Summaries of 6 weeks of a Collaboration and Virtual Learning class at Ashford University online.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Learning in a Virtual Environment IV
This week, Week 5, we worked on setting up a Delicious, PBWorks and Facebook page and asking fellow classmates to join us. The PBWorks was more help with professional sharing because bookmarks were concerning blending technology in the classroom. When sharing links with classmates there are more ideas floating around. We discussed an article: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-12-03-digital-brain_N.htm. The article is about how different students are tday than 20 years ago. The author states that our minds have been rewired from the all the terchnology. He believes the newer generations do not have the social skills needed to cope with the world. So, we need to combine the digital age with interpersonal communications in our teaching. In Discussion 3 and working with delicious.com we researched and created bookmarks. We used the tags and shared bookmarks with the tag "ashford_edu651". Our book is: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson. Concepts such as micro-blogging, Twitter, RSS feeds and Social Bookmarking are discussed.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Learning in a Virtual Environment III
"Minds on Fire, Open Source, and Learning 2.0" by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler was the article this week we had to review. It was interesting in that it said that future learning would become more of a social learning vs. book learning with regurgitation of knowledge in the next 20 years. Online universities would have to spring up to teach new skills for newer jobs requiring computer skills. We were asked to give the pros and cons of each experience of creating a Facebook page and PBWorks page. I discussed how PBWorks is more geared towards teachers, while Facebook is more of a social website. But you could monitor it by having a secret or private group.
For one discussion question I commented: It is possible that these applications, PBWorks, Facebook and Ning will replace if not accompany the others. Reggie said: “their utility will be directly related to the teaching concepts of the teacher applying them.” I think the teachers have to supply the framework and objectives for the lesson, then make certain that the tools of the application are compliant with these objectives. Also, when the teacher finds something that works for them, i.e. PBWorks or Moodle they should stay with it to teach their classes. Apply the old expression “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
For one discussion question I commented: It is possible that these applications, PBWorks, Facebook and Ning will replace if not accompany the others. Reggie said: “their utility will be directly related to the teaching concepts of the teacher applying them.” I think the teachers have to supply the framework and objectives for the lesson, then make certain that the tools of the application are compliant with these objectives. Also, when the teacher finds something that works for them, i.e. PBWorks or Moodle they should stay with it to teach their classes. Apply the old expression “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
Friday, July 1, 2011
Learning in a Virtual Environment Part II
For Week 3 we read the article about the teacherlivinin Thomasboro who published an article cutting down her school as being a
The next thing we worked on was completing a Facebook account. I think it is a popular site because it is user-friendly. But there again there were different ideas in discussion. What is easy for one person can be difficult for another. I have begun communicating with a sister in Michigan and have found an old high school buddy with the help of Facebook. I think the positive outweigh the negative.
Dr. Hibbert asked the class to then list some application we reviewed on Facebook and I reviewed Zoo World and found it great fun for young kids. I also recommend Boxnet and Quiz Monster. Qiz monsters is a challenging way to children to work on puzzles online. These applications could be harnessed for learning as well as a close online community. Also, I think it would be good for parents and guardians of emotionally or physically challenged children to have a place to communicate with each other such as a chat room. In this way, they would help provide solutions for mutual difficulties that are encountered within school especially. It would help to monitor students and provide a good healthy outlet for them. Again, though, discretion is needed on the web. I would name it SpecialEdSolutions.com.
The idea of discussion is to respond to classmates, ask questions, provide suggestions and real and insightful feedback. Students basically compare and contrast statements from other students
The next item we worked on was completing a Facebook account. I think it is a popular site because it is user-friendly. But then, again, there were different ideas in discussion. What is easy for one person can be difficult for another. I have begun communicating with a sister in Michigan and have found an old high school buddy with the help of Facebook. I think the positive outweigh the negative as long as you are careful.
Dr. Hibbert asked the class to then list some application we reviewed on Facebook and I reviewed Zoo World and found it great fun for young kids. I also recommend Boxnet and Quiz Monster. Quiz monsters is a challenging way to children to work on puzzles online. These applications can be harnessed for learning as well as a close online community. Also, I think it would be good for parents and guardians of emotionally or physically challenged children to have a place to communicate with each other such as a chat room. In this way, they would help provide solutions for mutual difficulties that are encountered within school especially. It would help to monitor students and provide a good healthy outlet for them. Again, though, discretion is needed on the web. I would name it SpecialEdSolutions.com.
The main idea of discussion is to respond to classmates, ask questions, provide suggestions and real and insightful feedback. Students basically compare and contrast statements from other students and ususally it is interesting.
The next thing we worked on was completing a Facebook account. I think it is a popular site because it is user-friendly. But there again there were different ideas in discussion. What is easy for one person can be difficult for another. I have begun communicating with a sister in Michigan and have found an old high school buddy with the help of Facebook. I think the positive outweigh the negative.
Dr. Hibbert asked the class to then list some application we reviewed on Facebook and I reviewed Zoo World and found it great fun for young kids. I also recommend Boxnet and Quiz Monster. Qiz monsters is a challenging way to children to work on puzzles online. These applications could be harnessed for learning as well as a close online community. Also, I think it would be good for parents and guardians of emotionally or physically challenged children to have a place to communicate with each other such as a chat room. In this way, they would help provide solutions for mutual difficulties that are encountered within school especially. It would help to monitor students and provide a good healthy outlet for them. Again, though, discretion is needed on the web. I would name it SpecialEdSolutions.com.
The idea of discussion is to respond to classmates, ask questions, provide suggestions and real and insightful feedback. Students basically compare and contrast statements from other students
The next item we worked on was completing a Facebook account. I think it is a popular site because it is user-friendly. But then, again, there were different ideas in discussion. What is easy for one person can be difficult for another. I have begun communicating with a sister in Michigan and have found an old high school buddy with the help of Facebook. I think the positive outweigh the negative as long as you are careful.
Dr. Hibbert asked the class to then list some application we reviewed on Facebook and I reviewed Zoo World and found it great fun for young kids. I also recommend Boxnet and Quiz Monster. Quiz monsters is a challenging way to children to work on puzzles online. These applications can be harnessed for learning as well as a close online community. Also, I think it would be good for parents and guardians of emotionally or physically challenged children to have a place to communicate with each other such as a chat room. In this way, they would help provide solutions for mutual difficulties that are encountered within school especially. It would help to monitor students and provide a good healthy outlet for them. Again, though, discretion is needed on the web. I would name it SpecialEdSolutions.com.
The main idea of discussion is to respond to classmates, ask questions, provide suggestions and real and insightful feedback. Students basically compare and contrast statements from other students and ususally it is interesting.
Virtual Environment Learner
In the last couple of weeks I have been learning about new trends in current and future technology that have an impact on our
educational environment. We began by reading "The 2011 Horizon Report" and then reviewed the article using a SWOT chart that lists in chart form: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Since there is an abundance of resources and relationships available at our hands via the Internet, instructors are challenged to integrate these into classrooms in order to help students learn. E-Books are compact and accessible from any mobile device. E-Books are challenging the traditional way of reading books. Mobiles are becoming smaller, compact and more affordable now. Game-based learning can promote teamwork and cooperation while teaching problem solving.
The education article from "Horizon 2011" helps to delineate how technology can begin to be incorporated into the classroom thus requiring fewer trips to the library or bookstore. It actually poses a threat to publisher's business. Next, we were given 14 links including a Google search engine on various collaboration tools available on the web and 25 tools every learning professional should have in their toolbox: http://c4lpt.co.uk/25Tools/. Social bookmarking and social networking sites are included along with photo sharing a http://flickr.com/commons
Other tools are Podcasts from iTunesU:BerkeleyiTunesU:http://itunes.berkeley.edu/ that enable listening to Arts, Education, Politics, Science and Technology events currently up-to-date. Mindmeister is definitely one of the top collaboration and learning tools in 2011. Through reading and researching Will Richardson's book "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" teachers can learn how to apply these technologies in a collaborative classroom environment. We therefore see how the web has affected education and student's social learning in the past 2 decades.
Next, the class focuses on "Using Wikis for Online Collaboration" written by James and Margaret West in 2009. This awesome book discusses wikis as a collaborative software tool that facilitates communication and teamwork. Generating, designing, and facilitating an online learning wiki requires a bit of work for anyone, especially students. Teachers use wikis for the desired results of teaching knowledge construction, critical thinking or contextual application. In order to do this, they must include framing and outline that help with creating a home page and content page. Given a starting point, students can plan, design and facilitate a classroom wiki. A good instructional video includes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnL00TdmL helps to explain creating wikis in more simplistic terms.
educational environment. We began by reading "The 2011 Horizon Report" and then reviewed the article using a SWOT chart that lists in chart form: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Since there is an abundance of resources and relationships available at our hands via the Internet, instructors are challenged to integrate these into classrooms in order to help students learn. E-Books are compact and accessible from any mobile device. E-Books are challenging the traditional way of reading books. Mobiles are becoming smaller, compact and more affordable now. Game-based learning can promote teamwork and cooperation while teaching problem solving.
The education article from "Horizon 2011" helps to delineate how technology can begin to be incorporated into the classroom thus requiring fewer trips to the library or bookstore. It actually poses a threat to publisher's business. Next, we were given 14 links including a Google search engine on various collaboration tools available on the web and 25 tools every learning professional should have in their toolbox: http://c4lpt.co.uk/25Tools/. Social bookmarking and social networking sites are included along with photo sharing a http://flickr.com/commons
Other tools are Podcasts from iTunesU:BerkeleyiTunesU:http://itunes.berkeley.edu/ that enable listening to Arts, Education, Politics, Science and Technology events currently up-to-date. Mindmeister is definitely one of the top collaboration and learning tools in 2011. Through reading and researching Will Richardson's book "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" teachers can learn how to apply these technologies in a collaborative classroom environment. We therefore see how the web has affected education and student's social learning in the past 2 decades.
Next, the class focuses on "Using Wikis for Online Collaboration" written by James and Margaret West in 2009. This awesome book discusses wikis as a collaborative software tool that facilitates communication and teamwork. Generating, designing, and facilitating an online learning wiki requires a bit of work for anyone, especially students. Teachers use wikis for the desired results of teaching knowledge construction, critical thinking or contextual application. In order to do this, they must include framing and outline that help with creating a home page and content page. Given a starting point, students can plan, design and facilitate a classroom wiki. A good instructional video includes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnL00TdmL helps to explain creating wikis in more simplistic terms.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
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