I have always been fascinated by e-learning research cases in Teacher Education where the roles of learners and teachers are so complex and reflexive. I am already committed to two online courses this spring so I think that I will enhance my understanding of the learner experience (though still limited by my own perspective).Here are my impressions on being a student in Cristina’s course ‘The Web - Educational Possibilities’ , from a technological perspective:
- I just wonder how many students complete their identities, once they realise that it is relatively inaccessible within a course and completely inaccessible between courses
It is a strange experience being a student in Blackboard - the opportunities for social contact and connection with resources, internal and external to Blackboard are largely determined by the teacher - you can find resources through the structure that the teacher provides, and discuss in pre-set discussion forums. The teacher can set up blogs and wikis, with RSS feeds feeding out, and create links to external resources, but the student’s opportunities for doing this are extremely limited: 3 favourite web sites in their home page that few will see; no facilities for bringing in RSS feeds; limited opportunities in the Wiki tool for linking out and none for linking in.
However, I can recommend this - we should all wear our students’ shoes, once in a while.
8 responses so far ↓
1 John Owen // Mar 8, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Your Blackboard points are ‘perfect’ Frances. I wonder if their developers have any intention of implementing the features you mention? After all, they aren’t exactly new phenomenons! Searching, tagging/labeling - haven’t these things been around for a while now?
I’m sure Bb wasn’t Cristina’s preference as a tool for the course, and I know she has encountered several problems trying to integrate external tools and data. Evaluating the technology aspect of the course from a student’s perspective should reinforce the benefits of choosing alternative, more flexible systems.
2 Frances // Mar 8, 2008 at 2:24 pm
As ever, Cristina has my admiration and sympathy . I empathise with her as an ‘instructor’ trying to configure Blackboard around challenging learning activities for students. What transcended that was the frustrating experience it was to be a student on Blackboard, when trying to share rich content and make links with my fellow students.
3 Cristina Costa // Mar 9, 2008 at 1:31 am
I totally agree with you Frances.
It is the first time I have to use such a closed environment. I usually only use really web 2.0 stuff, and the closest environment I had used before was Moodle, which is like a walk in the park compared with this.
But here we also learn. I am tempted to use different approaches next time, because my main concerns is that there aren’t many places for participants to be themselves: to upload stuff, to embed widgets, to display their images, to contact with others that might be online at the same time.
All of this is VERY important for me as a user and as a student. I need to feel the human warmth on the other side of the screen through till minor, yet relevant, human signals.
Even my twitter badge is being blocked in Bb.
I am sure Bb can do better than this, but while it doesn’t, I don’t think the 2 of us are that compatible…
So I do need to augment the learners’ experiences with other places they can feel more at home. And that is why this week is about personal spaces!
4 Frances // Mar 9, 2008 at 7:50 am
This is very interesting - I think I might do a bit more research. Maybe we should do a short paper for ALT-C on this - after all, we have at least 12 hours before submission;-)
5 Angela // Mar 10, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I found this post really useful - as someone who is currently developing an on -line MSc with blackboard as our main platform, having this student experience has really opened my eyes to other potential (and necessary) elements. I guess blackboard is quite reductionist in that it offers a storage silo and a rather linnear learning experience. I agree with Frances and Christina that you need acknowledegment, currency and a real time shared experience in order to feel connected to and with the learning.
Now I just have to work out my identity and what to share both as a learner and a facilitator!
6 Derek Chirnside // May 6, 2008 at 8:43 pm
How do you get subscriptions to threads in Blackboard?
What version are you using?
Just curious . .
-Derek
7 Frances // May 6, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Hi Derek,
I have put in a Helpdesk query to ask which version of Blackboard (I don’t know and it’s not obvious). It’s a forum setting that students can then turn on at the thread level but I am not aware of a digest option
8 Derek // May 8, 2008 at 2:31 am
I have found out. Just today we got an internal “all users” e-mail.
This is a system setting, and can be switched off. It is OFF here since lecturers were trying to respond to notifications as if they were e-mails, and the replies were going nowhere, or more precisely, to IT who had to then do something with them.
Leave a Comment