Thursday, March 31, 2011
elluminate
The class session in elluminate was different to say the least. I like the concept of being able to reach anyone anywhere. However, I noticed that there was alot of difficulty getting everyone on the same page. It must be hard to diagnose technical problems if you cant see them. I wonder if there was a way to share our screens with the moderator? That would make that type of issue better to address. I feel technology will always hinder us when we use it at one point or another I didn't like the idea of the whiteboard. It seems like too much information can get lost or over written. I did like that we can chat back and forth and not disturb the rest of the class. creating separate rooms for group work was another aspect that i enjoyed. This way students wouldn't have to open so many windows and keep switching back and forth. All in All i think it was a good experience.
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I think it is a tool that teachers will need to incorporate more and more in some aspect. There is a lot of talk about Virtual High Schools and I'm not sure it is the best approach we need to learn to do things well in that environment. For some students it is used for credit recovery and there isn't a lot of interaction and for others there is a lot of interaction.
ReplyDeleteYou really learn about the inequities of the technology in an experience like this. Many webinars are done using Elluminate but as a participant for the most part you just follow along and listen to the presentation. You can type in the chat but you can not interact in any other way. Those are usually limited to 1 hour.
Yea I'd have to agree that having class through Elluminate was a completely new experience. I'd also have to agree that even though it was a great tool to use, there were those difficulties that went along with it. I mean I didn't really like the idea of the whiteboard either because it was so hard to not write over someone else and it was also hard to find where each person had written the text. The tech problems that happened throughout the lesson were also hard to resolve because no one could physically see what that person was seeing to help them. I like the idea of us being able to pull up oru side of the screen to show the teacher and our peers though, is there a way to do that with Elluminate (I know you can pull up another screen on skype, not so sure if you can share it though...)? If there isn't, is there a way they can make sharing screens a capability of Elluminate? I did like the chat, when I was having difficulties I could get help from both the teacher and my peers. If there was no chat feature I would not have been able to keep up as well as I did. Although I think it has its kinks, I think Elluminate is really beneficial, where its advantages otuweigh its problems.
ReplyDeleteI think the separate chat rooms were a good aspect. It allowed separate students to be able to go off and chat by themselves and as the moderator I think the professor could see what was going on. This might be a good aspect for schools.
ReplyDeleteCall me traditional, but I just don't think that is the best platform for learning. Yes, many schools offer online classes, but most are done in a blackboard type of way. It can get very confusing trying to juggle everything around while using the software. I just feel that elluminate is better suited to work meetings and things to that nature, not teaching a high school class.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with the chat rooms being a plus. Ironically, by not having access to a microphone, I didn't miss anything. Although, I think it just takes a few people to stick their necks out and start talking a little to get the ball rolling. I think it might have helped if the professor found a way to force everyone to talk. Not sure how you would do this though.
ReplyDeleteYeah I think what is common among peoples experiences with Elluminate is it was different. Most of us have never experienced a session like last class. We have been accustomed to a physical classroom with chairs, desks and a board. We did everything a normal classroom does: lecture, discussion, activities, group work and assessment (minus the technological difficulties).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kris that this tool would work better with work meeting than a high school classroom. After the session was over, I couldn't really remember what we did. I think this would be boring for highschool students and they would be too tempted to be on facebook without any way to supervise their activity
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