Emerging Technologies

 

PBWorks

This wiki collaboration site works well for corporate training or information sharing. PBWorks can be used for file sharing, managing projects, and a place where employees can meet. The site can be customized to meet the company's needs and  can be used with clients.  There is a fee for its use.  PBWorks keeps an original copy of work that is done, just in case someone changes information that was not meant to be changed, but that can also be a problem.  Wikis are increasingly being accepted as a new breed of collaborative technology in education, (Hadjerrouit, 2011).  However , some students thought that the discussion tool was too poor when used as a collaborative forum, (Hadjerrouit, 2011). This type of wiki may not be a good tool for online students. Perhaps it should be used for business.  All that is needed for this type of wiki is that everyone has a computer.

Skype

Skype can be used to connect learners globally around the world.  Skype can be used for training to connect globally various located branches. Meetings can be attended by all company members.  Skype can also be used for grades K-12, helping the children realize other students around the world are learning some of the same things they are.  Ideas can be shared back and forth by all learners. Skype can be used by the instructor to share a presentation of himself with the online class members.  It would helpful, especially to be used to demonstrate a technical problem that students may have.  A classroom computer monitor that is large enough for the audience to see is needed.  Along with enough broad band to obtain the website.  Some of the drawbacks of Skype is that if you leave Skype open, some portion of your computer's processing resources is being used to facilitate other user's calls.  This failure results in loss of processing power for your other applications, (Kondolojy, A. 2012). Skype also has frequent outages.

Desire2Learn

This is a Learning Management System that helps students learn to make podcasts and downloadable presentations.  The site boasts that it helps students to create a more personalized experience that engages, inspires, and enables people to achieve their potential.  This site can be used for training purposes or in education. It provides a lifelong ePortfolio that can be accessed after the learners graduate. Skype contains free mobile applications and offers a free trial account. There is a fee to use this site.  As with any LMS, without training they can be difficult for the novice technical learner, enabling he learner to become frustrated, and give up.  Some other issues with Desire2Learn were:  issues when printing material, discussion board freezes, system frequently going down, could not copy and paste in drop box, and difficult to download grades, (Chawdhry, Paullet, & Benjamin, 2012).

 

References:

Chawdhry, A., Paullet, K., and Benjamin, D. (2012) Issues in Information Systems, Volume 13 ,Issue 2, pp. 302-310. Retrieved from: ihttp://iacis.org/iis/2012/135_iis_2012_302-310.pdf

Desire2Learn. (n.d.).  Retrieved from: http://www.desire2learn.com/products/learning-suite/d2l-difference/

Hadjerrouit, S. (2011).  A collaborative writing approach to wikis: design, implementation, and evaluation.  Retrieved from: http://iisit.org/Vol8/IISITv8p431-449Hadjerrouit224.pdf

Kondolojy, A. eHow tech. ( April, 16, 2012).  Cons of Skype. Retrieved from: http://www.ehow.com/list_5918123_cons-skype.html.

PBWorks: Online Team Collaboration. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://pbworks.com/

Skype in the classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://education.skype.com/?kme=Google+Adwords&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=signup&gclid=CM-B2vvD2rUCFUXf4AodIjUADw