Virtual+Classroom

Virtual Classrooms Blackboard

Description For this assignment, we used the program that Wilmington University uses to organize their classes: BlackBoard. BlackBoard is basically a tool that is set up to allow the administrator(s) to create a Virtual Classroom environment. There are tools to set up discussion boards, assessments, dropboxes (places you turn in assignments), readings, and links. There is also an application called Wimba that acts as a real-time classroom, but I will get to that next posting.

We were asked to create a Virtual Classroom with the BlackBoard tools, maintaining it and making it, for all intents and purposes, a real class, complete with a syllabus, unit plan, lessons, and assessments. We made sure everything was organized, and even incorporated "START HERE" pages so our faux-students had a place to go in order to get accustomed to this novel environment.

Process I find the concept behind BlackBoard more intriguing than BlackBoard itself. I greatly enjoy the thoughts and plannings behind a virtual classroom. It offers a place to allow students from any background to take part in a learning culture amongst people they may never have a chance to work with in their normal lives. It offers homebound students an opportunity to "get out" of their restrictions to be a part of the greater world. Continuing Education students have the ability to manage classes with busy days working, parenting, and the like. There are also plenty of applications from the teacher-side of things, putting a teacher back into a position of almost fully-developing curriculum he or she would like to teach.

As for my choice of unit, Geometry is often a natural fit for me because it's so very hands-on, but so much of it revolves around proofs and memorizations that many kids cannot cope with. This is why I am always looking for tools to make those aspects more engaging for students, so, while I am looking for these things anyway, I always figure, "Why not see what else I can do with what I am already spending time on?" This provides a good outlet for me to take initiative and put to use things that I have found and learned, even if it is for a fake classroom.

Reflection

And then there is my actual feelings for BlackBoard itself. While it was a fantastic tool in its day, and I suppose it is user-friendly enough for what we do with it, I am not a fan. I have had issues with it akin to Wikispaces, where I will try to put in a formatting, or just delete a word, and I lose everything I had typed so far. There are tools I wish were present in Blackboard that most definitely are not (such as a staggered release where an item will not become available until a prior item is completed). The product itself costs money, whereas there are [for now] programs online that serve the same purpose with no cost to the user.

However, I will say that doing the lessons on Blackboard were engaging to me. I could easily stick something else inbetween tidbits when I thought of it. While I think there should be more, there are a great deal of tools that fit many different styles and tastes. When I look through my finished products of organization, I am proud of the work I have done, and Blackboard's presentation is quite nice, as well.

Would I use Blackboard again for this sort of activity? Sure, if it came to it. Would I recommend it to my school to purchase? No.

Link/Artifact