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!

2 comments:

  1. You're absolutely right, Christina. Nowadays we have so many technologies capable of promoting and facilitating communication and interaction. However, as Oblinger (2008) mentions it on his "Emerging technologies for learning" paper, there seems to be a generational gap between what the Z generation, aka net generation or Web 2.0 learners, and older generations. Indeed, older generations tend to consider the Internet communication quite impersonal and shallow, and believe that teenagers who spend most of their time in front of their computers or texting via cell phones are becoming more anti-social and isolated. On the other hand, teenagers think just the opposite. They consider that they're more connected than older generations because they can literally contact any one at any time or know what others are doing via Facebook or Twitter.

    Thanks a lot for sharing the article and the video, Christina! Something you might want to consider is including the reference of the article that you're citing and probably the link to it (see last paragraph of your first posting). We'll read so many articles that in this way it might be easier for yourself to know which one you were talking about :)

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  2. I do not think that learners today have an information overload. I think they are just having so many choices to do "the learning". If you like to read then blogging, news articles, online research articles, etc can be your choices. But, if you are an auditory learner then probably youtube, teachertube, or other video sources can be your top priority of learning sources. If you like to learn from anytime anywhere, them mobile learning is your choice.

    I am so thankful for having a chance to experience all of this things. The technology is being such a good helper for us. We can learn a lot with various ways, anytime, and anywhere.

    Christina, the youtube video is so cool. I think none of the addiction signs that is mentioned in this video describe on how I use facebook. But, I have to admit it, I go check facebook a lot :)

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