Hello and welcome to my blog.  I am beginning this blogging journey as a requirement for a course entitled the Distance Education Professional which I am completing during the Spring 2014 semester as part of the curriculum requirements for an EdD degree in Nursing Education at the University of West Georgia.  The curriculum is offered completely online and this course will provide information and practice in becoming proficient in the world of online or distance education.

I decided to introduce this blog by sharing the seven target goals which I created for this course. Please find the seven target goals which I submitted as one of my first assignments for this distance learning course as part of my Personal Learning Plan (PLP).  With the feedback received from this assignment, I have made the goals more specific in describing what I anticipate learning from their achievement.  I have also changed the number order to correspond with the expected completion date of each goal.

Seven target goals for Spring 2014	Due date		Results	Next Steps
1) Complete Twitter tutorial in Atomic Learning and record experience with this tutorial as well as information learned in personal blog	January 19 Met  January 24		Information on twittering was broken into short snippets and it will be easy to retrieve specific information. The arrows in the top left corner provided to advance to the next block of information were not obvious and were missed initially. Time was wasted going in and out of each block of information. The tutorial was not interactive and was boring.	Blog about experience and use information to begin twittering with classmates. Twitter after meeting each target goal with link to blog posting Review more information offered by Atomic Learning.
2)  Subscribe to the Chronicle of Higher Education and will read at least one journal article provided in their newsletter, Wired Campus, related to online teaching and learning. I will use this information as I complete assignments in this course and prepare to become a better online teacher.	January 26 Met January 31		It was not necessary to subscribe to the Chronicle to receive Wired Campus. The articles have come weekly by email and have provided useful online information which was blogged about and the link to the articles was provided by blogging and sharing with classmates.	Continue to blog and twitter. Read at least one article each week
3)  Join Distance Learning Association and become more engaged in the DE process.  Connect and network with online learners and teachers.	February 1 Met  February 8		I joined the Sloan consortium and blogged and tweeted the link to the blog.	Will investigate and utilize this membership when the dust settles after this semester.
4) Subscribe to EdTech Review newsletter and read at least one journal article dealing with distance education.	February 9 Met  February 12		I subscribed to EdTech and was surprised that it originates in India. Information was useful and applicable to the world of distance education.	Will continue to read newsletters and apply information in this distance education journey.
5)  Read book, Don’t make       me think authored by Steve Krug and learn more about the principles of navigating and using the world wide web	March 30 Met March 3	I am absolutely astounded that this author was able to communicate on my level and make me feel much more comfortable with web navigation.The pages and chapters of this book were not crammed full of information and humor was used to make this intense subject matter more entertaining. The use of footnotes to further explain concepts was effective and kept paragraphs shorter. The theme of the book was that when visiting a website, the visitor should have an easy time navigating and not have “to think” about how to accomplish the goal of the visit.  Krug recommended the two click and you are there method.		Plan to utilize information learned to navigate web sites more efficiently. Use information in web design.
6)  Purchase Camtasia software. Create and post presentation in Professional Portfolio as a marketing tool in finding future employment.	April 13 Met March 7	The Camtasia software very challenging to use.  Fortunately Dalton State loaded it on my laptop for free.  I viewed the tutorials provided, watched and participated in another presentation with a classmate, and then made my first solo presentation at the University of West Georgia with extensive assistance from Charles Akin.		Will continue to use this software in creating presentations of lectures in order to flip the classroom and use class time for active learning.
7)  Complete an asynchronous webinar through Nurse Tim preparing for the Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) exam.	April 27 Met March 21	Attended a synchronous webinar presented by Dr. Diane Billings through Nurse Tim.  This was a six hour workshop which did include a one hour lunch break.  The University of West Georgia provides a free subscription to Nurse Tim for students enrolled in graduate studies so the webinar was free.  The CNE exam is offered by the National League for Nursing (NLN) and is not free!  If you are a member of NLN, it costs less but it is still expensive.		Purchased a review book and will prepare to take the Certified nurse educator exam this summer. Achieving this certification will reflect my dedication to the role of nurse educator.