A Concrete Learner in an Online Classroom

It doesn't help when I peruse other people's blogs  and see how well crafted they are.  Our instructor, Ken has this blog that even shows you previews of his posts and then you can click on "read more" if you want to read the rest.  He includes charts, graphs, and delightful photos.

Meanwhile, I have photos (tiny ones) and tons of text.  I went ahead and started this blog without doing my research.  This can't be unlike many of my students.  They jump in and do the activity before the instruction piece (learn by doing, so to speak).   I'm a concrete, non-sequential learner.  I'm a tough combination of actually needing a live model who reassures me I'm doing it right, and not being able to follow a step by step orderly process.  So true to form, I started the blog and then read the article on 7 things you should and shouldn't do with a blog.  I'm sure I have violated at least three of the rules, not to mention the don't be self-deprecating one.

Not featured-our  14 year old son who refuses to 

be publicly documented.

Well, I'm good at modeling (not the kind where you walk down the runway), so I figured, learn by teaching.  I sat my husband Dan down at the kitchen table and started showing him all about blogger.com.  



 "Yeah, I could maybe use that for my carpentry business," was his confirmation of my teaching success, and now he is outside sawing something in his shop.  He did play around with some of the buttons with me, so I can move stuff around a bit.
 Here's a pic of Dan and I that I wanted to
include somewhere on this blog.  He's a bookish sort, who loves old houses and history. He's also a good teacher for me.

So my question is how do us concrete types fare in a digital learning environment?  I get it, but I'm struggling.  There's no instructor here to give me an "Atta boy!" and slap me on the back.  There's no one to back up and ask, "Hey, what did you just say about including hypertext?" Better yet, to give me an immediate verbal response to my question, rather than a typed one,  when I wasn't listening and had jumped ahead and tried it myself.  So if this page doesn't look as spit and polished as it should,  blame it on my lack of physical interaction instructor, or blame it on my inability to read first and then execute, or better yet, blame it on my A.D.D.  That's always my back up plan.
  
And now...on to my Moodle page.  It needs to be ready to go for class tomorrow.  I'll let you know how that goes.