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.