Tonight I was at Woodbridges, in the margins, so to speak; not sure what I am doing most of the time, but certainly spending a lot of time trying to understand—for one, What am trying to accomplish at Woodbridges? What does Skype have to do with Woodbridges? Why is there a chat box on the side while the webcast is going on? I felt like I was supposed to be involved in simultaneous activities, but i didn’t understand how or why.
In the first place, we are communicating, interacting with people from all over the world. That’s what we were doing there. In the second place, we are learning how to use synchronous tools that we can use in blended or online courses; we are exploring, learning by doing. Finally, Worldbridges is a community of communites, that uses Skype to stream voice so all of us involved can listen to each other, with the option of just listening as if you were listening to the radio.
Our task as teachers? To reflect on how we can use these tools in our teaching.
I know that it can be a bit confusing when we have not been involved in this kind of activities, but the best way to learn is by becoming involved
You’ve gone a step forward by attending the session and publishing your thoughts here
2 Comments
January 22, 2008 at 2:52 am
Tonight I was at Woodbridges, in the margins, so to speak; not sure what I am doing most of the time, but certainly spending a lot of time trying to understand—for one, What am trying to accomplish at Woodbridges? What does Skype have to do with Woodbridges? Why is there a chat box on the side while the webcast is going on? I felt like I was supposed to be involved in simultaneous activities, but i didn’t understand how or why.
January 22, 2008 at 4:20 am
Dear Ginny,
In the first place, we are communicating, interacting with people from all over the world. That’s what we were doing there. In the second place, we are learning how to use synchronous tools that we can use in blended or online courses; we are exploring, learning by doing. Finally, Worldbridges is a community of communites, that uses Skype to stream voice so all of us involved can listen to each other, with the option of just listening as if you were listening to the radio.
Our task as teachers? To reflect on how we can use these tools in our teaching.
I know that it can be a bit confusing when we have not been involved in this kind of activities, but the best way to learn is by becoming involved
You’ve gone a step forward by attending the session and publishing your thoughts here
Cheers,
Daf