Most of my experience with blogging has been to research and troubleshoot issues associated with classroom technologies, or technology applications we use in the course of designing tutorials and other online resources and course materials. I have extensively use the Adobe blog, but many technical blogs are out there. I have learned a fortune from these resources.
Classroom 2.0 has great blogs going on different subjects and you can search the subjects and follow the conversations via email. I have used these as a sanity check on classroom equipment, applications and troubleshooting.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Thinking Things Through
I am using this course to work through an real-time initiative. The change over from Bb7.3 to Bb9 for face-to-face faculty will be daunting. Many faculty have yet to master Bb7.3 and much of this is due to lack of expectation. This course has been enormously helpful for me. Putting my thoughts down in writing and then reviewing the process again and again really helps me to think through the strategy and approach we will be taking.
I certainly have no expectation that things will follow the part three schedule exactly. But this course has helped me to think through the process. It is better to get a buy-in by all departments on agreed upon expectations for standard use of Bb9 features right up front. With that expectation in place, I have aggressively pursed a 5 week schedule for when all faculty return to copy a master course and populate as needed. In thinking this through, I think it is better to push hard to accomplish the task quickly, then deal with the results behind that.
I certainly have no expectation that things will follow the part three schedule exactly. But this course has helped me to think through the process. It is better to get a buy-in by all departments on agreed upon expectations for standard use of Bb9 features right up front. With that expectation in place, I have aggressively pursed a 5 week schedule for when all faculty return to copy a master course and populate as needed. In thinking this through, I think it is better to push hard to accomplish the task quickly, then deal with the results behind that.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Learning Something New Everyday
In 1996 I returned to school, my husband wanted to take some courses, and began some art courses. I was a working Art Director and Graphic Designer at the time. Little did I know, at that time, that my real interests were in the area of computer information systems, and multimedia development. But I took a left turn at a required computer literacy course. "Wow, so that's how that works!" I had to know more. With each and every course I have taken since that time I have learned something new every single day. And I have come to realize that this is the real joy of education.
You never know where that "new" thing you are going to learn each day is going to come from. It may come from a fellow worker, instructor, another student, from the web, from making a mistake or from a course. I think this is probably the reality of learning-centeredness.
So what new things have I learned in this course so far? The readings have been so useful and enlightening. In some cases they have re-enforced some of the realities I have experienced. The research is always my favorite. I never get the time at work to research. I have learned about many new resources I was unaware of. Some may be applicable at my institution. I have learned about new approaches and strategies in online learning. I have learned a great deal more about why community is so important to the success of online courses. I have learned that the real beauty of teamwork is to provide a support system so each learner is not alone in their endeavors. They can rely on their team mates to assist them in leaping problems or issues they are experiencing. I have learned about the importance of clear and consistent communication. It allows others to be proactive and productive without a lot of questions. And I have learned about the reality of Web 2.0 versus the vision.
With every course that I have taken I have been able to use what I have learned immediately in my current position of responsibility. I just don't think you can get a better bang for the buck.
You never know where that "new" thing you are going to learn each day is going to come from. It may come from a fellow worker, instructor, another student, from the web, from making a mistake or from a course. I think this is probably the reality of learning-centeredness.
So what new things have I learned in this course so far? The readings have been so useful and enlightening. In some cases they have re-enforced some of the realities I have experienced. The research is always my favorite. I never get the time at work to research. I have learned about many new resources I was unaware of. Some may be applicable at my institution. I have learned about new approaches and strategies in online learning. I have learned a great deal more about why community is so important to the success of online courses. I have learned that the real beauty of teamwork is to provide a support system so each learner is not alone in their endeavors. They can rely on their team mates to assist them in leaping problems or issues they are experiencing. I have learned about the importance of clear and consistent communication. It allows others to be proactive and productive without a lot of questions. And I have learned about the reality of Web 2.0 versus the vision.
With every course that I have taken I have been able to use what I have learned immediately in my current position of responsibility. I just don't think you can get a better bang for the buck.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
ePlatforms
This course, like others I have taken at JHU, encourages us and provides an opportunity to explore. Most of us rarely get the opportunity or time to research and investigate all the new technologies that are presented almost on a daily basis. I selected the Wimba platform to research and review because I had beta tested this tool in the spring 2009 as a resource for providing training outside of normal business hours. The e-platforms assignment gave me to opportunity to report my findings and document how to use this resource. At my college they currently only use this resource for a select few online faculty and they use it only from within the Blackboard LMS. I really wanted the opportunity to return to this platform from outside of the LMS and investigate it further.
The wonderful thing is, I will use this as one of the components of the Professional Development initiative I am developing for my final project. This provided the opportunity to decide when and where I would use Wimba. It also gave me the opportunity to investigate several free resources that do the same thing as Wimba. Dimdim and Vyew are two that I really like. Each is a valuable free resource that I will also use as part of my final project.
This course has really driven home the importance of communication on elearning communities. These types of resources make that not only easy but convenient.
The wonderful thing is, I will use this as one of the components of the Professional Development initiative I am developing for my final project. This provided the opportunity to decide when and where I would use Wimba. It also gave me the opportunity to investigate several free resources that do the same thing as Wimba. Dimdim and Vyew are two that I really like. Each is a valuable free resource that I will also use as part of my final project.
This course has really driven home the importance of communication on elearning communities. These types of resources make that not only easy but convenient.
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