E-Classroom and its potential.

    Potential can be defined as having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future. But how long in the future will COSTAATT students have to wait for E-Classroom to realize its full potential?

    The College quotes on their website that:

     “At COSTAATT, we are committed to the highest levels of quality in our classes and programmes. We are equally committed to embracing the best in technology to aid and improve classroom interaction and learning, as well as to expand access to our programmes of study to students who may not be able to attend classes at one of our campuses.

    The E-Classroom allows our lecturers to conduct lectures, manage student discussions, administer quizzes and examinations, and provide immediate feedback on performance to students, among many other capabilities, all via the Internet, and all very secure. Classes can be conducted either entirely online, or in any combination of online and in-class activities.”

    As students however, how many of us have benefitted from anything more than a one dimensional experience. How many students can safely say “Without E-classroom I would indeed be lost”? The E-classroom allows for online interaction however it is far from mandatory. For some of us, only five out of the thirty plus courses we did incorporated e-classroom. However, most of them just used it as an archive for information.

    E-classroom has a lot of potential to make most of our lives easier:

• Filing assignments- It is super easy to file your assignments on e-classroom. Just drag, drop and click save. You even get an e-mail telling you that it was filed in case you were worried that you did not do it properly. Also, there is a calendar that reminds you that you have an assignment due.

• Examinations- There is a timer that follows you wherever you go. Once you are in the examination you cannot go google your answers as it monitors what you do. (It's an exam so I'll take this invasion of privacy.... but only this time). Also depending on the lecturer it is extremely easy to get an A on multiple choice. For one of our classes, the lecturer set it up as for each answer you got wrong they minus .2 of the mark. Also, you could have kept going till you got the right answer. You do the Math and compare it to doing a multiple choice in class. You will smile.

• Student discussions- I don't know how long you have been in the system but there was once this lovely thing called "Class participation - 10%". Now that, for some, was a super easy 10%. It was also the boost some depended on to get a good grade. Then they removed it like all the other good things. Here is a way they can bring it back. Lectures can post a discussion topic on the forum and students would then be required to post feedback. If they do this about five times for the semester for the 10%, they would make a lot of people happy. Also they can make the discussion about info they post in e-classroom forcing the students to read it. How easy is that!!

• Information zone- One of our lectures uses e-classroom to post the slides he covered in class as well as additional information on the topic. Another lecturer e-mails us the same information. So every week we get about two or three e-mails from this lecturer. Wouldn't it be easier just to utilise e-classroom?

• Make-up classes-  Only this semester some of us were able to see this as a possibility. One of our lecturers used this as a way of facilitating a make up class instead of going through the painstaking ordeal of trying to figure out what day is convenient for people and the trying to find a classroom and all the usual torture that takes place. One semester two lectures were on the verge of battling over a classroom at City Campus. Instead of all this, why not just use e-classroom?

    It is also used at the verdict of individual lecturer. This, more often than not, results in neglect and underutilization. As one someone mentioned in our post on Facebook the underutilisation might be a result of a lack of tech savvy students as well as teachers simply not knowing how to use the site and not willing to learn. E-classroom should be used as an educational aid and not a depository of useless information that simply remains untouched to be unearthed at some unknown date as a fossil after the fact.

    We plead with the collegiate, lend us your ears as we indicate the fact that E-classroom is indeed the bastard child of COSTAATT. But we must ask ourselves the question is this the best approach in 2013 the age of Twitter, Facebook and total technological advancement ?

E-mail malfunction- Who is to blame?

     In our last blog, we explained exactly what social media is about and that it is not only limited to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We also saw the different types of communication services that our college utilises. Before we get into the topic of social media, we wanted to explore the ways in which COSTAATT currently use to communicate with us and the problems that exist around them. Many students choose not to use this one in particular. We are talking about the e-mail!! Some of us opt to using our personal email address, leaving lecturers to discontinue using the school’s email address in order to communicate with students. Here is a way the college is making an attempt to better service the students but we are not complying. Why?

 We tried to do a poll on our Facebook page to see what was the problem with the e-mail however not many responded. So we went to the hallways to investigate further into this problem.  Most of you replied:

• I Hate having various email address

• It Does not work all the time

• Email is not always received

• Too much 'junk mail'

• I do not check it so why bother give it

  Some of these are poor excuses. This brings up the question of who is really to blame for the gap in communication?

  The problem with junk mail has been addressed and most email are strictly from administration. Some stated that the junk mail was not only random messages from students but e-mails from the library, a guy name Jason C. Charles and from other faculties. However, the e-mails from the library are very useful because at some point in time you are going to need them and they advise you of their services. Also, Jason C. Charles is the Placement Officer from the Career Management Department. He sends information on available jobs. I don't think that is junk mail.

  Another complaint was about having too many e-mail addresses. There is a solution for that. LINK THEM!!

  'What? Link them?' Yes Link them. Follow these steps. It's easier than you think!!

• Sign into your school e-mail

•  Click setting

•  Click Forward and POP/IMAP at the top of the page

•  Follow the instructions to add an e-mail address to forward your school e-mail to.

•  This process can be done for other e-mail accounts you want to keep tabs on.

  Our school e-mail is not simply just for receiving and sending messages or assignments. It can make group projects an ease. As some of you would know by now, our school e-mail is under Gmail. Google has an app called 'Google Drive'. Here more than one person can work on a project at the same time. So instead of doing a project in parts then e-mailing it to one person to put together, then everybody reading it and one person receiving numerous alterations to the document, then have to put it back together, everything can be done in one spot. Their is also a chat box right next to the document so a group meeting can be happening and decisions made while getting the work done. Now isn't that much easier than the first long drawn out process? Some may say I can do that with my personal gmail address, however not everybody has jumped on the Gmail train for our personal accounts. Some still use Yahoo, Hotmail etc. However, with our school e-mail address we are all on the same track.

  Another advantage of using Google Drive, is that teachers can track who are the delinquents in the group. You can also have evidence to show up those 'piggy backers' and ensure they get their deserving grade. This is how it works: Everyone who makes adjustments to the document is assigned a different colour. In order to see what the person did follow these steps:

• After the document has been edited go into 'File'

• Scroll down to 'See Revision History'

• A box will appear at the right hand side of the document. You will everybody's name, color assigned to them as well as time they edited. 

• Click on the person

• Scroll through the document to see where their colour is and that was what they did. 

  If you want a play by play:

• Go to the bottom of the box where you will see 'Show more detailed revisions'.

  NB: Ensure the box that says 'Show changes' is ticked before looking through the document.

  How easy projects can be if we just use our school email!! We complain semester after semester about people giving us a 6 for a 9 or just not doing anything at all. Here is a simple solution. A good question we should ask ourselves though is why lecturers do not utilise this service.

  We are always ready to blame COSTAATT but is it really COSTAATT's fault? If we do not utilise this simple service, would using social media make a difference?

  Who do you think is to blame in this case COSTAATT administration or the students?

  Leave your thoughts/suggestions below; we would love to hear from you.

Is Facebook and Twitter the only Social Media that exist?

     After speaking to some students as well as reviewing the responses on our Facebook group, we have come to realise that some of you really don't know much about Social Media. It is not limited to Facebook, Twitter and all the other popular ones we know. So let's familiarise ourselves with all the services that exist.

Social media started with the e-mail back in the early 1970's. From then it has developed encompassing a medium for people to share information and interact with each other besides using a telephone, newspaper or any other traditional means. The video below does a great job on explaining social media and its development throughout the years. Take a look!!

After watching the video you may be able to add some more services that our College utilizes. We are not limited to Facebook and Twitter but YouTube and Flickr are also part of the social media world. So with this new found information, let's explore the various social media services COSTAATT attempts to utilise. Click on the highlighted words below to check them out:

• Facebook- As mentioned before, COSTAATT has numerous Facebook pages. Check them out if you can :

COSTAATT

COSTAATT NLC

COSTAATT

COSTAATT Bachelor Nursing Students

COSTAATT Trekkers

COSTAATT Student's Event Committee

COSTAATT Alumni Relations


There is still more.......

COSTAATT (Official page)

 COSTAATT Football team

COSTAATT BScN1

COSTAATT NatSci Club

Voice Your Opinion (COSTAATT Students)

COSTAATT Students Magazine- Shout it!!

I was going to attempt to list all but their are way too many. Go on Facebook and in the search bar put in COSTAATT and you will see all the groups that exist.

• Twitter: This has so much potential.

• YouTube: Who would have thought!! 

• Flickr: I thought it was used only for Graduation pictures but there is much more

You have to access this one for yourself:

• Moddle: Some of us may be more familiar with the term E-classroom which again has a lot of potential but is being under used.

Did I leave out any?

So with this new found information, is COSTAATT taking advantage of these services?

Look out next week for our next blog.

Join our Facebook group 'COSTAATT Social Media Avengers' and get in the discussions!!

Social media has taken over our lives!!

How many social networking sites can you name?
http://www.seos.ws/seo-services/social-media/

      From it's birth in the early 1970's to now, Social media has become vital to us communicating with not only those within our vicinity, but more importantly, worldwide. Sometimes we do not recognise it but everyday we use a social media service. For those that are in denial, maybe a definition would help you see how you do in fact use it everyday. A simple way of looking at it is : Social media is a form of communication we use via the internet: Your e-mail, Facebook, Whatsapp and  Blackberry Messenger (BBM) are all social media services. This communication is not limited to  talking to people but also communicating intellectual ideas and even educational purposes. There are services such as Blogger and Live Mocha which facilitate  this. Some of us may know of Soundcloud, Youtube and Instagram where we can share our songs, videos and pictures with our immediate friends or the world and they can give us feedback on them. Ever heard of Waze? It's a social media service that is actually a GPS however you can interact with other users. There are over 100 social media service and the opportunities are endless.

      With the countless possibilities social media provides, companies and institutions have integrated the use of social media as a means of connecting with their publics and networking with others. Our very own COSTAATT utilises various forms of social media. Did you know that? Well now you do!! Besides our school e-mail and e-classroom (Moodle), COSTAATT has several Facebook pages, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel and we are also on Flickr. However, does the campus utilise these social media services to serve us best? Tell us what you think.