Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley October 31, 2011 Deadline December 2011 Issue Have a Happy High-Tech Holiday Holidays are about faith, family, and friendships, with some gift giving as an added bonus. If you can be with loved ones for the holidays, that’s the most important gift. Still, giving that perfect gift is a challenge we all face. The best gifts reflect how well you know the recipients. Allow me to offer some ideas from the Virtual Valley. Idea 1: Earphones. If the music lover in your family is still using “buds” instead of headphones, consider the gift of high-fidelity sound. Yes, old-fashioned headphones. Until I tried a pair of Skullcandy Throwback headphones, I had no idea how great an iPod could sound. Skullcandy (skullcandy.com) sells “over the ear” headphones resembling the old padded ones my father used in the 1970s. They might look odd to young people, but the sound difference is astounding. Marshall headphones (marshallheadphones.com) are a great gift for a...

I spent most of today trying to get an online course ready to launch this weekend. I've never been a fan of Blackboard and the last 48 hours or so have been a reminder as to why. There are also some tool-related issues that are not purely "technical" (more on that later), but are leading to frustration. Uploading files into Blackboard, as with most online systems, is straightforward enough. But when you have dozens or even hundreds of files to import it can be a miserable experience. It is not all Blackboard issues, either, but these have been issues that didn't creep up in my life until this struggle. Issues of the last two days include: 1) Safari doesn't support the latest Adobe Acrobat plug-in. Neither did FireFox, Camino, or Chrome until I updated Chrome to the latest "beta" version. Safari does display PDFs with a built-in viewer, but PDFs within frames still require a plug-in to function. So, while I've been working with PDFs on dozens of...

My wife and I maintain two blogs, Twitter feeds, and a Facebook page dedicated to creative writing instruction. I have discovered that readers prefer to choose how they receive updates and blog feeds, so we've tried to offer the most popular options. First, a reminder to visit the Tameri Guide for Writers ( http://www.tameri.com/ ) if you are interested in creative writing. The Tameri website is not an academic writing website, though it includes some resources for teachers of writing. Our blog on creative writing and mass market fiction: http://www.tameri.com/wordpress/ You are reading my blog on using technology in writing instruction: http://poetcsw.blogspot.com/ The two blogs are featured on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tameri-Guide-for-Writers/239305212783049 You can find "Follow Us" links for Twitter on the blogs and on the Tameri website. Please consider following us using the social networking method of your choice.

At the university where I teach we are engaged in a debate familiar to online educators: which delivery methods will we embrace and why? When discussing online education it is important to clarify how the experience will be "delivered" to students and how well the delivery method complements the instructional styles of various instructors. I have a decided preference for courses that include either some face to face meetings or live "synchronous" communications between the instructor and students. My preferences as an instructor reflect my preferences as a student, but only when I consider the best instructors I had throughout my education. Online education can refer to any of the following: Distance learning via teleconferencing technologies hosted in a traditional classroom setting; Synchronous learning conducted by an instructor specifically for remote students only; Hybrid learning, in which students meet sometimes in classrooms and sometimes online; Co...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley September 26, 2011 Deadline November 2011 Issue Crafting a Résumé for the Digital Age Job hunting is tough enough without companies forcing applicants to use poorly designed online résumé submission databases. A reader emailed me asking why some companies rejected her résumé, despite great qualifications. Based on my experiences assisting students on the job market, I suggested the reader’s résumé might have the wrong margins for some online systems. Yes, the wrong margins can lead to rejection in today’s digital job hunt. Hiring committees tell me they receive 200, 300 and, in one case, 500 applications for job openings. My students want every edge they can get when applying for positions. I’ve had to learn a lot about the hiring process to help students craft résumés for this strange new reality. The university where I work uses an online career database. Many employers have turned to these systems. You might have used one already, via the...

Every instructor using a course management system / learning management system (CMS/LMS) ends up discovering the various annoyances unique to the system. Some have more annoyances than others, which is one reason I prefer Moodle but still have plenty of "kind suggestions" for the developers. I also like that if you do spot a problem with Moodle, you can participate in fixing the weakness or error. Then, there is Blackboard. It isn't one or two annoyances. It seems there's one annoyance after another when I try to deal with Blackboard. The hosted Blackboard Learn system we use at my university seems to be one challenge after another. I don't know why, but it is more annoying than the previous versions of Blackboard and its other products I have used as an instructor. Tonight's list of complaints is incomplete, a mere hint of my frustrations. 1) Editing announcements, discussion threads, and other content is inconsistent. I've tried editing the HTML di...

As the second week of courses ends at my university, and I have prepared for the third, I finally have a bit of time for reflection. First, let me state that the department in which I work is dedicated to delivering an online degree program that is equal in value and student experience to the on-campus degree. This task is not easy, since online courses by nature are different. From the delivery method itself to the nature of assessing students online, there are differences we cannot ignore, so we must adjust to ameliorate those imbalances. Unfortunately, the university is running an ad campaign in local media that suggests online degrees are "convenient" for students. Nothing could be more misleading, in my opinion, than suggesting that an online degree is somehow more convenient or in any way "easy" compared to traditional studies. Online education requires more time, not less, and requires more self-discipline of students. The accelerated pace and the lack of...