Week 5

The week was kind of hectic in checking final assignments, completing and submitting grades for four online classes, preparing new courses for next semester etc. This week's technology RSS seems interesting and useful. Subscribing feeds and blogs saved me from wandering around to find my frequently visited sites, classmate’s blogs etc. I realized that Google Reader has replaced my del.icio.us page to some extent. Not quite sure the difference between the two. I am planning to make my Google Reader more specific and organized. I have feelings that I like Google Apps NOW :)!
Visiting FERPA, http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/FERPA-Overview.htm
Flickr.com, and ePortfolio.org pages was very informative. I really need an ePortfolio for myself. I like Cole’s blog and appreciate his contribution and passion for technological advancement. There is so much stuff to learn and I don’t think I can ever know everything. Legalities is a vast topic of the week with focus on privacy, copyrights, and ADA. I personally feel that this vast topic should have been covered into two separate ones for in depth exploration. I am kind of “take one thing at a time” person. Anyways, I got to know a lot about the topics with some extra time devotion. It was surprising to see the amount of research and practical work done for ADA compliance in distance education at University of Washington. I have feelings that we need more training workshops for instructors at community colleges for better understanding and application of ADA. Main streaming is a good option for students with disabilities in higher education but well equipped, well trained, and empathetic faculty and staff is required for the success of mainstreaming.

Week 4

I really don’t like doing things at last moment like writing this journal but it is unexplainable why I am doing it now, the last day. Anyways it has nothing to do with technologies, or assessments and evaluations. May be something to do with "non-technical world!"
Pondering over evaluations was fun, especially when I worked on Bloom’s. I am glad that the criteria I use for evaluation in my distance learning and f2f classes is a standard one but I still want to try more. Not sure what this “more” could be. I might have better clarity by the end of this course or at the beginning of the next one. I am fine with my online tests with time limit and trial control. The idea of proctored tests is difficult to implement for a “distance” learning course as many students contact me before registration to make sure that they don’t have to be on campus for any of exam.
After in-depth exploration of WebCT (LMS) I realized that there are some other tools that I should use for my spring semester. Learning modules, calendar, and chat will be my new tools next semester.

Week 3: Communications

Wiki is a new communication tool for me and I had difficulty at the beginning to track others wikis but I am getting used to it now. Thanks for the small group. I still like WebCT’s threaded, blog, or journal type discussion tools better. They are more structured compared to wiki. (I still like structured stuff better in today’s informal world and still having difficulty with abbreviations, slangs and informal writing style). This is my fault not others. However, I have learned a lot about NEtiquette. Interestingly, when I write NEtiquette the way it is written here, my auto spell-check corrects it but I want to write it in a way it is on the web (wrong way). Again a conflict between formal and informal style!

I enjoyed instant messaging today with some embarrassment of my slow typing and “formal style.” One day my daughter was logged in and I started working on the computer. My niece came online from Canada and started chatting. I wrote few sentences and she replied, “oh its my dear aunty.” How did she find out?

I always use hotmail instant messaging; and found gmail chat a little different. No problem in one-on-one chat but needs better clarity on how to join a group chat.

Overall, this week made my online learning curve a bit higher. Got the good news of the DLMG grant approval and excited to use my current learning for next semester’s course development experience