Virtual Learning Environments

Hey All,

My first online learning experience was in my junior year of undergrad. In the beginning of my undergraduate career I started pursuing a minor in communications. I ended up ditching the minor and doing a double major instead and so I took two classes online during the summer so that I would graduate on time. I only remember one class which was titled “introduction to tourism and hospitality management”. I can’t for the life of me recall the other…I guess it was thrilling.

I personally love the online classroom environment. I admit that I am one of the people Linda Harasim talks about in her article when she discusses how e-learning helps to put students on equal footing allowing those that are not the most vocal to have a say as well. I tend to be shy in classroom settings, not in life (ha) and so an online platform works really well for me. Also I like being able to go to “class” at 2 a.m. in my PJ’s. My online experience in undergrad was a little different than it has been so far in The New School’s program. There was a lot more “interaction” in undergrad. In addition to our online discussion boards we would also have chats scheduled every week where you could just drop in and talk and ask questions. It was a great way to get your participation points in quick and easy. We also had lectures that ran through PowerPoint with the professors voice attached explaining each slide. Just like if you were sitting in a lecture.

I am so excited about this class. I will confess that I know very little about (or have been resistant to) a lot of the platforms we will be using here. I’ve been trying so hard to stay away from Twitter forever despite the urging of friends, mainly because I didn’t see the point. If you guys are following me there you will see that my first post was “I am here against my will!” because that’s how I felt. And now, of course, I’m addicted and log on as soon as I get to work to see what was tweeted through the night. I hate proving people right! So annoying.

Anyway that was a rant. I am so looking forward to this class!

P.s. This may be dumb but I really don’t understand “MOOs.” I read that entire article and I still don’t get it…

For some reason, it wouldn’t let me comment on the previous post, so I am just going to post my own.

For as long as I can remember, there was a computer in my classroom. However, this is not e-learning, nor was it a virtual learning environment. Sure, I can type faster than my parents, and know the shortcuts on a Mac as a result, but I was not formally learning anything. Harasim quotes Marc Belanger by saying that e-learning “ encourages people to take charge of their stuation and use what is at hand to increase their social, political and economic influences.” (66) It is exciting to know that the same internet that can bring smut to every outlet can also bring an education. You no longer have to be “at college,” now you can just be “in college.” And while face to face learning appears to still be the more popular option, online classes are a very viable option, that is only growing in reliability and usability.

On that note, virtual learning environments is any system used over the internet designed for teaching and learning. It does not have to be “MOOing” or a collaborative virtual learning environment, it can be as simple as text correspondence, or as complicated as second-life, or even world of warcraft, if used in the right way. They can be real-time or not, but e-learning must be the ultimate goal of all parties involved.

Harasim talked about the three cognitive phases involved in intellectual development and collaborative learning, they are idea generating, idea linking and idea convergence. And this is the basis for the e-learning that millions of students in the United States alone are taking part in. It is building and gaining from a knowledge community and professors but over the internet.

This is my first time taking an entire semester online. I have taken one online class before, and I was less than thrilled with the outcome. I found that it was hard to keep on top of, and technology was not the strongpoint of either myself or my instructor. However, during my undergraduate experience we used Blackboard in order to supplement classes, and that was always a very pleasant experience. I am not saying by any means that VLE’s are ineffective, in fact, I think they are harder to take than many in classroom classes, but in the past, my experience with a class taken entirely online was convoluted and hard to parse. My school did use something called LearnLink, or First Class, which besides being the e-mail platform, it consisted of conferences for every group or class that you were a part of. It made communication easier than ever, and while it was not used for actual learning experiences, I think it could serve that purpose if necessary. It was most effective because every time someone posted something, a red flag appeared next to the icon, therefore, at the same time you were checking your traditional e-mail, you could check your Learnlink updated all with double click of the mouse. We used it as a fancy bulletin board, but it can absolutely be used as a classroom with a little tinkering.

I am however, very excited about this class, the nature of it mirrors the nature of the program here at the new school that attracted me in the first place. Not only are we studying e-learning and VLE’s, but we are participating in it. We are walking the line between theory and practice, and in academia there is nothing better than that.