Wednesday July 16, 2014

Great class using the Blackboard Collaboration live.  I had no problems downloading and logging on.  The interface was super clear and user friendly. I liked how the chat was set up on the left and then slides were on the right.  We could change the size of the window so that a word document could be open for taking notes.   If people were having problems I think the wifi would of played a big part of that.  I love how I was able to access the lesson anywhere.  We set up a study station at the Irving- air-conditioned, comfy chairs, coffee, space to move, etc.

I’m really glad that we did the pollev.com activity again.  Having the activity on my personal computer made it much more user friendly.  I didn’t have to worry about seeing the screen and if I missed some of the instruction they were right there in front of me. 

Great overview of the writing process and again it’s unbelievable the complexity of the process and how we take it for granted. 

The Blackboard Collaborative set up was ideal for reviewing the apps.  It was a little blurry but we got the gist of it.  The audio really helped and the combination of audio and visual really kept my attention and kept me engaged in the lesson. 

My favorite app that we reviewed was the Click Sentence.  I think this would be ideal for a lot of my students because they struggle with organizing their ideas and often get frustrated because they don’t know where to start.  This was a very user-friendly app that was suitable for students in all ages.  I like the audio aspect of the app which helps our students with speech problems.  The visual pictures were also great because the students could personalize their work.  My only concern was the price of the app- $28.99 but the mass purchase price definitely makes it more affordable.