LIVE CRICKET: BD v SA

Please stand by, it might take few minutes to start

Go back to B-Mela site

M@verick

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Subscribe to Fortune Magazine at a 76% discount!

Class response on google posting ...

Thanks for your response!



Nayeem: I believe there isn’t anyone on the web who never heard of ‘Google.’
Starting with your name, please write your response in one or two sentence below…

Lies: I would be super-frustrated if there was no Google. It's the only search engine I use because the other ones are too flashy and complicated to look at. Yay for Google!

Kelsey: I also really appreciate Google for the many positive attributes it has. For example, where else can you conduct scholarly searches and find great images as well! I also explained to my Boss last week the concept of Google Doc.s and he was quite impressed. Hope all is going well and see you on line!

Lorraine: Google...unsurpassed potential as a varied instructional tool...blogger, google docs, (including spreadsheets and presentations), calendar features, Google labs, Google page creator, internet searching of: images, google scholar, google earth (maps), news, etc. I could go on.

Cam: I agree that Google is an essential component to surfing the internet. Whenever I need a quick answer to anything (usually sports trivia), I can quickly go onto Google and find the answer. I feel that there is no other search engine that rivals Google.

Discussion Board

Benefits of Discussion Board:

One of the great benefits of discussion board is people get all the necessary information related to a particular topic in one place. For example, if I am interested to go Hawaii for a trip and looking for relevant information related to the trip, I might be able to get all the necessary information from a discussion board.

I usually do it so often; when I am looking for something specific, in stead of wandering around on the net, I simply go to a discussion forum and read the relevant posting from different users. Few days ago, I was looking for a calling feature that will allow me to call free back home. I found a discussion forum that is dedicated to VoIP discussion only. It was amazing to see how actively people were sharing their knowledge and findings with other people. Finally, I learned many new things about VoIP calling features and found different softwares that allowed me to call back home either free or at a very low cost.

Moreover, I also found discussion board very useful to share ideas and knowledge. This works very well for online courses, where a teacher will work more like a facilitator and students will be teaching each other.

Discussion Board in class settings:

I have been talking about creating a discussion board from the beginning of the class. Discussion board is a part of online learning and could be used as an effective tool for learning. For example, the way we are using blogs to allow students to participate with each other, the same way a discussion board can be used. Forums are more effective sometimes, since there are moderators and administrators to control the board. Therefore, anything a user will write will be on hold for moderators’ approval for posting (the settings can be changed though). Moreover, unlike blog it does not have personal space for every user with sub domains; rather it is a board where discussions take place at the same time and anyone can participate in the discussions at anytime. So for a class setting, a topic can be raised in every week for discussion and students will be allowed to actively participate on it. This way a teacher can also determine the level of participation by students, and compare the quality of postings among students.

The role of discussion board in business-

It is very important to get appropriate feedback when we start a new business. Let me give you a particular example. Recently I have started a web business and developed a community portal. The first step was to buy some software to develop some web features on my website and to buy a domain with space. I was searching at google to find out which hosting company is giving the most attractive deal. However, I wasn’t able to find out the quality of hosting, since companies never sell themselves short. I was well aware of different marketing strategies, and was selective in picking up a hosting company. Finally I found a discussion board, where users have shared their experience with different hosting companies, talked about the good and bad sides, and recommended based on their experience. It really helped me to decide which hosting should be a good fit for my business.

However, we should be very careful while making a decision. If we make a decision based on what other people are saying, it could be misleading. Sometimes, you will find people from the company participating in the discussion board to influence you. They will be acting as users of that product and will give you false feedback. Other than that, I would say discussion board is an excellent place for business people to learn and share their knowledge. It also works as a point where you can meet new people, increase your networking and take the opportunity to flourish your business.

What if there wasn’t a search engine like google?

Post your response-

Have you guys ever thought about working on internet without google? I am not sure how many of you have the internet fever; I do.

I can’t think of spending a single day without being online. I have to use internet at least once a day and I click on google more than once within that time. Anyway, my intention for this posting is to talk about google search engine. Assuming you guys are also like me and spend an hour (on average) daily using the internet. As long as we are in school, we have to access online at least for study purpose. Think about it! How many times in a day we click on google? How many times you do it in a month? Have you ever counted how many times you have done it since its inception? It might be countless.

I am going to throw this question in google doc so that you can participate. I believe this is a very interesting question. It would have been really hard for me to do necessary research for my school projects and assignments if google wasn’t there. Just write one or two sentence in the google doc saying about what you think if there wasn’t any search engine called google (assuming there was no other search engine like google). This document has already been posted on google doc as a shared document. Once everyone finishes writing their response, I will post this on my blog. Stay tuned!

I am starting by writing one line below; your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

Nayeem: I believe there isn’t anyone on the web who never heard of ‘Google.’

Starting with your name, please type one or two sentences below-

Online Assessment

After reading the article, Designing online assessment of student learning, written by Segrave. S. & Rice, M., I had now an in depth idea about how the online assessment work for students, how that can be developed, and why it is beneficial to students.

For online courses, particularly, blog, forum, google docs, and WebCT type of online gateway can be used as online assessment tools. I don’t support using just one of the above. All of the above tools have some sort of drawbacks, which can be overcome if multiple tools are used for online assessment. Google doc is an excellent way to share documents with group. I was playing with the links that Lorraine sent us for making free online tests (http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx). I have created an IQ test and post that to google docs and decided to share it with the class.

Some of the drawback that I was talking about is as follows-

Blogging: You will find students posting artificial comments just for the sake of course work. Moreover, you don’t have a real time option in blog where you could post a document and that can be accessed and edited by different users at the same time (like google doc). For example, if teachers want to test their students, they cannot post questions that can be answered and submitted to teachers using blog, we need a different system.

WebCT: Although WebCT does not have such problem, testing students with exams is not the only way to assess. WebCT does not have the huge and open discussion facility like blogs and forums. Therefore, it is suitable to use for exam purpose only.

Forum: It is a little upgraded version of blog, I would say. As a member of the forum you can participate in any open discussion and post word documents, pictures, video as an attachment for other member to download. Moreover, embedding multimedia facility is also there. However, for test purposes or for shared documents, forum is still behind.

Google Doc: This is a recent creation of google, and I really like this tool. This is an excellent tool for online assessment. You can post your test paper and share it with a group. You also have an option to see who is editing what so that you can always be on the loop when you share a document through google doc.

Since assessment plays an important role in determining the quality of students’ learning, it is very important to have a solid, accurate, and fair assessment system. Therefore, I would suggest using all or some of the above tools to make the entire assessment process more productive and efficient.

Text Processing

After reading Text Processing Implication for Online Learning, written by Gunn and Beaudin, I realized the importance of maintaining the proper structure for writing. Both writers have greatly emphasized on maintaining coherence expression, link verbs, and transitions. According to them, coherence expression is one of the major elements for creative writing. It is very important to create an understanding and mental representation of the text. A writer should place him or herself in the audience position while writing a journal, article, or a report. Gun and Beaudin have very nicely defined two important sides of text processing: narrative and expository. When a writer is presenting a narrative text to the reader, even if it is not well structured, readers are able to get the points. On the other hand, expository text is full of technical jargon, unfamiliar words, new theory and assumptions. Therefore, expository writing is difficult and requires more structural attention (i.e. accurate grammar, topic clarity, use of coherence etc). Most of the website articles are considered as expository writing and needs strong coherence at macro level.

After reading this article I learned how to maintain a strong coherence in macro and micro level. I will try to apply this learning in my upcoming assignments and website development. The following elements are important and worthwhile to follow, according to the writers-

• Maintaining coherence in micro and macro level




• Using transitions and link verbs to maintain connections between paragraphs and sections




• Making sure to use appropriate headings as well as defined topic and concluding sentences and paragraphs




• Making sure that the sections of the writing is flowing logically and readers can follow it easily




• Consistency Consistency Consistency: It’s important to be consistent through out the entire website in terms of formatting, using appropriate headings, fonts, and colors.




• Including site map and visual representation will help readers follow the jargons used in the writing