Upcoming Experience as a Facilitator

          When I look up the word facilitate I see that it means “to make something easier” (Merriam-Webster, 2016). Making things easier is what teachers have been doing for years for students all around the world. They have shown us ways to put letters together to form words, put words together to form sentences, and put sentences together to form paragraphs. All of things are hard to a person who has never done them, but the teacher or facilitator makes it easier for a student to understand and form those words, sentences and paragraphs. What it means to me to facilitate may not be what is expected, but it is my version of my expectations and concerns regarding my upcoming facilitating experience.

            While I thinking about my upcoming facilitating experience, I would have to say I am very nervous because I don’t really know what to expect. I chose to facilitate in week five thinking this will at least give me a chance to see how other students handle the experience. Although I am nervous about the future experience I am also anxious to get it done and over with. Since technology is never a sure thing I am also nervous about choosing to do something and not being able to execute the process because of the technology not working. I am also concerned about the different blackboard features which I have never used. I am hoping I will have enough time to prepare and learn the different features available to use them in my facilitation experience.

            My expectations for this upcoming facilitation experience is to learn what it really means to be an online facilitator. I also expect to learn how to properly facilitate an online class with help from our online facilitator. I am also hoping that I enjoy the experience of facilitating an online class because this is crucial to me successfully completing this class and also this Online Teaching Certificate program. Without knowing how to facilitate I know I won’t be able to make the learning experience easier for my future students.

            Being a facilitator in an online class will truly be a new learning experience for me. Although I have never taught a traditional face-to-face class or an online class, I believe the experience will give me the confidence I need to successfully facilitate a class in the near future.

References

Merriam-Webster. (2016). Facilitate | Definition of Facilitate by Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/facilitate