Today’s post is a short one and is centered on computer/technical issues. My MAC iBook is now three years old. Hopefully, it will last three more. I travel everywhere with it, and as a big hunk of my income comes from the online college classes I’m teaching, I’m constantly trying to sharpen my computer and technical skills, and I feel like I’m learning something new every day. I’ve been trained to use ANGEL, eCollege, and now am using Moodle. I have Comcast cable at home with a Netgear Wireless setup. I’m thinking of getting the AT&T wireless setup (good anywhere you can get a good cell signal), but I have not talked to a fellow MAC user to evaluate its effectiveness.  If you’ve any knowledge or experience about MACs in this regard, I’d appreciate hearing from you.

FOR ONLINE TEACHERS WHO USE MAC: About online teaching systems I’m certified to teach . . .

ANGEL – I used it last semester and found this system terribly slow when working at home. It worked fast when I was at the university or at Starbucks. Virginia College (who I work for) switched to eCollege this semester.

eCollege is fast, easy to use and works well on my MAC. If you  teach or take an online class, you’ll find it user and teacher friendly. This is the system that Virginia College now uses.

MOODLE – This semester, ULM made the transition from Blackboard to Moodle. With Moodle, so this is what I’m using to teach my ULM classes.  I had the same problem with Moodle as I did with ANGEL–the system seemed to be fast at the university, but SLOW at home. I did some research and finally found a site that gave me some information. As soon as I installed ADOBE Flash Player and ADOBE Shockwave Player, my laptop perked up and  worked with acceptable speed. This site is a good checklist to use for anyone using Moodle, or if you think Moodle is not working quite right. You can find that site is here: