Dominic's Blog

We’ve done our assignment! Here’s the prezi and Wix parts!

Free website – Powered By Wix.com

Wix (http://wix.com) is online, flash-based web site creation software. We’re creating a website about the Apple iPad using Wix, and I’ve embedded it below so you can see my progress.

Free website – Powered By Wix.com

As part of our assignment on Web 2.0, we’re useing Prezi (http://prezi.com/) to create a presnetation on the Apple iPad. Prezi is a little different to normal presntation software, as there is no concept of slides. Instead, prezi has a giant canvas that can be zoomed around. We’re creating presentations about the Apple iPad. I’ve embedded mine below so that you can see it as it progresses.

We’ve just completed our actual, legitimate topic test… online. If you’ve read my previous post, you would already know my feeling about this format, but just to repeat:

To be honest, I think that online tests are too limited, and put too much pressure on students. In my opionion, the obvious advantages and conveniance of an online test are oughtweighed by the inconveniances and general pressure they provide.

 And, after doing an actual, real, legitimate test, I can honestly say that my opinion has not changed for the better. In fact, it’s gone in the opposite direction.

The online format means that students take the test less seriously. As Sean said on his blog, “Yacapaca is crap, I never want to use it again, it is hard to take serious [sic]“.

One of the other things I forgot to pick up on in my last post, was an extention to my annoyance of the time limit imposed. As anyone who has ever taken a test knows, questions are not usually equally weighted, and from what I’ve seen, Yacapaca provides no option to change the time limit on a per-question basis. It would be easier to just have a time limit for the entire test, but obviously, the per-question limit is to avoid cheating.

I really don’t like this kind of testing, obviously it saves time for the teachers, but for the students the instant feedback (which, by the way is only a simple percentage) is the only real benifit, and not a terrible good one at that. Honestly (and I know this is a strange thing coming from me), I prefer paper.

Yacapaca is an online testing application. With a homescreenvaguely reminiscent of an old library catalogue system and strange tiki-inspired flash animations, it’s isn’t the prettiest app out there, but it is nevertheless effective in general. But here’s why I don’t like it, and onine tests in general.

They’re basic
Most online tests only allow for multiple choice or one-word answers, and from what I’ve seen, yacapaca is no different. This is a problem, as it only allows the most basic of questions, and there is no place for some sophisticated ‘short-answer’ questions, which are generally vital in measuring a student’s level of understanding. It also removes the possibility for receiving points for answers that are ‘half-right’ and points for ‘working-out’, which simply disadvantageous to the students. They’re just told they’re wrong, not why they’re wrong.

They’re prone to failure
Online tests are too prone to failure. A power outage, a server going down or even a cut cable can send an entire classes test down, and data corruption could alter a student’s results. They’re also insecure, as a skilled enough hacker could get into the system.

They put too much pressure on students
One of the most annoying factors about online tests is time limits. Each question has a certain amount of time that it needs to be completed in, and that puts too much pressure on students. They are more likely to select an incorrect answer in order to beat the time. The fact that you can’t go backwards increases the pressure.

To be honest, I think that online tests are too limited, and put too much pressure on students. In my opionion, the obvious advantages and conveniance of an online test are oughtweighed by the inconveniances and general pressure they provide.

Prezi is an alternative to PowerPoint, and it takes a distinctly different approach. Prezi doesn’t use slides, instead everything is on a massive canvas that can be zoomed around on. Instead of the standard slide-by-slide approach, Prezi uses a much more organic (yet sometimes distracting) method of smoothly sliding from point to point. It reminds me of a lot of those kinetic type videos, yet without the animation.

Prezi has a lot of potential, but it is for a very specific type of presentation.

Nothing much to update, really. I got my flash topic test results back, and I had a long weekend. ACMI was awesome, but I’ll talk morte about that later. Anyway, that’s all.

I’m off to ACMI today, courtesy of the IT dept (thanks!). I forgot to bring my camera (d’oh!), so there’ll be very little images, and only really crappy quality ones (stupid phone camera). Anyway, I’m off, and I’ll have a report later,

I’m running a survey at the moment. Check it out!