Week Two of Assessments

Howdy all,

I'm in week two of Assessments of E-Learning and now have the joy of doing a weekly reflection. I'm not a blogger by nature so this blog can be said to be very unnatural. But I did read the assignments for this week and have a few thoughts. Here goes.

Edublogs as an online assessment tool

Martindale and Wiley [9] argue that tools like HTML editors and FTP clients have made web publishing available to many teachers and students. However, the challenge of learning to use these tools has been a barrier to web publishing for
many. They further suggest web logs reduce the technical barriers to effective web publishing significantly. “Blogs used for education, dubbed edublogs, are rapidly emerging as techno-savvy teachers embrace the instructional potential of this online tool” [11].

If they are so techno-savvy then why can’t they learn how to use HTML editors and FTP programs, huh?

Benefits of Cooperative Learning in Weblog Networks 2005

First of all the date was not readily found on the article we read, so I found the original in ERIC and saw that it was published in 2005. The guidlines for current issues is that the info not be more than 5 years old. The article itself is within that range, but most of the research this is based on is now too old to be valid.


Besides, as shown in Table 1, most of them (93.3%) expressed their gratitude for this chance of learning a new online communication technology, weblogs, and more than half (71.1%) of the participants indicated that this communication tool helped them to get ideas of how to learn outside classroom. The results was consistent with previous studies (Usuki, 2001; Wenden, 1991) that autonomous learning takes place when the external environment (inside/outside classroom) gives affirmative feedback for learners. Hence, the learning would be stimulated towards the plus cycle.

It took 18 years to figure this out? That’s a whole generation of students from k-12 ! Sheesh That’s a whole generation of students from k-12 ! Sheesh Just about any teacher knows that if the technology is new, the students will gravitate towards it like moths to a flame.

Face-to Face-Interaction: Although using weblogs did help the student in learning, most(91.1%)of them still felt that face-to-face interaction promoted each other’s success.

What about now? I'd like to see a current survey now of students who regularly use online tech for their learning goals. I think that when this particular study was done, the tech was so new that students wanted that F2F as a "lifeline". Today I would think that students feel the need for face to face interaction less. I hypothesis that for many of today's students that online communication/socialization is almost second nature taking into account the popularity of online communities like MySpace and Facebook, and texting as a means of personal communication.

Assessment in E-Learning

Greetings one and all,

Welcome back. Yes...its been a while, but since I only use this blog for my classes, as in the ones I take to develop and improve my mind, it's not going to have too many entries, hehehehe. But seriously, blogging is very simple to do and I like this particular site for its ease of use. (Now can I have my money?) I'll be posting more when I finish reading all the directions and see what I'm supposed to blog about. Otherwise, I just might blather on, but that's OK, because what's the name of my page? RAMBLINGS!

Introduction to Miss Katie

Hi all,

Let me introduce Miss Katie. This would be Ms. Katie L. Wagner Roberts. Miss Katie is a very kind and understanding lady, based on the fact that I was not able reply to her email in a timely fashion and she didn't tell me to bug off. But she is also a go-getter, based on evidence that she solicited a man with whom to do her “interview”. Uh…can I say solicited here in the forum?

Anyway, as this kind lady and I emailed, it became obvious that she has fantasies. One of them revolves around being Brenda Starr. For you youngsters in the audience, Brenda was hot stuff in reporter land. Armed with a buff bod, brains, and a head of red hair that wouldn’t quit, she out-wrote, out-adventured, out-scooped any guy in the newsroom. On top of all that, she managed to keep the twinkle in her eye.

Miss Katie also has visions of being Stephanie Plum. And I quote “I would love to be Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich's books (less the getting shot at) because she is just fun and sassy, but has a cool bounty hunter career :)” Hmmmm…what would the kiddies at 4-H have to say about that huh? I have the feeling they would say that Miss Katie is a very fun person.

Although Miss K. would love to live in the middle of nowhere in Ireland or Scotland, she would settle for rural Wisconsin. I guess there’s something to be said about all those cows in the fields making that famous cheese.

As part of our interview, I asked her if she had any bragging rights. Being the very modest person she is, at first she demurred. I had to put the pressure on (eat your heart out, Barbara Walters) and Miss Katie let slip that her face has graced the small screen. Yes! We have our very own TV star. Turns out Miss Katie had a TV show while she was in college. Imagine that!

When asked about a career choice if money was not an issue, Miss Katie replied that she would love to be a Mom and be able to have a whole houseful of adopted kids, the kids who so much need love. A minivan of kids in not in the cards right now, but she has the Mom part down and I would have to guess that Miss Katie’s biggest thrill is to brag about her daughter. They adopted her from China and it will be three years ago this March. Yoo hoo!

So there is Miss Katie. She may appear to be a 4-H Youth Development Educator for University of Illinois Extension in McHenry County, but underneath the facade she is a dynamo. Watch out for this Wonder Woman from Wonder Lake.