Lecture 3 Today I Learn, Today I Question

Class today is as information-packed as usual.
First we used chat on Spectrum to discuss what we read in Chapter 5 Technologies of Online Learning as Huey Zher felt that many classmates are not really participating in oral discussions (we can use this method in our own classes as well). She decided to try us on a “moodle chat”. (Am I correct? Please correct me if I’m wrong) At first we started off quite slowly with everyone getting a feel of the chatbox. As soon as everyone warmed up however, we got a whole load of information which I found very informative but a bit overwhelming. The conversation went so fast that I found it quite hard to keep up since I wanted to google the tools mentioned as well. Ooops! Haha. I didn’t say that. However, the chat session proved to be very useful because from there I came to know about many tools that I haven’t heard about before e.g:
1. Webnode,
2. Google Sites(heard of before and tried but gave up since I did not have a need for it then)
3. Wikispaces
4. Not to forget- the chat though I think if we use blogs we can also set up and use a chat box. Then the teacher and students can look at the work posted and comment.
We also discussed the affordances and limitations of each tool which was great since then it will help us to decide which tool to use for assignment 3. Thanks for a great discussion, everyone! You’re all awesome!
(I’m looking forward to learning how to use them)
Then introduction by Huey Zher to some really interesting websites like The Forbidden City- Beyond Space and Time and others. Will really have to find the time to explore them.
Lastly we had Kong Joo’s presentation on the first topic -
History and development of the internet in teaching & learning Evolution of instructional technology
Refering to today’s reflection on ‘Today I learn, Today I Question’, after listening to KJ’s presentation, I felt very excited about the potential of the Internet and also web-based technologies which can only improve. I also felt a bit down cast because what KJ’s said at the end is also very true – if you can find other ways that can be used to teach as effectively, then why use the web which will definitely incur more $$$ in the purchase and setting up of hardware and also time and energy invested in looking for the best tool and suitable content to be put into the tool. We must also spend time in training our students to use the tool we want for T&L. Are all the efforts warranted?