Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Illumnate Session
In short, I think Illuminate has the potential to be a great tool, but it requires a lot of practice in order to pull it off. People were too hesitant to speak, which at times created an uncomfortable silence that made me feel for the facilitator. In a physical classsrom these silences happen all the time and its no big deal, partly because the facilitator is able to pick up on subtle cues, such as drifting eyes or blank faces, and play off of them to adapt to the situation. Not, in the virtual classroom though. The illuminate experience felt cool and uncomfortable. Its inherent impersonal qualities left me yearning for real interaction. I think this program would work great in the business world or other public services, but not in Education. Not, on a regular basis anyway. Maybe as technology gets better and the layout is more convienent and the program speeds up it could become usefull on a wider basis. I also think one of the problems might have been the size of the room. I could see it working much smoother with a group of 4 rather than 20, especially if all of the students knew what they were doing and had more of a stake in participating. But, of course this wasn't possible so we made the best of it. Overall it was a fun experince and it was great to learn something new. I have never done anything like it before so in a way it was a little surreal. Does anyone know if online colleges use this tool?
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ReplyDeleteI agree that this was definitely an uncomfortable situation. I did not like that there was no "real" contact and at times I felt like I was not enjoying the session. I think this software would be useful for small groups to work on a project together, or maybe teachers collaborating together, but just not for classroom lessons. There are too many distractions in my opinion for it to be effective for teaching.
ReplyDeleteThis software is often used to share content in a webinar format where the presenter is sharing information and the participants may be just following along and at the end of the session there is time for questions. When it is used this way it is generally no longer than 1 hour. I have also seen it used as an interview where two people are conversing and then there is a whole group of people listening and typing in questions. We also have used it for meetings or to share information in a statewide format on a particular initiative. There are colleges that are using it but often not as the only way the class meets. It is also used for virtual office hours for students to meet with their professors.
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