Blog 9

 I had experienced distance learning before the pandemic, I completed my high school as a correspondence student. When FSU began distance learning I was a little disappointed, I wanted to experience campus life, it was only my second semester at FSU when we reverted to distance learning. In the spring semester, we completed the courses online. It was a little disturbing, primarily because there had been no time really to adjust the class content from in-person to online. This semester is the third full semester I have completed online and so I have attended more online than in-person classes at FSU and I have attended the full range of class types from totally online to synchronous classes.  I enjoy being able to set my schedule, but I do miss the classroom spirit and interaction. The application Zoom has enabled us to mimic the in-person interaction and I feel most of my courses have adapted well. Classes that require any teamwork, libraries or tutoring can be challenging and are a bit more difficult.

When I am a teacher, one of the things, I might do to improve long-distance learning is helping the students by not over-explaining the lessons. Information is already hard enough to understand without someone confusing it for you. Another thing is not to overload them with so much information at a time, instead, I will make it more fun and enjoyable for them to learn. One of my current class teachers records her class content so we can review it before and after the actual class. I think this is a great idea, the class face-time (zoom-time) can be used to connect with the students, the recordings can be viewed at the student's own individual pace and not overload. 

OER stands for Open Educational Resources, they are usually a collection, often a large and free collection of resources online related to higher education. Some of the collection focus on one level of education, some focus on one set of subjects but their overall aim is to gather together educational resources to aid in the learning experience. With the current online learning environment, many states and governing boards began to look to OER. Sharing of information online allows students to not only have access to massive amounts of free information but it also saves on the cost of textbooks. The University of Illinois (UIS) has a very interesting blog on OER. 

https://uisoerblog.blogspot.com/

 

The blog has multiple articles detailing various colleges that over the last few years have started to offer OER resources to aid their students. 

Our last two assignments have been on PowerPoint, while I would not say I am computer technically minded I did enjoy this work. I believe I have an artistic flair and I found the PowerPoint tool to be very flexible. I have created PowerPoint Shows in the past but I never realized that I could create a complete package of audio and video. I enjoyed working on these two assignments. I have learned however that while the tool it seems can do just about anything the power of the laptop can be a limiting factor to the final product. You have to be sure the sound components work just as effectively as the pictures you are creating for your show.

I didn't get to use half of the functionality within PowerPoint, the slide timings and transition methods can create a professional look to the final product. As teachers I think we would most likely become familiar with the portions we most use and create a template for future shows that most fits our style, so many of the expansive functionality would not be used. 

Chocolate Show - First Assignment

Coffee Interactive Show - Second Assignment