Research

Second Life

               Second Life is a virtually based environment that allows student to have a simulations running over the web. The population of users on the second life platform has doubles from January 2007 to May of 2007. The platform has over six million virtual users. 3-D programs such as second life are considered social networking virtual worlds. People can collaborate and meet with each other virtually which allows them to use multimedia content. Second life has even started to branch out into the educational realm making it so that lectures can be housed in an online virtually environment. The New Media Consortium (NMC) which is an internationally based non-profit organization promote Second Life as an affordable “Sim” like educational facility. Students can use their avatar to connect with other students and collaborate on projects. I worked on a research grant committee and we looked at Second Life for use at the University of Toledo. While the project never happened I was astonished at the features that Second Life had. Second Life allows university to create an exact scale replica of a university. The buildings and environment would look like those that are housed on a typical campus.

There are many campuses that are successfully using Second Life as part of their curriculum. One of the more impressive campuses from the article is that of Healthinfo Island. This is a medical and Consumer health system.   The main target for this module is to provide training modules and on-on one support to health care professionals. There are people from all over the world so there are sub groups to specialize in certain areas such as mental health or other disabilities/ disorders. Another educational reason that Second Life could be used is to help those that have physical disabilities which make it hard for them to venture on to campus or the elderly. Second Life has many perks to be used in the education realm. The ability to have a whole virtual online campus provides an atmosphere that is drastically different from what education use to look like. The Horizon report looked at virtually simulations and the use of future technology. This is one of those technologies that is holding to be more common. By using this program there are more opportunities for students that would not have the opportunity otherwise. I think of online classes and how they are held now. If I had the ability to go to a virtual classroom while I was in the comfort of my own home after work I think I would be much more successful. I also believe that this still allows students to get personal attention and the interaction that is sometimes lose via web courses.

PEW/ Internet

The PEW Internet Projected Data Memo discusses the major findings from 2 surveys that deal with the use of overall usage of social media for one month in 2008. The data reflected that adults were much less likely to be involved in the uses of social media from teenagers. In comparison 65% of kids ages 12-17 had social media profiles compared to those 18 and above which was at 35%. The odds are that adults that had the social media profiles were more likely to be between the ages of 18 and 24 and were about evenly distributed between men and women. The majority of the profiles were users of MySpace rather than Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or Yahoo. Twitter was not mentioned in this article as one of the leading social media groups and was release 2 years prior to the survey data in 2006. Most people use social media for their own personal advancements rather than professional or networking. 72 % of people who use social media are likely to have more social profiles rather than professional profiles such as LinkedIn which sits at 6%. At this time almost a third of people who had social media accounts checked their profile at least daily. With social media trends they ability to use a tool in education should be embraced.

Since at the time one third of people who used social media checked it daily I am sure the number has grown. It would be advantageous to use online social media programs as a way of presenting projects and homework. By making the programs more readily available for students and student more comfortable you are setting them up for a better success. Like this class for example. We were able to use Skype to conduct our classroom meetings.  I know many times in the past when I have been studying and posted to Facebook that I was struggling and someone who has the same material has posted back lets study together. I think this a tool that if embraced could help students apply outside of the classroom. The idea is that if a student is out somewhere and feels like they can related it back to school they can post it to Facebook and wait to see if anyone can add or answer their questions. Technology has only improved and become more readily available since 2008 and its potential is not being utilized as much as it could be.

Creating And Connecting Research and guidelines on Online Social and Educational Networking

 Creating and Connecting research and guidelines reviews the use of social media by teenagers.  Compared to the PEW analysis this article was based off of data from 2007. The trends in this report tend to be different than those of the last report. About 96 percent of teens use social media sites and of that 71% check it at least once a week. While students are using social media to have conversations they are having conversations that are educational. When looking at the postings 60% of teens post topics that start conversations dealing with their school work. The use of social media allows students to be creative and express how they are using their time with music, photos, videos and many other ways. Since this article was written there are now applications such as Vine which allows users to make short videos and was released in July of 2013. Almost 30% of the users indicated that they download videos on a regular basis and 10% said that they upload videos. Many students are also using these tools to do online authoring of stories and creating ideas. The students are stepping outside of their comfort zone and are becoming “Nonconformists”. It is found that many schools ban social media during the school say even though “parents believe that social networking could play a positive role in students’ lives,” (National School Board Association, 2007). Most schools block “inappropriate” websites and have rules against online chatting or other means of media.

Despite all of the rules and regulations that schools have set forward about use of social media in technology almost 69 % of schools districts have student website programs and 49% of those schools will participate in collaboration with other schools. “Large proportions of district leaders say that a strong emphasis on collaborative and planned activities... would be required for them to buy into social networking for school use, (National School Board Association, 2007). The article has reflections of weeks 1 and 6 in this class. In the first week we saw a video about Walter Peyton High School. In this video the students got to use the internet to speak with professionals about their experience with different subject matters. Social Media could be used to employ student to collaborate with professionals and people from all over the world. There is a piece in education where students become well versed in culture that I feel is missed many times.  Many students may want to go over to other countries to study or may want to host a foreign exchange student but their situation may not allow for this. Social Media can make it so that students can interact with individuals that are all over the world. Students can get different viewpoints and relate them back to what is relative in their discussion in school. I do think there needs to be regulations and classes taught on the appropriateness of language and content used. Looking back at week 4 of the course and talking about ethics would apply to this. Students may not realize that what they are doing is wrong if they are not taught otherwise. Once something is posted to the web it cannot be undone. Also, there are many privacy settings that students would need to be aware of. However, I do not believe that banning the use of social media is the correct response.

References

Boulos, M. N. K., Hetherington, L.,  & Wheeler, S. (2007). Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 24(4), 233-245.

National School Boards Association (2007, July).  Creating and Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social--and Educational--Networking. Retrieved March 3, 2008, from http://www.nsba.org/Search.aspx?SearchPhrase=Creating+and+Connecting%3a+Research+and+Guidelines+on+Online+Social--and+Educational--Networking.

Lenhart, A. (2009). Adult and social networking sites. Retrieved January 9, 2010, from http://pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/PIP_Adult_social_networking_data_memo_FINAL.pdf.pdf

Theory

An important theory in Higher Education is the Use of Experiential Learning. Carl Rogers defines experiential learning as needs that “address the needs and wants of the learner,” (Culatta, 2013). The ideal behind this is that people grow and learn with what they want know. Knowledge is not always learned by the typical interaction of learning in a class room.  Rogers defines learning into two different categories one being “experiential” or significant learning and the other being “cognitive” or meaningless learning. I would compare his cognitive learning definition as that of being taught to rather than learning hands one. Rogers explains experiential learning can only be done by those of a certain set of qualities but everyone has the natural ability to learn.

Since every human has the ability to learn than how they learn is directed by their teacher. The teachers have the ability to provide 5 settings themes in learning. The first would be to make the classroom or learning environment positive. Second would be to clearly identify the purpose of why the learner is doing what they are doing. The third would be to make any resources available and organized in a way that is easy for students use. The fourth would be to help the student learn how to create a good balance between the “intellectual and emotional components of learning,”( Culatta, 2013). The fifth setting that the teacher assists with is providing knowledge of their own experience and feelings on subjects. However, teachers have to be careful not to over empower their thoughts on the students so that they can also learn to think and develop on their own.  Along with these five things learning is only facilitated when the student partakes in the 3 processes.

The first process would be that the student actually participates in the learning process. The student has to want to learn and have control over what they allow their mind to know. The second process is that the learning is actually based upon something that is “social, personal or a reach problem. The third process that would need to happen is that the student is able to effectively self-evaluate. The student has to realize how to look at their methods and know what was successful and what they may need help doing in the future.

Some history around experiential learning it is an approach on psychology based off of theory’s for adult learners which were created by Knowles and Cross. In 1982 a professional by the name of Combs looked at Rogers work and examined the significant of it. This particular theory reminds me a lot of on that I learned in my Higher Education Student Development Theory Class. The theory way by David Kolb and the basic principles  is similar to that of Rogers. More information on Kolb’s theory can be found at http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm. Rogers’s theory runs off of four basic principles.

The first principal of exponential learning is that will occur when the subject is something that is of interest to the student on a personal level. The second basic principal is that learning that may be threating to a student development and gestalt is minimal when there are external threats. The third principal is that the learning will happen faster when the threats are lowered. The fourth and final principal is that the learning is motivated by the student, lasting and pervasive. This is a learning style that is quite frequently used in higher education.

Exponential learning is something that could be and is currently being used constructively for incorporation of internet based applications. For all programs that are online this would be a great way for professors to help students learn and interact with people out of the realm of the typical classroom. I know what I was in college I was taking a web design class online and I had to develop a website for a local non-profit organization. This was real experience where I had to work with a company and learn about how I would be putting everything that I learned into action. I think this is an important part that is sometimes left out of education. I think with the new advancements of online games and simulations it is make the experiential learning so much greater. Also, I believe that the new requirements for internships and co-ops are also adding to this.

References:

Culatta, R. (2013). Experiential learning (carl rogers) . Retrieved from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/experiental-learning.html

Social Media

I selected the Diigo group Social Media in Higher Ed. I thought this group was fitting for what we are learning about this week. Also, it appears as though there are many tools here for educators who plan on using social media. I think that social media has the uniqueness that it can appeal to both young and older generations. I think that younger generations will enjoy using social media in education because they are familiar and know how to use it. I think that perhaps older generations may like using social media because it will give them the chance to engage more with their classmates. Perhaps people who are older may not have as much time to do traditional group meetings and may use social media as a means to work with classmates. One of the many positives of using social media in education is that it will engage students.However, as positive as social media is i is also negative. There are many concerns about the legal ramifications of social media. Students are usually not taught about the ethics of posting to social media sites. They need to learn the appropriate ways to use these sites. There are also concerns about the privacy of students with social media. Students need to be taught the appropriate uses of the privacy settings. I spend most of my time on Facebook and or twitter. I believe that these 2 networks are the commonly used. The benefit to using these 2 networks are that I am able to effectively gather information if I need to for class and or work. I am able to network with people who I would not usually work with otherwise. However, the downfall is that I have to be very careful about what I post and or say on the web. I have heard that posting certain things online can keep you from getting a job. Actually when I was in high school I was friends with a girl who worked at the Cleveland Clinic and she was fired for saying they were disorganized on Facebook.

Gaming

My thoughts 

I think that gaming in the classroom is a great way for students to learn. I know for me if there was gaming when I was in K-12 it would have made it easier for me to learn. I am not the student that can just sit down and read a book. Things with Virtual Augmentation would have made it easier for me to have been engaged the material. I also think that using gaming gives students the unique ability to experience things they could not experience from a textbook. Students have the ability to experience what happened in the book by seeing it. I would also like to point out that certain types of games can help students who may have different types of disabilities. In the video School Use Games for Learning and Assessment it talks about how the games can engage students with disabilities such as ADHD. I still have questions of how these games can help students who have certain disabilities such as vision or hearing loss. It would be interesting to see how many of these games/ virtual environments are either captioned or audio described. I however, see a great use for perhaps students who have Autism. This past summer I went to National AHEAD conference to learn about how to accommodate students with disabilities at the Higher Education level. One of the workshops that I went to talked about a student who maybe has problems presenting in front of the class.  I wonder if platforms such as second life (http://secondlife.com/) where a student can attend a virtual classroom may help this student. Perhaps students with certain disabilities may be able to communicate and work online better than in a face to face environment. I will be interested to see if this changes with the new use of UTXNET at The University of Toledo.

McDonald’s the Game

This game is a simulation on how the McDonald’s corporation works. This game is set towards Middle School Aged kids. In the game you must manage the money, buy livestock and crops, manage employees and keep everything running. This effectively would teach students how to not only multi-task but how to a business is run. Student would learn how to manage a budget and perhaps would be prepared for a similar job they may have in High School. While not all students will work at McDonalds many corporations are run in the same way. According to the McDonald’s website they have been highly criticized for negatively impacting society. The game is to explain to young people “that this is a price to pay in order to preserve our lifestyle,”(2006)

http://www.mcvideogame.com/index-eng.html

Minecraft

This game is where people can build structures out of breaking and placing blocks. The structures are to protect the player from the monsters in the game. The game has grown large to included players working together to build imaginative things. This game can be played on a gaming system, a computer or a smartphone. The game was originally created as placing and breaking blocks in a 3D world. Now the game includes a multi-player mode where the world is more dangerous. Since this game is so big and had so many players the system could not handle all of the players and the servers crashed. As technology increased so did the game. The game has gotten much recognition from non-players via YouTube and Twitter. The game as it stands today allows players to make musical parody’s, hunger meters, advanced combat and is open source on Android devices. As technology continues to change the game will continue to change with it. “The rest is in the future! And there’s a lot more to cone,” (Mojang, 2009-2013).

https://minecraft.net/community

Simschool

This interactive game allows teachers to analyze student’s individual learning needs and gather data for effective teaching. The teachers can explore what parts of their instructions work and what techniques they can use to build a stronger classroom. Though this program the teachers can improve their teaching skills but also can better impact the learning capabilities of the students. They are able to dive deeper into the learning experience and see where students may be struggling. This will allow the teachers to become more engages and make the learning experience to the individual students. Simschool’s are currently being used at 115 different institutions with users in over 147 countries. These schools include both schools in the K-12 systems as well as Higher education. Some of the larger schools that are already using this program include but are not limited to Purdue, University of Mississippi, University of Nairobi and the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

http://www.simschool.org/simPartners

Benefits to using gaming technology

There are many benefits to the sites like the ones I mentioned above.  I believe the main benefit to this is the engagement of students. According to the Horizon Report this type of technology can bring learning into a student’s personal space. IT can help them understand and scale learning down into something that is easy to work with. The use of this online technology can bring learning into student’s everyday life. This technology is similar to the use of the technology in London. The London museum system is making it so that people can experience what happened in streets of London with the use of a smart phone. There is a historical overlay to the modern day buildings that helps explain the past of London. By introducing this technology into the school systems it would almost ensure that any student who learns hands-on is not left behind. McKinley Technology school is already using this type of learning in their curriculum and is having success. The school ties basic things into this type of learning such as math and history. Students can gain a better understand of what is being taught to them by sending it to them in a different way. Another reason why I think this technology is important is because it allows students to be creative. In many of these virtual environments students can create their own avatar or their own city. At McKinley Technology School students are working with game designers to create whole educational games. In one case a cancer patient’s wish was to make a video game talking about how cancer affects kids. The game allows kids to virtually fight off cancer and shows parents and surrounding people who children view cancer. This type of technology needs to be utilized not only in the K-12 and Higher Educational environment but as well as the professional environment. This could be used for doctors or nurses to learn the most effective ways for working with patients. There was in two videos where virtual simulations were used to help veterans deal with both physical and mental pain. The educational benefits of this are endless and should be used.

References

Edupotia. (Producer) (2010). No gamer left behind[Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-GVEANUEVo

New Media Consortium. (2011). Horizon report. Retrieved from http://utetpt5550.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/49357936/2011-Horizon-Report(2).pdf

New Yorker Video. (Producer) (2008). Not a game[Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6kl2BuhKmM

controversial and ethical issues

There are many controversial and ethical issues related to using internet in the classroom. I however, believe that the main issue that coincides with using internet in the classroom is the issue of Copyright. Copyright is appears to be a consistent problem from open source material, electronic text books, and creative commons. The question that everyone is asking is can I use this material without being in violation of copyright?

Open content first started in colleges with schools such as MIT making free open online courses. Now open content has started to trickle its way down into the K-12 school systems. Free and open online content is important in the K-12 world because it can help the teachers so that they do not have to reinvent the wheel. Teachers can use open content to add new materials to their courses and according to the Horizon report (2011) stay current in their area of expertise.  This raises the controversial question on if K-12 schools should really be using textbooks. Textbooks can be very expensive and with the material always changing perhaps it is more advantageous to use online textbooks such as Wikibooks.  According to the Horizon Report (2011) there is one online school in Utah that is already using all open content for their curriculum  and “ conduct one-on-one tutoring with every student” to focus on personal responsibilities. Many schools are following this same model and blending the online content with the in class content.  The online free open books for students are where the lines start to blur on ethics.

Open content and free content is generally the same thing which according to Wikipedia is work that does not have legal restrictions on people’s freedom. Copyrighted material must be declared as free within the licensing agreements for the work.  Copyrighted material protects the author or creator of the work for a period of time after the work enters the public domain. The material must only be copies or modified with the permission of the creator unless it falls under the category of fair use. Fair use is used many of times in educational settings. Fair use may pertain but is not limited to teaching, research, news and criticism. According to the Library of Congress (2012), when looking at copyright cases the government considers the following four factors.

1.      The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

2.      The nature of the copyrighted work

3.      The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

4.      The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

The term fair use is also used a lot in conjunction to the Chaffy Amendment or Section 121 of the Copyright Act. The Chaffy Amendments specks specifically to the recreation of text in an accessible electronic text format for students with disabilities. According to the Chaffy Amendment the reproduction of work for the “exclusive” use of persons who are blind or have a disability is not an infringement of copyright. However, the title use must be requested from the publisher and must not be distributed to anyone beside the person with the documented disability and must contain the copyright information. The Chaffy Amendment originally was only written to encompass K-12 schools but now is having more movement toward the Higher Education sector with the recent court case of the Author Guild v. Hathi Trust. In October of 2012 the court ruled in favor of the Hathi Trust for digitizing thousands of textbooks for 3 purposes full text search, preservation and access to persons with disabilities. The ruling has been appealed by the Authors Guild based on the decision t1o favor the Hathi Trust. The final ruling for this court case will help shape the way universities provide electronic text to students with disabilities. As of right now there is no ownership on the publisher’s part to provide accessible electronic material. Not 1 textbook provided from a publisher is 100% compliant with screen reader access.  This becomes more interesting with the use of 3^rd party content and material that cannot be changed because there is no way to add a description to a picture on a website that you do not own. Copyright aside there are programs that give creators of content the ability to choose how they want their content recognized.

Creative commons allows the creator of their work to choose the way that want to give permission to reuse their work. This may mean the creator just tells the user that wants to reuse the work you can use it with but just include that I created it. People can create new things or reuse the material and share licenses. The use of creative commons can help with teaching and learning because a lot of the content can be used or the copyright is spelled out. I believe that the use of open online content for the purposes of teaching makes it more cost efficient and more particles for the schools. I think that many times especially in K-12 schools they cannot afford new textbooks. The material changes so quickly that the textbooks and the money needed to purchase them isn’t available. The ability to have open content gives the student a better learning experience.

http://copyright.columbia.edu/copyright/2013/10/30/author-guild-v-hathitrust-oral-argument-on-appeal/

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

http://utetpt5550.pbworks.com/w/file/49357920/2011-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_content

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html

In the Clouds

 Site 1: Blendspace 

Blendspace is a free online platform that allows teachers to create lesson plans in less than 5 minutes. Blendspace makes it possible for teachers to effectively use online learning to get the most out of their class. The program uses a combination of in-class teaching styles as well as online assignments. The program allows for easy use of organization of content, assessment of students, and tracking of progress. Many teachers are using this program to “flip” their classroom. Flipping classrooms is a fairly new idea where the class obtains the lecture material as homework and does homework in class as class-work. Blendspace is available anywhere that there is an internet connection and is cross platform between computers, tablets and mobile devices. Blendspace is important to education because it offers a tool that is free for schools to use. This cost effective method allows for teachers to utilize online tools for no cost. This will make it easier for students to learn in the classroom. Since many educators are using this program to provide a flipped classroom experience students have access to the teachers when they are doing their homework to ask questions. This type of program is paced so the student has to do their learning outside of the classroom. Flipping a classroom is unlike expecting a student to learn out of a textbook and then come to class and relearn the material. Since the material is not taught in-class the students are expected to learn it outside of class. This will allow students to then ask questions of the teacher if they are having problems understanding the material or a more hands-on in-class approach. Blendspace allows for effective use of both online and in-class to be used in conjunction with each other.

Site 2: Lectrio

Lectrio is an online LMS (learning management system) system that will allow users to host and share course content with every student. Everything in used in Lectrio is cloud based and maintained and backed up by their support and IT team. Each course has the option to set up what is called “social learning” where students and professors can host a social feed for an interactive “Q&A” section. Lecture materials that can be shared include YouTube videos, PowerPoint’s, Google Docs and much more. Students can submit their work online and the program will track their progress and grades. Lectrio will also track the student’s attendance and what portions of the platform they did and did not access. Lectrio can be made into a personalized system by school branding. Lectrio is also cross platform between computers, tablets and mobile devices and available anywhere there is an internet connection. Right now Lectrio is free to create courses for a maximum of 30 students. Lectrio is currently looking at expanding to K-12 and university brands and are running pilot programs. Lectrio has a lot to add to education. The think that I think is the most beneficial is that all of the technical support is run by the company. Although there is no pricing available yet the price of IT support needed by the schools will be minimal. Also, if a teacher had less than 30 students in the classroom they can use this program for free right now. I believe that the social feature can add to the classroom experience. Since this program can be used on mobile devices this feature seems to be similar to social media. Where a student could post a question no matter where they were and someone could respond. This will allow students to apply real life experiences to classroom related material. By taking the classroom to the cloud the students can essentially be in class any time they have their phone on them.

Site 3: Study Blue 

StudyBlue is an online program that is free for storing lecture notes, flash cards and study tools. Study Blue provides easier ways for students to study. By using mobile devices students can now study with their peers. There are already online packages of notes that students can use to study from rather than creating their own. As each person in the class adds material into the program the studying tools evolve and gather more information. The information helps students fill in the gaps by the use of other student’s notes. Also, by using multiple students personal notes there is information which allows students to see different points of view. Teachers can also use the program to monitor group and individual study routines and the progress of the students. The teachers can see where the class is struggling to adapt the teaching to encompass this back into the classroom. StudyBlue offers many positives for education. Since Studyblue is a study tool that allows all students to provide content and the teacher to see how the content is reviewed it is considered an effective universal design tool. As I explain a little bit more below about my current career in disability services I feel that this tool would be great for students who are eligible for note-takers. The program will take the information and create studying tools. I believe that this is extremely valuable to the learning environment. This tool allows teachers to see what students are having problems understanding in the classroom.

Diigo group: 

I chose to follow the Web Accessibility Group. I work in the Office of Academic Access at The University of Toledo. As part of my job I have to research assistive/adaptive technology and give student’s resources. I am also always trying to look at new technology and see how things are changing in the way of accessibility. I like this group because it talks about different accessibility checkers and new technology to do with Web accessibility. The very reason why I chose to follow this group was the post on audio description. In accessibility audio description is fairly new. This is part of the WCAG 2.0 standards. While none of these standards have yet to have been federally adopted there is speculation that the federal law will adopt WCAG 2.0 standards at level AA which included audio description. Audio Description like closed captioning this will eventually become mandatory for certain programming. The post on the Web Accessibility group allows me to see effective techniques in audio describing so that I can become familiar with the way that this is done prior to it hitting the higher education arena. I also find that there are other findings from court cases and tools posted. This site will help me keep up on changes so that I know where there are gaps and what to report back to my director on.

Summary:

This week has taught me a great deal about use of the cloud and effective uses of tagging and tag clouds in the learning environment. A constant trend across the resources provided is the cost of technology. Cloud computing helps make a cost effective solution to this dilemma. According to the video Cloud Computing Explained, cloud computing is much like electric. If you need server space in the cloud you can turn it on and off as you need it. The 2011 Horizon Report also went into details about the cost saving in education with regards to technical support and upkeep. Cloud computing also offers use of ready-made applications and the ability to blend and online environment with the use of photos and videos. When using cloud computing tags are important. Tags are like bookmarks that allow users to find key points in a website. I found this section extremely important not only to typical users but users who may be using assistive technology. Tags can help users with screen readers to navigate around the pages for ease of use. More information about how this is effectively used can be found at http://accessibility.psu.edu/headingshtml. With the use of cloud computing, tags and tag clouds social bookmarking is an easy way for students to keep track of everything that they have researched. Social bookmarking can be incorporated in the classroom because it can allow students to share content to classmates that they found useful. The group function makes it possible for multiple people to share links. The highlighting function allows for key points in the pages to be identified. Social Bookmarking makes researching as a team more effective for students. Going with the trend of accessibility and relating technology back to my field I feel it is important to point out that many of the programs that I have listed above did not mention accessibility in their products. This is not to say that the products are not accessible but I would be willing to bet that the majority of these products have potions of them that would not be accessible to all students. While the online materials are great all students must be given access to the same content at the same time. There is a lot of speculation around this as the use of web in the classroom is fairly new. From experience if there is a program that is inaccessible generally to make a piece of that program accessible is impossible because it is run by a third party. I only bring this up because it is generally easier to make material accessible rather than go back and retrofit it.

References: 

Sheehan, M. (Writer) (2008). Cloud computing explained[Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJncFirhjPg

The New Media Consortium (. (2011). The horizon report: 2011 k-12. (2011 ed.). Stanford, California: Creative Commons. Retrieved from http://utetpt5550.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/49357920/2011-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf

Blogging & Twittering

I have learned a great deal about blogging and twitter. Prior to doing the exercises this week I had heard of blogs and twitter but I did not know exactly what they were or effective uses of them. I did not know that blogging and microblogging was considered news. I had a twitter account for 2 years leading up to this class but I barley used it. I learned how to search for trending terms and how to use Hastags. I did not realize that blogging could be an essential part of the classroom. Students are starting to use more technology and be more familiar with it. The ability to embrace this technology will help students to learn in communicate in a different way. A student who maybe was afraid to ask questions in the classroom may flourish in an online environment. Students have the opportunity to ask questions as they think about them by the use of technology in the classroom.  

I believe that there is a value and relevance of blogging and twittering for educational purposes.  As it shows in the 2009 Horizon Report the use of blogging and microblogging allows students to communicate out of the classroom. The use of these platforms can allow students to keep in contact with each other outside of the classroom. Students have access to blogging if they have any device that will run internet including mobile phones. Online communication helps students with social interaction around the world. The thought is that if students are out even at the mall and can apply their learning they will retain it better. For example if a student thinks of a question while they are at the mall they can put out a tweet. Then other students in the class can either tweet back or the teacher can reply. According to the Tweets for Education videos using twitter in the classroom can help engage students in a media that they are familiar with. Even though over half of the users on twitter are over the age of 35 the amount of younger users is growing. This is another point of why twitter can be used in the classroom. Many students are non-traditional students who are considered adult learners. Using this medium that these students are familiar with can help them learn.

I chose to follow The University of Toledo as the network that I want to follow. I selected The University of Toledo because I am alumni, a student and an employee. I feel that it is important that I know news that happens at the University. It is important to know the trends on campus so that when students come into my office and have questions I can answer them. I also think that it is important to know how students see the university. What students are talking about at the university will help the university staff to know how to best serve the students. I feel like this network will give me a better grasp on the students on campus for both purposes of being a student and staff member.

Blogging is important because news may be considered different to all people. What is considered news by me may not be considered news to someone else. Anyone can be a reporter or publisher of their own blog and share news about their life or a business with just a click of a button. Blogs are generally free and easy to use. There is a template that can be used to make the interface user friendly for anyone who is not familiar with technology. Blogs can also make communities of people. Once a blog is posted readers can write comments back to the bloggers. Once bloggers get familiar with each other they will read and link blogs creating different communities. I did not realize that many collaborative environments for students were considered blog sites. The sites include but are not limited to Moodle, Kaltura and Think Quest. These blogs also allow for students to use creativities in projects using photos, videos and texts in blogging.  Closely related to blogging is the use of social media such as Twitter. 

Twitter is a real life Microblogging system that allows you to share small updates about your life. People who are connected all over the world and have friends that they have never met may know them from blogs or emails. Twitter allows you to gain more of an idea of who a person is from their real life experiences. Once a person is found on twitter they can be followed and their information can be seen on the main twitter page. I always thought that twitter and Facebook was the same thing. However, I know see that the two are seemingly different.  Twitter has many search features that allow the user to search for trending topics. When searching for a trending word a radius can be set so only the news from that area is found. #Hashtags may become a trending word but are different. A Hashtags are used to tie conversations with the same Hashtag as one thread. Twitter is different from other Social Media sites because you cannot make the posts private. Twitter is made so that information is news shared into public.