week #8

This week's assigned reading was about using your computer to make telephone calls. I never heard of this before I read the chapter so I learned something new. According to the chapter, this is a benefit if your phone bills are more than $30-$40 per month. I don't think this is something I would use now, but will keep it in mind if things change in the future.

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.

Week #3

I think this week chapter on protecting your privacy and security was excellent. Our home computer was once infected with spy ware so we had software installed on our computer to protect it. We also have virus and firewall protection. I have gotten my share of worms and viruses on my lap top and work computer and information technology were wonderful helping me with this. I never open emails from people that I don't know. My employer sent out emails informing us about "phishing" so I am careful with this. After reading this week's assignment, I realize that I have a lot more to learn about privacy and secruity.

Week #2 Addendum

How does downloading these plug-in programs fit into doctoral studies? I realize that it is important to have acrobat reader so we can download research articles, but what is the purpose for the others? Do we need these plug-in programs for future distance learning classes?

Week #1 Addendum

I didn't realize that our blog entries needed to be different than out discussion on blackboard so I am playing "catch up." When I first started this course, I didn't even know what a blog was. Now, here I am with my own blog.

At this point, I have a question and that is how does creating a blog fit into the PhD program? The only idea that I can think of is that it can be used for links and articles that I can use for my dissertation. Does anyone else have any ideas? Thanks. Susan Darby.

Week #2: I already had acrobat reader and windows media player on my computer. I originally had difficulties downloading flash and windows media player. My instructor recommended that I download Internet Explorer again and shut off my "pop off blockers". Once I did this, I downloaded the software without difficulties.

Susan Darby.