This week's experience with creating a quiz and adding a forum on the course site, and using tools such as RubiStar, and Easy TestMaker went pretty smooth, and was enjoyable. The only issues I had were the little glitches in Weebly when creating the forum. I enjoyed using Easy TestMaker the most. The tool was simple to use, and I surprisingly felt it provided adequate question options and features to create a good customized test. RubiStar was very easy to use as well, although, in order to conform the rubric with my gradebook assignment scoring, I had to modify my grids. Not having practical experience with creating rubrics, I did some research on my own to learn about the different scales, and descriptions used for different activities being graded. I stumbled upon a site that I found to be quite informative and filled with resources for teachers called www.RCampus.com. It's a site where teachers can manage their educational content and collaborate. This experience showed how teachers can integrate traditional paper forms of classroom material (tests, quizzes, rubric) into online formats, making it more accessible and convenient as it can be accessed at any anytime and from anywhere by students. In addition, these provide benefits for the teacher as it allows for times savings as it relates to automatically grading quizzes and tests, and provides information/data capture as students' responses to forum questions are stored online on the server.
As technologies such as videoconferencing, and Internet (VOIP) streaming continue to advance, and enhancements improve the quality of simultaneous audio and video features, I envision that in the future, distance education will become as commonplace as traditional methods of curriculum delivery, connecting students and learners on a global scale. As technology innovation is ever increasing, we will see enhanced features of distance education technologies and the advancement of features that enhance capabilities in communication when using these mediums such as application share, file transfer capabilities, instant messaging, virtual desktop, screen sharing, shared whiteboard, etc. Communication using these mediums will become seamless as previous challenges encountered with audio/video streaming between individuals, within geographical locals and, in opposite ends of the world will be undetectable. These technologies provide avenues for traditional educational institutions to provide access to courses and educational opportunities to students that are restricted by time and location, and allows for interaction to occur that mirrors traditional classroom experience through interaction and collaboration. In addition, this technology can provide cost savings to institutions with the ability to provide educational access to a large range of learners (dispersed geographically) all at once, with one instructor, and one course offering time. This technology can be incorporated in the flipped classroom method, online instruction, or hybrid course structure. In addition, it can be useful as a tool to deliver instruction in the traditional classroom setting and used to connect with guest speakers remotely, or connect globally with educational partners who can assist in providing real-time experience to students about a specific topic or content that students are learning. For example, students that are in an international business class studying the different business cultures, customs and practices around the world could benefit from this technology as instructors can connect with business/educational partners in Japan who might give them a sneak peak at a day in the office for a businessman/woman in Tokyo Japan.
As this technology provides many benefits/advantages to enhance the effectiveness of instructional delivery, however, it requires that teachers will undergo a learning curve to use the new technology, and as it becomes more advanced, it will require more time spent on training. In addition, cost of acquiring video conferencing technology that is less advanced but provides the minimal features, versus the most advanced technology with maximum features must be weighed and considered as the effectiveness of students' learning experience may be sacrificed greatly from choosing one to another.