Virtual Classrooms

This week's blog assignment I was actually familiar with. Every student at FGCU or at any college or university should be familiar with virtual classrooms. I use one right now, almost every day. A virtual classroom is a private online space that teachers can use to support student learning. Virtual classrooms are accessible via the Internet twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Just like being in a face-to-face classroom, virtual classrooms are just as busy.
FGCU created what is called ANGEL. I use ANGEL for 3 of my classes right now. Two of the classes are not online classes but we use ANGEL to turn in papers and to look up class agendas. Those two classes also post grades on every assignment too. The other class that I use ANGEL for is an online class. Which all of us are really familiar with, and why we write these blogs every week. Online classes are virtual classrooms. I would rather not take online classes but it is a very simple task.
Virtual classrooms contain class activities and class organization. The activities can be either a group or individual effort. The activities are discussions, live chats with students, parents, and guest. Students can do quizzes, surveys, check their homework assignments, and even do scavenger hunts. The class organization that virtual classrooms provide is information for parents and students, a calender, unit overviews, student grade book, and student homepages.
Virtual classrooms are not listed on the learning place. They are listed for only the staff and students at the school that you work at. Virtual classrooms are not quality assured by the learning place.
The content and design of a virtual classroom is chosen at local level and must be checked for copyright issues at local level to ensure that all materials are clear of infringement.
Some teachers use the blackboard virtual classroom program. It requires no web authoring skill at all. These classrooms are created easily through the control are of the blackboard templates. It is available outside school hours. All students need to access the blackboard is a user name and a password. It is a great way for a teacher is they are absent to leave work for students to do. It is even great if a student is absent or on vacation to keep in touch with the class and missed assignments. There is also a drop box that students can turn their papers into instead of handing them in paper form to the teacher.
I think that virtual classrooms is a great way to keep kids connected in the classroom. Not only is it a great way for a teacher to get information out it is a great way for students in a classroom to collaborate. I wonder how young of an age teachers are using this technique. I think virtual classrooms are great for high school and college but not so much for the younger age levels.

education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/onlinelearning/virtual-classroom.html - 17k -

Streaming Video

Like most of the time, I did not know what exactly this week's topic was. I thought that video streaming was sending some sort of videos through the Internet for other people to view. The actual definition of a streaming video is "a sequence of "moving images" that are sent in compressed over the Internet and displayed by the viewer as they arrive." My guess of what video streaming was wasn't that far fetched from the actual meaning. Streaming video is just like streaming media but only with sound. The best things about streaming video or streaming media, is that the Web user does not have to wait to download a large file before seeing the video or hearing the sound. Usually it takes forever to download a video or sound but with streaming the download is instant. The media that is being sent goes in a continuous stream and is played as it arrives. All computers are compatible to do so but the user must simply get a player. A player is a special program that uncompressed and sends video data to the display and audio data to speakers. A player can be either an integral part of a browser or downloaded from the software maker's Web site. Most every web site that I have visited that has streaming media and or videos they have a player that the user can download. Streaming video is usually sent from prerecorded video files, but it can also be distributed as part of a live broadcast. i got confused on how a prerecorded video gets to be on a live broadcast. I always thought "live" was at the same exact minute that people were broadcasting. In a live broadcast there is a video signal that is converted into a compressed digital signal and transmitted from a special Web server that is able to do multi cast, sending the same file to multiple users at the same time. That is exactly what video streaming is. The term is easily used and understood. I have used video streaming frequently while surfing the web.
This technique can most definently be applied to education. Teachers can use streaming video to do class presentations and to use in their lectures. I know in my college classes I have had professors use streaming video during their power points and/or lectures. My human systems professor would use it to show real life human situations. I'm not to sure how I would use streaming video teaching younger elementary kids, but it could be helpful.

http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid186_gci213055,00.html

Podcasting

When I first saw what the topic for this week's assignment was I was not to sure what Podcasting was. I knew it had to do something along the lines of broadcasting. When I found a website that fit perfect for this topic I realized what podcasting was. Podcasting is a way to post and distribute electronic media files online. It is an easy way to get engaging multimedia content out to a dispersed group of peole. People can listen to the podcast whenever and wherever they want. Podcasting is easy to make and easy to access. Podcasting can be posts such as radio broadcasting, episodes of a television series, entries in a personal journal, etc. You might think that podcasting sounds expensive but it is not at all. There is amateur and professional podcasts too, so you do not have to be a genius at podcasting to cast something. You can download everything from news to food, politics to education, or personal journals to sports. When you download something it does it automatically, there is no waiting around time. You can listen to podcasts with a desktop computer, laptop computer, MP3 players, palm and windows mobile handheld, and even cell phones. How is this week's topic of podcasting rel event to education? Podcasting addresses different learning styles, it is highly mobile, and it delivers content just in time. Some examples are as follows, a teacher can use their cell phone to create a podcast with daily homework assignments and other classroom information.Parents can download information as well so they can keep up with their child's homework assignments. The school board can podcast their meetings and other events to increase community involvement. A class can take a virtual field trip somewhere, which is called a sound seeing tour podcast.
All you need to have to get started to create your pod cast is a microphone, recording and editing software, music clip library (optional), and a way to publish it when you're all done.
http://www.k12handhelds.com/podcasting.php