COMMUNICATIONS IN ELEARNING

1. Textual information can be very effectively communicated via most LMS. Blackboard allows instructors to communicate with students through announcements, course documents, linked pdf files, etc. with great ease. It is very productive to link journal articles that the library subscribes to for students to read and then discuss in a forum. Students like this because they know exactly which articles need to be read and save a tremendous amount of time not having to search for these articles themselves. The benefit is also a negative because it does not give students the experience of conducting their own literature searches.
Student-student and student-instructor interactions through online discussions support the community of learners (social presence). Initial instances of student-student discussions were weak in content and critical thinking. However, when the instructor raised the level of expectation by modeling discussions that fostered critical thinking by including deeper analysis of the text and of each others submissions, the quality of interactions improved markedly.
2. Document Design can enhance usability of any document by attending to some very basic design principles. The author lists the following design features: (a) Chunk information, (b) Use white space, bulleted lists, and other text attributes, (c) Use URL links appropriately, (d) Use text links within documents, (e) address user viewing preferences, and (f) Require standard file formats. Bulleted lists help students to know if they have addressed each item within the list. This is excellent when posting an assignment that has multiple components. For example, the following list taken from my course syllabus will illustrate the point. The assignment requires students to provide the following information in a report following a series of one-on-one interviews conducted with grade level students to identify specific misconceptions students hold about science concepts:

Submit a three-four page report of your pre-instructional interview. Your report must include the following sections:

1. The California Science Standard and the specific science phenomena addressed in the interview.
2. A statement of the purpose for the interview
3. A description of: the context (e.g., grade level, the status of science in the curriculum, etc.), and the classroom children (e.g., age range, gender distribution, SES, linguistic and academic backgrou nds, and general attitude toward science.)
4. A list of the primary and probing interview questions
5. A list of the props used in the interviews
6. A list and description of representative students responses to your questions
7. A list of students’ alternative conceptions
8. A list of conclusions about children's alternative conceptions related to the science topic
9. State the implications for curriculum development and instruction for these children.
   

The actual document is posted in BB as a MS Word document and has multiple levels of bullets which are not easily replicated in this Blog. The original document has taken advantage of some other recommended features such as white spaces and chunking of information, as suggested by the author.

3. Synchronous and asynchronous communications are different. In the first case all communications are conducted when members are present at the time the communication is taking place. In the latter case members do not have to be present at the time the communicator is present and can therefore choose to respond/participate at a later more convenient time. Synchronous communications can be one-way or two-way. In the first the communicator may choose to engage in a dialogue with a guest without any interaction with other members of the community. In a two-way synchronous situation students engage with the instructor and with others members via some other tool, such as a chat or discussion forum. Asynchronous communications allow members to submit their communications without the expectation that other members will be present at that time to respond immediately.
The choice between the two has to be predicated on the needs of the instructor and students. Most instructors recognize that synchronous communications can be saved for asynchronous purposes but there are limitations. A good use of synchronous comm. is for engaging students with a guest speaker. Such interactions would lose much of its effectiveness after the guest speaker has left the forum. Synchronous communications are suitable when instructors or students wish to assess students or interact with them about specific concerns some of them have that may have a bearing on others.
Asynchronous communications are more common giving all members of the community time to absorb what is communicated and in a thoughtful and deliberate manner participate in the interactions.
4. I believe that BB has limited if any capability for synchronous communications. Tests may be considered synchronous when they are posted for students to complete and submit within a short and limited time frame. (Would you consider this an example of synchronous communication? Probably not.) Chats can be synchronous but I do not know if BB has a chat feature. For an experience such as the one the class experienced with Dr. M could not have been achieved without technologies external to BB.
5. BB has a number of tools to support asynchronous communication...including testing!! The common technologies available include: announcements, discussions, course documents and information, email, grade book, and digital drop box for electronic submission of assignments. BB also allows instructors to take advantage of creating links to external documents and websites.
6. I think I will continue to use BB for a variety of purposes but most importantly to support students with all the resources they need to successfully complete the course. It would be excellent if I could develop the knowledge and skills to develop stimulating multi-media resources to support hands-on science activities. The difficulty with video resources is that they require wide band-width for high speed and in some cases memory capacity to download video. Video streaming is one solution to the problem but students should be informed of the technology needs in order to download video clips. Many students still do not have high speed connectivity and own old computers with very limited capacity to download video. If I were to use video clips as part of my course I would recommend that students locate a computer that has the necessary capabilities to download large files in a short period of time.
Another resource that teacher candidates would benefit from most would be video case studies that can be accessed online. Assignments can be developed for candidates to examine and critique teaching events. It would also be excellent if candidates would be able to post their own video teaching events with their analysis of teaching behaviors. I would choose a technology that would have all the features needed in a single tool so that candidates may upload, analyze teaching behaviors, and receive instructor feedback within a single frame partitioned appropriately to accommodate each feature. I am not aware of any such tool so I am left to some simpler ones.