More Participation in ITForum

As part of a conversation on the ITForum concerning screen capture technologies, I exchanged information in a discussion with L. Dawley, a professor and dept. chair at Boise State University. Our conversation centered around the merits of Jing.com vs. Camtasia for creating online tutorials and for use by students in product-based technology-based assignments.

Reflections on Online Course Work

I now have a new appreciation for participants in online courses and online professional development. It has taken my several weeks to discipline myself so that I don't procrastinate on assignments. I am having to spend a lot of time organizing the assignments so that I understand them. This is not because the instructions are not clear but because of my own unique learning style. I must re-organize in order to comprehend the assignment. Failure to do this leaves me overwhelmed and confused. I also have learned to dedicate more time to working on my assignments and having done so, find them much more rewarding and enjoyable. I feel confident that I will be able to write my three papers and create an interesting, informative presentation in the next few weeks.

Participating in ITForum Discussion

I noticed that a classmate had posted a question to the ITForum for which I had a reasonable response. The question, "Can anyone recommend a software program that would allow a technology teacher to create a skills based assessment?" to which I responded,
"I would recommend a free program very similar to Captivate called Jing. Jing does not allow editing but does allow online capture of both screen shots and screen video with voice narration. The maximum duration for a video is 5 minutes and the files can be saved to the computer or shared online using the Jing server. If interested, the website is simply www.jing.com."

From reading the other responses, I learned of several other technologies that do much the same as Jing and Captivate. I look forward to researching these to add to my list of technology tools.

First Experience in ITForum

After joining the ITForum, I have used the first few weeks to get a sense of what the forum is about and how I can participate. I decided the best way to begin would be to "lurk" and not participate directly until I was more comfortable and well-informed. Here are some of my observations:
1) There is a paper that is posted and members are invited to make comments and ask questions of the author.
2) The comments/questions show up for everyone. This is the strength of the forum and its weakness since many members do not adhere to the guidelines and post many non-topic related items.
3) Some of the responses are petty and not helpful. Some of the author's responses are laced with sarcasm.
4) There is some good information being dispersed and discussed.

On the next paper posted, I plan to read the paper in detail and post a comment if the paper is relevant to my experience.