CED0550 - Week Two

Identify at least two synchronous and two asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for your targeted online learners.
Two synchronous learning tools that would be appropriate for my online learners would be a classroom program like Elluminate or WizIQ and some other communication tool like Skype or ToxBox. Asynchronous tools that I could use would be to set up my classes in Moodle or some other LMS and I would probably also choose to have students either start a their own blog or website to keep track of their accomplishments and learning.

List four different types of activities that you might use with your targeted online learners and identify an appropriate online tool to use in implementing that activity.
e-portfolio: I would have my students maintain a website using a tool like Weebly for the duration of the class to document in an e-portfolio their assignments and projects.
reflection: A link to a blogging site like Blogger would enhance the site and could be utilized as a place for students to reflect upon their work and progress.
discussion: In order to get a better grasp on the activities and tasks, I would have students participate in class discussions and would therefore use a discussion board to accomplish this. Utilizing forums in Moodle or the discussion section in a Ning would facilitate this activity so I would use the tool I am presenting to the class as our LMS.
collaboration: In addition to the individual work, I would expect my students to work collaboratively on some activities and so I would use a shared document editing program like GoogleDocs or etherPad. While doing the work, students would need to communicate and so I would suggest Skype to my students.

Is my initial contact warm and inviting? Are there things I did particularly well or could do better in the future?
I think my initial contact is inviting, but I’m not to sure about the warm part - it seems slightly clinical and like a laundry list of items to accomplish. I do really like the format as I think the information is readily available and easy to find but I could improve on making it more reflective of my personality.

Is my initial contact clear and concise and yet user friendly? What are some strategies that help to format your contacts to make them as clear and concise as possible?
I do believe my initial contact is clear and concise while remaining user friendly. I would take another suggestion (it came after I had already revised and submitted on Saturday) to include the list of programs that should be installed on the user’s computer. Strategies to format the contacts would be to create and use a banner headline for all contacts and possibly making use of visual cues in each contact. For example, if I used the “ducks in a row” graphic on all contacts where students had a list of items to accomplish, they may grow accustomed to looking in the same place for that information in all future contacts.