Hologram World of Distance Education

I posted a message on my blog regarding how I would love for hologram technology to be part of DL in the future. This is probably for a far far future from now because I don't see how the technology would really catch up, but we never know could we with the way technology is moving today.

I do feel right now, virtual world is something many colleges and universities are willing to try. Each state has ADA laws and they work different. I do think if hologram does begin to become part of DL learning later, it would be an exciting tool. Imagine yourself in a virtual world where you meet and greet your classmates. Everything is there at your hands.

Anyone who has seen that movie, Disclossure, with Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, would probably know what I'm talking about. I remember near the ending when he entered the hologram world and started retrieving files while moving his hands and stuff, that was so cool.

Hologram technology will probably require a lot more software and hardware if we do end up using it.

To Blog Or Not To Blog...'Tis The Question

I have a blog for tennis and I keep this blog as a hobby because it keeps me something to do when I have some time off from work and school, and reading my books. Blogging provides any person with a creative activity...and not to mention it will keeps some of you busy on the off-day when you have nothing to do.

Blogging, or just your journal made public on the world wide web, is simple and there are so many blog hosting sites out there today where you can register for a blog of your on.

I would have to say blogging for class is more difficult than just blogging for yourself. I have to think of what I want to say, and not to mention, I have to incorporate the class reading assignments to the entries.

If I was just writing about tennis I wouldn't have any problem writing a bunch of them at a time. But for class, it's a totally different story because I have to make sure I'm writing concisely and precisely on my ideas.

Regardless of doing it for class or leisure, I have fun blogging and I think that is the most important thing about having your own little blog. You get to put your ideas out there for people to read and comment on.

My Computer Ate My Assignment!

The good old days of not being able to turn in your assignments on time is over when you are taking an online course...or IS IT?

My dog ate my assignment...I forgot the due date...they might not suffice if you are vacationing in Hawaii on the day Assignment 1 is done. Nevertheless, there are still somethings that you can make up.

So what would be your reasons for your turning in your assignment?

- I couldn't turn in my assignment because my computer got hit with a virus.
- I couldn't turn in my assignment because the electricity went out.
- I couldn't turn in my assignment on time because it wouldn't turn on.

I would suggest you not make any excuses! :-D

Online Learning For The Disabled

"U.S. Census data indicate that 20 percent of the Americans-about 27 million people-has some kind of disability. Online courses are both a boon and a bane to disabled individuals" (Kearsley & Moore, 2005, p. 119).


Web 2.0 technologies are amazing when you look at what is available for Web surfers or us online learners. We've gotten our hands on videos, audios, 3D images, web conferencing, and so many other things out there to explore. They are great tools used for entertainment and learning...but they might not be too great if you are one of the people who falls into the U.S. Census data like the one Kearsley and Moore noted above.

Course Management System is designed to fit the normal users and also disabled individuals. Sometimes we forget there are blind or hearing impaired people out there who are not able to see and hear what everyone else can.

Thus, when we create Web 2.0 contents, it's important to keep this in mind. If you can add captions into your video file, it would be great. There are many product out there with Caption capability. Audio is hard, but if you can, create a transcript of the audio in TXT file.

All of this is time consuming, and really, no one has to do it, but if you have the time, it doesn't hurt to do it.

Instructor's Role: Guiding or Teaching

"In DE an instructor’s role is that of a guide. Instead of ‘teaching’ students the material, instructors instead guide students (student – instructor interaction) on their exploration of the content encouraging them to interact individually (student – content) or collaboratively (social learning or peer to peer interaction) to develop and construct their own unique knowledge base" (Anderson, 2003, p.132).

I have never really thought of my online instructor as a guide, but maybe Anderson brought up a good point to ponder for all online students. Does it make an instructor less of a teacher s/he is not really standing in front of you?

In a way, it does. I have never really differentiate between guide vs. teaching when I view my online instructor. Regardless of whether the instructor is standing in front of me with a chalk in his hand or not, an online instructor is basically a teacher.

But I guess this is where it gets confusing. Does proclaiming him a teacher the same as teaching? He could be my teacher, but he is not teaching, instead he is just guiding me through the textbooks and to where I should be heading to for other important resources.

Did I lose you with my thoughts? Maybe, because I'm a little confused myself. Do we need the person to be standing in front of the blackboard with chalks all over his fingers in order to consider him a teacher instead of a guide?

It's up to all of us to decide.

Video: Web 2.0 Technologies

Instead of reading what I typed, I thought it would be nicer to hear my thoughts on video... :-)

Mail vs. E-mail vs. Assignment Folder

I took my first online course in college, Biology 360: Human Reproduction...I can still remember it, I believe it was around 2002 or 2003. It was a summer course and I hadn't a clue what I was getting into. Adding to the confusion, we had to turn in some of our assignments through the mail...yes, mail, as in US Postal Office.

Even though it was an online course using WebCT, our assignments were in paper. We had to print it out and do it, and then turn it in through the mail. Even the midterm and final exams.

It was my first time taking the course and looking back, it was kind of fun sending the work through postal office instead of email or assignment folder in WebCT. I don't think we will be seeing a lot of that anytime soon.

Hologram Technology For Distance Education

This might be Web 3.0 or even Web 10.0 technology in the far far future, but I just have to wonder how wonderful it would be if distance education would somehow become an environment of Hologram technology. This might not happen anytime soon of course since we can't even get past virtual classroom.

Virtual classroom is available now but the technology costs too much and not everyone is up to date with the product.

Hologram technology would reinvent learning. Just imagine lying down on the sofa, strap something over your head, and you enter a world of hologram where everyone of your classmates are there and you actually learn through holograms.

If anyone has ever seen the movie Disclosure with Demi Moore and Michael Douglas, then you would understand what I'm talking about when it comes to hologram virtual environment.

Folksonomy-What In the World?

Folksonomy, as I've learned from some research and the readings from what my group has founded online, is just another fancy word of saying Tagging.

When you tag something online you want to know everything related to the term. So let's say you search for Albert Einstein and while you're reading you see Uranium. You tag that term and everything related to Uranium will pop up.

So what in the world does it have to do with Folksonomy? I don't know, maybe some people thought it would be a nice way of confusing people. It would have been better had the term were Tagsonomy, Tagnomy, or something.

But why Folksonomy???

Instructor's Role in Distance Learning

How does the instructor's role change between a face to face course and one delivered through distance education?

Unlike face-to-face, an online instructor has to perform more skills than normal because we have other learning tools in online teaching including videos and audio. They are the enhancements to an online course that you might not find in a face-to-face course. Online learners “interact with content in text, visual, audio, animated, and other forms, through graphic and other interfaces” (Anderson & Elloumi, 2008, pg. 268). The learning process presents students with more than just communication through basic text form, but also audio and video. The instructor has a wider range of teaching tools and topics to cover. Presentations, text-based online chat, or webcam/microphone chat, these are some of the things an instructor is expected to be familiarized with when teaching online.

With an online course, it is very hard for the instructor to know what the students are doing because class does not meet two or three times a week but mostly is online. Students also don’t know what the instructor is doing, and most of the time, instructor lives in different places than the students. There is a distance, like a line that is drawn between instructor and students. The communication is there but there lack tone and face expression that would exist in a face-to-face course.

The instructor’s role is no longer just a teacher or mentor, in my opinion, because there has to be a reassurance from the instructor that s/he is there. It’s not just an online course anymore, but the person is available when the students need help. As Kearsley and Moore (2005) mentioned, “although many students can tolerate some delay, most people like feedback to be immediate, and few people find one-way communication with no feedback to be satisfying” (pg. 120). In most cases, that might not work as well as we all hope. Most instructors teach online because s/he is busy with other stuff and wants the convenient of teaching online just like students who want flexibility and don’t want to show up in class.

In a face-to-face class it’s also easier to get help from the instructor because he/she is there to provide you answers to your questions. Most of the time, the instructor might have an office at the campus where you can go and get in-person help. With online, as mentioned before, you could be in Maryland and the instructor could be in Florida. Distance and communication are two limitations for between students and instructor in online course.