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I've always thought that one of the best parts of online learning is the opportunity to take tests in your pajamas. But, apparently, not everyone agrees.
A new facial recognition software program is being tested for possible use in online learning. Wired Campus reports:
“Many professors who teach online complain that they have no way of seeing whether their far-away students are following the lectures - or whether the students have fallen asleep at their desks. But researchers at the University of California at San Diego say they have a solution. They recently tested a system that can detect facial expressions of online students and determine when they find the material difficult, so that cues could be sent to the professors telling them to slow down.”
Want to see how it works? Take a look at this YouTube video.
Personally, I'd feel rather self conscious if I had a camera pointed at my face while trying to learn. While facial recognition seems to have some benefits, there must be better ways to estimate a student's understanding.
See full article.
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If you want remote access to Wikipedia but don't want to shell out for Amazon's Kindle, consider downloading Pocket Wikipedia 1.0.
Here's how Free Soft describes it:
“Pocket Wikipedia, hand-checked selection from Wikipedia which is about the size of a fifteen volume encyclopaedia (24,000 images and 14 million words)
The selection was made by Schools Wikipedia…This application it's a freeware software, works on PocketPC, Windows and Linux.”
The version is static and does not update. But, it does contain a massive amount of free information. Plus, you'll have a greater assurance of quality content since everything included has been double-checked.
See full article.
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When used correctly, online class message boards and forums can be a huge asset. Virtual communication allows students to connect with each other, explore the subject in greater depth, and get feedback on their thoughts.
A recent Campus Technology piece explains the importance of discussions in online learning:
“Conversation has always been at the heart of all learning. Print and books, over the past 500 years, made “conversation” extendable in time and space and built the current world. Now, digital capabilities have taken the quotation marks away from the word conversation. In this Web 2.0 era, past the print-digital tipping point, we don't have to pretend to have an academic conversation any more (”I'll write a book, you write a review, we'll talk at a conference, you pass it on to your students, and then you write a book . . .”), we can actually have a real conversation with our students.”
The author suggests that student conversation be graded based on four factors: the cohesion element (the connection between a post and the larger discussion), awareness of audience, purpose, and diction (word choice). I find that grading online conversations sometimes leads students to write rigid book-like posts. However, if students are taught virtual communication skills and put in an engaging environment, this strategy may be successful.
See full article.
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According to one professor, online colleges are not embracing the web 2.0 technology that has made websites such as Facebook and Twitter popular. Ars Technica reports:
“Weller argues that the online communities fostered under the Web 2.0 umbrella perform a largely parallel function, in that they foster groups with common interest and link them to relevant materials. They don't fully replace the university experience, as these communities tend to have experts that are self-appointed, but Weller argues that the parallels between the two can't help but influence the expectations of students that have been raised in a Web 2.0 world.
Those expectations are nowhere close to being met by the education community. Weller notes that the software systems that many universities deploy have strict permissions limits that leave the posting of materials and launching of discussions strictly in the hands of the professors. “Why will they [students] accept standardized, unintuitive, clumsy and out of date tools in formal education they are paying for?” he asks. If the students can't meet their expectations through these systems, the students will just ignore them and start their own Facebook community; Weller paints a picture of university systems with “digital tumbleweed blowing down their forums.”
This seemed to hold true in the last online course I took. The students were permitted to post in the message boards, but few chose to participate in this way. Hopefully online colleges will be able to adapt the best aspects of web 2.0 in their future course designs.
See full article.
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Many online college students take courses in virtual realms such as Second Life. To enter these worlds they must choose a graphical figure to represent them. The Economic Times reports:
“An internet fantasy universe teeming with faux worlds devoted to socializing and video games is expanding to include virtual classrooms and universities.
A new trend in online education involves students acting through animated characters called “avatars” mingling in simulated school settings and even rocketing off, via the net, on quests for knowledge.”
On one hand, avatars give students the chance to make an impression based on their intelligence and personality rather than their looks. On the other hand, avatars do seem to act as a sort of mask - allowing students to feel anonymous rather than being accountable as their real selves.
See full article.
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Many online colleges have created Second Life learning spaces to help students master material. Although some critics (myself included) tend to prefer more traditional methods of learning, others love the interaction these virtual worlds can provide.
CollegeDegrees.com recently published a list of 50 tips and links to help with the creation of a Second Life learning space. Here's a blurb:
“The educational possibilities through Second Life allow teachers and employers to reach out to students beyond their traditional classrooms and school districts, expose young children to global issues and new friends around the world, design their own avatars and environments for highly customized training sessions and interactive discussions, practice real-world skills and manage real-life situations in a safe environment, and most of all keep students engaged in a technologically-driven society.”
If you're interested in creating your own learning community, it's worth a read.
See full article.
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I recently stumbled across a rather incredible resource. The Center for Learning and Performance Technologies offers a list of thousands of online learning tools.
Here's how they describe their collection:
“This Directory contains over 2,300 tools for learning in two main sections
1. for creating, delivering and managing learning and performance support solutions
2. for managing your own learning and productivity, and sharing resources
The tools in this Directory are both freeware/open source and commercial.”
They link to tools for teachers and universities as well as tools for individual learners. You'll find 47 tools for your mobile device, 56 note taking tools, and 37 research tools. Free tools have a special marking, so it's easy to try out the no-cost options. The list is certainly worth a look.
See full article.
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Love logging on to Facebook, but hate checking your assignments on Blackboard? A new Facebook application can help you combine the two. Wired Campus reports:
“Blackboard has created a Facebook application for students that brings their academic information into the social-networking site. For privacy and security reasons, the Facebook application does not actually pull academic data from Blackboard onto a user's Facebook page, said Karen Gage, vice president for product strategy at Blackboard, in an interview on Tuesday. Instead, it pushes a notification to Facebook users when something is new on their course Web pages, such as when one of the user's professors has posted grades. Then the student has to log into Blackboard to see the grade itself.”
On one hand, this application may be very useful for keeping students up-to-date with their online courses. But it does seem like a rather unpleasant mix of the social and academic worlds. Sometimes people want to chat with their friends without receiving a lesson update on Facebook, getting a Twitter detailing their professor's latest thoughts, or engaging in classroom projects via cell phone texting.
See full article.
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A number of teachers are adding cell phone features to their online classes. Today's cell phones can do more than store numbers and play games. Many students receive online class updates via programs like Twitter. Here are a few other ways the Teach 42 blog suggests phones can be used:
“1) Check the spelling/definition of a word
2) Research a topic
3) Look up reference images
4) Pull up maps (even with satellite imagery)
5) Document a science lab with built in digital camera/video
6) Fact check on the fly
7) Mail questions to the teacher that they might be embarrassed to ask”
Phones don't have to be a distraction - if used wisely they can actually be a learning tool. Take a look at the full post for other ways today's students are using their cell phones.
See full article.
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Educators from a recent webinar (online seminar) discussed the benefits of online gaming. eSchool News reports:
“Online gaming can help students develop many of the skills they'll be required to use upon leaving school, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity, agreed educators who spoke during an April 16 webinar on gaming in education.
Sharnell Jackson, the chief eLearning officer for Chicago Public Schools and the webinar's moderator, noted that gaming and simulations are highly interactive, allow for instant feedback, immerse students in collaborative environments, and allow for rapid decision-making.”
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of virtual simulations. Many educators believe that educational interaction via sites like Second Life (pictured above) make it easier for students to grasp material. But, I prefer to learn by actually doing something - or by reading about it independently. I seem to be a divergent view on this issue, however, and many online college students are more than happy to spend their school hours in an online game.
See full article.
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