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.

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

• 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

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

How many blogs do you need

This is just to start to get some ideas down about OET and then start to plan or change what the OET does this semester. It might be just a matter of changing the sequence but it is also the case that as Campbell is doing a study I need to get some thought down on the processes involved.

Some thoughts on what might need to be covered

• peer review and its benefit for online learning
• the burden of online teaching and the number of factors such as

1. lectures,
2. practical learning activities and
3. the possible tutorials necessary for learners to even begin to carry out the learning exercises