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| OVERVIEW What: An evaluation of Professor Prueitt's IS120 Course Where: Norwich University When: Spring 2010 Why: In order to establish a student based critque of the course How: By Reading the paper (found at *PAPER*) and using it as a guideline to evaluate the course Who: Student 007 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think that
this is the most interesting aspect of the virtual classroom theory.
The resources available in this type of classroom are limitless,
"Various
groups are developing virtualization so that a virtual machine loaded
with the appropriate software is delivered to the desktop on demand."
This means that one day in the near future, any student should be able
to access any topic of study that he/she wants. Students could learn
anything! Perhaps in the future, schools will allow more room for free
electives so that students can find out at a younger age what they're
interested in, as well as what they're good at. I know I would have
benifitted greatly from having such an opportunity.
The Purpose of the Education Bridge Pedagogy is the
study of being a teacher. This portion of the paper explores the Demand
Pedagogy which will be the standard one day, but as of right now is
still in development. The idea of using a focus topic grid instead of a
syllabus is clever. A syllabus is a good tool, in that it lays out the
plan of the course for the entire semester. The problem is, however,
most sylabus's are hard copies. What happens when the teacher gets sick
and misses two days of classes? That professor will have to print up
and distribute, most likely, some type of revised syllabus or course of
action.
I think this is
an interesting concept. Traditionally, students attend the class, take
notes, and leave. In a virutal world, however, students could be
rewarded for taking notes which has never been the case before. If the
posting of class notes was adopted as something which students could be
rewarded for, or even just compete in, I think the amount of notes, as
well as the overall quality of the notes, would imcrease greatly. I
will be the first to admit that I don't take consistant notes in all of
my classes. If I wrote down everything the Professor said for each one
of my classes my hand would fall off. How about, instead, students can
take notes on computers. Most college students do seem to use this
technique. It's easier, faster, and more efficient. Students can make
copies of their notes to share with others, they can feel confident
knowing all of their work is backed up, and it really just makes a
whole lot more sense than writing notes out by hand.
Student
Thoughts
When I first
registered for this course in the Fall of 2009, I really only signed up
for it to fufill a pre-requisite for my major. I came into the
course, not really knowing what to expect or what the coursework would
involve. The first day was overwhelming. I had never taken any type of
computer course before and the ideas, theories, and expectations I
anticipated for the semester after the first day of class seemed out of
reach. I actually considered dropping the course, but through rational
thought decided to stay in the course, mostly because it had only been
one day. As the course progressed, I started learning things and doing
things with computers and programming that I had never done before, or
thought I could do. I started to enjoy the course very much. I would
come to class and have the freedom to create whatever I wanted online
using HTML.
When the class began to pick up speed, however, like when we moved from HTML to Javascript, I felt lost again. I later realized that my difficulties with Javascript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) were due to my lack of involvment with them. Just like with everything else, it takes practice. I still have a hard time with the two but have a better understanding than I did before. I think the most important thing I learned from this course was how to overcome "hidden dependencies," which is a difficult concept to understand. In my opinion, a "hidden dependency" is an issue that arises that we're not not aware of, but is significant enough to cause some type of problem or delay. |