This was a wonderful article about the obstacles that are repeated throughout online group work. I greatly appreciated the structure of the article in that it breaks down the issues into smaller aspects and then discusses some of the problems these approaches my have. Group work is always difficult, and it is important for the instructor to facilitate more than lead. This article comes to the rescue to the educator in need by offering firm ideas that allow the pitfalls of the various approaches to be bypassed or built upon.
We currently employ a group project in my CSI class and after reading the article I think that it will have to undergo an overhaul. The points mentioned in the article, such as avoiding overlap of roles to cut down on the inherent competitive nature of groups, will help each participant “buy into” the project as a whole.
Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing
An interview of Dr. Marcos Athanasoulis of Harvard Medical School by Sramana Mitra in regard to some of the aspects of Cloud Computing. With a focus on the needs and focuses of HMS and what they need to get out of the virtual network to enable their researchers a stable environment. The separation of their private cloud with the public cloud is of some interest as well, although the Dr. does mention that they would likely make more use of the public cloud later on.
Of specific interest to me was the mention of public Software as a Service packages [SaaS] that are out there. While the Dr. doesn’t feel that there are any that will help with the high end research carried out at Harvard – it has put me on track for researching some of these items and how I can bring them into my AR.
How to Design Effective Online Group Work Activities
Some very interesting points brought up in this article. It discusses some of the challenges facing group work, but points out the largest failure of group work is that we integrate the task, that it is usually a task that could be accomplished individually, and that we encourage only synchronous tools for them to use to work together. Combining this with links to a seminar about online group work makes this one of the most valuable articles I’ve found this week for my AR.
As I mentioned in the other group article, my current curriculum faces this very challenge in online group projects. The suggestions in this article, and the guidance it gives, will hopefully guide my group work into a more successful state for my students.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning
This article is an interesting look at some of the pros and cons of online learning environments. I think the information is a little dated and the author doesn’t go into much detail on the reasons other than flatly stating them. It does have some good points it contributes but overall I feel that I may use it more as a springboard for what to look for and avoid in future articles.
Cloud Computing
This is less an article and more an entire Wiki on the subject. It gives great scope to some of the characteristics and economics of cloud computing. It has been the baseboard from which I’ve been able to explore from with a better understanding of what is behind the web 2.0 tools I’m looking into.
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| A shot of my blog post |
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