Week 3 Telecommunication Technologies

I have used several of the technologies that were mentioned in this week's podcast in my online classes that I have taught and are currently teaching, and several of the technologies have been used outside of class in social settings. I will talk about my experiences with each of the technologies, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss how I would incorporate these technologies into my online classes.

Streaming Media:
I have used streaming media in my online classes, but none of the videos were created by me. The software package from the textbook publisher has streaming media videos that the students can download to explain how to complete mathematical problems. The students have told us that the videos download just fine in our school's mathlab, but at home, sometime there is connection problems. I feel this is because not all of our students have high speed internet at home and some might still be connecting to the internet via dial up modems.

My experience with using streaming media outside of online classes is with our digital library and YouTube. We have a newer digital library at RCC which has many books, lectures, presentations and award ceremonies on video via streaming media. I have watched several of the "Distinguished Faculty" lectures on streaming media when I was unable to attend the actual event. This has worked out just fine for me.

I have also used YouTube to watch videos related to both karate forms and sparring matches. Many times I might forget moves to some of the forms or katas that I should know. I just search for that form's name on YouTube and usually someone has a video uploaded with them performing that kata. Or, many of the national and international sparring matches are on YouTube and it is good experience to watch how some of these top rank fighters spar in their matches.

Podcasts:
I have never been exposed to a podcast until I started taking Dr. Newberry's classes. It was last year when I asked Dr. Newberry what program I could use to create my own podcasts because I felt this method of explaining steps to students in online classes was so successful. He told me about Audacity and I downloaded the free program from the internet. Now, I currently created and distribute one podcast per week in my online MAT 35 Intermediate Algebra class to my students. The students will listen to the podcast (hopefully within the first few days of the week) and that will explain or remind them of any upcoming exams, quizzes or homeworks that are due. I like the media richness of the podcasts because it allows the students to feel as if they are actually listening to their instructor inside of a classroom setting. Plus, if the students do not catch all of the dates for the items that are due that week, they can always go back and replay that portion of the podcast.

I have also created a podcast for the Japanese terms that are commonly repeated in karate classes. Most of the students are non-Japanese speaking students, so listening to the correct pronunciation is more assuring to them to not embarrass them in class. I have several of these Japanese mp3 format podcasts uploaded to my website. Here is an example: dojokun

Forums and Bulletin Boards:
I have used forums such as StudyOnTheBeach.com and sludgepump.com in my ETEC classes with Dr. Newberry. I like the forums because everybody the opportunity to respond to questions that the instructor asks. Plus being that forums and bulletin boards are asynchronous, this works great with busy graduate students who may work at all different hours of the day. I feel this method of discussion if far better and more effective that using a chat room discussion which I have used in the past.

I also participate and read other online forums as well. CorvetteForum.com and KarateForum are two of my most visited sites for updated information regarding corvettes and karate. With the corvette forum, participants will post information related to performance of the vehicle to corvette cruises and hangouts spots. With the karate forum, I have read articles related to best websites to purchase supplies all the way to which tournaments to attend and why. So a great deal of information is posted on these forums and they are both heavily visited by hundreds of people daily.

Dr. Newberry also discussing many advantages of using the bulletin board type discussions rather than the threaded discussions in his article: The Use of Bulletin Boards for Discussions in Online Learning.

Threaded Discussions:
My only experience with a threaded discussion was last year when I was appointed chair of our Standard One accreditation committee. The administrative and faculty co-chairs of the steering committee thought that the best way to get all faculty, staff and students involved with the accreditation process would be to create an online accreditation class and have our discussions through the use of threaded discussions. The threaded discussions were supported by our college through WebCt at the time. They thought this would show who was participating in the discussion and also allow asynchronous participation. So each week, my job was to post questions related to the Mission Statements and Institutional Effectiveness. I was also supposed to encourage everybody who was a part of my standard to participate in the discussion through the threaded discussion board. It worked out okay, but I think actually trying to find a time and day where we could all meet would have been more successful. The threaded discussions also gave us a "paper trail" of participation by all for the accreditation team to see.

Skype or VOIP:
I have not used Skype in an online class that I am taking, but I have used it in the classes that I am teaching for office hours. I would let the students know certain hours during the week in which I will be online with Skype and they could call me with questions. This seems to work well, except for the students who do not have a microphone. Then the chat seems to work better. But out of 89 students, only 3 students have come forward to let me know they do not have access to a microphone for Skype.

I have also used Skype for conference calls. I am the department chair of mathematics at our campus and we would like to hold monthly meetings with all 3 campuses of RCC to make sure that we are on the same page and to discuss any problems related to math during the past month. We have used Skype to talk to each other from our office computers rather than drive to a certain location to talk. This has worked out great for us and I think we will continue to use this method. If there is something that we have to see, such as a document, we will scan it and send via email to the other campus. Or we have used the web camera feature that is tied into Skype to "show" something to our viewers.

I also use Skype in my personal life. This media is very rich because it is basically talking to another person. There is not a whole lot of room for ambiguity. The only disadvantage that I could see is that the communication is synchronous. This works well with another person or a small group of people, but might proved to be challenging when more people are involved.

Chat and Instant Messaging:
I have used the chat room discussions in Blackboard before in my online classes. This is very difficulty because not everybody types at the same speed and until you click on submit, someone else might have already responded to the same questions that was posed. Therefore, typing speed is an issue. Also, since everything is done by typing, we had synchronous discussions and some participates might not have typed anything for almost the entire discussion. There was not a way of really knowing if they were actively participating in the discussion or perhaps doing something else.

I like to use chat and instant messaging when I am talking with my friends. I am not sure what the deal is with typing versus talking, but many of my students rather type when they are communicating versus talking. We can see that with the text messaging. Why do young people have a cell phone if all they are going to do is text message? Some might say that they text message when they are sitting in a classroom and talking would not be allowed, but they also text message when they are in the shopping malls or hanging out with their friends. I think it is one of the "in" things to do nowdays.

MyMathLab also uses a chat feature where the students can chat live with an online tutor who will respond to their questions. But one of the disadvantages that we have found with this feature is that students have a hard time explaining their questions to the tutors. Trying to type a math problem is the most difficult part of using this feature. That is the main reason that many of my students dislike this feature on the program.

For me, using the mentioned technologies in my online classes is questionable. I currently use podcasts and Skype in my online math classes that I have currently. This two technologies seem to work just fine for me, primarily because podcasts are asynchronous and Skype is synchronous. Plus, both of these methods of communication are rich when it comes to media richness. See Dr. Newberry's article: Media Richness, Social Presence and Technology Supported Communication Activities in Education.

I would like to learn how to create streaming videos in the future, perhaps in the form of lectures on various topics and I could have these videos on the school's server and when students wanted to watch a lecture topic, they could just download that particular section's video. This type of media would be very useful for the student and in terms of media richness very rich. It would be as close to sitting in an actually classroom without the ability to ask questions as the lecture went on.

I am not too sure if I would use threaded discussions or chat rooms/instant messaging in my online classes because of the difficulty of typing in mathematical problems. For these types of asynchronous discussions, I would probably strive more to the forums and bulletin boards especially if the latest thread would float to the top. Students might be able to answer each other questions using a math forum in an online class.

Just my thoughts.....

James