Course Reflection

My Course Reflection

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

To me, the best thing about this class was that it was completely online, and it was about teaching online. It was the first time that I have used Blackboard completely in an online course. I also enjoyed my classmates in this class. Some had online teaching experience, some had in-class teaching experience and others had “real world” learning and teaching experiences. It made for a well-rounded group that brought a lot to the table. I have learned many strategies and techniques from my classmates through our weekly discussions and through our group projects. I know that I will use most, if not all, of the tools in the future, personally, professionally or educationally.

It was also the first time that I used Google Sites to create a website. I enjoyed the simplicity of it, and realized that there are many uses for it. It was also good to see because like some of our readings and discussions pointed out – teaching online classes is no cake walk. There is a lot of preparation to it and it is very different from a traditional classroom setting.

WEAKNESSES AND STRENGTHS

I felt this class accentuated strong points from my classmates and myself. We all learned from each other things that work and don’t work. I love trying out technology tools. Even though I do not always have the easiest time grasping them, I will try anything once. One of my strongest points was during the group project three. That assignment could have been a hassle, but I have used some of them in the past so it really helped me excel there.

My weak points in this class were probably that I did not get to jump in on some of the discussions as quickly as everyone else. If that happened, then you didn’t get as much feedback on yours or you miss all the “action” in the discussion. I work full time and take other classes in the communications department, which is more writing and not a lot of tools. I’m not as versed in education practices as most people in our class were. I come from a communications background and that made it more difficult for me to “make a class up.” I learned a lot from all of my peers though. And, if I ever decide to teach, I will be a better teacher for having classes like this.

CLASS AND INSTRUCTOR INTERACTION

I enjoyed all of my interactions in this class. The discussions were great and it was a good place to kind of “get to know” my classmates and see how they interact with technology and teaching. In the discussions, it was great to actually see much dialogue happening between everyone. Everyone in the class knows so much and it was great interaction for everyone, I think.

I enjoyed the online format for my peers and my instructor. We had some issues with our group, but it was able to be resolved quickly with the help of the instructor.

TOOLS

Gmail is great. I love email and think this is one of the simplest and timeless pieces of communication. Gmail was great because you could do groups and chats, plus an array of things including the Google sites, Google docs and Google reader.

I liked the discussion board and felt that it was used fairly well in this class. I do wish that it would send messages on the comments being made instead of having to check it all the time. And, at times, there was almost too much text to decipher through. I felt like I spent more time reading than learning, which defeats the purpose of the class.

The chat room was good, both in gmail and in Blackboard. Both of them archived the conversation for later use in case you needed it. That can be very helpful. I wish the video chat would have worked better and been more user-friendly. My group could not get the video chat to work for more than a few minutes and it was very choppy. We were able to video chat on Gmail, but only with one person at a time. Video chat could be improved in the next few years and it will be much easier to use.

The voice board was interesting, but it was my least favorite. I can see some benefits to it, but overall I was just unimpressed. It is a neat idea and concept, but one that could easily be left out and not be missed.

I liked the Live Classroom. The way the students could interact was great. The emoticons and the way you could raise your hand, clap, etc. was fantastic. However, our group had problems using it. We figured it out eventually, but by that time, we could have discussed what we needed to already. So, unless there is a specific reason to use Live Classroom, it would be just as useful (and less time consuming) to simply talk over chat.

Blogs are good for any occasion. I would argue that blogs are almost too inundated in society, but they are good nonetheless. Blogs are good for reflecting and learning from others like the one we are doing in class. The problem one might run into when using blogs in the classroom, is there could be too much to read. At some point when all 15-20 students have their own blog and everyone has to read the others, etc. things get lost in translation and people stop listening/reading.

GROUPS

I thought the group work was very good. Being an online class, it allowed us to actually be on the other side of the classroom as the student using the technology. That gives you the experience of feeling of what your students would go through using these same tools. You could do them on your own, but interacting with a group shows you the potential that these tools have.

SUGGESTIONS

I thought this class was good. I like the discussions and the group projects. For the sake of things being in the same place, maybe try incorporating a Ning class site. Students can communicate through that as well as blackboard. They could also post their blogs there and chat, etc. I like Gmail chat and groups, but that can be done in Ning also. Things just started to run together because everything was in a different place. It might help the student and the instructor if everything was more organized and together.

Research Paper

My final paper: Technology and Public Relations
I researched teaching technology tools and Public Relations together. Studies in public relations will need to involve hands-on technology. PR educators need to teach students that emerging technologies will be part of their real-world job descriptions. Because Public Relations professionals use technology tools everyday to get their message across, it makes sense to incorporate the two in the classroom. I am starting to see this some in larger universities, and I think this is the way to go. At some point in the future, I would love to actually teach a class like this. I looked specifically at what kind of technology interaction was going on presently and what could be improved and added. The audience for this type of thing would not only include the students, University administrators, public relations practitioners and finally business leaders, including government and nonprofits. I looked specifically at E-mail, Websites, Blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. By preparing the students with job-ready skills, while understanding historical theories, yet knowing how and when to include and embrace emerging technologies in the field of public relations is being a true public relations educator.

Website

My Google Site: http://sites.google.com/site/williamsit648/home

I have uploaded websites using a couple of different tools, but mostly in Dreamweaver. There is a definite process to how things have to be laid out and planned beforehand. Initially, I started creating my website in Dreamweaver. However, I am now doing it in Google Sites. I have a couple of friends who have used this and like it. Since, I have never used it before and I have worked on Dreamweaver, I thought I would do this to gain even more experience. I thought that it would be much easier considering the fact that you do not have to host the site, however that is not really true. I spent a long time on the site with colors, layout, etc. Since my class was on Public Relations Technology teaching, I tried to pull photos that would be appropriate. The most difficult thing about doing my website was actually coming up with the content. Unlike most in our class, I have never taught a class and therefore had to come up with all the content for this class. The schedule was the hardest to determine. With all that said, I really like Google Sites and will use it again. I like the fact that pretty much anyone could create a Google Site.

Group 2, Project 3

Project 3

This project was pretty fun. I found it very useful to test these within a group. There were some things that I would not have thought of that my group members did. It was a great collaborative project.

We looked at Ning, Twitter, Second Life, Google Docs, Wikispaces and TaPingYa. There are so many sites out there that can be used in education if used correctly. Collaboration is key in many online classes, and it makes sense for us to explore some of these within our group as a project. After using Ning in one of Dr. Yuen's classes, I became a huge fan. We used it so many ways, and it was very easy because you had everything right there. We used other tools in the class for our benefit, but the class could have easily used only Ning to communicate, if wanted or needed.

I enjoyed all of our sites that we chose. Twitter is huge right now, and in my field of Mass Communication, it is being widely researched. I'm not sure how keen I am on really using it in my classroom, but I do see benefits to it being used by students for other things including research and collaborations.

Overall, my group worked well together during this project. We only needed 4 sites, but we thought that by each doing 2, we would gain more experience for this project and for us in the future. I enjoyed reading the other groups projects and really liked this assignment. It gave me a lot to think about and many great ideas!