Your trusty roving e-reporter is checking in. Can't wait to have an e-lunch with Joyce at 2:00 to trade cheap-eats. e-get-togethers on this rainy day save us from putting on our trenches and getting into that old auto--not to mention saving gas and avoiding accidents.
Have you noticed that the developers of our conference are teaching us how to use features in Blackboard? Can't say that I am a fan of synchronous online deliveries such as the BB white board. Maybe I'll be coaxed to revise my judgment? Talk to ya about that after 2:30.
Well, I've just returned from our virtual chat (synchronously). Marti offered that this venue might be used to go over the results of an exam. Joyce reported that one instructor had her students tune into a TV program connected to issues in the course: as they watched they chatted via the virtual chat with congenial and productive outcomes that forwarded the learning objectives.
TTFN
Marti's Roundtable on Hybrid Teaching & Learning begins tomorrow.
Has anyone created a blog for your classes in lieu of using the Discussion Board in Blackboard? One of my colleagues has, and his students (some of whom are my advisees) rave about it. They claim they like it better because they don't have to log on to BB. One compared this class to another that is still using Discussion Board, and said that he thinks that people [post a lot more, and a lot more often, on the blog.I guess one of my concerns would be requiring students to post to a blog--does that raise any ethical issues?
ReplyDeleteI have not replaced the Discussion Boards with a blog format--but I have developed a semester-long blog project for English 112. From this experiment this semester, I've learned how I can further develop the learning objectives. I worked on the project and completed it just this week--should you want to see it. I'd enter you into the course to take a look.
ReplyDeleteMarti and Bev,
ReplyDeleteBased on Bev's blog for the conference, it resembles making a web page, but it places web page content, external links (e.g. the New York Times Technology window with links), and an unthreaded discussion board (Comments area) all on one page, plus an archive. That's akin to the old framed web page but more versatile.
I've seen blogs that are mostly written by one person and others that are mostly unthreaded discussions, sort of like a chat archive.
I presume that if students are writing more, they either have specific guidelines or they feel reinforced enough by people posting to their blog comment area.
But do they write more thoughtfully, or do blogs amount to electronic diaries or logs?