Blog Journal 9

I have had a handful of online classes before however this semester will be my first time having synchronous lectures. I find that distance learning has some pros and some cons. The costs of travel have declined which is a huge positive impact for me and it is also easier to be on time to class. The things I struggle with the most are staying focused with so many distractions and staying motivated to be productive at home. As a teacher, I would actively engage my students the best I could, I find I am most successful in my discussion-based classes.

Open Educational Resources are and sort of educational resources that maintain an open license. These are resources for educators and students alike in order to facilitate free learning. Amber Thomas discusses in her blog the importance of aggregating open educational resources. This would make these resources not only easier to find, but it would help maintain clarity that the resources being used are truly open licensed works. Please see the link below.

http://infteam.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2011/03/29/oeragg/

I learned a lot about how to use animations and action buttons in PowerPoint. I do not like to use too many animations in PowerPoint however because it makes the program a lot more 'sticky' to use and it makes the presentation more distracting. If I was going to create another game for this particular setting and I had to use PowerPoint, I would probably generate the same type of product. I think there are better programs for game making that teachers can use that will save them a lot of time that would be spent on creating the game, and rather spend it on the quality of the content instead.