Distance Learning

Comment

Comment by Patricia Newcomb on December 2, 2009 at 7:50pm

Have not had outsiders intruding in our area although I have inadvertently intruded into others - I was asked if I was lost and directed to the way out. There may be a way to have private activities that I am not aware of. The simulation you are describing sounds like great fun.

Comment by Michael D Kanner on December 2, 2009 at 2:37pm

Thanks, I looked through the site and it seems that it could easily be adapted to run role playing games or simulations. I have used a 7 state simulation that I have run for my class on War, Peace and Strategic Studies that looks like it could easily be adapted. Have you had problems with outsiders intruding?

Of course, in that world I will have regrown all my hair.

Comment by Patricia Newcomb on December 1, 2009 at 6:01pm

Right now our department has a meeting area where a lecturer can hold forth and show slides. The participants can interact with one another in real time. I am planning to simulate my lab on one of the islands because I would like my students to rehearse some of the protocols they will be using before they come to class. Basically, learners/participants interact in real time in an environment designed by you (5th century Athens? 1965 Mississippi? The Senate?... whatever). You can hold meetings or classes there or leave activities that the learner can do at any time by themselves. It is an interesting program mostly inhabited by non-educational groups, but lots of universities are starting to "buy land." - free for visitors. If you navigate to Second Life you will see how to register and choose your alter ego (avatar) that will be you in the program. That's a perk - In Second Life I am about twenty years old and have a great figure!

Comment by Michael D Kanner on December 1, 2009 at 5:44pm

No, but it sounds interesting, particularly for a political science course. How exactly are they using it (I am only slightly familiar with Second Life)?

I have used MYSPACE for a class on political rhetoric to have students blog on campaign ads, but had mixed results. It may have not had enough links.

Comment by Patricia Newcomb on December 1, 2009 at 5:41pm

Our school of nursing is using Blackboard (formerly WebCT) and we maintain a significant presence there. Our university recently purchased real estate (3 islands) on Second Life and we have started building learning environments there. Is anyone else in this group teaching in Second Life?

Comment by Sandra L Siedlecki on December 1, 2009 at 4:32pm

We too have just switched from Educator to Angel; and I see no major differences. As others have stated each has strengths and wekanesses but none I have used have really met all of my needs. Since distance education is so time intensive, systems that make the tasks easier for faculty need to be rethought. Perhaps, this is where, those of us who are users should be working directly with the software developers to improve the ease of use.

Comment by Beverly Benfer on December 1, 2009 at 1:01pm

We are now using ANGEL, after switching from BlackBoard/WebCT. Each available system has its own strengths and limitations, though they all seem to have the same basics. But for a small school which cannot support any LMS on campus 24/7, we must rely on a hosted solution. So the quality of the support often becomes more important than the individual features of the LMS.

Comment by Rebecca on November 30, 2009 at 12:58pm

We looked at moodle, before we went with blackboard. Blackboard is a very nice package for the most part.

Comment by Michael D Kanner on November 25, 2009 at 7:34pm

I agree about using a commercial service that results in advertising. My feeling is that it implies an endorsement. I had this issue when I used MySpace to let my students post and analyze campaign rheroric in ads.

However, I have not had any pressure from any of the parts of CU's administration (I teach in 3 different departments) to inflate. In fact, I had just the opposite occur. They do an analysis grade distribution and ask when it seems to be too high.

Comment by Gwen Rodgers on November 25, 2009 at 4:04pm

Philip, After reading the other posts, I'm not sure Google docs would meet your needs, however... I use them a lot for students to collaborate on different projects like Excel spreadsheets or to make a presentation. It allows students to have one document they are working with, while each editing at their own location. They do need a gmail account (free). Our University has an educational account with Google so all our students are already on that system. The Google "sites" students can also create free allows even more opportunities to share their work. There are some great YouTube Commoncraft videos on Google docs if you would like to see more. Good luck!

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