Web Based Courses + A Requested Recipe

  Welcome to a two-part post (I hope you like chocolate).

   This past Thursday we had Donald Girouard and Sophia Palahicky join us to talk about web based courses.  I have to be honest, I have never taken an online course or even a distance course, and have only known a few people that have taken them.  Personally, I like the face-to-face of the classroom style of learning, so that is why I have never taken an online or distance course.  We based courses are getting bigger, and they are becoming way easier to access these days.  I really like some things about them, but also have a few issues.  My first like of them is that it offers a student who may not be able to attend classes regularly, the opportunity to learn the material he or she should be learning.  One of my friends got his spleen crushed when playing hockey in high school, so was unable to attend classes for a good month.  He, was not given the option of an online course though, so he felt like he fell behind a lot.  If he had an online course it would have benefited him greatly.  Online courses would also be a great thing for someone in a situation where they may of had a teenage pregnancy.  Many young females in North America drop out of school because they end up getting pregnant.  An online course would allow them to still gain the education they need and deserve, while still being able to stay at home with her newborn.  Some schools just don't have the enrollment to have a lot of teachers on staff, so having an online course would be beneficial there too.  In situations like these, I totally like online courses.  Now, I don' like them for a few reasons (personal opinion).  I like the face-to-face interaction between student and teacher.  I would hate to get taught my grade 4 fractions unit over the internet.  There just seems to be no personal connection there.  I realize that you can turn on a web cam, but thats still not the same.  I also dislike them because they may eventually cause me to not have an available job.  If one teacher can teach roughly 80 kids at one time with an online course, that means that roughly 3 jobs could be discarded.  As an aspiring teacher that scares me.  Pretty sure I'm allowed to be scared by that.  Also, as a soon to be early years educator, I personally (and no offense) do not see a connection between early years and web based courses.  Young children need the teacher connection, and need that teacher to sometimes take their hand and guide them.  An online course cannot give a child that mentoring feeling, or that stable figure.  Let's face it, to some children their teacher is the most stable and constant person in their lives, and we need to show that we still can be.  Especially for the younger ones.  So to end this portion of the post, I have to say that I can't see myself using web based courses much.  It is a great idea, but for me I just don't see a place where it will fit.

 To get to the second part of my post, a classmate asked me to add the 'Death by Chocolate' recipe to my next blog post, so here you go Tiffany!

Ingredients:

• A baked chocolate cake
• 1 container of Cool Whip (light or regular it doesn't really matter, but let's be honest regular tastes better)
• Roughly 8 Skor bars crushed up in a ziplock bag (can use other chocolate bars too)
• 3 packages of instant chocolate pudding

Directions:

1. Basically get a really big and deep bowl, because you are going to need the room.
2. Bake a basic chocolate cake.  (Not going to lie, I just used one of those Betty Crocker cake mix boxes, because I cannot bake)  If you can make your very own chocolate cake from scratch then that is awesome and it will probably work out better.
3. Prepare the pudding.
4. Cut the cake so it looks like a 5 X 2 grid.  Then, you will want to take the pieces out, and cut them all in half so they aren't as tall.  
5. Now I don't use actual measurements at all for these steps, so please just bare with me.
6. Lay some cake at the bottom of the bowl to make one layer (don't put them on top of each other, just try to make it a flat, single layer).  Follow this by scooping some pudding on top of the cake to cover it completely.  Next, make a layer of cool whip.  Follow that by sprinkling some skor pieces on top of the cool whip.  Finally, add another layer of cake, and then repeat until the bowl is full.
7. It is usually best to end with cool whip and skor pieces at the very top (more of a looks thing), but it doesn't really matter.

I find that it works out to roughly 4-5 layers of each ingredient.  This is my all time favorite cake.  On my birthdays this is what my Mom makes for me.  I also ask for it every time I decide to go back to my hometown for a weekend.  If you make it, hopefully you enjoy it!  Until next time... CHEERS!!!