Distance Education Classes

We are in the third week of the semester. The experience is working well.

There are two main IT used to interact and communicate with the students. Email and twitter. Utk.edu is the official transport of our communications. The other one, being informal and no required, is twitter. Three quarters of the class have enrolled. The rest has not sign up yet nor, I believe, will.

Twitter in my opinion is a valid channel of communication in Academic settings, especially for DE classes, where face to face interactions are almost non existent. It is an alternative method to let the students and the professor know each other and share more than what it is possible through the University email.

Twitter let me discover for example, that one of the students, try to watch a movie while listening my online lecture. The student told that it was a very difficult task to do.

I just hope she/he turned off the movie and finish listening to the lecture; well I just hope so!

Preparing m first DE presentation

Today I prepared my first DE presentation for the IS102 course that I am teaching at UT Knoxville. It took me longer than what I expected because I was shooting for perfection. I guess it didn't came out as I have wanted it; but I am satisfied with the results. Next time will be better.