Seminar Reflection.....

I have always been comfortable in a leadership role, but this week took a turn on its own for many reasons. The most difficult thing about being the first student to lead a seminar is setting the standard of comparison. I had a difficult time trying to determine the exact role I should play in this week’s discussion. There was one particular question about how many or which assignments a student should partake in. Although, I was the seminar leader this week, that question was for the instructor. If Pat really wanted to make this week difficult, the seminar leader could have issued critiques of other people’s work. This would have been very difficult because the seminar leader would have to teach someone else's curriculum and they would have to use their rubric for grading purposes. Perhaps this idea has some merit, well maybe not.

Questions I chose
I thought the questions I chose were appropriate for this week's readings. Our cohort has a great mix of professional diversity among it and one of the most important factors to remember is not everyone teaches. I did provide alternative questions for all of our non-instructor students. After I re-examined the questions, I do not like the third question I asked because it is too vague. Pat is always telling us not to be too vague. The fact that I asked the other students on their perception of educationally based bias is a leading question. Do I assume there is a bias in education? Yes! I am supposed to be objective and not issue my beliefs in the questions.

Student Learning Experience
I can't say that I was responsible for the students learning, the book took care if that. My job was to promote critical thinking and industry resources. I think I did a good job of that.

My learning experience
I learned a tremendous amount during this week. I learned about all of the great resources that are out there for use. I also learned about all of the work that goes into preparation for one week of class. Now that I have done one, do I have enough in me to do another nine weeks? Probably not. The most difficult thing I encountered this week was going from seminar leader in GMIT 650 back to the role of student in GMIT 660. Replacing one hat with another is not as easy as one person might think. It was difficult to let the conversation evolve. I found myself answering discussion questions differently this time. In the past, I used to comment on the postings, this time I wanted to stimulate the conversation with outside perspectives and keep it flowing. People who know me pretty well know that I am not short on opinion and conversation, so it was difficult to let the conversation progress naturally. Besides, this was not about opinion, more like critical analysis and comprehension.

Overall, I think the format works well. The formula calls for a lot of information to be provided by the seminar leader. Is it too much? Debateable. Besides, the students have to do just as much if not more once it's posted. I wasn't trying to set some type of standard formula this week. It will be interesting to see how the week 9/10 seminars come out as compared to my week 2. Everyone in this program is extremely articulate and will run with this process! Next up is week four in the rubrics book. See you then!!