Herbert Brown III

Location: appalachian state university - boone, nc - usa

About me

Herb Brown is a professor and program director in the business and information technology education program at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. He directs the Graduate program in New Media/Global Education and Online Teaching and Learning at Appstate. He has taught information technology, instructional technology, and business education courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels for 20 years and served 10 years in the role of Director of Technology for several universities. He has held teaching and administrative positions at James Madison University, The University of Virginia's College at Wise, the University of South Carolina and Appalachian State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Vocational Education with a cognate in Computer Information Systems from Virginia Tech. His articles have appeared in Information Technology, Learning, and Performance Journal, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, and the NABTE Journal.

Interests

online teaching and learning, career and technical education, business & information technology education

Skills

online teaching and learning, teaching methodology, information technology education, web development/design

Website

http://edtech.appstate.edu

Activity

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Managing Learner Behaviors - 2

Kurt, You mentioned posting it in a thread. Would you address this in a public forum or handle it privately? Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Will Online Learning Replace the Traditional Classroom?

Charles, I would argue with your statement that 18 year old high school students can't handle online. In fact there is a nationwide push for online education in K-12. Florida for example requires online options for K-12 students. A whole new generation of students will be coming out of ONLINE public K-12 schools in the near future. Students in traditional K-12 schools are also using online tools such as Edmoto, Ning, Moodle, Skype and others and are certainly use to the tools and resources. Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Will Online Learning Replace the Traditional Classroom?

Michael, These can be strong supporting factors, but do you really beleive online will replace traditional classes. I have seen too many students that are insisting they have the "traditionl" experience to believe online will replace traditional any time in the immediate future. Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Instructor Presence

Dwayne, By being engaged and present in all student conversations....does that mean that I have to respond individually to every individual discussion post? Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

The Optimal Online Student-Instructor Ratio

Carl, You are correct, personal communication in a class of 200 would be virtually impossible. I do not know of courses where group size was taken in to consideration in the ratio. Groups could reduce the number of assignments and some elements, but even with groups there tends to be a fair amount of individiual elements that have to be submitted and responded too (discussion forums, other assignments). Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Assisting the Online Student

Nina, Good communication is critical. What happens the other 5% of the time :-) ? Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Faculty Expectations

Nancy , Sounds like you have it pretty well covered. Do you find this has been 100% effective or have you had to address other issues not addressed in these documents? Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Engaging Learners in Discussion

Paul , These are good leading questions. Do you provide any details or expectations for exactly how the responses should be formed? Do you provide any examples? Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Providing Feedback

Michael, I think your final statement is very important....provide positive comments on what is good, and then carefully provide the constructive feedback. Herbert Brown III

Herbert Brown III

Discussion Comment

Faculty Expectations

Nina, Has that worked for you? Have you been able to give enough specifics in your expectations for students to post correctly the first time and then correctly throughout the course or do you have to follow up with other ways? Herbert Brown III

End of Content