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?

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.

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....

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.

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....

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