2011年2月19日 星期六

Blended and Fully Online Learning





















(I create these images from http://www.sp-studio.de/index.htm)


I took one blended and one online course before. I had a great experience in the blended course. Generally, it is a production course. The purpose of that course is introducing a learning method presented by the multimedia applications. Students were asked to find an existing course (formal or informal, training or instructional) or a learning method. Then, they had to document it or take picture. Finally, they used a website, video clips, or flash etc. to present what they found. For the first several classes, they were face-to-face. The instructor explained what we were doing. Then, each student had to report his/her progress both on the online forum and in the class. The instructors gave us suggestions and answered questions we asked in the class. After we set up our topic and understood what we should do, we hadn’t met until we produced something. However, we still had to post what we had done on the online forum. The meeting for the rest of semester was one-on-one. According to students’ topics, instructor would give them different suggestions in the meeting.

However, I didn’t have a great experience in the online course. The instructor uploaded the insight and outline in each week. Then we were asked to provide our opinion on the online forum.

For me, the online, face to face, and blended courses are the same now. They just provide different way for learners accessing knowledge. The appreciation of these courses is still based on the instructors. No matter what types of courses are if the instructor organizes them well, they are evaluated as a good course. It means that the technology is not applied wildly in the education, because what we do are the same things –report, discussion, and share etc. Moving those things to online is not difficult, but how making them different from before is very difficult.


2011年2月6日 星期日

E-BOOKS

I heard a lot of people saying they feel uncomfortable in reading online. The main reason is that the Glossy Screen has a lower ability of anti-reflection. Is there any type of display having a high ability of anti-reflection? Yes, the Matte LCD and E-Ink display. Then, why do manufactories still provide a lot of glossy LCD?













The crap usually “looks” beautiful. Try to recall how many electronic products have flaws and you still buy them because of its design and brand. They are business man. They create demand; they sell you crap; they cost down. However, they never give you appropriate information of products.

Before I came to the U.S., I had never read digital articles. However, I am comfortable with reading digital article now. In fact, I have never felt uncomfortable since I started reading digital articles. I think maybe I am used to watching the screen. My college major is MIS. I usually program more than 3 hours a day and 2 days a week. Also, I usually play computer games at my leisure time. Generally, the computer had occupied most of my college life.

I am not sure whether people felt uncomfortable when the television emerged. I guess they may have the same feeling as people reading on the computer when they watch the television. Although it is hard for us to ask screen manufactories to stop producing Glossy LCD and start producing Matte LCD or E-Ink display, we can develop a good reading habit (such as adjusting the brightness of screen) to overcome the problem.