Java as in java applets are an affront… .NET is an affront. Java as a back ender server is wonderful. That is all.
You know what’s a wonderful cross platform framework? Html+css+javascript and a webrowser.
The irony here is that for the 3 years I taught in a Blackboard environment, the Java implementation was incredibly buggy on Macs, and the WYSIWIG formatting never worked properly, meaning the school eventually gave up and followed the lead of profs who had been saying to students for quite some time “OK, we won’t count off for APA formatting in your citations for discussion posts.”
(To be really honest, the words “taught” and “school” above should probably be in irony quotes, but that’s another discussion.)
Also, it’s well and good to say “X sucks, you should use Y” but most of us teaching don’t actually get to choose the courseroom software we use. I wish.
Is there any research to show that all this expensive technology is actually better for teaching students than traditional methods?
Can someone post some screenshots of Blackboard? Is it like entering… The Filematrix?
On the other hand, wait stop, we don’t want to open a portal to that dimension.
What about Android. Serious question. I’m thinking of learning some new languages for writing mobile apps, and is certainly seems like Java is one of the two I’ll need to know.
Android is not really Java, it is a very very very very similar clone. Sordid history here.
I’m very glad, for many reasons, that I’m not in school anymore. I can’t imagine why anyone still thinks it’s a good idea to use blackboard anymore, since it is utterly obvious to anyone who’s used it that it is entirely devoid of redeeming qualities. You can’t even open a link in a new tab from inside it, which, in this century, is completely fucking ridiculous.
That would still mean I’d need to learn to code in Java.
Blah blah blah the future, blah blah blah distance learning, blah blah MOOCs, blah blah disrupt, blah blah PROFIT.
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Completely agree with you there. If you’re going to build a webapp and require students to use it, the first thing you do is ditch Java at the presentation layer. It’s basically anti-Sam Adams: always a bad decision.
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