Course Management System

A course management system, also called a learning management system, is software, usually Internet based, that allows instructors to teach an online course(or enhance traditional classroom teaching with web-based elements.) A (CMS) organizes and manages course materials(like assignments, lecture notes, quizzes, grades, etc.) and supplies tools for instructor-student and student-student interaction, such as discussion groups, live chat sessions, and whiteboards.
The most widely used course management system is the one the NLC uses, Blackboard, who announced a merger with its largest competitor, WebCT. According to Eduventures, an educational market research firm, Blackboard owns about 45%-50% of the market, while WebCT holds about 35% to 40%. Together, more than 3,700 higher education, K-12, corporate, government, and commercial academic institutions use solutions offered by the two organizations. WebCT was the system I used at my local community college.
Features of course management systems may include announcements, homework assignments, course documents, discussion boards, inter-class communications, chat rooms, grading, quizzes, surveys, files storage, and links to external sites.
Edu-Tools has an online comparison tool which may help you choose the system that meets your needs. You can compare up to ten systems.
The tools we have learned about in this class enable us to communicate effectively with a large audience using Internet technology. They have also required much user interaction. We have used wikis, blogs, posted photos and videos using some simple, easy to use technology. The same could be said for course management systems. The CMS makes it possible for educators and students to connect with each other beyond the bounds of a classroom and restrictions of schedules. These connections create learning environments that promote engagement and active construction of knowledge. The resources and technology available on the Internet can be overwhelming, to say the least. The CMS eases this because teachers are able to create links to selected content, cutting down on time spent by students in identifying whether a site's information is useful and increasing the time spent engaged with high quality texts. We had a good example of this with each of our assignments and the three or four links to explore with each topic. I have had good experiences with both Blackboard and WebCT course management systems. Believe me, if I can navigate through them, anyone can!!!!!!

Web Office Application

I originally had some reservations about posting information online for all to see, especially the idea of people editing the material. But after learning about some of this technology the last few weeks, I am much more at ease with the concept, including this week's assignment. I thought it was pretty cool to experiment with other classmates projects. I liked Keith's calendar listing every one's birthdays. I used Google Docs to post my document. I uploaded a Word document that I thought my classmates might find interesting. It consists of my top ten labor events in the last twenty five years. This type of assignment would seem to really benefit from collaboration. A person could add or subtract events as he/she seems fit. They could also explain why they chose to edit the list and get feedback from others on reasons why the event should stay. Another good example would be a timeline that people could add significant dates to. Google Docs seemed to be a pretty popular option to use. Honestly, it seemed to have most of the major options that the basic word processor provides, including choice of fonts and formatting. You can also insert images, web links, and tables.
I can see two major advantages of online document services. First, because the document is online, a person can access it from any computer. Second, you can share an online document with anyone, person or group, with a Google account and like a wiki, it tracks all edits made to the document.This can be done in real time. How cool is that?? Another interesting feature in Google Docs was how you could load a spreadsheet, set up a form with questions to ask co-workers or employees, send out the question via email and their answers would automatically get entered into the main spreadsheet. I forgot to mention that you can also pick who can access your document and Google claims that the files are stored securely. An obvious disadvantage would be that if you lose your Internet connection, you are out of luck. I also read an article about schools being uneasy about this type of application because the files are residing outside their networks and thus outside of the school's control. I am not sure if any of these services can be hosted on your own server. Here is the link to my document http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVbYMbnHQ8K4ZGNoZDk1cGNfMWNybTk2MmNu&hl=en

Online Survey

As with most of the other programs we have used in the past weeks, using the survey sites was as easy as providing an email address and password. I used zoomerang.com to create my survey. I suspect it is similiar to some of the others in that a person can create their own survey or use an existing template. I used a combination of the two. I created five questions to mix in with five other questions provided in one of the templates provided at zoomerang. It was very easy to edit the existing template and create your own survey. The basic subscription does not provide as many bells and whistles as the paid versions but it is enough to create a simple survey and analyze the data. A drawback to the free version was that I could not share the results with anyone, as I would have liked to do that. The site does the work. It lists the number of completed surveys and breaks down the results using percentages. As of Saturday night, I had seven completed surveys. Zoomerang also gave me the choice of sending the survey by email or pasting the link in a website or blog. It really could not have been easier. It was interesting to see the results of my survey. The answers were all over the board!!!
Advantages of online surveys would include access to individuals in distant locations, the ability to reach difficult to contact participants, and the convenience of having automated data collection, which reduces researcher time and effort. Online surveys allow researchers to reach thousands of people with common characteristics in a short amount of time, despite being separated by great geographic distances. Online surveys can also save money by moving to an electronic medium from a paper format, eliminating the cost of paper, postage ,printing, and data entry,etc. A specific example of educational use of a survey would be, for example, an initial poll to get an idea of students computer skills. This could aid the instructor in the initial lesson plans, where to start from, after considering the computer skills of the students, e.g., 1.) Have you used Microsoft Word?, 2.) Have you used PowerPoint? Another example of the surveys are the post class surveys that ask questions about the class and the instructor, in an effort to evaluate the strengths or lacks of a particular class. I actually enjoyed taking the surveys from other students as I do not always share this same enthusiasm about taking other online surveys, as I am not sure if they actually want our opinion...

Here is the link to my survey http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229GJK2CZS8

Video Sharing

I know I am repeating myself but this was another new experience for me. I do not own a video camera now although I used to have one of the big VHS camcorders that you set on your shoulder. Wow, has the technology gotten smaller or what?? I shot my short video clip using an older Kodak digital camera. Needless to say, there is no audio with the clip, which brings me to another subject. That is creating audio to go with a video clip. I recorded an audio clip to add to my video, which I thought I would be able to do on Windows Movie Maker but this is not possible since my video files were stored with the mov. extension which is not supported by Windows. There are some conversion programs out there but none of them seemed worth the trouble of installing. I am sure there is another way of doing this, I just have not figured it out yet. I shot the video clip on a job site earlier this week in suburban St. Louis county, MO. It is a routine job of removing some slack in a span of primary wire, rated at 7200 volts so that we could pull up the neutral wire to sag to gain clearance over the street. This was pretty straightforward. The quality of the video is poor and my unsteady hand does not help matters. I was however, trying to watch them and not get hit by a car while I was doing it!!!! As I was saying last week, I do like the educational aspect of the video format, eg. how to videos. It would seem that you can get instructions on most anything. For example, building the paver patio that I showed pictures of last week to solving the Rubiks cube, or changing a hard drive in a laptop computer. As we have talked about before, the information is out there, it is just a matter of finding it. I uploaded the video to vimeo.com for no other reason than it was extremely easy to sign up and begin uploading. I checked out Google video first but they are no longer accepting uploaded videos. Here is a link to the video http://www.vimeo.com/5753030

Photo Sharing

Surprise!!! I actually was somewhat familiar with this assignment. I actually had shared some photos before. Although it was somewhat harmless, just posting kids pictures for the rest of the family to see. My brother, in Burma, is able to keep us up to date with photos of his family and adventures, which is nice, considering we only see them every couple of years. This idea of photo sharing and commenting on the photos is a new concept for me. I have used snapfish and photo works in the past to print uploaded pictures or send copies to family. Both are inexpensive and easy to use and I could have used these sights as a link to my photos.

However, I decided to try the Flickr as the photo sharing sight. As our reading describes, the process could not be simpler: sign up for account and start uploading your pictures. There are many features on the sight, including the ability to start online discussions about the images you post. Just add comments under any of the photos. You are also able to keep the photos private or public. This could be important in a classroom setting. As the author mentions, the real power of Flickr lies in the way it can connect people from around the world. If students are studying other countries or cultures, Flickr can be an incredible resource of images and information.

The photos can represent people from all over the world that have taken different pictures in these cities or countries. Students can then have discussion on a particular photo or album that interested them. I also think there is learning potential in photos of a particular job or project being done. For instance the pictures I posted are of a small paver patio that I finished. I did not take a "before " shot of the landscape before I started, I should have. I also included some photos of a deck I am tearing down. I am replacing the deck with a set of stone stairs. I hope to have a finished picture to post in a few days. My point of this diatribe was to tell you that I actually consulted the internet on how to install paver patios. The information made the job much easier just by being able to see some pictures of people doing it. I am convinced that a good photo album can tell a story in itself. Images are a vital method of communication, sometimes offering a higher level of understanding than the written or spoken word. Remember , a picture is worth a thousand words!!!!! Here is a link to my photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40566966@N04/

Podcast Beginner

I have been using computers for years and I can not believe I have not used any of these tools we are going through each week. Granted, I do not work in a office environment but I certainly feel that I am lagging behind the technology curve. I digress.
The whole podcast experience was interesting to say the least. I used Audacity to record the audio. I was not too overwhelmed with this software since I had used it before to create my own ringtones. At least it was not completely foreign to me. I did not use many of the editing tools other than some basic cutting and pasting. The recording went fairly smooth which I expected to be the most challenging. It is hard to pick a particular topic to just randomly talk about but my podcast actually had some ties to a book I have just started, The 5000 Year Leap, A Miracle that Changed the World by W. Cleon Skousen . It is about the founding father's 28 principals of Freedom. As far as trying to post to a server, this did not go quite as smoothly. I initially tried Media.org and for some reason was not able to register an account. I tried numerous times without success. I then tried to follow our author's directions to create a separate RSS feed on Feedburner.com. I went through the steps but was still unsure how to post the podcast to the feed. I eventually gave up on this tactic and agreed with Mr. Richardson that if all of this seems like too much work, you might want to check out a couple of Web based pod casting services that make things even easier. I did just that!!!! I use podomatic.com to post the podcast. This site does make it easy. It takes you through it step by step including asking to post a picture with the audio. The only minor issue I had was initially getting it to upload. I could not upload directly from my computer for some reason. There are three ways to upload. I ended up using their uploading option which then stores the uploads in a media library. You then check it out and publish. Podomatic will the send you an email with a link to your podcast. Pretty cool... If you would like to listen to my podcast here is the link http://dbrown9429.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-07-09T19_01_19-07_00

Well, another adventure into the high tech world of communication. I joined a web cast with some other classmates on Thursday evening using Central Desktop as the conferencing tool. Amanda acted as the host and did a great job of setting up the page and developing a theme for the group to discuss, which was appropriately named, Fourth of July celebration. The page also included a couple of tasks , eg. a Word document listing some of your favorite places to celebrate, activities you enjoy on the holiday, and your input on a menu. It also included a PowerPoint presentation that a person could checkout, edit and then upload back to the page. As usual, it took me longer to figure out how to get into the actual chat that was going on. I was able to navigate the page but was unable to hear or chat online with everyone. I eventually figured it out and was happy to join the group discussion, which included a conference call via the phone line which is something else I have never done. The webinar provided a great deal of interaction between the group. The host, which can be changed, controls the desktop and can pull up whatever information that he/she wants everyone to see. This is where the collaboration starts, for instance on the PowerPoint presentation, everyone had input on the layout and content of the final draft. I also set up a skype call with a brother who lives in Burma. I initially had some microphone issues but worked through them. We were able to talk for a short time although his voice was choppy.We were still able to chat online in real time. He blamed the poor voice recognition on insufficient bandwidth on his connection. Whatever the case, unlike a phone call this was free of charge. Pretty amazing!!!!

I can see where web conferencing would cut down on travel expenses and time. Employees do not move from their office thus saving the company considerable amounts of money, which also could be energy efficient since they do not have to burn fuel in their cars for travel. In this era of multinational companies operating in all parts of the world, I can see this as a most effective tool in communicating with clients,employees, suppliers shareholders, just to name a few. These online meetings can virtually be arranged anywhere, anytime, within minutes. Can the same be said for booking a convention center in another state? I think not. Technology marches on.

What type of creature is an aggregator?

I apologize for the late posting. The heat wave here in St. Louis is wreaking havoc on the power grid.I have been replacing transformers almost daily!!!
As far as our assignment goes ,the RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed is an awesome tool. And as usual, I had no idea that it existed. The aggregator helps us to keep up with new info from our favorite blogs and Webpages and on top of this it enables others to know when you have added something new to your blog or Webpage. Pretty amazing!!!!! I read an article that I thought used a good analogy. Most people who still enjoy reading the newspaper have developed techniques for getting what they want without reading every article or even every headline. Most of us have learned to pick only those sections that interest us and then we scan headlines. When we find a headline that is important to us, we begin to read the article.
Similarly, RSS and other "feeds" allow us to automatically scan the "headlines" from pre-selected Web sources. If the item looks interesting from the headline, we can "click" to get the full article.
I used Google Reader as my aggregator for no other reason than our book recommended it and it was easy.I subscribed to a few classmates blogs, ESPN, US News and World Report, and a very interesting Labor Union feed which I have posted below. It has a story on the graduating class of the NLC and a lot of other useful information for labor enthusiasts.
The educational value of the RSS feeds are endless. Among the benefits would be the ease of sharing information from many sources, the ability to share the task of information publishing, and the simplification of gathering and evaluating information from multiple sources. Feeds could be used in class blogs, school schedule or sports schedules, ability to monitor research, job searches. The list goes on. I realize now I should not have feared this "aggregator" creature.

First Trip to Blogdom!!!!

Yes, That's correct. This is my first attempt at blogging. I have used the wiki before in a previous class and have to admit it was easy to work with, however I had some difficulty when it was time to edit someone else's post on the wiki. I did not mind adding to the other students posts, I just did not feel I had the right to remove their work, considering it was student to student. The wiki does make an excellent collaboration tool especially when working in groups on a particular subject. I have commented on this before but I still like to read the newspaper instead of getting the news on the Internet. For now, the same is true with communicating with others on the Internet: I just don't do it. This is not to say I am against the new technology. I am certainly open to any tool that aids in educating and finding alternative ways of reaching the new generation of working men and women.


To give you an idea on my lack of communication, this month my family had a total of 1,778 text messages. Of these I had 3. As has been the case, this class will prove to be a real learning experience for me. I read an interesting article today that reported that 28% of Americans it interviewed last year said they have been spending less time with members of their households. This number is almost triple what it was in 2006. The article also notes that this coincides with the booming social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc... along with the importance people place upon them.Does anyone see this in their own families? I can certainly see it in mine. Even when we are home together, it would seem we are texting or communicating on the computers but not amongst ourselves. http://http//www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/F65EA4DC6164AF10862575D700028BC3?OpenDocument Another tidbit in our book claims that the fastest growing demographic in Facebook is age 35+. At age 44, this figure surprises me. On a positive note, I can also see where this type of application could generate some good feedback on a topic of discussion or maybe even some bad feedback?