Brainstorm/bookmarking ideas
I was just re-visiting some of the 50 stories tools because I didn’t get a chance to try them all and I thought this would be kind of fun/awesome to post on my page before I was done. BLABBERIZE! Super fun and quick (although it took me a couple tries to get the mouth moving right bcause there are no instructions) but it all worked out.
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.
Looks like we are going to be exploring assessment tools this week.
I just wanted to post the following assessment resources so that I have them for future reference. I’ve used survey monkey before but not in a super in-depth way. I’ll definitely take a look at these when I have a momment.
SurveyMonkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/Default.aspx
Zoomerang: http://www.zoomerang.com/
Questionmark: http://www.questionmark.com/us/index.aspx
HotPotatoes: http://hotpot.uvic.ca/
Well…….that took forever! And I’m not even done yet!
I started doing the module on creating a web page last week and I’m still going and going. I didn’t realize it at first (because I went through all of the story boarding before creating it) but web pages are like a ton of little black holes. They can just keep going and going and going. Then you think you’re finished and tada – you need a link to another page. Ack.
Not to say that it wasn’t an interesting experience, but as a new user (even on a fairly intuitive site like www.wix.com) there were so many great options that it took what felt like an exhausting amount of time to even get the page remotely how I wanted it. And like I said, I’m STILL not done! (not sure I ever will be).
What I really liked at ‘Wix’ was how easy it was to use the different features (despite how many there were). It didn’t take long to acclimatize to the system and when I got stuck, there were video tutorials conveniently placed (often as part of the tool itself, which I loved) and fairly straightforward.
At the same time, the site still doesn’t quite have the feel that I wanted. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the designer eye, or maybe it’s because the sites don’t really lend themselves as well to learning experiences as they do personal or commercial pages but I supposed I’ll have to keep working on it. But for now, I’m going to have to let it go because another unit is starting already. Where does the time go?
If you would like to see what I’ve come up with so far, you can check out my site at :
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.
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.
I wanted to make a quick note before I forgot –
While writing my Fight plan I remembered a discussion I had and I found out about two possible tools to use within my new employment context (sorry! Can’t remember right now who it was.?)
1. Google Docs
2. ‘screen-casting’
If anyone has any experience or feedback from using these resources I would love to hear it! Thanks!
Erin
Just had an interesting discussion with Evelyn and Kari about using collaboration as a learning tool. We were questioning the role and extent to which ‘group work’ was being used. A great example was brought up – having students begin group work together (reasearch, brainstorming, etc) and then be responsible for their own final projects. Sounds simple enough but I can’t say that I’ve been part of a collaboration shaped this way except for in my work environment and it was very informal.
Hmm. This might be a good tool for the safety inspectors that I work with across BC who might want to collaborate on initial training ideas/approaches and then refine their own presentations to come up with a unique end product.
Erin