Category: Choosing Technology

What influences our choices?

mLearning

End user experience

From the end using perspective, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to both access my Moodle page as a student and even contribute to discussion by making and reading postings without needing an app. Load times were the same as with the computer and despite the home page being a bit off center and over lapping, the other tool pages appeared as expected in the device. I would definitely use this medium for participating in online courses in the future. Learning on the GO!!

Course designer experience

Ialso found it fairly easy to access my Moodle page from the course designer perspective and also I didn’t need an app. Again, the rendering was a little squished but not enough that you couldn’t clearly see what was on the page.

I was also able to turn the editing function on and even upload a photo I took with my blackberry but when it gave the option to ‘choose’ it as the image I wanted to add for the lesson page it would just blink and send me back to the same page and wouldn’t load to the lesson. When using the computer it flips to a new page and asks you if you want to ‘save and return’ or ‘save and display’. So, that’s a bit annoying. I suppose it’s an asset to have the ability to save photo files but I would definitely still need computer access to formally attach them to a lesson. On the other hand, I found uploading a website to the Moodle page with the device fairly easy. The load times were a bit longer than using the laptop (maybe 30 seconds vs. 5-10 seconds) but I appreciate having the access to the page and ability to make adjustments. Overall, I would say I was moderately successful uploading my page and would only use it in an emergency and not for regular page maintenance or updating.

Choosing Technology Ideas for Future Use Random Reflections

Moderating student questions as an online instructor

Post author By ebcardona
Post date October 23, 2010
No Comments on Moderating student questions as an online instructor

After participating in the discussions this week I just wanted to record some ideas that came out of trying to moderate the workload on the instructor when it comes to answering the inevitable questions that come up.

Restricting collection points – giving access to your personal email, LMS email (if there is one), discussion threads, chats, phone calls, etc. creates more work for the instructor. Limiting the collection points for questions makes the system efficient.
Using set chat Q & A sessions – this works well when you can structure your sessions around a certain assignment, reading or even unit. It becomes a bit onerous when there are more than 5 other people at a time so it definitely needs some sort of management to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Using 1 or 2 Discussion threads per Unit (one for assignments, one for readings?) – This works well when students are across different time zones and allows the instrucor to answer questions when it works best for them.
Giving students access to a FAQ page – ths resource would work best and create less work over time if it was well categorized and updated after the end of each course (possibly by questions asked & answered in the discussion threads or chat periods?).

Assignment Reflections Choosing Technology Ideas for Future Use

Creating Meaningful Interaction Online

Post author By ebcardona
Post date October 16, 2010
No Comments on Creating Meaningful Interaction Online

My most recent experience with learner, knowledge, assessment and community centered environments took place during the masters program that I participated from 2007-now. It was/is 100% online with a cohort of about 60 students, and the primary focus of the program seemed to be the Learner/Community. Most activities were discussion based or revolved around group projects, but also, there was very little instructor presence in terms of direction/discussion/communication in most of the modules. I understand that they wanted to create a community so that we can learn from each other but as Anderson says, “the effective online teacher is constantly probing for learner comfort and competence with the intervening technology” (2008, p.48) and also “… needs to provide the big picture scaffolding upon which students can grow their own knowledge and discipline centred discoveries” (2008, p.49).

If I were an instructor and had access to learning technology tools, I would want to use them to first help the students get to know who I am as an instructor and the perspectives I hold. It seems to me that when working 100% online there needs to be a way to break down the 2-D barriers and make both our co-learners and instructor real so that we feel more curious about who they are, what they bring to the table and what we can learn from them. Using Wimba, especially at the beginning of a course in small groups would be an excellent way for the students to at least get to know 3-4 others well so they feel comfortable having dialogue. And having the teacher do an introduction/get involved in first conversations via video or audio would do a lot to build a sense of connection & trust, which I anticipate would lead to more meaningful interactions.

Assignment Reflections Choosing Technology

Burning a DVD…

Well, I didn’t have to practice this one because I use it quite often. I found it very easy to use although… when using it while teaching I have experienced problems with DVDs working on some players and not others – expcially when trying to play using a computer player rather than a DVD player.. not always reliable. But, the tips about testing and resting and burning 2 copies are good advice. What I would like to know more about is embedding igital videos into power point presentations. Any tips to offer?

Erin