Comments for ictonline

Comment on This is in response to a request on how to upload a jing screencast to edublogs and so it is a test really by Jacinta

Jacinta — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:03:37 +0000

It didn’t seem to work for me?

Comment on The failures of systems and how to design things that do not get in the way by Sue A

Sue A — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 07:33:51 +0000

Edublogs has had a number of ‘upheavals’ of recent times. The last with thepassword re-set was certainly one which caused enormous frustration. Whilst I am sure Edublogs was soon aware of the situation it does highlight the necessity to ensure that everything is checked/cross checked and re-checked before sending out instructions for a new aspect of a program. I know that I (and Ted) discovered that embedding Teacher Tube became a problem – I spent an enormous amount of time going over and over something I knew was working until the previous update. Hence my view of using technology in a teaching/learning environment is to always expect the unexpected – to prepare for a problem or glitch and use that problem as a means to show students that things change, alternate measures can and should be taken. I for one know that Web 2 tools are becoming more user friendly and more people are prepared to overlook the enconveniences knowing that soon the problem will be ’sorted’. Edublogs has had its fair share of issues – and hopefully we are back on track.

Comment on 2nd online chat raised some interesting issues – one is spurious posting by oetsaustin

oetsaustin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:40:29 +0000

Compulsory participation whether blog comments, discussion commets are becoming more common. However I am not one for reading ‘meaningless’ and time wasting commentary. I do however post comments and discussions which I hope are worthwhile and useful. I think as users of the online environment we have become used to the over abundance of information – and now automatically adopt the ‘regard or disregard’ strategy of reading.

Comment on Apologies for exclusion of students from Elluminate by ictied

ictied — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:18:07 +0000

http://oetdayleh.edublogs.org/

Comment on Social presence or social distraction? by ictied

ictied — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:30:51 +0000

To go to that assignment 2 sign up sheet click here

Comment on Apologies for exclusion of students from Elluminate by Dayle

Dayle — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:08:05 +0000

Hello, I don’t understand why the classroom costs so much? On the elluminate website http://www.elluminate.com/v-series/, you can get a 20 seat voffice (not sure what the differences between the various types are) for $1530 per year? Perhaps you could contact elluminate and see if they can convert the 10 seat deal you have into some other more suitable solution.
One way to reduce costs is to share the classroom across schools, there may be other areas who would like to use it too. You only need one classroom if classes are scheduled at different times. Also, what about us purely online students? don’t we get a classroom like everybody else?
It’s true that elluminate is not the only classroom out there and it’s always good to know the options – there is another a free environment called evo that we could try http://evo.caltech.edu you have to email a request to arcs (australian research collaboration service) to get your own ‘community’.
I don’t think that online education should be considered a cost saving measure, it should be about providing flexible education of equal (and best) quality which means equal resources. In fact, I think initial set up of new online programs could probably cost more??

Comment on Apologies for exclusion of students from Elluminate by Bill Dunne

Bill Dunne — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:24:22 +0000

As an “outsider” who eventually got “locked out” I was appreciative of your comments, Ted. It was a little annoying but hearing the costs (about $500 a week term time) I was staggered. I had looked at it myself last year for the school environment and though that the price must have come down. How can it be justified?? I remember looking at an alternative last month but cannot remember the name… I will try to remember again later. There are alternatives which are free which again gets me asking how the price can be justified?? It is not exactly rocket science and the bandwidth cost is borne by the consumer…
Anyhow, thanks for pursuing the mysteries of practical online learning.

Comment on 2nd online chat raised some interesting issues – one is spurious posting by Bill Dunne

Bill Dunne — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:11:26 +0000

I think you make a good point Ted. Being forced to make comments can sometimes lead you to think in ways you possibly would not have if it were not compulsory. It sort of gets you going sometimes.

Comment on Apologies for exclusion of students from Elluminate by oetrwalls

oetrwalls — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:02:53 +0000

Ted, thanks for the explanation. I was on the “enside” on Wednesday but imagine it was frustrating for those not able to login. I suppose there 2 ways for me as a student to look at the fact that unimelb has only 10 seats in elluminate – cool that I get to try out a product that I would not otherwise get to test, or feel like a used and abused guinea pig for unimelb’s research and evaluation process. Being the kind of guy I am I take the first option, and realise that it has lead me to check out VisIQ (thanks Matt and Ben for tip) which I would otherwise not have known about, as well as Moodle LMS.

As for the cost effectiveness of online education and training… For already established institutions it can be a complement to courses which take place in a real (bricks and mortar) environment but this provides little to no cost benefit. If courses can be moved off campus or new ones created in an online environment then this could be a cost effective way of increasing revenue, but will students be willing to pay the same course fees as if they were on campus? These institutions already have their campuses, and much of their image is based on them often, so the costs here are unlikely to decrease.
An alternative is a startup organisation/institution that from the very outset aims to have some/all education online, but the challenge that I see here is trying to establish a name and reputation. Convince people that you’re not like all the other dodgy online ventures, and that you are as good as “Institutions” (e.g. MIT)
I haven’t really touched on the option of internal organisation training/PD. And here there could certainly be savings. However with so much virtual office/work from home/hot-desking in the corporate world maybe group PD in the same physical location can replace the lack or “team building” that used to take place at the coffee machine?

Comment on Welcome O E and T by Bill Oldham

Bill Oldham — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:06:52 +0000

Friday, July 25, 2008

Good morning everyone,

From my experiences with my two Year 11 classes in Term 3, I found that the students did not wish to comment in each other’s individual blogs.
However, they were more than happy to use a class blog for both discussion and a bit of collaborative learning.

They were also happier with the idea of a private blog rather than a public one.

After seeing what they have paced in their Myspace pages, I cannot understand their preference for a private blog.

Go figure?

Regards, Bill Oldham