Group items tagged

Availability of and Access to Computers and the Internet

Among the greatest barriers to the use of technology in instruction reported was lack of time.

The course allows students to meet requirements by exercising how they want, when they want. They are required to work out hard for 30 minutes four times a week and report to their teachers by e-mail. Parents must certify that the students did the workouts.

Still, some committed online educators remain unconvinced. Tim Snyder, the executive director of Colorado Online Learning, which offers more than 50 online courses to Colorado schools, included physical education with studio art, marching band and the laboratory sciences as subjects best left to brick-and-mortar schools. "These are still better experienced in a hands-on setting," Dr. Snyder said. But online gym has prospered. That has been possible in part because physical education itself has evolved. Once a highly regimented class centered on team sports and competition, physical education now emphasizes healthy living and personal fitness, topics some see as eminently suited for independent Internet study.

Even the course's author, Brenda Corbin, who writes curriculums for the Minneapolis district, was dismissive at first. "I refused to be a part of it," Ms. Corbin said of her initial reaction a year ago, when Ms. Braaten and district administrators approached her about writing the physical education course. "How do you know they're really working out?" Ms. Corbin said she asked. But she later changed her mind. "I was uninformed about what you can do over the computer," she said.

This line of research indicated that the multivariate measure of learning represented by the cognitive presence factor could be predicted by the quality of teaching presence and social presence reported by learners in online courses. The relationship between these constructs is illustrated in Fig. 1 below.

Subjectively, we feel this acceleration of time, we grew up in a slower paced world and it was easier for us to adapt to change. Today we are bombarded with information, products, events and it’s sometimes hard to keep up. It may be easier for some, harder for others

Think about the news, communications and mass media. Since the internet became mainstream the way information is shared has changed radically. News one day old is already OLD. News is being produced in real time; worldwide communications are in real time too. Even more, there is more news everywhere. And it’s not that some years ago nothing happened. It’s that it’s become easier to broadcast them, allowing us to dramatically increase the information that can be distributed to the world.

The younger generations have a less daunting task, mainly because they were raised in this wired/online world. They are accustomed to it.

Mr. Reshef sees his project as a way to use the Internet to bring higher education to poor students around the world.

The university is not accredited, and it offers programs only in business administration and computer science. But in June, it got two votes of confidence: New York University announced a partnership under which unusually promising but needy University of the People students might be able to enroll at N.Y.U.’s Abu Dhabi campus and receive financial aid, and Hewlett-Packard announced an internship program, saying it believed strongly “in the work UoPeople is doing to democratize higher education.”

Moore’s original 1965 article described doubling the number of transistors every 12 months, rather than today’s popular form, which has microprocessor performance doubling every 18 months

A huge collateral effect of Moore’s Law was the creation of the commercial software industry as a meaningful force in the economy. This took place in two ways. First, the falling cost and wide availability of powerful processors greatly increased the number of computers in use, and thus successful software products could be sold in enormous numbers at modest prices.

study tested that claim by comparing equality of student participation in two modes: face-to-face discussion and electronic discussion

findings showed a tendency toward more equal participation in computer mode

Classroom Behavior Your behavior in class, or the manner in which you conduct yourself, is also an ethical choice. One of the most common set of rules for interactions within a technologically-enabled environment is called Netiquette, which is important because “the distance imposed by computer networks disrupts our interactions so that people may become more vocal (mostly a good thing), but also more careless.” What I’ve noticed during class discussions is that students may forget that their classmates are people and can read, interpret, and misinterpret what has been posted. That’s why I remind students to read their messages aloud before posting them and consider both the content and possible tone of the messages. I also encourage students to find specific elements of their peers’ responses to focus on when they are posting messages – in other words, keep it academic, not personal.  Another ethical choice to make, concerning your classroom behavior, is related to the issue of cyber safety, which involves how you behave or act towards others online. Cyber safety for students “includes the language they use and the things they say, how they treat others, respecting people's property (e.g. copyright) and visiting appropriate websites.” Also related to cyber safety is cyber bullying. Forms of cyber bullying can include: •    “Insulting: Posting or spreading false information about a person that will cause harm to that person or that person’s reputation. •    Targeting: Singling someone out and inviting others to attack or make fun of her or him. •    Excluding: Pressuring others to exclude someone from a community (either online or offline). •    Harassment: Repeatedly sending someone nasty, mean and insulting messages.” It is your responsibility as a student to act ethically in your class. Instructors know the importance of monitoring online interactions to ensure that students have a safe classroom environment to work in. For example, if I observe a message within the discussion board that may be perceived as threatening or hostile, I’ll address it right away with that student and should the problem continue I can file a Student Code of Conduct violation with the school.

In the second phase, 13 of the 22 respondents to the first phase were sent follow-up questions to elicit their perspectives as to whether the use of VoiceThread satisfied Chickering and Gamson's (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.

Results Out of a total of 61 students in two online sections of the business policy course, 22 students – 14 females and eight males – took part in the exam review and VoiceThread survey (i.e., the first phase of the study). The participants were graduating seniors, and as part of the course, they had participated in weekly discussion board activities within the University’s LMS, Blackboard. None of them had used VoiceThread prior to their involvement in the study. The survey results are presented in Tables 1, 2, and 3. Table 1. Survey responses – "yes/no" items (N = 22)

Question Yes No Comments 1. Did you comment on the VoiceThread? 22 0   2. Was it difficult to comment? 1 21 "A little, text box small." 3. Would you like to use VoiceThread for future exam reviews and discussion of chapter concepts? 14 8 "Yes. [It is] More interactive, [and involves] not just reading text, but actually listening, and picking up information that way." "Yes. By then I will know how to use the microphone." "No. [It] Take[s] less time to read answers on Blackboard's discussion board as opposed to listening to people's answers on VoiceThread. It was difficult to read the small text." (This student liked participating in the exam review on VoiceThread for the extra credit, and she would do it again if extra credit were given.) "No. I won't be able to use it with my other devices such as my iPad and iPhone." "No. It's easier to read the review questions and find the answers in the book." 4. Would you like to use VoiceThread to make a presentation for a course in the future? 14 8 "Yes. Sure! That would probably work out pretty well!" "Not really! Not unless I have to." 5. Would you suggest to your peers the use of VoiceThread for making their own presentations? 16 6  

Using the keyboard, enter your answer in scientific format, with one non zero digit before the decimal point (for example 65.3 x 107 should be written as 6.53 x 108). Press the 'x' key, and the computer will recognize that you now wish to enter the exponent of a number in scientific format. If you make a mistake, you can correct it using the backspace key.