Thursday, April 21, 2011

Final Posts for the Class

Hi all!

Blogging has been fun this semester. I have received good feedback from my of my classmates. I did a YouTube video for my final project. I was fun and exciting to make. After I receive my grade I will post it up on this site for all to see.

This week our discussion was about podcasting, coursecasting. etc.

I would like to share with you a resources I found. This person is a active blogger and uses Web 2.0 technologies in his school. Visit http://ericsheninger.com/esheninger.

Have fun and blog on...

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Educational Blogging

Happy Spring, its 70 here in Btown! YAY!

This week we talk about Educational blogging and how we use this to our advantage. I was new to this at the beginning of this class but I really like the blogging world. Its nice to write comments your thoughts and get feedback.

For educational purposes I see the use of blogging a a tool to learn more about a subject. Students can use blogs to post comments get feedback etc. What do you think about educational blogging? Helpful? or not?

Podcast, Vidcast/Vodcast, Webcast

I posted this on the oncourse site this week because I was the cool resource provider! I wanted to post on here is see if I could find an more information on these sort of things...

With all the new developments we have several opportunities to help children/young adults/adults learn. Podcasts, webcast, vidcast/vodcasting are some of the options… we can use them in conjunction with blogs, facebooks, apps and twitter. These technologies combined create a powerful tool for teachers, educators and students to learn and share experiences within a learning environment.
I found several interesting items on Youtube this week… this are shared from Teacher Professional Development.
Integrate podcasts in Math - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89iFU0DdM4c
Use podcasts in Collaborative Assignments - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3feG0Bw33eE&feature=related
Teachers are you worried about security of podcasts…
Field trips can even be virtual!?!
For those who are interested in Vodcasting…. I found an interesting resource
Would you consider using vodcasting in your classroom, advantages, disadvantages?
Have you used podcasting for learning? Do you see problems with using these technologies? There are many cool apps for the iPhone and iPad do you use these? What are your favs?

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Mobile, Wirless and Ubiquitous Learning

This week we are discussing Moblie learning. There were many helpful tidbits this week. I will share a few with you...

 Sharon Jayson (2010, December 30). The year we stopped talking. USA Today, Dec 30, 2010. http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20101230/1ayear30_cv.art.htm
Marc Parry (2010, October 10). Will Technology Kill the Academic Calendar?
Online, semesters give way to students who set their own schedules, Chronicle of Higher Education.  http://chronicle.com/article/Will-Technology-Kill-the/124857/

  Marco R. della Cava (2010, March 31). It's an app world, and it could swallow all computing. USA TODAY. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2010-03-31-1Aappworld31_CV_N.htm?obref=obnetwork

I really enjoyed reading the tidbits this week. I also found several interesting vidoe on mobile learning on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNQKAIdwWPk

I believe that mobile learning is a wave of the future and our children will have a much easier time with it than us BUT I also think that being connected all the time is a burden. We are always checking our phones and we feel like we should be connected. What happened to the days of silence, where we are not hearing ringing, beeping and songs. Should we take the time to stop and catch our breathe before we just into the next new thing? I don't know... silence is golden or is it?

Gaming, VR, and Simulations

This week we discussed gaming and how gaming and VR affect learning. Second life was one of the things discussed in our group. If you don't know what second life is see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3gHCupXSMs

Learning in this environment can be challenging or easy depends on the person. How gaming affects learning is very interesting me considering I have son that are heavy gamers. It shows them a pseduo world and that can be very hard to explain, as a parent. I don't know but I don't want my child transfering his actions in the game to real life! What do you think?

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

YouTube, TeacherTube, and the Future of Shared Online Video

Happy March everyone... the first day of Spring has came ;)

This week we discussed shared video's and online learning. On my oncourse posting this week, Dr. Bonk mentioned several good point on the pros and cons of online video sharing. Here are a couple from him? What do you think?
Pros:
1. Motivates students--uses technology to which they are familiar and excited to learn with.

2. Connects concepts in books to the real world (not always, but often).

3. Allows for quick and repeated replay and review of concepts.

Cons:
They might not be accessible due to a firewall.

2. They links can rot or go dead. Link rot used to be more of a problem 10 years ago then today, but it remains an issue.

3. Students might become too reliant on video and not read the book.
In my opinion, I think, the pros out weight the cons. We do have to consider copyrights and other important issues BUT I think that we are at the point of online video sharing on a daily basis. Several students relay on video's via YouTube to learn and share points of interest. We certainly are able to share information freely, why not learn from it?

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Wikis and Wikipedia!

Over the last week, we have talked about Wiki's and Wikipedia. The different uses and how people use these two technologies. Many think that Wikipedia is a good starting point for doing research but not the sole source of information. I agree that Wikipedia provides a good background and it can aid in students researching certain topics. Wiki's are good for brainstorming or talking with communities about issues that you both find interesting. They provided good feedback for class discussions and opens up opportunities for new discussions. Overall, this week was a good discussion.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Connectivism and Social Knowledge

Happy last day of Feb everyone! ;)

Over the past week we have learned about Connectivism and Social Knowledge, since I really didn't know a lot of how this plays a role in learning and teaching so I decided to learn a bit more about it. For those who are or was in the same boat as I... here is the definition of Connectivism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism_(learning_theory)

Social Knowledge is the act of learning, sharing and connecting with people online through technology and online communities (or at least that what I think). :)

I can see how this play a role in the learning especially young children who interact on social networks daily. The amount of information available to the hands to kids is unreal. Related to this the questions are is the information they see accurate information? Do they question information they see online? or do they believe everything they read? Do they have search overload? 

I don't know the answers to these questions but I always tell my children don't believe everything you read online. Search a subject more .... don't read someones blog and take that as fact! Anyhow, just some thoughts....

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Open Courseware

This week in class week learned about Open Courseware (OCW). I believe that this will open up many oppotunities for learning. I found some more information on this at http://www.ocwconsortium.org/aboutus/whatisocw

I think this will benefit children that are being homeschooled or people that like to learn online. However, I do believe that a classroom setting helps children learn and is essential to the learning process. Depending on the learning style of your child, whether she/he is a self starter, hands-on, or a book worm will determine how much the OCW will help with learning.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Open Source Software

I agree that there are many great opportunities with open source software, it does provide us opportunities to tap into the knowledge of other people in the world. However, I am not a big fan of Linux, perhaps that is because I am a windows baby. I was around to see the development of windows and used windows 3.1. I am dating my age, but I was a young one then. :)

I have worked with people in the past who would never use anything but open source and I understand more now than then why open source is important. I realize that using the world's knowledge to more powerful than a team of programmers programming in a basement of Microsoft. I don't want to say either OS is better they just have different ways of development. I guess I am open minded when it comes to this. I think the idea of open high school (link on the class site) is a great idea.

Open source resource for the week...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fqlI9B6QU

Blended Learning

There are several opinions when it comes to blended learning. I think that it provides us with many opportunities to learn without going to F2F classroom. Our children will definitely have different opportunities than us with the development of online learning.

I have a niece that got her BA degree completely online. She has a great job and was able to understand the courses online. She felt like she learned a lot but later on after getting her job, she wished she had taken the face 2 face classes. She felt like interaction (hands-on) learning would have benefited her. Her degree is in computer systems. She felt like she benefited from online learning because she had been out of school for years but she thought classroom learning would have been easier for her. As an adult learner, I like the mix and online and classroom learning. I think we have developed a way for the adult learner generation to get the education we need without going a sitting in a classroom of 20 year old young adults. No offense, it can be intimidating....

Monday, January 31, 2011

Sudden rise of eReaders...

There has been a lot of talk about the rise of eReaders lately. We have been discussing these in class. So the question is do you like them or not? Many people like having the book in hand many prefer to read electronically. To me it all depends on the content. I like the electronic version but when I am studying I would rather have the book in hand. I think to write on it, take notes etc..

As for the future I see eReaders becoming a common thing. Students are already being offered electronic textbooks, the iPad is so popular I can see students using it for class items. I already here of some schools offering check out Kindles or NOOKs. This means that my child could possibly bring a kindle home one day. I can see the good and the bad! One bad eReading is not great on the eyes... it makes me have a headache if I do it to long.

I don't know, what do you think? Good, Bad?? Comments?

An article for the week on eReading...
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/04/the-social-dilemma-of-ereading.html

Friday, January 21, 2011

Digital Literacy Skills

After posting the reply about the articles on Oncourse today. I wanted to find out about more information on the iGeneration. I went out in search articles about the topic. I found some interesting articles see below.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-02-10-igeneration10_CV_N.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-06-03-dumbest-generation_N.htm

I also found an article related to the link that I posted yesterday. Could facebook be the cause of students not learning as much in college? See this http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-04-13-facebook-grades_N.htm

79% of facebook users say that facebook has no impact on their academics. Really? I think that it will impact them significantly. Facebook is a time consumer and if you get caught up talking to friends and playing FB games, you can be online all day without even realizing how much time has past.

This week post includes a funny pics! Enjoy :)




Image Credit: robotdarwin.com/


Friday, January 14, 2011

Web 2.0 Learners

There are so many new ways of learning these days... do we have information overload? I personally think the creation of the Web 2.0 technologies has been good for people to become more involved with things happening around them. Information and news comes to you via facebook, twitter, your mobile phone, iPad etc... I have connected with friends that I haven't seen in years. Is this good for us?

Some say no, I have friends that say they have a "facebook addiction". Even one friend that made a new years resolution not to check facebook more than once a day. Are we really consumed by these technologies? Are we really addicted?

I have included a short YouTube video on facebook addiction, you decide? Are you addicted?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21dbOiS5fwM

After reading the articles this week, I really a stuck on the adult learners article. This is because I myself am a adult learner and I have seen family members suffer job lost and return to school because the job market is just not the same as it was in the 80's. Adult learners are the most proficient learners I believe because we have a goal. We are ready to work and we want to learn to make ourselves marketable. I hear so many students say, I really don't know what I want to do... I hear adult learners say I want to do .... and I will do this because I have no choice.

Many of us learn in different ways .... and we all need jobs!