July 31st assignment

I mentioned on our discussion board that I used chat rooms as a means to review for my OB class. However, I encountered a major problem when I used it. As the instructor, I could read student's discussion in the chat room even when I was not in the room. Also, I could see what the student's were saying when they were instant messaging each other. I found that some of my students were very unprofessional in the chat room. I plan to continue to use chat discussions to review content; however, I will inform my students that they need to conduct themselves professionally just like we were in a formal classroom. Amazingly, these were Master level students who were scheduled to graduate in a month.

Week #6

After I read the chapter in the book about instant messaging, I thought you could communicate with several people at time. But after I read the discussions on blackboard, I realize this was not true so this was an "ah ha" moment for me. I was thinking how I could incorporate "IM" into my teaching practice and my classmates gave me some ideas (advising, students can log on and ask me questions, etc.). Right now, I probably will not use IM but I will keep this service in the back of my mind. I am open to new ideas and that is why I like this class.

Week #5

Chapter 4 and 5: I was aware of Pub Med to use as a search engine, but I was not aware of the others (p. 137). I would like to check out some of the sites for the images, video, and audio because I could use this in my powerpoints when I am teaching. The web sites that listed general purpose information (e.g. statistical abstract) would be a good resource when writing papers. I was already familiar with the rest of the information that was presented in both of these chapters (e.g. google tool bar, finding people, looking up phone numbers and addresses, etc.).

Week #4

My "ah ha" moment for this week was thank goodness I am taking this course early in the PhD program. It has been 8 years since I have completed my Masters degree and things have definitely changed as far as searching for information. I knew some of the information in formulating a search and this information was a review. This chapter will be a good reference if I am having difficulty finding information on a topic. I plan to explore the other search engines listed on p. 117-118 to see how helpful they will be.