Week of December 6: Blog Reflection (post #2)

Assignment 2, Task #1: Creating and Maintaining an Individual Blog


Your blogs in the week of December 6 must include one reflection on the experience of blogging. The intent of this task is for each of the students to thoughtfully ponder the experience of blogging.  In doing so, you may choose to discuss the experience of blogging within the constraints of the given assignment.  You may also choose to consider the utility of blogging for pre-service and/or current educators.  Some questions that you may wish to address in this reflection are: What did I learn from this experience? What can I do to improve my blogging (with or without the constraints of this assignment)?
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Blogging in IDE 611 has been a wonderful experience. At the start of the fall 2010 academic semester, I was very nervous about starting a Blog. It was my first time creating a blog and I worried about whether I would be able to find enough information to write about on my selected opening blog topic, Digital Storytelling. Luckily, all my earlier worries were for nothing because there was a lot of information about digital storytelling, not only on the internet, but also via traditional library resources. Later, in the 2nd half of the semester when my new blog topic became College 2.0, I also had a lot of interesting information to draw upon via the College 2.0 section in the Chronicles of Higher Education.

Blogging for pre-service and/or current educators is a very useful and effective way to stay current with the various innovations and new research findings in one's content or specialty area. Specifically, one can add an RSS feed to get updates on all the latest news and events from a variety of blog and news sources. For example, I added the RSS feed of EDUCAUSE and the Chronicle of Higher Education to my "Blogs I'm Following" reading list; it was a convenient way for me to get article updates which I later used for some of my own blog postings. Blogging can also promote social interactions and engagement among educators and other professionals through the comments and feedback that one can leave on a blog that sparks one's interest. For instance, Thinnakorn's "Social Networking" and Wilairat's "Amazing Wikis" were two blogs that had postings that encourage dialogue about the posted topics through their prompt return response and informative commentary. Towards the 2nd half of the semester, I found myself repeatedly commenting on these blogs even though they were not part of my group assignment.  My assigned group members Sue, Leah, and Greg made me aware that blogging can be used to build one's knowledge base. Sue's blog dealt with Web 2.0 technologies, Leah's blog addressed Twitter and Electronic/Interactive White Boards (IWB), and Greg's blog investigated IWBs and iTuneU.

Through blogging, I learned that there are a lot of exciting new innovations and experiments taking place in the world of Web 2.0 technologies. For example, in my November blog postings, I discussed how some academic researchers are using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to engage and motivate students. Furthermore, I looked at Wikipedia and addressed whether or not in the future it could ever be accepted fully as a scholarly resource by the college/university professors and library personnel. Last but not least, I looked at the cultural conflict that arose with Asian students and school assignments calling for them to utilize wikis.

Two ways in which I sought to improve my blogging was by incorporating videos and picture images into some of my blog postings. I think these two items made the topic postings more interesting to my readers and captured their attention in a quick and efficient manner. In addition, with some blog postings, I tried to select articles that were relevant to or in alignment with our online discussion sessions via Blackboard. For example, last week's Blackboard discussion topic was games and games based learning; I was able to find an article for my blog posting in which a university researcher was using video games to secretly assess the learning of some of her students. Known as stealth assessment, many of my fellow IDE classmates found this alternate form of learning assessment very interesting.

In the future, to further improve my blog postings, I think I will include more end of the week review/recap and critical reflection postings that incorporates not only my own thoughts, but those of my fellow classmates who either left return commentary or feedback on my blog postings. On Sunday, November 21, 2010, I did one such recap posting and I found it an extremely useful exercise.

Tech Therapy: USC Writing Class Takes on Cyberbullies (post #1)

Professor Mark Marino

In the story below, listen to the podcast as to how University students took an innovative stance against cyberbullying. Specifically, students at the University of Southern California were deeply affected by the case of cyberbullying that led to the suicide of music student, Tyler Clementi at Rutgers University. Students turned to social networking to engage in social activism and to demonstrate the political use of technology.

Through Words & Social Networking USC students are extending a helping hand to the online community in the following ways:

(1). Students created SOS classroom where individuals who were victims of cyberbullying can access online resources (Crowdsourcing and Resource Collection).
(2). Students initiated a letter writing campaign to Facebook that would allow members to technologially flag potential cases of cyberbullying.
(3). Via Facebook, students proposed an efficient and quick way for individiuals to access suicide prevention and counseling materials ---- On any wall post or status message, one would just have to write "@wallwatch" to access materials.

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Article: Episode 78: USC Writing Class Takes on Cyberbullies

In what could be considered a model of using off-the-shelf tech tools for a high-impact class project, a writing class spent the fall semester creating resources to help victimes of online bullies. The Tech Therapy team talks with Mark Marino, an assistant professor of writing at University of Southern California who led the effort, and one of his students about their online campaign.
Download this recording as an MP3 file, or subscribe to Tech Therapy on iTunes.

http://cdn11.castfire.com/audio/25/81/199/473103/techtherapy_2010-12-06-190103-57-0-0-0.64.mp3?cdn_id=15&uuid=8a12186e41afb1556dd1e86b3fe0a010&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fchronicle.com%2Farticle%2Farticle-content%2F125634%2F

Want to reduce test anxiety? ... Play Video Games! (This week - post #2)

Article - A "Stealth Assessment" Turns to Video Games to Measure Thinking Skills
Avoiding complications like test anxiety is one benefit of a method for evaluating difficult-to-capture abilities


Professor Valerie J. Shute


If you are an educator who notes that some of your students rountinely suffer from text anxiety, there may be a possible alternate assessment option available: Video Games. 

Valerie J. Shute, an associate professor of educational psychology and learning systems at Florida state University, recommends employing stealth assessment - the administering of tests without students' knowing via video games. Specifically, students playing video games will allow educators to watch students solve complex tasks while immersed in virtual worlds. Ms. Shute also hopes that stealth assessment might engage students unmoved by traditional teaching and testing. She states, "we have this whole group of kids who are not engaged with school, and appropriately so, because schools are so antiquated."

College 2.0 - 5 Teaching Tips for Professors - From Video Games (This week - post #1)

This week in IDE 611, we are discussing online games and their educational uses.
The video below has commentary from Will Wright (game designer), the Creator of "the Sims" Talks Educational Gaming

• Mr. Wright maintains that "Play" is a fundamental educational technology.
• He sees games as a great way to "motivate" students to investigate/follow-up on different subject areas as oppose to "educating" them.

Education and Gaming

1. Give frequent and detailed feedback
2. Test before going live
3. Narrative can answer the question "Why are we learning this?"
4. Don't be afraid of fun
5. Not every subject works as a game

Reference: URL Address: http://chronicle.com/article/5-Lessons-Professors-Can-Learn/63708/

Advocate of Online Education - Bill Gates Predicts Technology Will Make ‘Place-Based’ Colleges Less Important in 5 Years

K-12: Advocates a longer school day. 

Students: Full immersion in the learning process & ethic via weekday + Saturday school or Boarding school (Must capture 80% of their waking time).

Life-Long Learning: Sees self-motivated learners as consistently on the internet and using Web 2.0 technologies as well as dialoging with others.                             

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URL Address: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/bill-gates-predicts-technology-will-make-place-based-colleges-less-important-in-5-years/260926092 (Original Article)

This Week's Recap: Wiki and Twitter (Post #3)



This week in review



This week I blogged about the Web 2.0 technologies, Wiki/Twitter and college students.  For the Wiki posting, I discussed how the use of wikis in Singapore clashed with the Asian cultural perception of correcting/editing other individuals in a public setting. Basically such a practice is frowned upon because it might result in an individual feeling embarrassed or humiliated (i.e., losing face). Wiki researchers now seem more sensitive to cultural notions and are working with students closely to finding common ground for technology to be in alignment with cultural beliefs and practices.

The second blog posting dealt with an experiment with Twitter and 1st year college students. One research found that students who were instructed to Tweet about their course assignments earned higher grades than those student who only engaged their course assignments via Blackboard discussion type interactions. The feedback from my fellow IDE classmates on this topic was split. My two Thai classmates seemed to readily accept the research findings and one stated that she will also try to integrate Twitter use into her on class instruction and assignment for her one personal experiment. In contrast, my two American classmates suggested that further research and study had to be conducted into this area/topic. they were both hesitant in accepting the research experimental results, but found the overall experiment quite interesting.

I truly enjoyed blogging about these two topics this week because they demonstrate the versatile impact that Web 2.0 technologies are having on students and in college/university settings. In addition, some of my topics seem to be interesting and engaging to my fellow IDE classmates. I hope that this upcoming week's blog will continue to be as interesting to my classmates as well.

Want to earn a good grade?...TWEET!!!! (Post #2)

Article - The Wired Campus: Tweeting Students Earn Higher Grades Than Others in Classroom Experiment

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that "students chatting on Twitter both inside and outside the classroom got higher grades than their nontweeting peers in a recent experiment conducted at a medium-size public institution in the Midwest."  Specifically, with a student population consisting of 125 first year pre -health - professional majors participating in the voluntary experiment, researchers divided students into two groups: 70, experimental and 55, control.  The experimental group were instructed to use Twitter to "access information and complete four class assignments required in a first - year seminar course. In contrast, the control group were informed that they would complete "the same tasks on a Web-based program that functioned like a typical course - manage system's discussion board (i.e., Blackboard, Moodle)

According to researchers, "at the end of the semester, the tweeters had grade-point averages half a point higher, on average, than did their nontweeting counterparts. And students who tweeted were more engaged." Also, "Twitter users scored higher than those who didn't use the tool on a 19-question student - engagement survey over the course of the semester - using parameters like how frequently students contributed to classroom discussion, and how often they interacted with their instructor about course material."

Despite the above research findings and announcement, some faculty members have expressed skepticism and doubts over the above Twitter results. For example, Dave Perry, an assistant professor of emerging media at the University of Texas at Dallas, "questioned whether the tool was the cause of the improved grades" and called for additional study and research.

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                                                  What's your opinion?

Culture and the Wiki (Post #1)

Article - College 2.0: Wiki Project Brings Some Student Wariness at Singapore Management U

In the push to expand technological capabilities, some school personnel are learning an important lesson .... Culture Matters and can impact technological receptiveness. In an interesting article, College 2.0 writer, Jeff Young reports that a number of 1st year students at Singapore's Management University were wary of using the Web 2.0 technology, the Wiki, after learning that they would be able to edit the writings of their fellow classmates. Many students felt that the idea of the wiki could lead to the cultural notion of "losing face." Two Asian students made the following statements:

• "Its dangerous, actually, I can change everything that others have done."

• "It's a very Asia context. You have to be more aware of others and have sensitivity to others."  

Jason Woodard, Assistant Professor of Information Systems followed up the students commentary by noting: "People were very reluctant to edit things that other people posted, I guess out of deference. People were very careful to not want to edit their peers. Getting  people out of that mind-set has been a real challenge."

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Any Thoughts?

Wikipedia Cartoon

This week my blog posting was about Wikipedia and its future potential to become an accepted scholarly resource. The overall consensus from my fellow IDE 611 classmates is that Wikipedia is a good informational resource when one is aiming for quick and easy convenience in finding answers in an informal fashion; however, in terms of using it for academic or important research assignments, there was hesitancy due to the editability feature and need for information verification associated with Wikipedia.

I came across the Cartoon below which succinctly highlights one of  the main key critique of Wikipedia.

Visual Image Source: http://virtualeconomics.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c5b7853ef00e553fdeb818834-800wi

What is Wikipedia?

Below is a Youtube.com video that gives a brief introduction to Wikipedia (An evolving information resource). The video addresses the issues of bias, reliablity, expert knowledge and accurracy in relation to Wikipedia.



Wikipedia: Benath the Surface
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY8otRh1QPc

College 2.0: Can Wikipedia attain the status of a scholarly resource?

Article - College 2.0: Bringing Wikipedia into the Classroom 

A few weeks ago in the online discussion for IDE 611, the question was raised if Wikipedia was considered a reliable and scholarly resource.  The above article brings the issue of source reliability and Wikipedia to light once again. Specifically, the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, the creators of Wikipedia and other Internet wiki projects are committed to significantly improving the content accuracy of Wikipedia because as they readily admit with the current state of affairs and educational expectations, "Citing Wikipedia in your footnotes is an easy way to get an F on your term paper" due to "inaccurate, incomplete and often downright suspicious articles."

To address the above scholarly concerns, the Wikimedia Foundation have launched an improvement campaign entitled, "Public Policy Initiative" (PPI) in which they are calling for educators and college students to act as "critical editors" for the Wikipedia website.  Nine public policy professor from educational institutions such as Harvard University, George Washington University, Indiana University-Bloomington, and Syracuse University have agreed to participate in the PPI pilot program. The professors will employ a variety of instructional approaches and methods for integrating Wikipedia into their academic courses.

• Do you think in the future Wikipedia will eventually be accepted as a scholarly resource? If yes or no, please elaborate on your response.

College 2.0: Should the use of technology be banned in the college classroom?

Article - College 2.0: Teachers Without Technology Strike Back

There seems to be a heated debate taking place in university and college settings about the use of technology in the classroom. On one side of the debate are faculty members who believe that the use of technology in the college classroom is taking away from the overall level of high quality teaching, while on the opposite end of the spectrum there are faculty that believe the increase use of technology in the college classroom is a continuing trend that can improve and promote better quality teaching. 




Professor Mark James

In the attached article, readers are introduced to both sides of the debate. For example, Professor Mark James (University of West Florida) prohibits students from using their laptops in class and advises them to silence their cellphones.  Professor James states,  "The students seem more involved in the discussion than when I allowed them to go online.  They were more attentive, and we were able to go into little more depth."

In contrast, there is Professor Joanne Budzien who is receptive to technology in the college classroom, but  recommends that all instructors must contextualize the need and use of the technology to the needs and learning outcomes of their students. Specifically, Professor Budzein discusses her decision to not use clickers in her small classes. She stated, "My classes are very small - I have 24 students, and it just seems impersonal to put up a question and use a clicker.  I just have a raise of hands, and I can call on them and say why do you think this and why do you think that."

Personally, I do not believe that technology in the college classroom is a bad  thing; however, I firmly believe that technology is a tool and not a substitute for good and effective teaching. The selected technology should always support the instructor's content material and learning outcomes.

Which side of the debate do you fall on? If neither side appeals to you, please explain.

New Topic: Auto-Tunes and Autotune the News

For the 2nd half of the semester, I will be concentrating on Auto-Tunes in the classroom and Auto-Tune the News. These are two separate topics that align with one another

Auto-Tune

Antares Autotune 4

Auto-Tune is a proprietary[2] audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without the need of singing in tune. While its main purpose is to slightly bend sung pitches to the nearest true semitone (to the exact pitch of the nearest tone in traditional equal temperament), Auto-Tune can be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised/lowered significantly.[3]

Reference:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune

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Auto-Tune the News

The Gregory Brothers

The Gregory Brothers first became well known for a series of YouTube videos, Auto-Tune the News, in which recorded voices of politicians, news anchors, and political pundits were digitally manipulated to conform to a melody, making the figures appear to sing.

Although they had been featured on national television as early as 2009 for these political satires, the Gregory Brothers experienced a surge of recognition in the summer of 2010 with the release of episode 12b of the series, titled "Bed Intruder Song", which had little connection to American politics. Following the mainstream success of that music video, the Gregory Brothers have focused less on political satire in their works, but they still source most of the footage they use from American news organizations.
Reference:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gregory_Brothers
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An example of Auto-Tune in the classroom is Winston Churchill speech, "Lift Up Your Heart"

Students could do any of the following:

• Rhetorical anaylsis of the speech
• Historical/contextual anaylsis of the speech
• Comparison/contrast with another speech during the same time period
• Biographical study of Churchll and the significance of the speech

Irish Charities and Digital Storytelling

After being hit hard by the global economic downturn, Ireland is embarking on an ambigious social campaign via digital storytelling. Specifically, an online news article reported that "hundreds of charities around the country are expected connect with volunteers and suppoerters through digital storytelling." Not only is this endeavor going to be a new and unique way to recruit potential donations and volunteers for a multitude of organizations, but it is also a low cost way in which said organizations can highlight the work that they do through the medium of online digital storytelling.

http://www.bettertogether.ie/

What makes the endeavor so interesting is that it is a national campaign and at the Web site, www.bettertogether.ie which will be showcasting the various digital stories in the "About Us" tab, the following sentiment is expressed: "Studies show that societies with high levels of social involvement experience less crime, less violence and enjoy better mental health...By getting involved in voluntary and community activity YOU can help make Ireland a better place." I found this comment so inspiring and I wish more Americans could follow the path of the Irish and involve themselves more in charitable and volunteer work.

Finally, the new article announced that the top 3 digital storytelling videos will receive 3,000 euro for charity.

Please see link to news article below:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hny72IW13ODseOpckFdv_g05kfBA?docId=N0258091286986569410A

An example of one of the charities using digital storytelling
Educate Together


Organisation name: Educate Together

The Organisation's Website: http://www.educatetogether.ie

About the organisation:
Educate Together is a charity and educational patron body. There are 58 Educate Together multi-denominational schools in Ireland. It pioneers an approach to education in Ireland that is inclusive of all learners irrespective of belief system, race, ethnicity, class, culture, gender, language, lifestyle and ability.
Public Contact Details:
www.educatetogether.ie
01 4292500
Find us on Facebook!

Digital Storytelling and Mental Health



U.Va nursing professor Emily Haustein

I came across an online news article that reported that the University of Virginia Nursing School has received a $693,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study digital storytelling. Specifically, Professor Emily Haustein and other grant investigators hope to determine if digital storytelling can ease and explain the the symptoms of 25 rural Virginian women who suffer from depression.

When I read this article, I was amazed at the versatility found in digital storytelling. If this study proves successful, the mental health field will have a new weapon in its arsenal for battling depression.

Please see original article at the Web address below:

News Source#1
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=13045#

News Source#2
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20101004/NEWS01/101004005/1002/news01/U.Va.+nursing+school+receives+a++693+000+grant+to+study+digital+storytelling+

Cricket and Digital Storytelling

Hi All:

I just read a brief newspaper article and watched the online video about a university in Wales that is documenting the country's love for Cricket via digital storytelling. Just like how Americans care deeply about such sports as Football, Basketball, and Baseball, for the people of Wales, there is a deep and abiding love for the sport of Cricket. I liked this article because although I have primarily been addressing the educational use of digital storytelling, I wanted people to also see that any topic or subject that has deep personal meaning to someone can be converted into a digital storytelling format.

Please see the article and video link below. ~Aja

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_9030000/9030446.stm

Students Speak Their Minds Through Digital Media

This is a great short video that shows student engagement and active learning with digital media.

A Cute Example of Digital Storytelling

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZdLszBXFJQ&feature=fvst

The Educational Goals & Objectives of Digital Storytelling

Hi All:

The University of Houston has laid out the educational goals and objectives of Digital Storytelling. Please see below an excerpt from their Web site: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/educational_goals.html

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Educators at all levels can use Digital Storytelling in many ways, from introducing new material, to helping students learn to conduct research, synthesize large amounts of content and gain expertise in the use of digital communication and authoring tools. It also can help students organize these ideas as they learn to create stories for an audience, and present their ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way.
Educational Goals of Digital Storytelling
Teachers can:

• Create a digital story for use as an anticipatory set or hook for a lesson;
• Enhance current lesson plans with the use of a digital story within a unit;
• Assign student-created stories which requires students to research a topic from a particular point of view.

Students can:

• Learn to use the Internet to research rich, deep content while analyzing and synthesizing a wide range of content;
• Develop communication skills by learning to ask questions, express opinions, construct narratives and write for an audience;
• Increase their computer skills using software that combines a variety of multimedia including: text, still images, audio, video and web publishing.

Educational Objectives of Digital Storytelling
Although not a comprehensive list, digitial storytelling can be used to:

• Appeal to the diverse learning styles of students by using Digital Storytelling as a presentation media;
• Generate interest, attention and motivation for the "digital generation" kids in our classrooms;
• Capitalize on the creative talents of your own students as they begin to research and tell stories of their own;
• Publish student work on the Internet for viewing and critiquing by others;
• Promote the accomplishment of cross-curricular academic standards and learning objectives.

Resources for Digital Storytelling

Hi All:

In my research about digital storytelling, I found out that extensive preplanning should occur before one starts on constructing a video/movie. Using storyboards or regular pen and paper, one should plot out the story with a script. All of your visual and audio needs should be predetermined and sort into their order of presentation as well. Below are listings of various resources that could get on started on the path of telling one's personal story.


Royalty-free Media

Sound Sources	Image Sources
http://www.freesound.org/ www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html http://www.archive.org/ http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/ http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ www.parntersinsrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml wwww.pacdv.com www.macloops.com/sounds www.nmc.org/jampack	http://www.pics4learning.com/ www.pdphoto.org/ http://www.archive.org/ http://www.creativecommons.org/ www.freefoto.com/index.jsp http://www.flickr.com/ http://www.morguefiles.com/ http://www.commons.wikimedia.org/ http://www.google.com%20image%20search/ www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

General Resources

What makes me                                                                                         
A great project sponsored by the Australia Council for the Arts

Quick fixes in Photoshop: A bluffer's guide | Photo Answers

"Need to learn Photoshop fast but can’t be bothered with boring books and long tedious explanations? You’ve come to the right place. Photoshop needn’t be a complicated and time-consuming place to spend your time. In this video we’ll teach you some really simple and fast ways to edit your pictures. Specifically, we’re going to look at correcting colour, boosting the contrast and cropping and straightening your image."

MemoryMiner - Digital Storytelling Software For Mac & Windows

MemoryMiner is the award-winning Digital Storytelling application for Mac and Windows used to discover the threads connecting peoples’ lives across time and place. It lets you zero in on the stories depicted in your photos by linking them to each other based on people, places and time. Using simple drag and drop actions, you specify who is in the picture, where the picture was taken and when.

Story Circles

A viewer-submitted collection of digital stories hosted by the center for Digital Storytelling.

KQED Public Broadcasting - Digital Storytelling

KQED is a national leader in community created digital content. We hope to shepherd in a 21st aesthetic by providing training in story theory and the use of multimedia and digital technology.

International Day for Sharing Life Stories

Listen! - International Day for Sharing Life Stories will be held on May 16th 2008. The day will be an opportunity for people around the world to gather iin live and virtual environments to hear each other’s stories.

Fifty StoryTools

A collection of 50 web-based storytelling tools put together by Alan Levine.
                                                                
                               

Reference
All of the above courtesy of UMBC - An honors university in Maryland.
http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/studio/digitalstories/resources.php

What is Digital Storytelling?

An emerging term

"Digital Storytelling" is an emerging term, one that arises from a grassroots movement that uses new digital tools to help ordinary people tell their own 'true stories' in a compelling and emotionally engaging form. These stories usually take the form of a relatively short story (less than 8 minutes) and can involve interactivity.

The term can also have broader reference to the variety of emergent new forms of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games). It is also sometimes used to refer to any type of film-making, and now often used for advertising and promotional work on behalf of both commercial and non-profit enterprises.

As an emerging area of creative work, the definition of digital storytelling is still the subject of much debate.


Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling

AC: Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words

Source: http://www.kollewin.com/EX/09-15-11/synchronous-vs-asynchronous-collaboration-by-Ramius.gif

The End: Asynchrounous Communication

Today, Sunday, 9/12 marks the end of of my role as facilitator of the Discussion Board for the topic Asynchronous Communication (AC). The class discussion went well with a number of my classmates discussing the benefits and challenges associated with this particular communication delivery system. Over the course of the week, other important topics and issues emerged from the DB comments such as workload, time management, blended platforms, online vs. face-to-face classroom student interactions and engagement, student role and evaluation as well as teaching and learning in an AC platform. Overall, I truly enjoyed my time as the DB facilitator and I want to personally that all my fellow classmates, Professor Lei, and Leigh for this rich educational experience. ~Aja

Asynchronous Communication and Student Engagement

Hi All:
There is a debate going on in the educational realm as to whether Asynchronous Communication (AC) does or does not foster student engagement in a classroom setting. I have attached 2 website links: Asynchronous Learning Trends & Using Blogs in the Classroom. Both links provide instructional advice for an AC platform. I hope you find the information useful. ~Aja

Getting Ready!: 9/6 - Discussion Board Facilitator

Well, Monday is the day, 9/6: I start my facilitation of the IDE 611 Discussion Board (DB). I am feeling a little nervous, but I think everything will go well. I emailed and spoke on the telephone with my co-facilitator, Jennifer Rosas. She is an amazing person with prior DB facilitation experience. I look forward to touching base with her over the course of the week. In terms of my fellow classmates, I look forward to interacting with you on the DB. Take care.

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