One of my classes this semester uses Blackboard to serve as a hub for class documents, such as notes, announcements, syllabi, readings, etc. When I was a master's student at USC from 2001-03, I used to think of Blackboard as being more trouble than it was worth. However, now I like the idea of having a central location to keep all my course documents together.
Fast forward to 2008. The professor of the course that uses Blackboard doesn't update the site so much and not all of the documents are available for download. What's the point of using Blackboard if you're not going to upload the notes there in a timely manner? This reminds me of the "bells and whistles" phase of technology in the classroom. Yeah, it's cool to say that your course utilizes Blackboard. But if you don't take advantage of the conveniences it offers, then it's probably not worth using at all. If you're going to try and integrate technology into the classroom, it's important to do so effectively.
In terms of research, I learned this week that there is a glut of research focusing on the over-18 crowd, but a dearth of research examining children. Adults are more accessible and have fewer barriers regarding getting them to participate, obviously. However, this made me think of my own job. I teach adults ranging from about 25 to 40. When it comes time to develop a project for LING 797, I should consider whether I want to focus on adults, which are probably easier to measure, or children, which would be more empirically useful.
Anyway, here's a random YouTube video. Congressman Clyburn is hip!
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5 comments:
do i need to add japanese to my poll? sorry i left that one out! :O)
Hey Anthony! I absolutley agree with you tht if technology is going to be used it needs to be used effectively. There is nothing worse than a teacher telling you that something will be up on blackboard and then it never shows up.
However, I dont think you have to use Blackboard excessivley for it to be useful. I use it to send mass emails to my students and I have my personal information and the syllabus posted, but thats about it. So, for my class it exists as a source of backup information if the students loose their syllabus and as an easy way to communicate. I might consider using it to post notes and such in the future, but for now, I think as long as my students dont expect to find notes there that my current uses are sufficent.
One step at a time for the technology beginners:)!
Blackboard seems to be used to varying degrees by each professor with some using it to its fullest extent and others not using it at all. I think Blackboard has great features and the potential to assist students in their educational endeavors. I like the ease at which you can download class readings.
Hi Anthony,
I wanted to respond to the post that you left me the other day and also to comment a bit on your latest post.
I do tend to use technology in my classroom quite a bit, but not nearly as much as I could. My first job out of high school was working as an online publisher (although I started out with mostly grunt work) in the New Media department at the local newspaper in my home city. I had no idea about technology at that point, but the problem-solver in me was completely intrigued with the computer, so I spent a lot of time working with different computers tools and programs, just really messing around. I loved it, and I've never really lost that interest in technology.
Even being interested in technology and knowing a bit about it, I've never used Blackboard, and I've been kind of checking it out lately. It seems really interesting.
As far as your post is concerned, it's totally true that updating is crucial, especially to course management systems. I also am very interested in seeing some research (or conducting some research :)) on children, although it's true that those kinds of studies are harder to control. Still, my main area of interest is Second Language Acquisition in pre-pubescent children, so I do see the need for more research in that arena.
Keep up the good work on your blog!!
good reflecting and an interesting post! 10/10
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