior Great Books curriculum we held live virtual discussions, where the students learned to ask each other questions and support their ideas with evidence from the story. They also presented their own writing projects as displayed as Powerpoint presentations to the class regularly and became excellent presenters. Students could connect with other like-minded individuals, build critical thinking and public speaking skills, all virtually. I also had the opportunity to teach summer school. I taught math for a remediation program one summer and also was the virtual teacher for a blended program one summer. Teaching online, I was able to develop great relationships with students and their families. Though the only in-person requirement we had at this school was for state testing, I met almost all of my students on field trips and talked with them regularly on the phone and via our synchronous classroom sessions. So, what do I do now? Starting July 2013, I started a new position within the Connections Education family as the manager of blended program implementation. I work with seven of our blended schools, called Nexus Academy schools. I get to develop the professional learning communities of virtual and on-site teachers, and help the teachers design their virtual and in person instruction, based on data and flipping their class time. I also oversee the use of a robot the virtual team uses to connect with students, on-site. So, what else have I taught online? I taught a ten week version of this Foundations of Virtual Instruction course for UC Irvine Extension online, for several years. I also have been a faculty facilitator online for University of Phoenix since 2008. I wanted to close by acknowledging the colleagues I've learned from and worked with along the way. Capistrano Connections Academy teachers and administrators from over the years. The team at UC Irvine Extension for their support in the previous version of this course and the development of the Coursera version. Thank you. Finally, thank you, for choosing this massive open online course. Whether it's your first MOOC or you've taken many, you will learn about online learning while learning online, the best way. I hope you enjoy this course and I look forward to interacting with you more. [BLANK_AUDIO]
