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Switching
to Blackboard
Because of its practicality and ease of use, Bob Mohrbacher, English instructor
in Puyallup, will use Blackboard for his online course instead of Unilearn.
Bob says, "Well, I teach one online class and, at the moment, we're
using a program called Unilearn, and we're moving away from that. By the
beginning of Winter Quarter, everybody [teaching online courses] will
be using Blackboard."
Blackboard
has some strengths and weaknesses and Bob has used it off and on as an
addition to his regular classes. "Usually, I post the syllabus there
and other information and then a report. I also post reading responses
[from students] and that way they can see what other people are writing
instead of just giving them to me," he says. "Some of the students
wait to see what other students post and then post something, so it's
good that they can see what other people post, unless they are just being
lazy about it."
Reasons
for using technology as a tool
Having access to other resources that might not be available otherwise
is one reason Bob uses the Internet. "We look at a lot of different
sites - sites that have artwork, sites that have current issues; things
like that. A lot of times, I assign readings that are online, like Atlantic
Online." Bob says.
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"I
think that there are some people who have been saying for several
years now, that distance learning is going to take over everything
and we are going to do everything online. I'm not buying that - that's
not going to happen. And there are other people who think, 'Oh, this
online learning is just a trend and it is going to go away, I can
just ignore it,' - that's not going to happen either." |
Another reason Bob uses Blackboard in his classes is from a purely practical
point of view. He says, "Sometimes it's just more expedient. It's
easier to have it [up on Blackboard] rather than zeroxing 25-30 packets
of an article that is thirty pages long; they can just go get it themselves."
One of Bob's
intentions for using technology is just to get students acquainted with
it. "Part of the purpose is having them get familiar with the technology,"
he says. "Some of them are very familiar with it and others are less
familiar or afraid of it. So, just having them do it makes a difference.
In some classes, I have them do a group project and do a PowerPoint presentation.
In the groups, they seem to do a good job. They split up and some people
search online for information and other people put the presentation together.
That seems to work really well, because then, they don't try to wing it."
Problems
and pitfalls
Bob remembers the first time he had his students use Blackboard. "I
took all the students into a lab to log themselves into the class and
register, and the port overloaded. They all sat there with the browser
cycling, waiting to get in and only a few of them could get in at the
same time. So, we pretty much wasted a whole class period just trying
to get everybody on." To remedy the situation, Bob registers everybody
for the class and gives them a password. He says, "We still go in
there and it takes a little bit of time to get everybody logged on, but
they don't have to do everything themselves and the software doesn't back
up."
Bob's biggest
problem is with his online class. He continually goes around and around
trying to help people open their attachments. "I spend way too much
time in there trying to figure out what the attachment problems is and
a lot less time teaching English," he retorts.
Traditional
Classes versus Distance Learning
Bob thinks that distance learning will continue to be one more tool that
instructors use. He says, "I think that there are some people who
have been saying for several years now, that distance learning is going
to take over everything and we are going to do everything online. I'm
not buying that - that's not going to happen. And there are other people
who think, 'Oh, this online learning is just a trend and it is going to
go away, I can just ignore it,' - that's not going to happen either."
"Most
students are going to supplement their regular classes with a few online
classes to make their schedule fit or get a class that they can't get
otherwise," he says. "I don't think there will be a lot of people
who are getting their degrees entirely online; there will be some, but
that's never going to be an enormous number."
Written by Kandee Nelson - June 2001
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