Coincidence I think not!

It has only been a few days since my last post but I thought that I better keep track of these postings a little better so here goes another one.

EDUCAUSE

·         Now that I have taken a few Instructional Technology courses I understand that a lot goes into developing a course online but I also understand that it takes a lot of effort to develop an on-campus course so the issue of compensation has been very strange indeed to follow on the thread the last few days.  So many IT voices are saying compensation is due when developing an online course that they will teach but I wonder is compensation given to those that teach on-campus courses or is online instructors paid less then on-campus instructors? 

·         Realize how very lucky we are to have Elearning here at the University along with our instructional design department.  Many other institutions are having to use publisher’s content or have to develop courses from scratch by themselves.  I do wonder though about how our system works in compensation since we have the instructional design department does the faculty only provide the material to be learned and then the department put it together?

ITFORUM

·         Unfortunately there was not much for me to comment on with ITFORUM this time around.  I do want to say that I have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy reading the post to the Forum.  I still have very limited terminology and have to rely on wikis to explain many of the concepts that are presenting on the forum.  After deciding this semester that IT is where I want to see myself in the next several years and moving into the IT program at the University I am very excited to have had this opportunity and feel very fortunate to have taken this course when I did.

Learning to understand not learning to know

As I am getting closer to the end of our course I have enjoyed reading through the email discussions and learning new concepts and terminology.  I am just a little more self confident in my ability to hold a conversation when it comes to interactive technology and look forward to one day actually providing some of the insightful information that is constantly posted on ITFORUM and EDUCAUSE but for now my reflections are providing a great way for me to learn and relate.  Here are my reflections since my last post:

EDUCAUSE

·         The topic of FACEBOOK- it’s almost like the elephant in the room when it comes to the dos and don’ts for Universities all over the country.  Legally do we post, unofficially do we post, or ignorantly do we post.  For the colleges that I work with on a day to day basis FACEBOOK is the red headed stepchild meaning we love FACEBOOK for connecting our students and providing a real sense of community when it comes to our events and social gathers but on the other end FACEBOOK is not private, it is not secure, and it is not an officially licensed program of the University so do we use it or not. My personal thoughts FACEBOOK can do no harm if you take the correct precautions to only associate it with social events and community.  IT is not a tool for advising, posting important announcements, or providing access to students or faculty’s personal lives.  The boundary therefore should be known or announced to students and faculty about what is proper FACEBOOK etiquette and when it is ok to comment, post, or tag and when it is not.

·         Who killed the video store- It was interesting to read about the conversation about online film courses having trouble with their students accessing films because video stores are almost obsolete now.  Making students sign up for a Netflix account when they sign up for the course seems a little bit wrong.  They would have to have a credit card and then pay another fee and then have another bill to pay.  Film is not an easy thing to stream but there has to be a better way to allow students to access films if you are to do this online.  In class these students would rely on the professor to show and acquire the film.  Sometimes I wonder if people just say hey let’s make this an online course and then not think about the logistics involved

ITFORUM

·         The discussion of teaching students how to learn rather than teaching them exactly what to learn because everything becomes out dated.  Liberal arts was constructed for that very purpose but our universities and colleges have become so specialized that we are turning out students like as the blog says “widgets out of a machine”.  I think that says a lot about a person, they might not know everything by heart but they have the resources to find it and figure it out.  Those are the type of people that companies want.

Technology is Effecting Us!

After a few weeks of blogging I do have to report that many of the concepts terminology is starting to connect on other aspects in my life.  I actually just read a study done by the University of Wisconsin system for EDUCAUSE on course management systems.

EDUCAUSE:

·         All has been very quite on the home front for Educause in fact from the beginning of October to now there was only 1 post

·         This one post however was very interesting to me!  The post was about a research study conducted by ECAR of undergraduate students and how information technology has effected them in their higher education career as well as personal development and life.  The report is over 120 pages. Highlights were that 98% of students owned their own computer with the majority of them being laptops that were 2 years old or less. Ninety four percent of students were using library websites and 9 out of 10 students reported using a CMS for learning. Another interesting thing was that 94 % of 18-24 year olds were using social networking while other age groups: 25-29, 30-39, 40-40, and 50+ have increased over 40% since 2007.

ITFORUM

·         Found the link Dr. Perkins put together for the IT Publications to be very helpful and a great resource to tuck away for later use

·         I liked the discussion about preparing for international audiences.  I am reminded often of the example Dr. Driscoll used in her texts about her graduate student who checked multiple answers on a multiple choice test because in his native country you could check all that apply not just one.  Many times we do think that they way things are done in America is the way it is done all over the world.  I see a lot of this with my husband’s company.  He provides vision software to hospital floors that help bed control.  Many times the first several weeks of communication involve adapting to how that country is currently doing things with technology and even though programming as they say is one language not everyone uses it the same way.

·         Another issue that struck my curiosity was the issue of plagiarism.  In so many other countries I have heard that the rules for plagiarism are very different and even not as strict at times.  How strict are we supposed to be on citing when participating in online discussion boards as well.  I will admit I have never been as diligent with citing sources in my online discussions because I believe the discussion takes the place of in class verbal discussions.

·         I found it interesting that one contributor brought up the topic of leniency for cultural differences is translated to prejudicial favor.  I find when these statements are made it tends to be that they do not realize that without leniency and consideration the level of discrimination is much worse than the perception that they are getting prejudicial favor

·         I found the topic of online conferences and how they are shaping professional development.  I find the online conferences to be very flexible and helpful for those that are unable to travel but I am stills shocked at how expensive many of them are.  I also find that when attending conferences to familiarize yourself with new concepts and theories it is very hard to grasp those with an online non-face-to-face communication

·         The topic on ethics and technology was very interesting.  I do think that many participants in that discussion took the easy way out by saying that ethics is only developed individually and that ethics courses and technology are not influential in students’ ethical values.  I tended to think that what they were missing was that in a private room individuals act differently than they do in public- it goes back to the very basic concepts of Freud and with interactive technology humans have a shield behind them providing an opportunity to check those ethical values at the door

Question of the day:  Is ethical values being diluted by the behind the screen mentality of our social networking community?