Week 6

Based on the reading I think that the best way I can explain to the reader my experience with internet based education. I realize i'm only touching the tip of the iceberg with this but in the fall of 1999 my high school paid for me to take an internet based class through Michigan State University. It was your basic evolution of telecommunication and communication theory class nothing special. The class had no frills other than a classroom discussion and grade program there was very little human interaction. Fast forward to today where we have a full user interface and alot more personal interaction. In the grand scheme of things it is baby steps but it is really amazing to me how far internet based education has come. It is in always changing environment, having taken my last college class in the days of Windows XP I have already fallen behind the times in the use of Windows Vista. As far as teaching goes it will take time for more teachers to be acclimated with intergrating different mediums into their lesson plans, eventually though it will become commonplace. The use of podcasts and video conferencing are becoming more commonplace in class rooms. I know some classes at WMU have started to use video podcasting for lectures so if a student had a question or missed a class they could just watch the video podcast and not have to worry about getting someone elses notes. As you can see from these examples the possibiltiies are infinite it is just going to take more administrators and teachers to put these concentrations so that all students can experience multi media learning.