Module two has been a lot of fun! I've enjoyed dabbling in various tools and getting ideas for ways to implement these tools in my own online course. One of the biggest advantages I see to these tools is making my class much more personal and fun...and I'm all for making math fun!
I think I will definitely be making use of Jing and YouTube in my online course, as these are both great ways to emulate a live in-person lecture. Since math is so much about hearing and seeing explanations of concepts and seeing examples, I think this is very important.
Something else I've learned from module two is how flexible and patient I'll need to be with my students who are having technical difficulties because I've had several technical difficulties myself. It's amazing how out-of-the-loop you can feel when you don't have access to the means of communication in an online course. For the first few days of our group project, I didn't have access to our Moodle discussion forum, and as a result I was unaware of what my groupmates were doing and also kept them wondering what had happened to me. This also showed me how important it is for the students stay on top of what's expected of them and to know alternate ways to communicate with the instructor and with classmates.
I also learned during this module that Google Chrome is a way better Internet browser than Firefox or Internet Explorer. I had been using Firefox, and I was having trouble with the comment feature on Blogger but didn't realize it until I lost several comments that I had posted over a few days. After doing some research, I was able to change the settings on my own blog to be able to comment on my own blog, but that didn't help with commenting on others' blogs. Finally, I decided to see if using Chrome would make a difference, and it did! Not only that, but I'm finding that Chrome is much more user-friendly and the other Internet browsers.
Finally, thanks to a few of the articles from the module two resources, I have more ideas of how to implement Google+ and YouTube into my online course. That should be fun!
I'm looking forward to having fun with Moodle in module three!
I think I will definitely be making use of Jing and YouTube in my online course, as these are both great ways to emulate a live in-person lecture. Since math is so much about hearing and seeing explanations of concepts and seeing examples, I think this is very important.
Something else I've learned from module two is how flexible and patient I'll need to be with my students who are having technical difficulties because I've had several technical difficulties myself. It's amazing how out-of-the-loop you can feel when you don't have access to the means of communication in an online course. For the first few days of our group project, I didn't have access to our Moodle discussion forum, and as a result I was unaware of what my groupmates were doing and also kept them wondering what had happened to me. This also showed me how important it is for the students stay on top of what's expected of them and to know alternate ways to communicate with the instructor and with classmates.
I also learned during this module that Google Chrome is a way better Internet browser than Firefox or Internet Explorer. I had been using Firefox, and I was having trouble with the comment feature on Blogger but didn't realize it until I lost several comments that I had posted over a few days. After doing some research, I was able to change the settings on my own blog to be able to comment on my own blog, but that didn't help with commenting on others' blogs. Finally, I decided to see if using Chrome would make a difference, and it did! Not only that, but I'm finding that Chrome is much more user-friendly and the other Internet browsers.
Finally, thanks to a few of the articles from the module two resources, I have more ideas of how to implement Google+ and YouTube into my online course. That should be fun!
I'm looking forward to having fun with Moodle in module three!
You're right that you really need more than one way to communicate when you're teaching an online course. You can almost expect that some students will have some sort of technical difficulty, and you need a way around that. Your case was really unusual in that you had 2 separate Moodle identities.
ReplyDeleteI have found to that Chrome works nicely with Blogger and YouTube because they are all Google products. Sometimes I think that the Google developers purposely make their products work poorly with Microsoft products.
I think that when you teach your f2f course, you will find that you can use some of these tools quite effectively there too.
Elizabeth I share in your woes! I too have lost several blog comments before I was able to post them. I also found that I was able to upload files on Moodle with Google chrome better than other web browsers. This also highlights the importance of checking in with students frequently. I appreciate that Rick has done a great job with this! It's wonderful that you have found ways to make your classes more fun for your students with these tools!
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