Strangely despite a couple of students seeming to have problems with web addresses not being accessible by clicking in the chat and virtual classroom java windows - I just tested this and it seems to work perfectly well for me in a Firefox browser. I hopw it is not one of these browser specific problems - what i think though is the window that opens is hidden from the users this week who could not see the site opwn up after they clicked the link to it in their chat and virtual environments.
On the more recent versions of Firefox the new window opens as a tab in the same instance of the browser as the java displaying the chat or VC it is therefore resized smaller and does not have a location bar which is a problem and also if you keep pressing the cursor down in the chat or VC environment you stay there and unless you saw the tab pop up you would not know it was there.
Another thing worth thinking about is this notion of dropping the whole LMS environment as the basis for our sessions and moving to Skype chat and other environments and only move to the LMS to demonstrate how an LMS works and what restrictions it imposes ( also what advanteages it has for automatic record keeping enrollment updating and centralising control)
Thursday, August 9, 2007
What a mess is this LMS
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
What a mess is this LMS
Last night I tried a few more things out - really I should always prewarn students that that is what I am doing and yes I know there were problems with the java plugin that had been reported earlier by students =- but my feeling is that you can learn by trying things out.
Clearly it is still a mistake to start in chat and then ask the class to shift to the virtual classroom.
The first thing that happens is that students lose their chat window and cannot easily tell me if they have problems with the VC.
So number one rule never tell them to do this. What is possible or at least the way that I did it and maybe assumed that other might open the VC was to open a new instance of their browser and then go through the whole process of logging in and then open the VC keeping the Chat open.
It was a misunderstanding on my part that opening both was possible from the same window(or even as proved incorrect that one was linked to the other so that the chat in the VC was the same as the chat in the chat).
The reality is far more complex however than just going through a lengthy explanation that a new instance of the browser needs to be open and the other instance might be concealed behind it but still accessible and still have a java window open with the chat they left open so that they can get back there using alt tab to see the other windows if they hit a snag.
The complexity lies in the variations in what happened last night with different students. Some had their computer crash. Some could see the VC and the whitboard but not the browser sharing I was doing to display the tutorial or how to get to the tutorial. Some had just the chat from the VC and no whitboard. I do not hink anyone was abe to see the content of the browser sharing when I began to play the video. There was no sound on the browser sharing even though a way of browser sharing is just to send the VC on all student to an actual browser and the actual web address that is being shared.
This understanding of mine is naieve however it would have been less technically difficult than what i think the VC actually tries to do and that is send an actual rescanned image of the whole web page to all participants from my machine rather than just point all of their VCs to the same site i am viewing (so they could hear and see direct from the internet and not via my machine using heavy processing of image and communication to re present the webpage.
Anyway what was even more amazing (but disappointing too) was the web address that I put into the chat area of the VC was not active and did not take students to that address when they clicked it. They physically had to copy and paste it into their own browser location bar.( not happy with this at all)
On top of all this the student that may have had the most difficulty with blogs and what they were about had to leave and did not get to even see that there was some instruction available on starting their own blog if they used alternative means to access the instructions. That student I hope will not be so put off that they do not get to follow the instructions and build a blog themselves.
The most disppointing thing about all this is that there are a couple of students in the class who are aware that last semester we did all the things we tried last evening but in alternative software environment that were not available through the LMS and i think they are probably getting impatient that I do not skip all this mucking about and just avoid the University's very expensive LMS and go and use what we used extensively last semester - Skype and Elluminate.
It would be easier and possibly even more aesthetically pleasing to use these again and maybe just refer to the LMS as Web1.0 and therefore passe.
I think Joanne who did the last semester class would like us to move that way. I am just concerned we are skipping whole technologies that need to be investigated and experimented with and experienced so we can speak with authority - even if it is to reject them as clunky.
What a mess is this LMS
Last night I tried a few more things out - really I should always prewarn students that that is what I am doing and yes I know there were problems with the java plugin that had been reported earlier by students =- but my feeling is that you can learn by trying things out.
Clearly it is still a mistake to start in chat and then ask the class to shift to the virtual classroom.
The first thing that happens is that students lose their chat window and cannot easily tell me if they have problems with the VC.
So number one rule never tell them to do this. What is possible or at least the way that I did it and maybe assumed that other might open the VC was to open a new instance of their browser and then go through the whole process of logging in and then open the VC keeping the Chat open.
It was a misunderstanding on my part that opening both was possible from the same window(or even as proved incorrect that one was linked to the other so that the chat in the VC was the same as the chat in the chat).
The reality is far more complex however than just going through a lengthy explanation that a new instance of the browser needs to be open and the other instance might be concealed behind it but still accessible and still have a java window open with the chat they left open so that they can get back there using alt tab to see the other windows if they hit a snag.
The complexity lies in the variations in what happened last night with different students. Some had their computer crash. Some could see the VC and the whitboard but not the browser sharing I was doing to display the tutorial or how to get to the tutorial. Some had just the chat from the VC and no whitboard. I do not hink anyone was abe to see the content of the browser sharing when I began to play the video. There was no sound on the browser sharing even though a way of browser sharing is just to send the VC on all student to an actual browser and the actual web address that is being shared.
This understanding of mine is naieve however it would have been less technically difficult than what i think the VC actually tries to do and that is send an actual rescanned image of the whole web page to all participants from my machine rather than just point all of their VCs to the same site i am viewing (so they could hear and see direct from the internet and not via my machine using heavy processing of image and communication to re present the webpage.
Anyway what was even more amazing (but disappointing too) was the web address that I put into the chat area of the VC was not active and did not take students to that address when they clicked it. They physically had to copy and paste it into their own browser location bar.( not happy with this at all)
On top of all this the student that may have had the most difficulty with blogs and what they were about had to leave and did not get to even see that there was some instruction available on starting their own blog if they used alternative means to access the instructions. That student I hope will not be so put off that they do not get to follow the instructions and build a blog themselves.
The most disppointing thing about all this is that there are a couple of students in the class who are aware that last semester we did all the things we tried last evening but in alternative software environment that were not available through the LMS and i think they are probably getting impatient that I do not skip all this mucking about and just avoid the University's very expensive LMS and go and use what we used extensively last semester - Skype and Elluminate.
It would be easier and possibly even more aesthetically pleasing to use these again and maybe just refer to the LMS as Web1.0 and therefore passe.
I think Joanne who did the last semester class would like us to move that way. I am just concerned we are skipping whole technologies that need to be investigated and experimented with and experienced so we can speak with authority - even if it is to reject them as clunky.
Even the research has problems that can feed the research
It is a nice neat introduction to the area of research that the researcher's access was blocked by being granted access as a tutor.
I hope as the researcher requested that switching to co ordinator - will solve the problem - this is a good thing to find out - certainly not an intuitive expectation - that is why are tutors not able to access the subject?
Clearly coordinatior's need to access the subject and that would be expected to be a grander set of privileges than a tutors access.
But a tutors access should be straight forward as they are unlikely to be as familiar with an environment as a coordinator would be expected to be (even though my familiarity with it as coordinator is clearly lacking as i did not know you had to be a co ordinator to access the subject - just joking here - i still think it is either a design or implementation fault with the LMS and not a fault with the coordinator's lack of understanding of the sublimities of setting permissions in this LMS - which are by the way very opaque, idiosyncratic and obscurely places in relation to managing the subject.
That is without being told there is really no way of knowing these things - I love that.
I hope as the researcher requested that switching to co ordinator - will solve the problem - this is a good thing to find out - certainly not an intuitive expectation - that is why are tutors not able to access the subject?
Clearly coordinatior's need to access the subject and that would be expected to be a grander set of privileges than a tutors access.
But a tutors access should be straight forward as they are unlikely to be as familiar with an environment as a coordinator would be expected to be (even though my familiarity with it as coordinator is clearly lacking as i did not know you had to be a co ordinator to access the subject - just joking here - i still think it is either a design or implementation fault with the LMS and not a fault with the coordinator's lack of understanding of the sublimities of setting permissions in this LMS - which are by the way very opaque, idiosyncratic and obscurely places in relation to managing the subject.
That is without being told there is really no way of knowing these things - I love that.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Now the beginning of OET is not the beginning of flexible delivery
The idea for this week is to look at online discussion and compare it with blogging as a form of social engagement as a learning process. So learning by communicating or learning in groups.
I am not sure how general the understanding is of group learning and whether that need to be reemphasised.
I am also not sure how many students in this group are comfortable with blogs as a fom of online communication that may lead to learning>
There is also the problem that although I woul dlike to lead them through how to make a blog we do not as yet have all of the students up to the same speed on how to listen to walk through because we have not covered Skype or seting up for using earphones or speakers so the only way to cover the setting up of a blog is to create a screen capture of the process and make that available.
The other thing that I am now just thinking of is that the virtual classroom in Blackboard the LMS is not as good as Elluminate in that it does not have an application sharing environment - it can only share web browsing I think.
I need to check that because the chat tomorrow night is really just going to be about the comparison in text chat form and probably not a walk through of the technology for creating a blog as i did with the flexible learning group.
I am not sure how general the understanding is of group learning and whether that need to be reemphasised.
I am also not sure how many students in this group are comfortable with blogs as a fom of online communication that may lead to learning>
There is also the problem that although I woul dlike to lead them through how to make a blog we do not as yet have all of the students up to the same speed on how to listen to walk through because we have not covered Skype or seting up for using earphones or speakers so the only way to cover the setting up of a blog is to create a screen capture of the process and make that available.
The other thing that I am now just thinking of is that the virtual classroom in Blackboard the LMS is not as good as Elluminate in that it does not have an application sharing environment - it can only share web browsing I think.
I need to check that because the chat tomorrow night is really just going to be about the comparison in text chat form and probably not a walk through of the technology for creating a blog as i did with the flexible learning group.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The problems with the chat and virtual classroom so far
The implementation of online chat and the virtual classroom in the new instillation of the Blackboard LMS at the uni are clunky
Who would have expected anything else - well me I suppose- I even told the students who turned up to the intro face to face session on how to access the subject that the reason we were using chat was that it was old technology and fairly well proven and would be a good fall back or starting point when we tried newer environments and had issues.
I did try loading the chat in the MAC lab before the class started and I thought there were some issues especially with the virtual classroom side of things.
So I went down to the PC lab to try it - thought we might move there if the thing did not work properly in the MAC lab - it worked on my PC OK.
Nupe problems seem to exist in the PC lab too. Decided it was a browser issue and would be best to stay in the MAC lab and run Safari rather than Firefox because Safari is developed by MAC
Not a good idea - but I did not have time to change as the whole networked slowed as the students started to arrive at 5.15 and also had problems loging on as per usual - always ok at home - the network passwords are updated in the labs so these students who often have been enrolled for many years will inevitably have to reset their passwords to access the lab computers even though their log on works at their home perfectly and as they are not going to be using the labs in the future it is a complete distraction and a waste of intellectual energy even talking about different log ons - the students do not need this explained it is not part of the subject but is always the first thing they encounter and I expect it it has at least a peripheral impact on the environments of online and the uni's practices or lack of consideration - whatever
The big issues did not emerge though untill the students went home and tried to access the chat at the designated time of 8.30 pm using a variety of browsers.
One person Christine could not get in at all. She was using a MAC. The MAC environment says on trying to access the chat ( it told me this too ) that the operation system must OSX not 8 or 9 and t go and buy an upgrade ( approximately $300- 400) even though she and I both were using OSx
As I had told her in the face to face class there were some issues with MAC and to use Safari she might have been prepared but I had to send her a message in the online discussion that maybe installing the latest version of Firefox for MAC might be the solution - we will wait and see.
Other people - namely Debbie were having the problems I had down in the PC room - she was on a PC using Internet explorer I think ( I did not ask ) and in the virtual class she could only see the chat window - again I think the problem will be solved if she uses Firefox. But unlike for MAC the latest version of Firefox for PC does not work with the latest version of the Sun Java plugin and I hope she has the old version installed which seems to be OK
I know that it is important to check everything out before you use it in a class but who has the time to check every browser - isnt that the company Blackboard's job how much are we paying for this LMS.
Who would have expected anything else - well me I suppose- I even told the students who turned up to the intro face to face session on how to access the subject that the reason we were using chat was that it was old technology and fairly well proven and would be a good fall back or starting point when we tried newer environments and had issues.
I did try loading the chat in the MAC lab before the class started and I thought there were some issues especially with the virtual classroom side of things.
So I went down to the PC lab to try it - thought we might move there if the thing did not work properly in the MAC lab - it worked on my PC OK.
Nupe problems seem to exist in the PC lab too. Decided it was a browser issue and would be best to stay in the MAC lab and run Safari rather than Firefox because Safari is developed by MAC
Not a good idea - but I did not have time to change as the whole networked slowed as the students started to arrive at 5.15 and also had problems loging on as per usual - always ok at home - the network passwords are updated in the labs so these students who often have been enrolled for many years will inevitably have to reset their passwords to access the lab computers even though their log on works at their home perfectly and as they are not going to be using the labs in the future it is a complete distraction and a waste of intellectual energy even talking about different log ons - the students do not need this explained it is not part of the subject but is always the first thing they encounter and I expect it it has at least a peripheral impact on the environments of online and the uni's practices or lack of consideration - whatever
The big issues did not emerge though untill the students went home and tried to access the chat at the designated time of 8.30 pm using a variety of browsers.
One person Christine could not get in at all. She was using a MAC. The MAC environment says on trying to access the chat ( it told me this too ) that the operation system must OSX not 8 or 9 and t go and buy an upgrade ( approximately $300- 400) even though she and I both were using OSx
As I had told her in the face to face class there were some issues with MAC and to use Safari she might have been prepared but I had to send her a message in the online discussion that maybe installing the latest version of Firefox for MAC might be the solution - we will wait and see.
Other people - namely Debbie were having the problems I had down in the PC room - she was on a PC using Internet explorer I think ( I did not ask ) and in the virtual class she could only see the chat window - again I think the problem will be solved if she uses Firefox. But unlike for MAC the latest version of Firefox for PC does not work with the latest version of the Sun Java plugin and I hope she has the old version installed which seems to be OK
I know that it is important to check everything out before you use it in a class but who has the time to check every browser - isnt that the company Blackboard's job how much are we paying for this LMS.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Is online discussion better than blogging what is the difference?
I have a perhaps unsubstantiated notion that blogs are somehow better than online discussion.
Why would that be? Is it that blogs are better for education or just better?
People seem to like blogs more than they like online discussion.
That is a seem why do they as a hypothetical untested it is possible people like them because
Why would that be? Is it that blogs are better for education or just better?
People seem to like blogs more than they like online discussion.
That is a seem why do they as a hypothetical untested it is possible people like them because
- they are prettier.
- logs are owned by the people who mostly write in them
- it is clearly a personal and personalising space - you can make it even prettier or more ugly depending on your personal whims or lack of taste
Saturday, July 28, 2007
For online teaching do you always need to
prepare well set out content in web pages - perhaps not a Powerpoint presentation because that is passe and not educational
prepare an incisive online discussion topic probe and question for the inevitably sluggish to start discussion
prepare a set of notes and detailed plans for how the chat session will run and ensure that the topic is light and can be handled in the short bites that chat allows
prepare an online learning activity or learning object that works and is understood
prepare an online tutorial that details explicitly how to carry out the task set
prepare an incisive online discussion topic probe and question for the inevitably sluggish to start discussion
prepare a set of notes and detailed plans for how the chat session will run and ensure that the topic is light and can be handled in the short bites that chat allows
prepare an online learning activity or learning object that works and is understood
prepare an online tutorial that details explicitly how to carry out the task set
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