Week 13...Thanksgiving in the Sandbox

So I was not entirely sure whether or not we were required to blog this week, so as a means of quelling my anxiety I have decided to do so. I was very interested in what Maiers had to say in her podcast/video/message. I found that it was a very intuitive approach to learning and teaching, especially in a simultaneous way.

What is so amazing is that her platform is so basic:

Sharing is caring – find success

Being messy is okay – befriend it, get dirty, gain freedom, lose yourself

Imagination is a great and essential piece of the puzzle – dream big

Sand is for filling buckets, never for throwing – never throw sand at someone because it hurts them and wastes integral play time

Hugs help – simple acts of kindness and a loving relationship is the best

Take it to the community – prepare for problems to arise, and then turn to the community for help if necessary (such as friends and strangers)

ONE JOB, BE REMARKABLE, NOTHING LESS

You are the master of your fate, and the keeper of your soul

Play is the work – honor the tools, rules, and one another

YOU MATTER

I can just see Moses with the two tablets that hold the Ten Commandments. It seems so simple, almost to the point of making me ask, "Why didn't I think of this myself?"



Needless to say, I am very excited to see what the rest of the e-conference has to hold.

Week 12 (more like me being weak during the 12th week of the semester)

Alright so this week I wanted to try something a bit different. After reading about podcasts and their relevance into the education world (especially in regards to Library 2.0) I decided to make my own. In testing the waters I found myself actually a bit excited. The podcast is a little over 3 minutes long and only touches upon what the rest of the blog post has to offer.

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After reading both the Jowitt and the Gardner articles I believe that they some how go hand in hand with each other. Essentially, both deal with the positives and negatives of podcasts, and how they are so simple to make and to listen to. As I mentioned in my podcast, some people (educators, students, parents, etc.) might shy away from either listening or recording them. Take me for example. The first Ipod that I bought (over five years ago) was the first time I ever even saw the word podcast. What did I do with my Ipod menu? Deleted the 'Podcasts' heading from the selections. I did not have any use for that kind of stuff; all I wanted was an MP3 player that had a screen that I could see while I was mowing lawns at the Cheektowaga Sewer Department Pump Plant #5. Now, three Ipods later I still do not utilize podcasts...well up until now.

Jenny was a great example of a typical student (well, the typical student that tries to actually complete her work and put in a solid effort). I think we all know too well what undergraduates are really doing on the weekends, making them have to catch up as fast as humanly possible as soon as Monday comes around. I digress from this little quip.

'Jenny' demonstrates the practicality of podcasts in the education sphere. The advantages are numerous and hit on numerous points that I will go into further.


(Jowitt, A. L. “Creating Communities With Podcasting”. Computers in Libraries v. 28 no. 4 (April 2008) p. 56)

Like your favorite Bee Gees song or Cyndi Lauper track, these podcasts are available to be listened upon syncing them up to your mp3 player. You can listen to them whenever you want, how many times you want, you can rewind and fast forward the track, take them anywhere with you (like to that dinner at your weird Aunt and Uncle's house during Thanksgiving break), and perform other activities while you're listening (such as walking or driving).

People love to talk, and some people like to listen. However, others might have a difficulty going forward with this approach to learning. There is not a problem with that, though. Everyone learns differently and that is what makes every person an individual.

On to another topic.

Richardson talked about Facebook and Ning in the chapter we read this week. I have been a Facebook user since forever. 2005 I believe, August when I first enrolled at Buffalo State College. That is when Facebook necessitated that it's users have a valid school email address in order to sign up. Oh those were the days. I do agree with Richardson, at least a heaping majority of his points. On page 134 he stated:

"Whatever the challenges that prevent us from making social networking a part of our curriculum, they should not stop us from being able to talk about Facebook or to share or model our own experiences there in appropriate ways so kids at an early age have some context for what the expectations and roles are that await them there."

I like the way Facebook is spoken about like it is the other.

It's almost like that movie Fight Club except its this:


The other should probably be thought of as more than that. People of all ages, demographics, and generations connect on this thing. Therefore, is it really not worth looking at to see if their are educational benefits from it. That would be a terrible assessment of the social networking tool. Although some might equate it to 'Separation of Church and State' but in this case separating a student's social life and his or her education. Mixing the two could be a vile mess. However, putting them together could concoct a solid rock of educational value.

As my sign off I post this link, which I will also be posting to Diigo.

http://mashable.com/2011/04/26/facebook-for-schools/

Week 11? Already...talking about Google in the Classroom

This week the majority of our readings had to do with Google Applications and their application to education and the classroom. I have to say first and foremost that Google is absolutely wonderful for providing the services and simplification that it has for internet users. The world wide community has forevermore been altered because of it.

In our time line of WWW advancements (at least to my recollection) this is what revolutionized my online experience:


AOL Instant messenger -
Welcome to my eighth grade year in middle school up until well into my undergrad. This simple little application helped aid in communication efforts between my band mates, friends, girl friends, colleagues, and the like. Even when I lived in the same house as my brother we would exchange 'IMs' when we were both home or used it as a file exchange program. How convenient! People still use it, but personally for me its fallen out of favor. I suppose that we can say AIM was helpful for its contributions to communication.

Myspace, and Then Facebook -
Well Myspace was great for a second. I cannot say that anything beneficial came for me on the website. I ranted and raved on my own personal blog and then also used my flashy HTML skills to create a great page. Naturally, my band had posted up our songs (http://www.myspace.com/andmanymoreska). I met quite a few people in person after becoming 'friends' with them on Myspace. I cannot say the same for its counterpart, the Facebook.

We are all addicted, well, most people are. I haven't met anyone on Facebook that I became friends with, but that's because it is different. It had an aim to reconnect long lost friends, provide interaction and communication for real life friends, colleagues, and such. It has successfully done so, combining several features that include file sharing, groups (which are similar to wikis), notes (which are similar to blogs), statuses (which are similar to twitter), photos (which is similar to Flickr, Photobucket, etc.) and videos (Youtube?)

And now, enter Google.

The three online sites/applications/public venues that I have addressed pale in comparison to Google. When I first used Google I employed it as a lyric searching website. I was told that it was more reliable than Askjeeves.com or Yahoo. This was in the year 2000. Over a decade later Google has universally changed the foundation of our information systems on the internet. It has combined communication, video, travel, web searching, and most importantly INFORMATION!

While reading the articles this week I was put in a strange place though. I have used Google Earth before but have never really jumped on the bandwagon. According to Segerstrom, "Google Earth brings information alive for students of all ages and actively excites them about learning" (Google Earth and Beyond: Explore, Discover, and Create, p. 2). That really is something great. If we think about it, information can be hard to access and even more difficult to locate. Google puts all of this grand mass of information together for the public in a way that provide educational tools for students. This goes beyond Google Docs, Google Scholar, and Google Reader.

Now I have firmly stated that I am a proponent of Google in the classroom; however, I am not entirely convinced that it is all that practical when it comes to being used as educational lessons. My example is the following. In the Crane article many different exercises are described that can integrate Google Earth with every school subject you can think of. Of course it would be awesome to track Magellan's exploratory voyages, or perhaps even talk about the settings in a fictional novel and then "fly" from place to place, but we have to take into consideration many different factors. Teacher's in New York state public schools have Regents requirements to fill. Many of these activities sound GREAT in theory and would possibly be just as great in practice, yet in fulfilling the necessary requirements it may be far fetched to assume that classroom teachers would be able to integrate Google Earth into their plans so readily. There are incessant pressures being felt all over, so there is no room for this kind of education practice.

In the same Crane article she describes technology goals for students to follow as per introduced by the International Society of Technology Educators (ISTE). They included creativity in thinking, developing and constructing knowledge while using technology, supporting individual learning and contributing to the learning of others, providing access to information, and my personal favorite employing critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research. (Google in the Classroom - More than Just Research, p. 16). I am beginning to wonder whether or not these goals conflict with the problems of reality?

Now I am not implying that I think Google Earth or any other Google application is useless or extraneous. I wholeheartedly believe that there is a place for everything in something specific. In this case, Google Earth might be able to create diverse educational lessons that are engaging, but turning to them for filling our student's educational requirements might be a little far off, at least for now.

Week 10: Professional Development and Blogs

(http://janetbarclay.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/925147_linked_hands.jpg)

This week we our readings dove further into social connections through the internet. The main focus of the Richardson chapters were on the Social Web & Flickr, two large and important pieces of the puzzle that make up students, educators, and everyday internet user's lives when it comes to networking.

As already stated probably 1,000 times so far this semester, the term 'social web' seems to invoke one main point; collaboration. We have talked about collaborative efforts of parents, teachers, and students when we have discussed C3 education, among other things. As far as collaboration goes I think that it is integral that we understand the positive parts of the internet and networking that we may overlook on a daily basis.

Richardson states in Chapter 6, "The social Web says that we have many friends out there just waiting to be found and connected to, and those friends have other friends (friends of a friend or "FOAF") who can just as easily connect with us and point us to new and interesting information or learning." (Richardson, 85) This FOAF thing might be seem a little shady or creepy at first but if we take a step back and think about it, is not this the way we network in our physical and social lives? I will discuss a personal example of this. I was hired at the Olive Garden a little over five years ago. At the time I was interested in forming a new musical project with one of my best friends that I had already been in a band with for some 5 years. We were looking for a bassist and a guitarist, perhaps even a keyboard player. The first position we decided to look into was the keyboard player, as a FOAF that I had known had talked about jamming around one day together. I found his contact information and he was in. Next, I recalled that some high school kid was pestering me via Myspace about playing bass in our original project. I found his contact information and we met up; he was also in. At this point we had four people ready to jam around. Quickly, we realized that this "kid who was pestering me" was a guitar genius, something that would have been overlooked if we never would have met. Lastly, a guy about my age had just been hired at the Olive Garden a little after me and looked like a musically inclined guy. Turns out he played guitar too. Within a month we were jamming around with each other. Four years later, the guitarists are two of my best friends, I haven't seen the keyboard player in close to two years, and my original best friend and I see each other every so often.

(http://www.loti.com/band2t.gif)

Now this may only seem like a story, but it is an example of reality. I met three entirely new people, some with the aid of social networking, but physically we all met each other and then realized that we had common ideas and passions, as discussed in Richardson's CH. 6. Also, it turned out that we had all had common friends and acquaintances for years and had never realized it. Technically, we had probably all met each other at some point too, prior to actually meeting to discuss our own endeavors. It might seem crazy, however, I can almost guarantee that everyone has a similar story.

So back to the social web being a collaborative effort. An abundance of people my age, as well as our parents, have found a home on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and more. Some only play game applications such as 'Farmville' or 'Words With Friends' but some exchange information. We cannot slight people for just playing games or entertaining themselves via the social web. All of the parties involved are essentially collaborating for the greater good. Some may use wiki tools on Facebook without even realizing it to set up a Book Club or coordinate an event without even physically picking up the telephone or meeting in person. As far as schools are concerned we employ the use of a wiki for our class discussions and overall information hub for LIS 568 (and thank God, because UBlearns is a downer). I know that personally I have discovered just how much a person can learn from an experience like the one that we all share in using our wiki in particular. At this point, Richardson seems like the guru of all these utilities. One quote will resound over and Over and OVER in my head:


"Learning is a continuous conversation among many participants." (Richardson, 86)

The amazing part is that people seem to forget about that little tidbit of information; THEY ARE LEARNING.

Ruth Reynard spoke of common mistakes that educators make while utilizing blogs with students (and how to avoid them) within another one of our readings this week. Under her heading that stated Unclear Learning Outcomes she referred to the beneficial parts of blogs such as being able to invoke analytical behavior among students, foster a synthesis of ideas, and of course apply these pieces to a greater assignment that several people will be able to see. Who doesn't want there good work on display every so often? Blogs make this happen. As long as the class and assignment expectations are clearly stated everyone has the opportunity to stay ahead of the 8-ball and be in a prime position to collaborate effectively.

I am posting a link to a website that describes over one hundred different positive aspects of using social media in business.
http://www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com/branding/how-to-use-social-media-in-business

In sum, what we should embrace, as our predecessors like Richardson have done and urge us to do, is to collaborative learn, as the experience might be something that we do not expect. The grandeur of it all is overshadowed by what we do not know already. The social web is here to stay and will inevitably change the way that we go about our lives, including how we teach, learn, communicate, and most certainly coexist.

(I also suggest this link to a 2009 article about the future of the social web. It may be directed towards businesses but the following seemed fairly interesting and relevant. The article and image are both copyrighted, as they are not my own work obviously.)

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/04/27/future-of-the-social-web/

The Five Eras of the Social Web:

1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share
2) Era of Social Functionality: Social networks become like operating system
3) Era of Social Colonization: Every experience can now be social
4) Era of Social Context: Personalized and accurate content
5) Era of Social Commerce: Communities define future products and services

Update: CRM Magazine has more about the five eras, focus in on the graphic.