REFLECTION OF TUTORIALS
Thinking back on the tutorials thus far, I have to say I was most fascinated by the tutorial on using Facebook and Twitter in the academic realm. It never occured to me that it was even possible to conduct, manage, and maintain an official college course with the use of social network sites. Over the years I've come to think of Facebook as a place to look at pictures, get a good laugh from time to time, and keep in contact with my triathlon committee. In a sense, I recently had felt I had outgrown Facebook. Twitter has become my source for breaking news and getting the word out to customers about my business promos, however, with both, it just never "clicked" that academia could make use of these tools.
Coming into this E-Learning program, my desire had been to hone my knowledge and skills in the area of design as opposed to teaching. After the Facebook/Twitter Tutorial, I began to consider teaching. It also eased my anxiety about the course all together.
The other tutorial that struck me was Wikis. Honestly, they were pretty tough for me to grasp for some odd reason, however, the Wikis in Plain English tutorial showed ways that I could use them in both design, teaching, even family trip planning. I've learned that collaboration is key in an online learning environment; wikis make it simple.
Use of these three applications would be a tremendous help on the front end and the back, in my eyes. If I utilize the applications that most, if not all, students are already familiar with, it lessens the learning curve. Likewise, a straightforward, simple wiki that provides practically real time collaboration within a team/group can only serve to improve relations among team members as well as the course overall.
Thinking back on the tutorials thus far, I have to say I was most fascinated by the tutorial on using Facebook and Twitter in the academic realm. It never occured to me that it was even possible to conduct, manage, and maintain an official college course with the use of social network sites. Over the years I've come to think of Facebook as a place to look at pictures, get a good laugh from time to time, and keep in contact with my triathlon committee. In a sense, I recently had felt I had outgrown Facebook. Twitter has become my source for breaking news and getting the word out to customers about my business promos, however, with both, it just never "clicked" that academia could make use of these tools.
Coming into this E-Learning program, my desire had been to hone my knowledge and skills in the area of design as opposed to teaching. After the Facebook/Twitter Tutorial, I began to consider teaching. It also eased my anxiety about the course all together.
The other tutorial that struck me was Wikis. Honestly, they were pretty tough for me to grasp for some odd reason, however, the Wikis in Plain English tutorial showed ways that I could use them in both design, teaching, even family trip planning. I've learned that collaboration is key in an online learning environment; wikis make it simple.
Use of these three applications would be a tremendous help on the front end and the back, in my eyes. If I utilize the applications that most, if not all, students are already familiar with, it lessens the learning curve. Likewise, a straightforward, simple wiki that provides practically real time collaboration within a team/group can only serve to improve relations among team members as well as the course overall.
I love the wiki video! It brings back fond memories for me from a few years ago when I first watched it and then made all of my friends plan our annual beach trip using a wiki. It was quite helpful. And we only have to go back and tweak it every year rather than sending a million emails - per our old method.
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