In our
investigation for technology methods used in online courses we had a guest
speaker through talkshoe to talk about institutional support for eLearning
at CSUSB. The guest speaker is Dr. Jim Monaghan who is the assistant Vice
President for Academic Technologies and Distributed Learning at CSUSB. I think
in this session I had a great experience, good discussion points, and helpful
information. In this review I will discuss several point related to
instructional technology that Dr. Jim Monaghan has mentioned in his talk.
This is a second
time for me attending talkshoe discussion or lecture. So I need to give my
impression about this theology method. Talkshoe is an
online web service that enables anyone to easily create, join, or listen to
Live Interactive Discussions, Conversations, Podcasts and Audio blogs. This
site allows users to call into the show via SkypeOut or a landline/cellphone. I
think this is one of the grate futures in this site. Another good future in
this site is that membership to Talkshoe is free, which make it easier to
be used widely.
One important figure in talkshoe is that the ability to record the show and upload
it on the site. Thing that I do not like about Talkshoe is the sound quality.
I think the quality of sound is poor. I had a difficult time trying to follow
the speakers. The site as will does not allow user to display presentations,
pictures, documents on the screen, if this future is available it would be more
affective.
Dr. Jim Monaghan
stated that Blackboard marketshar declined form 75% to 40%. And he discussed
the reasons causing this decline. There
are several business report indicate
that Blackboard's market share among universities
slipped to about 45 percent last year, down 26 points from six years before. Blackboard
carried out a round of layoffs in Sep 2013 as part of a broader reorganization by
CEO. This decline refers to the intensity of competition and the lack of
creativity and innovation at Blackboard. These are to links refer to Blackboard
marketshar and layoffs.
During the discussion, Dr. Newbery
discuses Blackboard functionality and uses. This is form faculty prospective. One
question comes to my mind is that is Blackboard interface becoming hard to use?
Reviewing some faculty members who use Blackboard indicated that some of Blackboard
users think that blackboard is still one of the good options available for
online courses. The only LMS that I use is Blackboard and I found in it very effective
tools to communicate with instructors, content and other students.
The first time I hear about MOOC concept is in this session. So as
an instructional technology student I thought I have to be aware of this
concept. One great opportunity in this discussion is to know about something
new that you have never heard about it. MOOC is A massive
open online course (MOOC). It is
an online course aimed at unlimited participation and
open access though the web. In addition to traditional course
materials such as videos, readings and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive
user forums that help build a community for the students, and professors. This is
a short video clip about this concept
As Dr. Monaghan said in
the session one of the advantages of blackboard discussion board is the time
extension of the discussion. In blackboard discussion students have enough time
to think about what they would say and participate. Instructors as well have
the ability to follow students and determine the activity of each student in
the discussion. However, we have to ask is this discussion has academic value. Some
believe that this tools just to give impression that we have student’s interaction
on online learning. Many students are trying to please the instructor. One the
other hand, this tool seems to be a good solution for everyone who is a pretty
shy and quite student. I think this tool can provide a great high academic
value if the topic of discussion was very specified, and instructor must
participate and guide the discussion to specific points.
One of my goals to study abroad especially
in USA is to engage in different university life and make new friends and learn
new culture. This is what is called social and culture learning. Do online
courses provide an attractive social and culture online learning? Do these
courses have strategies to support social and cultural learning? Up to now, I did
not feel online courses can provide an alternative strategies for traditional
class for social and cultural learning. I think that the core of educational life
is the social and culture interaction between students and structures. This I miss
in online courses. I hope instructors and professional can find strategies to
enhance this aspect of learning.
To conclude, In this session I had
the opportunity to learn and experience so many concept. It was a great and
helpful experience. And I enjoyed this session. Nevertheless, there are many
concept and issue need to be addressed and discussed deeply. I think I need
more information and explanation about it.
Your discussion of the synchronous session was good and I appreciate your perspective a lot!
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