Evaluate online communication tools in given learning contexts
My thoughts and feelings: I have posted on a regular basis my feelings and reactions to Avators, Moos, Synch and Asynch methods. I must confess that I enjoyed the virtual hairdresser's. This concept of assessing student's responses to face shapes was very engaging. As a visual learner myself it appealed to me to see myself in different styles. I felt comfortable in sharing the photos of myself with other group members. This is a non threatening method of learning that I can use for my students. It is also using humor to learn a subject. I will use this method in showing computer parts and asking students to move them to the right location.
I learnt about how to use photobucket. This is a handy tool for inserting photos into postings, blogs and blackboard. I have started to use this with my students and notice that they find this to be invaluable when writing to their blogs. I also use Snagit at work and Fireworks. These work well with developing materials on line. I particularly found copying and pasting the html tag in photobucket very convenient and easy. I also liked the way we can store our photos in a folder. I stored my avators in the folder and uploaded them into the discussion board.
Asynch tools proved to be interesting (survival at sea)I found the freedom and flexibility of participating when I had time to be of great benefit to me. I found the intensity of making a decision by the end of the week to be an anti climax. It suggested to me that I relax my time frame when asking students to complete tasks online.
Synch tools proved to be more difficult for me to participate. This was due to the restrictions work puts on our downloading and the age of my computer at home. I found this to be very frustrating and also felt out in the snow. Alienated from the group. This rang warning bells in my head for when I set tasks to my students. I must make sure that there is access to the same technology before I set a task. I felt why set a task like the Palace in a course when you know the outcome will be for some, a negative experience? Are we not meant to be giving every opportunity to our student s to have a positive experience? (Also, according to Sue Jones (1996).
Also different time zones for some members of our group proved to be a hindrance when using synch. Using the virtual chat on Balckboard was a thrill along with googlemail. I found this enthralling that I could talk and write at the same time. This tool was of great benefit for me to use. My children use MSN and chat online as well as use voice mail every day. As digital natives they are comfortable with this technology. I took a little longer to convince a a digital immigrant. I could see the use in a class where I needed to talk to someone f2f online. "Have you thought about this approach in your assignment?" or "How is your Power Point presentation coming along?" This would make the conversation real.
Newsgroups and Listservers were interesting tools to use. I found once I got over the bad language to be a wealth of knowledge of the specific subject. I did find the newsgroups to be time consuming to feed through the information. Educational value, well as I have already talked to this I feel there could be some value for elite groups to bounce ideas off each other but I would value blogs better. Blogs are more personal and although they are not synch media they do offer groups or a wider audience a method of grouping ideas and journalising thoughts.
Listservers are useful in the context of students conducting a major research on a specific topic. They narrow the field of search and provide a wealth of information on topics.
Use of emoticons I feel is also a tool which is useful in establishing a social presence. The effective and timely response is crucial and according to Karen Swan in Developing a Social Presence (2003) these are ways of expressing emotions/feelings to your students.
Other types of tools used have been Blackboard (the main medium for transporting the course to us) This has its limitations and also benefits. The design and static layout of the menus are not visually dynamic. I liked the use of coloured menus and little banners theat Merle showed us. I use the colour of the workbook for each course I deliver coded to the menu buttons. I do not like how we have to scroll down the discussion board posts. Then, when you have finished posting you have to start from the first post again and scroll down. Email is an everyday tool that opens comunication to all our students. Hence emoticons are used with this. I have added the smileys to my toolbar in Thunderbird email.
Finally The tools used in online learning via Blackboard have complimented eachother. What I would not use would be synch tools. These I feel are best left till the systems used can support the technology.
- Maryanne
I learnt about how to use photobucket. This is a handy tool for inserting photos into postings, blogs and blackboard. I have started to use this with my students and notice that they find this to be invaluable when writing to their blogs. I also use Snagit at work and Fireworks. These work well with developing materials on line. I particularly found copying and pasting the html tag in photobucket very convenient and easy. I also liked the way we can store our photos in a folder. I stored my avators in the folder and uploaded them into the discussion board.
Asynch tools proved to be interesting (survival at sea)I found the freedom and flexibility of participating when I had time to be of great benefit to me. I found the intensity of making a decision by the end of the week to be an anti climax. It suggested to me that I relax my time frame when asking students to complete tasks online.
Synch tools proved to be more difficult for me to participate. This was due to the restrictions work puts on our downloading and the age of my computer at home. I found this to be very frustrating and also felt out in the snow. Alienated from the group. This rang warning bells in my head for when I set tasks to my students. I must make sure that there is access to the same technology before I set a task. I felt why set a task like the Palace in a course when you know the outcome will be for some, a negative experience? Are we not meant to be giving every opportunity to our student s to have a positive experience? (Also, according to Sue Jones (1996).
Also different time zones for some members of our group proved to be a hindrance when using synch. Using the virtual chat on Balckboard was a thrill along with googlemail. I found this enthralling that I could talk and write at the same time. This tool was of great benefit for me to use. My children use MSN and chat online as well as use voice mail every day. As digital natives they are comfortable with this technology. I took a little longer to convince a a digital immigrant. I could see the use in a class where I needed to talk to someone f2f online. "Have you thought about this approach in your assignment?" or "How is your Power Point presentation coming along?" This would make the conversation real.
Newsgroups and Listservers were interesting tools to use. I found once I got over the bad language to be a wealth of knowledge of the specific subject. I did find the newsgroups to be time consuming to feed through the information. Educational value, well as I have already talked to this I feel there could be some value for elite groups to bounce ideas off each other but I would value blogs better. Blogs are more personal and although they are not synch media they do offer groups or a wider audience a method of grouping ideas and journalising thoughts.
Listservers are useful in the context of students conducting a major research on a specific topic. They narrow the field of search and provide a wealth of information on topics.
Use of emoticons I feel is also a tool which is useful in establishing a social presence. The effective and timely response is crucial and according to Karen Swan in Developing a Social Presence (2003) these are ways of expressing emotions/feelings to your students.
Other types of tools used have been Blackboard (the main medium for transporting the course to us) This has its limitations and also benefits. The design and static layout of the menus are not visually dynamic. I liked the use of coloured menus and little banners theat Merle showed us. I use the colour of the workbook for each course I deliver coded to the menu buttons. I do not like how we have to scroll down the discussion board posts. Then, when you have finished posting you have to start from the first post again and scroll down. Email is an everyday tool that opens comunication to all our students. Hence emoticons are used with this. I have added the smileys to my toolbar in Thunderbird email.
Finally The tools used in online learning via Blackboard have complimented eachother. What I would not use would be synch tools. These I feel are best left till the systems used can support the technology.
- Maryanne
posted by Dragon at
11:34 pm
1 Comments:
Thanks for your reflection Gordon.
As far as our group was concerned they all were happy to share their photos but when I look at my students, some are very shy and would find this very difficult. Especially those whos culture is not to show their face publicly.
Photobucket is very much like another software program on line I have used,(snagit) but I agree it would have been so much easier if it just did it for us without the rigmarole of copying and pasting in HTML.
Synch tools was fun but technically frustrating. You really did have to type fast and read fast. This was also affected by broadband speeds or dialup speeds. If your technology was a little slower, you did not keep up with the conversation. A little like a bit behind the 8 ball. This is food for thought when developing online courses. The frustration levels are pretty high and as a facilitator, I would beg to ask what real benefits are there to use these? When asynch works so well?
I would beg to ask the validity of Newsgroups as far as what is written in them. Listservers are useful to group like types together. (reminds me of pure maths)
I would liked to have used the whiteboard online as I have not seen how it actually works yet. Yes Gordon, your topic would have been a beaut one to try out on it.
The topics in our discussion forum were varied and it was time consuming to scroll down. Why not have an archive folder where you can go in and find past topics if desired but not have them in the main area?
- Musings from Maryanne
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Dragon, at November 30, 2006 1:12 pm
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