Dr. Alec Couros Presentation

I enjoyed Alec's presentation via Elluminate this week! It's amazing the software that is out there now to keep us connected! During our last student teaching, I did a guest speaker thing through Skype with a geologiest while studying rocks and minerals. The students enjoyed it and I thought it went well, however it now that I have seen the Elluminate program, I can definitely see the limitations of using Skype compared to this program. My main concern was how students would be able to ask questions but this problem is addressed with the Elluminate program as students would be able to just type in any questions they had. I think this program would also have a place in distance education courses. When I was in high school I took a half credit calculus course through distance education which meant every Friday during lunch hour we would have a half hour conversation with an instuctor in another school and he could answer questions, assign work for next week etc. Considering the technology we have now this seems pretty ancient. The same type of thing would be set up through Elluminate and students would then be more involved and it would be more visual as they could see examples. All in all, I really enjoyed the program used for this presentation, and I think it would have a lot of goos fits in the classroom!

I liked Alec's philosphy of taking risks, becuase I think a lot of what we do online as things advance involves taking risks and potentially stepping outside your comfort level to allow you to grow and develop. Alec had some great ideas of how to use technology, his class Ning was interesting and very involved with the students. This is neat becuase it allows students to form relationships with each other on a more personal level too as they are helping each other and sharing information. Alec has some good points on the future of learning, as he says it is open and connected and that learning networks redefine how knowledge is created, distributed and controlled. This is an interesting point, to think about how technology and internet tools will change through out lifetime teaching and the endless possibilities there are using the internet! Alec had a very well prepared and interesting presentation!