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.

Text Processing

‘Text processing’ plays an important role in online learning as it determines how well the readers will understand the materials taught online. Among those factors that will cause misunderstanding, I think the most significant is the reader’s mental representation. Regardless of how good the web site is, it will be useless for a person if his or her personal experience and knowledge are not good enough. How can people understand an online material if a topic is not familiar? Thus, I totally agree with the authors’ ideas to create a link or even a video to enhance the understanding of the topic.

Moreover, the text should be easy to navigate and comprehend. International students, generally speaking, do encounter a language barrier in learning. Therefore, language is another important factor to be considered in online learning. Also, online learning does not have any body languages to assist the understandings. To make the learning process easier, easy texts, visual representation, videos, and images should be included in the web pages. These factors are particularly useful for international students. Nevertheless, English as first language student will also find these factors beneficial.

As an international student myself, I usually will not go through web sites that contain only text not written in my mother language if it is not mandatory. Without a doubt, visual representation, easy text, and the links to various objects will enhance my understanding when I encounter difficulty to understand the online materials. Therefore, the links to various objects (video, image…) and easy texts are necessary to make the online materials easier to understand. Hence, it can attract more people to go through the web sites.

SDL and Onling Learning

From the few challenges that the author stated in the article regarding SDL in online learning, I believe motivation will be the most difficult to overcome. Human have a tendency to put education after luxury because education, generally speaking, is not fun as well it creates more work for them. To overcome this challenge, the learning subject must be attractive to the extent that the attractiveness can motivate the learner to work (study) prior to doing any kind of luxury activities. Yet, there are many students in one online-learning context, it is nearly impossible to satisfy all or even half of them from the same subject. Therefore, I believe that to improve learners’ motivations strategies that should avoid procrastination and create meaningful interactions are the most indispensable area to achieve.
I mostly agree with Candy’s Four Dimensional Model in the three existing perspectives on SDL that was stated in the article. Nevertheless, I think personal autonomy and self-management can be combined as one dimension under personal attribute. Personally, the way I look at the word personal autonomy has the same meaning with how Candy described self-management, “willingness and capacity to conduct one’s own education.” Instead of personal autonomy, I think time-management can be replaced as the dimension under personal attribute. It is different than learner-control as time-management includes managing all activities in a day, not only in educational settings. Yet, this is only my opinion regarding the model. I still think Candy’s Four Dimensional Model has described SDL most accurately and it is closed to what I believe.

How blogs can be used to enhance online learning

I think blogs can be used to enhance online learning because it is more attractive to students comparing to normal educational web pages. Blogs provide a very convenience channel for teachers and students to share opinions on the same subject, which can assists in developing a better relationship among classmates. Other than sharing opinions, students can also leave questions on the blog. Since all students have the ability to see the questions, answer from teachers will most likely be more detail because this prevents the issues of replying to the same question for more than one student. Entries in blogs can only be deleted by the user, which give students the ability to check any assignments or important information while they are looking through the teachers’ blog. Blogs is such an innovative and convenience medium for learning, it will greatly increase students’ motivation to work harder, also to get a better grade overall.
Using blogs for online learning not only is beneficial to students, it is also beneficial to teachers. Blogs can save tons of paper works for teachers because only keeping a list of website of all students’ blogs will give them access to all information they need from students. Also, being able to check archived entries on the blog can assists teachers to keep track of any improvements a student might have throughout the course. Furthermore, blogs is more convenience when giving students the links to any useful sources. This is better than sending email using a class list to avoid any issues with students emails (inbox full, not in class list, etc) since all students in the class have access to the blog.

Self-introduction

My name is Ricky Ho. I am currently enrolling in the Bachelor of management degree program, majoring in Finance. Few years ago, I went from Hong Kong to Edmonton to continue my high school education. Then I came down here to the University of Lethbridge to get a degree in Management. My Family are all living in Hong Kong, and occasionally I will go back to visit in the summer. The only job I have had during my post-secondary education years is a student marker for the Management 2070 course. Although it is only a temporary job, fortunately Professor had given me the offer for several semesters. I will be seeking for a full time job in the spring as my graduation will also be in the spring next year.