I'm more dependant than I'd thought. I start teaching on Tuesday, and so I have to prepare. I am using WebCT for 5 of my courses, even though I'm only required to for 2. The other 3 I have chosen to use WebCT as a Learning Management System (LMS) because I like the orderly way it contains all my course materials and makes information available to my students. I felt in control.
The school WebCT technician has been doing the changeover from the summer courses and upgrading our version, and for serious personal reasons had to be away unexpectedly while WebCT was unavailable. So I had other work to do, right? Yes but I couldn't think! Yesterday my courses were available, and I worked intensively all day, accomplished a lot, and felt in tune and coherent. I love feeling that way. I love looking at my course sites and tweaking them. I love creating them. It makes me feel creative and powerful! (Go figure! Some people just have weird needs ;-> or that's what I used to think.)
During the evening as I continued enjoying this energy surge, I made a few connections. While I was blocked from setting up my coursees in WebCT, I couldn't think and plan. Separate files to work on weren't enough. I couldn't think about classes, I couldn't plan my classes without my thinking tool for teaching - my computer and WebCT. And the other course I have at another institution, there's no WebCT there. So what have I started doing, even though I'm pressed for time? I'm creating a web site, of course, to support the class, and my thinking!
