Throughout the course we have been exposed to different types of tools, each has its own usage, interface and importance. Of these tools, I chose Seven that had the most impact on my way of learning: 1) Blackboard, 2) Slack, 3) Zoom, 4) Soliya, 5) WordPress, 6) Google package vs Microsoft office.
Blackboard is an educational hub that we use constantly to find on it the course materials, course grades, emails of the doctors and students if you want to get contact of anyone in the course to communicate with and blackboard collaborate was used during the online shifting. But It might not be the best tool for communication and announcements, since sometimes notifications about some announcements are not sent. And Blackboard collaborate is not that effective as Zoom in terms of connectivity.
When it comes to Slack, it is a platform which we can use it through the laptop or the mobile; we join using a link and creating an account, without having to put your private number unlike WhatsApp. Of its advantages are the ease of communication because of the direct message option and the ability to create different locked channels or chats for different subjects to avoid disorganization and confusion.
Zoom is a perfect hub for online conferencing, the problems are limited to two things and one of them was solved: 1) the fact that if you’re not premium, you won’t be able to maintain a meeting more than 40 mins, this might have a pro, which is time efficiency. 2)the security problem that anyone who tries random IDs, could’ve joined the meeting, but the problem was solved when the password option was created, that you cannot join the meeting except when putting the password. I can use it on the laptop or the mobile and the share screen option very beneficial if we want to do a presentation or if the doctor wants to explain something visually; during one of my classes the doctor was explaining something using the share screen option, but something went wrong with his laptop, so I instantly shared the screen from my laptop and we were able continue the class normally.
Soliya is an online exchange program, where I got to know people from different countries and I got exposed to different cultures. We got divided into groups according to measured parameters from the Survey we did and within each group we had 1 to 2 facilitators. The existence of the facilitators keeps the dynamics of the conversation going, there was no awkward silence. The platform is well organized as you need to press a certain button to talk as if you are raising your hand, avoiding interruption and every person could hear the other person talking. The technical team is always there to communicate the technical issue with. However, in my opinion the user interface could be more developed and the technical issues are more than the ones you might find in a tool like Zoom like: problem with the microphone, the microphone could disconnect without giving any notifications and the screen disconnects a lot.
We used WordPress for blog posting our assignments. The interface is user friendly and the its navigation is easy; it took me some effort to be able to organize the appearance of the blog and know the language and how to blog post because it is not like essay writing, but once I got hold of it, things were easy. It was easy to track my performance on it for the course purpose, comparing between each blog post and knowing if I am getting better or worse or am I on the same level.
Last but not least, Google package versus Microsoft office. Google package has an edge for working in groups and has different tools that facilitate group working because with google, you can work as a group online and update the sheet, slide or excel and build on each other’s work; unlike Microsoft if someone works he/she has to send his updates via email to the others and the compile them at the end and you might find repeated stuff as you are not able to view the progress online. Also, Google Package has Google forms, on which you can create surveys and I personally used it to create the survey for my project. However, in my opinion Microsoft PowerPoint and excel are better than Google slides and excel in terms of features and interface. In my Opinion, Slack, Zoom and WordPress could be used in the future in other context; as ZOOM has minimal connection issues and is an efficient and beneficial to and you can join with any account you don’t have to have certain email or account on Hotmail or Gmail. WordPress could be used in the future if I want to continue in the blog posting activity. And if I had the chance to do the Soliya experience all over again, I would do it because the technology makes you live an enriching experience, of which you get exposed to different people from different countries and cultures. However, it has a limited purpose and Cannot be used in the future in another context.
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