WebQuests

I think webquests can enhance the learning for students. With webquests, students are no longer needed work with the past data of a project after understanding the concepts from the texts. They can learn by working on the REAL CASE projects. What they need to do is make assumptions, make comparison, and find a solution. As working on a real case, students need to work with the real data and resources and also require having a critical thinking on a particular topic. I believe it will significantly increase the knowledge and understanding of students than staying at home and study the concepts. Also, it will greatly increase the motivation of students to work on a real case rather than a virtual case (such as any examples on the texts). They also have to do the transformation on the real data and resources to the meaningful content. In the process of transformation, we can expect that students will learn much more than simply reading the text due to the application on the real world case. Finally, because of the team-based work, every student has to take his/her role and responsibilities on it; they have to self-manage themselves on the process of the work and guide their progress. It will also make them to understand the point that the importance of an individual’s work because a little piece of individual work has a direct impact on the whole final work. In the teaching point of view, webquests can fill in any gaps that are found and impossible to do in the classroom as a complement to students to increase their knowledge and understanding. I truly believe that webquests can provide much more fun works than the traditional classroom.

Discussion Boards

One benefit of using discussion boards is that it is easier to share information with others. With the discussion boards, there is no longer needed the photocopy machines, you can share the information by simply clicking a button to upload.
Since there is no time limited on the discussion boards, I would use a discussion board in the classroom by sharing information; increase the opportunity for students to collaborate with a project or assignment due to no time limited. Students can gain more experiences how to work and communicate with others at any time they want. Moreover, I would increase the debating or discussing opportunity for students for a particular topic periodically. It can stimulate students to think more and deeply about the particular topic. By the way, the purpose of discussing topics is that to increase the knowledge or information from others for students how the way it works.
Nevertheless, there are some challenges teachers might face. First, students might have to be motivated to actively participate or join in. Students will voluntarily participate with the discussion only if the topic teachers assigned is interesting enough for them. However, there is a way to solve a problem that students may participate for every topic all the time. Teachers can assign a bonus point to the students who have a great contribution to the topic. Second, a coordinator is needed to keep the discussion boards running well. Because of a technical device to enhance the learning, there is always a possibility that the system will be down. It causes students have no way to enter the forum or boards to collaborate or sharing with others. There is no way to make sure the system will work all the time. Regardless of the possible challenges teachers face, discussion boards are a great tool for teaching and learning.

Eportfolios

“In the context of education and learning an ePortfolio is a portfolio based on electronic media and services. It consists of a personal digital record containing information such as personal profile and collection of achievements, information on which different services can be provided to the owner of the ePortfolio and the people and organizations to whom the owner has granted access.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPortfolio
Reference by: http://classes.uleth.ca/200703/educ4766ol/module7.htm

Eportfolios is yet another innovative idea created from the nowadays technology advance society. As technology is growing rapidly, sooner of later most employers will most likely demand Eportfolios. By doing so can reduce the stack of papers lying on the HR manager’s table waiting to be read, and reduce the space required to keep record of all resume submitted. Also, it can be easier to attract the employers’ attention since each resume will be different, not just information, but the style, format and layout will also be different. Not only employers will enjoy the benefits of Eportfolios, so do potential employees. I think that Eportfolios can help present myself to potential employers more precisely due to the greater variety of choices of tools that can be used in an Eportfolios. Instead of just line of words on a piece of paper as resume, Eportfolios can include diagrams and videos that is more interest to build and read. Furthermore, more and more education, experiences, skills are learned as time pass by, using an Eportfolios can eliminate the extra paper that is needed to be print out because of change of information. Building an Eportfolios is more attractive than building a resume. It will also be more reflective, because keeping an Eportfolios updated daily is like updating a blog or a journal everyday which most people actually enjoy doing, where updating the resume is just whenever there are more work experiences or skills or any new information needed to be change.

Eportfolios

“In the context of education and learning an ePortfolio is a portfolio based on electronic media and services. It consists of a personal digital record containing information such as personal profile and collection of achievements, information on which different services can be provided to the owner of the ePortfolio and the people and organizations to whom the owner has granted access.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPortfolio
Reference by: http://classes.uleth.ca/200703/educ4766ol/module7.htm

Eportfolios is yet another innovative idea created from the nowadays technology advance society. As technology is growing rapidly, sooner of later most employers will most likely demand Eportfolios. By doing so can reduce the stack of papers lying on the HR manager’s table waiting to be read, and reduce the space required to keep record of all resume submitted. Also, it can be easier to attract the employers’ attention since each resume will be different, not just information, but the style, format and layout will also be different. Not only employers will enjoy the benefits of Eportfolios, so do potential employees. I think that Eportfolios can help present myself to potential employers more precisely due to the greater variety of choices of tools that can be used in an Eportfolios. Instead of just line of words on a piece of paper as resume, Eportfolios can include diagrams and videos that is more interest to build and read. Furthermore, more and more education, experiences, skills are learned as time pass by, using an Eportfolios can eliminate the extra paper that is needed to be print out because of change of information. Building an Eportfolios is more attractive than building a resume. It will also be more reflective, because keeping an Eportfolios updated daily is like updating a blog or a journal everyday which most people actually enjoy doing, where updating the resume is just whenever there are more work experiences or skills or any new information needed to be change.

Online Assessment

I think online assessment is an important tool for teaching and learning nowadays as education is getting more advanced and innovative. It can be used as informed progress and guide learning, and measured outcomes and success of the students that didn’t exist 10 years ago. Students tend to be more self-managed and active learning and participation because of the renovation of the education. It is a good signal. Active learning should always be better than someone who forces you to learn. For instance, I was in Hong Kong high school before I came to Canada. When I went to classes that I was interested in, I never came late for those classes and actively ask questions for the concepts I didn’t understand. So, I could get a good grade for those classes (Active learning). How about other classes which I wasn’t interested in? I don’t remember how many classes I failed. But the main point is that I had no incentive to study those classes, but my parents forced me to do so (Passive learning). Moreover, because of the online assessment, teachers should have a better “understanding the processes and outcomes of student learning, and understanding the students who have done the learning” (Stephen Segrave and Mary Rice). They should easily know the level of student’s ability. What teachers really have to do through online assessment? They only have to give instructions to students for how to assess. Most of the time, students will learn from doing through online assessment. So, learning tends to be more independent than 10 years before. Online assessment increases use of information and communications to enhance learning experience. I believe it should increase the quality of teaching and learning.
One of the examples is WebCT exam, before the development of online assessment, paper exams will be provided by instructors. The process of creating paper exams is time-consuming and costly. Moreover, it is not flexible at all. For example, the date of examination, time, and place are fixed. If instructors want to change a few questions on the exams, they have to go through the whole process again. Furthermore, the time for marking the exams is huge. However, when the WebCT exam emerges, it changes the whole conventional environment. For instance, automatic marking; there is no fixed time for the exam that students can choose the time they want; it can help instructors to manage large volume of workload, etc. Therefore, I believe WebCT can maximize efficient and effective learning. By the way, WebCT can also provide more timely feedback for students to get further improvement.

Reference
Online Assessment: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/03/online.html
Segrave. S. & Rice, M. (2003). Designing online assessment of student learning. Retrieved February 18, 2006 at: http://www.deakin.edu.au/teachlearn/cases/files/2003oltf/resources/eddesign/assess01.doc

The New Online Communiation: Ebooks

Nowadays, the world tends to be more technological and innovative. One of the examples is Ebooks, which are the new online communication for this generation. They provide more convenient than printed books. As long as you have a technological device, such as laptop or palm, you then don’t have to hold the books that you want to read all the time when you hang out. The only thing you have to do is turn on the laptop or palm, surfing on the internet, then you can directly read on your screen (of course, you must have a software for you to gain access that is compatible with your device).
Honestly, I love ebooks. So, I have a different perspective as what the author said in almost the end of the paragraph. In that paragraph, she hopes printed books not be replaced by the ebooks. However, I hope printed books will be replaced because of a number of conveniences to me as a student. First of all, it saves me a lot of money if I buy an ebook instead of printed books (most of the time, ebooks cost less than printed book). Because of the ebooks, it also saves much paper for binding. This is good news for the whole environment. Sometimes, when I want to buy books before the semester starts, there always is a possibility that the books I want are out of sales. But, ebooks will never happen. So long as I pay for the fee to gain access on the web, then I will immediately have an ebook to read. Moreover, I don’t even have to be on the line and wait for paying for the printed text. It will save me lot of time. Lastly, even if I want to print an ebook to class, I don’t even have to print the whole ebook and bring it to class. What I need is to print a chapter an instructor teaches on that class, so I don’t have to bring the whole ebook during the school time. I truly believe that it is really convenient. Don’t you think so? That’s why I want printed books will be replaced by ebooks…

Here is the article that I am responding to:
http://www.atlanticbridge.net/publishing/otherresources/whatis.htm

Learning Object

First of all, I was so confused about the meaning of learning object before I read the article. I thought it was about the learning objective. Yet, I was totally wrong. By definition, learning object is that “any entity, digital, or digital, that may be used for learning, education or training” (Beck, Robert J., 2007). That means a learning object can be anything, such as people, online video, blog, etc., as long as it can use for educational purposes. It is really important for the online learning or teaching, which uses digital resources to enhance learning, such as animated videos and images. I don’t think students would like to read a 40-50 pages for one chapter in the textbook. To create a video for people to learn, it can increase their interests. Also, a learning object can break down to smaller pieces; it will be easier to learn and understand the materials. From the teaching perspectives, it can save much time on teaching and paperwork on the materials that they hand out. Moreover, it can provide the flexibility for both students and instructors. No matter where you are, you still can teach or learn through online. It leads to teach and learn independently. Does it mean that the lack of communication or interaction between students and instructors as a result?? NO. The world is the digital world nowadays. Communication or interaction problems can be solved by email, blog, website, webcam, etc. It also provides the ability of sharing for them; it saves time and costs. Furthermore, it is reusable for different learning content among other educational settings courses. Without a doubt, it is a new way for online learning; it can bring the world to be even more efficient and effective.