Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Challenge Continues
March 30-April 1, 2003
My Beloved Blackboard: Teacher Empowerment for Students' Success
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By: Elizabeth Caplan-Carbin |
Abstract
Announcements, assignments, exercises, and animated instructional presentations - Blackboard brings it all to everyone, any time, anywhere. This paper describes a university German teacher's experience getting organized and getting it all "out there" through the file transfer capabilites of the powerful Internet tool. Overwhelm learners with input, yet keep it all under control through the adaptable organizational menus. Give them an abundance of learning avenues, while keeping their objectives specific and clear.
Description
Blackboard has become an invaluable tool for teaching with technology, for exploiting the assets of the Internet, and for making materials accessible. The use of sound, video, authentic texts, photos and other graphics, can be brought into a classroom during instruction or directly into a student's dormroom at midnight, with minimal fuss or concern about platforms, hardware, or even software issues. Educational treasures found on the Internet are easily gathered and incorporated into the course syllabus. Your own documents, presentations, and programs can be uploaded to Blackboard for retreival by your students or by you at any time, any place. Your teaching tools and course materials are always available to you and to whoever you want, whenever you want. Accesiblity to materials is always at the administrator's, that is your, discretion.
Two aspects of Blackboard make it an extraordinary tool for ordinary teachers. First, the files are all kept on Blackboard servers. That means that it is not necessary to own a computer to use Blackboard. The course website can be administered from any computer terminal to the Internet, such as at the library, or in an Internet café, at a friend's, or while away at a conference. The second feature, invaluable to teachers, is that the entire course can be archived for future use. Each element that the teacher inputs into the course can be delineated for "timed release". This means that the course can be made to "build" in chapter or unit increments, just as it did as you built it the first time. Everything placed onto Blackboard can be edited, removed or simply hidden until you want it to appear. Blackboard can serve as a virtual "file cabinet" for your course materials and ideas, while making it easier for you to share and disseminate them.
Proceeding