When we got this assignment I was somewhat excited about it. It's been a long time since I got to play around with new software and be creative with computer technology. But with that said, I've been pulling my hair out trying to get everything to work right. Getting everything formatted right is the hardest part.
My son has a Kodak digital camera that is pretty good at taking video captures. The trouble with Kodak is that they download everything in the format that they choose, and Windows really doesn't want to play nice. So, I've spent most of my day trying to reconfigure file formats so Windows will accept the media that I have recorded. I finally figured it out, but there is a learning curve.
Another problem I've had is getting around copyright laws to show pictures and video that I have downloaded. Granted, I understand copyright laws very well and would never consider stealing someone's intellectual property, but in a couple of instances I have paid for the privilege to use the material only to find out that it is encoded with a security tag that Windows Movie Maker will not accept. How fair is that? I PAID FOR IT!
What I found out is that, "Where there's will, there's a way." It takes some creativity and time to get photos and video to work, but there is always a way--although it can sometimes be cumbersome and archaic. As a result, I find myself using SnagIt and taking video shots of my computer screen with my son's camera. It's not the greatest method in the world but it gets the job done.
Students may be better equipped than I am for handling these types of problems. I can usually muddle my way through almost anything, but I wonder how many students who are behind the technology curve will stick it out to get the job done. It can be an overwhelming task for some students who have a vision of what they want to produce, like me, and actually getting to their final goal. I know it's been a bigger task for me than I ever dreamed.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
How far do we go?
There are several issues that will ethically need to be addressed in online learning courses that I have yet to uncover in very much of the existing research. Here are a couple of scenarios: You are rushed to the hospital with a life threatening appendix that has ruptured, and you find out that your surgeon has gained his medical license online. How will you react? Or, as has been discussed in class, the fact that universities loathe the idea of online courses in some respects because the class sizes must be smaller and less revenue is generated while more resources are being used. What if they alleviated the problem by running advertisements from businesses and corporations within the framework of the course being taught? After all, corporations would love to get their word out to a captive, target audience and would be willing to pay for that privilege.
If anyone thinks that these two scenarios are impossible, think again. I have an acquaintance who recently earned his nursing license online. He took the coursework online, and then he had to do a three-day, real-life practicum--that he failed the first time around--but he eventually received his license and is now working at a local hospital. In many ways I find it unsettling.
Should we treat an online composition class with any less diligence or ethical consideration? In the field of technical writing there is a whole branch of studies that deal with nothing but ethics. There are many benefits to learning with technology, but I see some problems coming down the road that very few people have paid much attention to. We make a big deal out of plagiarism in the physical university and then tell students to collaborate on projects using the WWW (which stands for "the Wild, Wild, West). We know the difference but students seldom do.
Other considerations are how we deal with students who are struggling with composition in the virtual world. Do we take their money and leave them "flapping in the wind" when they struggle to keep up? It somehow becomes easier to do that in cyberspace. One study I read, states that the rate of students who do not finish an online course is much higher than in a face-to-face course. Much of this may be blamed on students who are not self-disciplined enough to follow online instruction, but I somehow feel that the mode instruction, along with the instructor's diligence, plays a role.
Thirty years ago there was no such field as bioethics in medicine. In the future I see a field of technology pedagogical practice ethics emerging. We have only scratched the surface with current research.
If anyone thinks that these two scenarios are impossible, think again. I have an acquaintance who recently earned his nursing license online. He took the coursework online, and then he had to do a three-day, real-life practicum--that he failed the first time around--but he eventually received his license and is now working at a local hospital. In many ways I find it unsettling.
Should we treat an online composition class with any less diligence or ethical consideration? In the field of technical writing there is a whole branch of studies that deal with nothing but ethics. There are many benefits to learning with technology, but I see some problems coming down the road that very few people have paid much attention to. We make a big deal out of plagiarism in the physical university and then tell students to collaborate on projects using the WWW (which stands for "the Wild, Wild, West). We know the difference but students seldom do.
Other considerations are how we deal with students who are struggling with composition in the virtual world. Do we take their money and leave them "flapping in the wind" when they struggle to keep up? It somehow becomes easier to do that in cyberspace. One study I read, states that the rate of students who do not finish an online course is much higher than in a face-to-face course. Much of this may be blamed on students who are not self-disciplined enough to follow online instruction, but I somehow feel that the mode instruction, along with the instructor's diligence, plays a role.
Thirty years ago there was no such field as bioethics in medicine. In the future I see a field of technology pedagogical practice ethics emerging. We have only scratched the surface with current research.
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