Week 12: Do you BLOG?

Monday, November 15, 2010

When I first started to blog for this class, I was simply treating this blog like a diary. I stated how I personally was feeling, my thoughts about the class as a whole, and what I hoped to get out of this class. I did not reflect on what I had learned in class nor did I post anything I found confusing, wanted to expand on, or thought was not needed. Once I got some feedback from Dr. Liu, our associate instructor, I quickly realized that I was not on the right path. With a brief email from her and a few other email correspondences back and forth, I made the necessary changes. My blog went from that of my "feelings" on the class to educational blog of reflections of the different topics and ideas that arose in each class. 

In Dr. Liu's lecture, she started with two warm-up questions: 

1. What is a blog? 

2. What are the motivational factors to contribute to the continuing blogging behavior of a blogger?

From what I have gathered from this class, a blog is a journal entry that is web-based and can been seen by anyone. Followers are those who regularly read a specific person's blog and will comment from time to time with information regarding their personal thoughts on the information listed in the blog. According to Bonk (2010) a blog is a “Web log”—is an online, chronological collection of personal commentary and links. Easy to create and use from anywhere with an Internet connection

            1. It is private and self conscious thus causing a benefit to oneself.

            2. Seeking reassurance and would like to benefit from a blogging interactive relationship with someone else.
            3. Needs to provide and/or acquire information thus they benefit from information handling skills.

This leads me to wonder do blogs solely focus on the readers, the blogger, or is it simply an exchange of information?

In the article entitled How People are using Twitter during Conferences by Reinhardt, Ebner, Beham, and Costa (2009), we got an idea into Educational Blogging. Let us take Twitter for example. Twitter is an online, public broadcast service where its intent is for people to microexchange information via chatting with friends, tweeting, or stating what is on their mind. Twitter is easily accessible through mobile devices, computers, and iPads just to name a few. There is a Twitter specific domain, a "Hashtag" that allows its users to create a grouping pattern on Twitter. News cast, celebrities, schools, and the regular public tweets on Twitter simply for reporting information from school closings, to unplanned weather, to celebrity sitings. Though Twitter itself is a good tool for all that it can do, but because it can do so much and it is easily accessible, Twitter can be extremely distracting. Take for example a conference. Say someone like Dr. Bonk is presenting live and through Skype and someone ha a comment who are not face-to-face, then they can tweet the comment. This is good as their topic gets broadcasted but at the same time this can be distracting if Dr. Bonk and his followers have the Twitter page up or an alert set for every time a new tweet arrives. 

This answers my above questions, blogs are an exchange of information first written by the blogger, read passively by a follower and that is the end all or the blog is written by the blogger, explicitly read by the follower/learner, commented on by the learner, and then the blogger or other leaders until a new blog post is created. Blogs are an Educational tool and I do understand the use of them now. Though they can be distracting but simultaneously very useful if used correctly. Instructors uses blogs to Keep students up-to-date, extend course beyond class (blending), make course more interactive and personal, etc. Fosters student reflection on content—a content and course focus (Bonk 2010). I am happy to know this as I first thought blogs was an online journal filled with peoples opinions and now I know that it is more than just that.


Everyone has their own specific roles of blogs but like with most research, more research has to be done on blogs both longitudinally and systematically in order to create a good theory on the importance and need for blogs. As for now, do you BLOG? If no, then you are not one of the hundreds of millions of people who do (Bonk 2010). You should at least read one blog even if done so passively.

References
1. Curtis Bonk, Ph.D. Blog Uses and Applications Powerpoint. 2010. 
2. Xiaojing Liu, Ph.D. Research on Blogging PowerPoint (2010). Special Issue on Blogging (2007, July). Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12(4). http://jcmc.indiana.edu. 
3. Wolfgang Reinhardt, Martin Ebner, Günter Beham, & Cristina Costa (2009, March). How People are using Twitter during Conferences. http://lamp.tu-graz.ac.at/~i203/ebner/publication/09_edumedia.pdf

Week 11: Reality Learning

Monday, November 08, 2010


Massive Gaming; Virtual Reality; Simulations. These are all Alternate Reality Learning. What do these all mean?! 


Games are learning environments in that virtual worlds requires us to think about knowing (Douglas et. al 2009). The idea of the game as an institution can help us understand how it functions n a broader social context by providing structure and meaning to the game world and set the parameters for what is possible in the space (Douglas et. al 2009). I consider myself a gamer. I played Nintentdo, Super Nintendo, Sega, and Gameboy all when I was growing up. As I got to be around 13 or so, I kind of stop gaming. I didn't think it was cool anymore and in fact, starting high school, I did not have much time for anything outside of school, sports, band, and volunteering. When I entered IU, I noticed gaming was back on the market. It was very popular among college boys. One game in particular appealed me, Grand Theft Auto which was on PlayStation. It was completely out of my element however it intrigued me. Here I was playing a gaming system that I only saw Freshmen and Sophomore boys play. I literally was a convict who went around stealing cars and changing them so no one would figure me out. I would earn points by beating-up prostitutes and street walkers and steeling whatever cash or jewelry they had when they were laying helplessly in a pool of blood on the sidewalk or even in the street. This was gaming at a different level.


Per Douglas et. al (2009), virtual worlds are persistent, avatar-based social spaces that provide players or participants with the ability to engage in long-term joint coordinated action. The cultures and meanings in these world come from a complex set of interactions among the participants (Douglas et. al 2009). Dr. Toh discussed the Information Technology Service Center in her country of Thailand. They are the leader of e-Learning in Thailand. She is a visiting scholar to IU who is absorbing what she is learning this semester and plans on taking it back to incorporate into her business. In the YouTube: The Current Status of Thailand ICT in Education she herself is communicating with an Avatar to explain the current status of e-learning education in Thailand. Her company does it primarily through gaming, virtual reality, and simulations. Though they work hand-in-hand for her work, they are very different. The learning done by her students are through these alternate reality while incorporating conceptual blending which ties into the idea of the networked imagination (Douglas et. al 2009). 


Now the World of Warcraft has taken over. Per Nardi et. al (2007), World of Warcraft is one of the most popular online video games. The play is complex, the player develops a strategy, one discovers the game facts, and one is able to choose their character and its development. One of the most important feature of the game is quest. You name the person, have a goal, get to the goal, and earn a reward (Nardi et. al 2007). Since there is no planed curriculum, (it is spontaneous, erratic, serendipitous, and contextual), learning in conversation is event driven (Nardi et. al 2007). You as a player, a learner, a gamer learns and invents the moral order of the game by coming to understandings about the right way to play (Nardi et. al 2007). Since this is an alternate reality, the overall goal is to examine conversational activity in the zone of proximal development to investigate the nature of learning in World of Warcraft (Nardi et. al 2007).


Gaming is more than just gaming. It is a learning tool that has helped to intrigued those learning a different language or subject through another e-learning tool.


References:
1. Bonnie A. Nardi, Stella Ly, & Justin Harris (2007). Learning conversations in World of Warcraft. forthcoming in Proc. HICSS 2007. Retrieved on June 25, 2010, from http://darrouzet-nardi.net/bonnie/pdf/Nardi-HICSS.pdf
2. Douglas, Thomas and John Seely Brown (2009, January). Why Virtual Worlds Matter. International Journal of Media and Learning, Vol. 1(1).http://www.johnseelybrown.com/needvirtualworlds.pdf

Week 10 Learning: Interactively and Collaboratively

Monday, November 01, 2010


This week we started off with Abdullah presenting his MARC (midterm project). He wrote a paper however he went further by presenting a visual representation of all that he has learned in the class. Honestly, I was more than impressed for 3 reasons:
1. The detail of the visual representation makes me want to learn more
2. The in person audio that Abdullah provided helped to emphasize points of his visual presentation which could stand alone if needed.
3. I feel as though the summary of the first 9 weeks of this R685 Web 2.0 Class has helped me to see its overall big picture. Kudos!


Interactive Learning is getting information through a hands-on, interactive means. Collaborative Learning is  grouping learning together to get one learning goal. Four types of Collaborative Learning are Think-Pair-Share, Three-step Interview, Simple Jigsaw, and Numbered Heads Together.


Next, Rita H. Oates, Ph.D. from ePals presented on ePal and K-12 collaboration. What is ePals? ePals is "the leading provider of safe collaborative technology for schools to connect and learn in a protected, project-based learning network (ePals 2010)". She described that Web 0.0 is simply a book, Web 1.0 is searching online, and Web 2.0 is interactively learning at a distance (i.e. online). She stated that ePals is a global community where we can all internationally learn and interact from and with each other. In short, ePal is the "World's Largest K-12 Learning Network!" (ePals 2010). After Dr. Oates brief introduction of herself and ePals, she spent the majority of the class exploring ePals sites for us to see. This sees like something I should take further interest in if I decided to continue down the K-12 path. 


We next followed by presenting quotes that we found in the various readings that was applicable to our personal studies. My two were:
1. "Distance learners are generally as engaged and often more engaged than their campus-based counterparts, with the exception of engagement in active and collaborative learning activities". (Chen et. al 2008). I chose this quote as I agree with it. Yes, since distance learners are not on campus, they have to spend that extra time on projects and presentations as they cannot hop up and go to face-to-face office hours or help for further clarification however with this, distance learners do tend to miss out on learning in a collaborative sense in that they tend to learn and work solo.
2. "Older students report greater gains and are more likely to engage in higher order mental activities such as analysis and synthesis as part of their studies" (Chen et al. 2008) In classes where I have older, non-traditional students specifically at the undergraduate level, I do tend to see that they are more analytic than the typical, traditional student. Their views helps them to learn has they have had more outside of the classroom experience than the traditional students.


Finally, Dr. Bonk ended the class with a presentation on online collaboration. This was an interesting presentation for me to listen to as it made me think differently of my first quote above. Dr. Bonk reminded us of the SARS epidemic in China, the Katrina Hurricane in New Orleans, and the earthquake in Haiti. Through the use of distance learning such as Ustream, Skype, and Google Docs, those hit by natural disasters and epidemics can still be on the same track as those who have the live, face-to-face setting. Yes this is a Web 2.0n class but when you read certain articles that are very convincing, sometimes I will forget that there are more out there with great information just like this week. In general Interactive and Collaborative Learning go hand-in-hand. They work with each other.


References
1. Chen, P., R. Gonyea, and G. Kuh (2008). Learning at a distance: Engaged or not?. Innovate 4 (3). Retrieved on June 25, 2010, fromhttp://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol4_issue3/Learning_at_a_Distance-__Engaged_or_Not_.pdf

Week 9 Its Tube Time!

Monday, October 25, 2010

It seems as though that technology advancing learning uses YouTube, TeacherTube, and Shared Online Video. What do these all mean?

This week we started out the class with having two of our fellow classmates present on the topic of using video for Education. First Elliot presented with evidence that using videos for teaching has been an increasing phenomenon. It has been done so on all education levels and in all subjects. He brought up many foods for thoughts in which I even had overlooked or didn't really think too deeply into but they are very important. What are the barriers to using these videos? What if they are copyrighted? What if they cost? If they do not currently cost, is there a "catch"? What if we cannot find what we need or if we do, what issues arise from the information embedded in these videos? Elliot brought up some good points that made me ponder. Then Hesham presented his views on videos being used for educational purposes. Right away he started with statistics as to how number of views viewed on the Internet as increased drastically over a one year study from 2008-2009. Imagine how much it is currently being vied in 2010. Videos have been increasingly viewed and used at all educational levels however then have been quickly more viewed in higher education. I remember watching videos mostly at the primary level and they were almost nonexistent a the secondary level unless we had a substitute teacher or the like. I never thought of them as educational purposes however looking back now, this makes complete sense.

Next, Dr. Bonk shared his views on this online video's rise through a very intriguing lecture. He started by talking about Elliot Masie views on Learning Trends. YouTube, Podcasts, Video Reports, Learning Modules videos, Skype, Webinar Video Elements, and High Definition Video Conferencing are a few of the Learning Trends that education has been taught/viewed through. For example, when YouTube first arrived, there were views but none like today.  In the article by Downes (2008), he listed YouTube as one of the places to go on the Internet. In fact, YouTube is the most popular site on the web to date (Bonk 2010).

We have been told that video is an important educational tool and it has to make ideas clearer, but why exactly do we use video? First, we learn that 64% of Internet users have downloaded or watched a video online and only 14% have posted a video(Purcell 2010). Of those that posted a video, 41% they were surprised that any watched the video less alone the number of those that did watch the video (Purcell 2010). Over a two year study, ranging from 18-29 year old and 30-49 year olds, both male and females were equal in uploading videos (Purcell 2010). What does this all mean? This continues to show the importance of online videos for educational purposes. 


In Bonk's lecture (2010), he states 8 reasons for using video:

1.Importance of shared online video: educational psychologists such as David Ausubel (1978) argued that knowledge was hierarchically organized.

2. New learning concepts and ideas to be subsumed under or anchored within prior learning experiences.

3. Ausubel suggested that new information is going to be meaningful if it is anchored (i.e., attached or related) to what learners already know and understand.

4. YouTube videos can help in that regard. A key part of this effort is finding ways to link prior learning experiences to new concepts and ideas.

5. Advance Organizers: Provide a context, richer learning, can be replayed for key concepts, bring students to the real world, discussion, reflection, common experience, and the potential for higher order thinking skills.

6. Dual coding theory (learning information verbally and visually is more richly stored): Alan Paivio.

7. Anchored instruction and macrocontexts: John Bransford and colleagues.

8. Multimedia theory: Richard Mayer.

These are all great reasons but there are three that stand out the most to me as a College Student in Higher Education. First, new learning concepts and ideas can be easily uploaded, streamed and edited by used of video to a large audience internationally. Secondly, Dual coding theory is exemplified through the video streaming conference. We can take what we read, what we get via a traditional lecture, and get a visual perspective through videos. Thirdly, multimedia theory to me goes hand-in-hand with the dual coding theory as it adds another way to learn.

Presented in class, we learned of over 50 links to various Shared Online Video Resources and Portals. These links ranged from YouTube to Monkey See to EduTube just to name a few. These links provided additional links to educational videos, how to videos and more. In our technology advancing learning society, we have gone beyond in class discussion, articles, books, movies, blogs, Wikis, and more to video streaming.  Shared online video can be used by just about anyone such as Instructors starting the class with a video as an ice breaker, formal learners being encouraged to find and share a video applicable to the topic at hand, as well as informal learners just browsing and watching instructional videos (Bonk 2010) just to name a few.

Though online videos can be helpful and educational, they can also be destructive. Alexandra Juhasz stated in his blog I Proclaim the Stuff on YouTube to be Leprous. Just like with any other resource, it can be helpful or hurtful. YouTube and other Online Videos are what you make of it. When using these for educational purposes, it is important to remember to:


1.When using shared online videos, consider the learning theory or approach makes them more powerful than other media.
2.Assign students to reflect on why or how you used them.
3. Length of video for activities should be less than 10 minutes and preferably under 4 minutes.
4. Considering offering online video creation as an option—can foster student creativity.
5. Instead of finding all course videos, offer the student the chance to find and show 1-2 free online videos.
6. Watch and approve all videos before selecting.
7. Test videos online (or, if FTF, in the room you will use) to check for link rot or video removal.
8. Have back-up videos in case do not work or are taken down.
9. Have a guidesheet, job aid, or scaffold to help students evaluate the validity of sources (issues of credibility/authority, quality, design, etc.)
10. Many unconventional videos might be used to emphasize key points from class (e.g. old television programs or other non-educationally produced) (These 10 Advice and Guidelines are from Bonk 2010).

If you are able to remember and meet these ten advice and guidelines, then online video education will be free of problems. This is most definitely easier said than done.

 References

1. Alexandra Juhasz blog posts: “I Proclaim the Stuff on YouTube to be Leprous,” Media Praxis (February 29, 2008), http://aljean.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/i-proclaim-the-stuff-of-youtube-to-be-leprous/

2. Curtis Bonk (2010). Week 9 PowerPoint: The Rise of Shared Online Cideo, the Fall of Traditional Learning. Monday, October 25, 2010.

3. Stephen Downes (2008). “Places to Go: YouTube,” Innovate: Journal of Online Education, http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol4_issue5/Places_to_Go-__YouTube.pdf
4.  Kristen Purcell (2010, June 3). The State of Online Video. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Pew Internet & American Life Project.http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2010/PIP-The-State-of-Online-Video.pdf

Week 8 Lions, and Tigers, and Wikis! Oh My!

Monday, October 18, 2010

In 2006, Times Magazine made "YOU" the person of the year. "YOU" won! "YOU" made it! What does this mean?! Are "YOU" a celebrity, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, a world hunger campaigner? No! "YOU" simply have the mind to do anything that "YOU" put your mind to do. According to Brown and Adler, if our minds were on fire for learning, we could accomplish and achieve so much in a lifetime. The problem is too many people take learning for granted. Our minds are build on a A Circle of Knowledge Building and Sharing (Bonk et. al 2008) but we don't necessarily take advantage of this circle. We can obtain knowledge by many ways but it depends on if we choose to do so. For example, the Cartesian View of Learning states that knowledge is substance and the pedagogy as knowledge transfers where as the Social View of Learning states that understanding is socially constructed (Bonk et. al 2008). What is sad is that some people would prefer not to do any learning.

In my immediate small family which consists of my mother and I, I have always been told that learning is a gift and I should NEVER take advantage of it. Since my mother grew-up in the poverty stricken country-sides of Jamaica, school was the one place (other than church) where she could get away from her real life, learn, and expand what she know. My mom has always instilled it in me that there is plenty of knowledge out there to be gained by those who choose to do so and I am one that has to gain that knowledge. I took it for what it was but now as I am currently working on my Masters, I have realized that learning is something that I will forever do until the day I die.

A perfect example of learning that I have received over the past few months is the entire Wikimedia. Wikimedia includes Wikis, Wikipedia, and Wikibooks that make learning that easy! When I first learned about wikis a few years ago, I was told by my professors NOT to use them for any research or citing for projects, papers, etc. I did not understand why as information was so clearly written out. I learned that we, people, were the ones that posted and edited the information on Wikipedia for example. With this in mind, one task for this week was to go onto a specific Wiki page and make a change or edit. I have never done so as I thought that only the elite did so. One thing I got from this weeks class was how simple it was to change anything on Wikipedia. I halfway now understood why my professors frowned upon using this in researching but at the same time I didn't. Since learning comes from the outside and we learn from others, wouldn't editing Wikipedia help us to learn? I think yes. I have generally taken what I have learned with a grain of salt. When I hear a topic that I am very interested in, I do not fully understand, or I do not agree with it, I tend to do my own research to make more sense of it to myself. To me, this is learning. In fact, to anyone, this should be seen as learning. With Wikipedia, I can take what is posted with a grain of salt an find other articles, books, and components to back up the information. If done correctly, Wikipedia and other Wikimedia will be great tools for learning transfers.

Why someone would not want to take advantage of learning especially since we are never to old to learn and there are endless opportunities to do so daily is beyond me.

References:
1. Brown, J. S. and Richard Adler. Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0. Educause Review, January-February, 2008.

http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823

2. Bonk, Curtis, Mimi Miyoung Lee, Nari Kim, and Grace Lin. "The Tensions of Transformation in Cross-Institutional Wikibook Creation, Critique, and Collaboration: Looking Back Twenty Years to Today" PowerPoint. AERA. NY, NY March 2008 and Chicago April 2007.

Week 7 A Confusing "ism"

Monday, October 11, 2010


Since I have started the IST program, we have learned so many terms. All of the "ism" have been quite difficult to interpret as there are so many theories behind them that in a sense explain them slightly different but different enough to make them confusing. Connectivism is no different. When I saw the agenda, boy was I not at all happy as this is a topic that has been brought up in every single IST class that I have taken at IU. Connectivism states that knowledge exists in the world rather than in the head of an individual. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! I did find a YouTube video that helped to clarify my year and a half confusion so please check it out: Connectivism and Connective Knowledge.


Nicholas Carr wrote Is Google Making Us Stupid? Honestly, it depends on ones perception. Mimi Ito's stated that we are making ourselves stupid. We rely to much on at hand information rather that researching for ourselves. To me, I use Charles Darwin as an example. What if he had decided that he wasn't going to go research in the Galapagos Islands and long story short develop the Theory of Evolution? Then he nor his theory would have been well known internationally by him and humankind's thought on the theory on life would have potentially yet to been questioned. On the counter hand, John Seely states that Google is making us stupid. If we do not know an answer, we simply search it. Google has taken the place of search. Other search engines are out there such as Bing but Google is still popular and well used. to me, I believed that both people are saying the same things just in different ways. It goes back to the idea of Connectivism. Though it is a simple definition, here we have two well known scholars explaining it in very different terms.


I started this week with the questions:
1. What exactly does the term Connectivism mean in relations to IST?     
2. What is the importance of Connectivism?
3. Is connectivism a learning theory or a pedagogy?
4. Is learning able to reside or exist in non-human appliances? Explain.
5. What is the significance of zeitgeit in terms of connectivism?
I still feel like I could not answer any of these. I did like Abdullah's explanation of #1 in that "In general I think Connectivism is a nice approach to learning that can be utilized by IST folks while designing instruction" (October 2010), however I would like an expansion of how.


This is one topic I do not truly think I will ever fully understand. 


References
1. Charles Darwin. "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life," 1859.
2. Abdullah Altuwaijri. Oncourse -> Forums -> Week 7 Connectivism, Social Knowledge, and Participatory Learning. Posted October 24, 2010. 

Week 6: Have you had your OERo today?

Monday, October 4, 2010


Last time I blogged, I mentioned how Open Source Software is not being implemented in schools like it should be in this day and age. There are many reasons why but the one I truly believe is that teachers simply do not know about Open Source. 


The first thing we did this week was a have a Breeze chat with Anya Kamenetz. It was an interesting start to class due to the series of technology malfunctions we had to start the class. Though we are promoting e-Learning, we were reminded that technology still has kinks in it to be fixed. When we started the interactive chat, I quickly realized that she was a young, successful entrepreneur. She is the writing of DIY U...Do-it-Yourself University. In it she talks about alternative education. (Please watch the  YouTube Anya Kamenetz on Alternative Education.)Students in the class asked many questions about her book. I actually went out and rented the book from the library. In it she stated three ways that DIY U can help the future. The second point, "Opening up the walls of the Ivy League & other elite colleges can demystify what goes on there and possibly even endear it to the public". First I thought this was an interesting point. If elite colleges were open to all, would all college students be on the same playing field? I think no as there are levels and schools within schools that makes them "elite colleges". Look at IU, IU is a good school but it is not a deemed "elite school" however schools such as the Kelley School of Business is an internationally elite and established business school. Secondly, I find it interesting that she made this point as she herself is a graduate of Yale University. What does she mean by this? I would love to know.

Next Dr. Bonk assigned four OER's to each one of us. Open Educational Resources are "Free-to-Use teaching and learning content from around the world" (OER Commons 2007). The ones I was assigned to explore were:

1. Tufts University’s OCW: http://ocw.tufts.edu/
2. Vietnam Fulbright Economics OCW: http://ocw.fetp.edu.vn/home.cfm
3. The Rai Foundation Colleges OCW project in India: http://www.raifoundation.org/aspirations.html  
4. Teacher lesson plan sites: (see http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ and http://www.sitesforteachers.com/

My favorite out of all four was Hotchalk's Lesson Plan. It was so easily and simply to explore that it should be Lesson Plan for Dummies...but of course getting permission to use "for Dummies". So say I am a new teacher and I wanted to create a lesson. I would click on subject, grade level, category, and specific lesson. The lessons could incorporate several lessons like a recap or review or it could be one thing. For example: Math -> Pre-K - 1 -> Addition -> This lesson is on patterns, adding, and counting. It is so simple to develop a lesson plan as it has the topic, the grade level, the name of the activity (which teacher can change to suit the dynamics of their class), materials, purpose, and description of the activity. There are even sample problems that teachers can use. With sources such as this, especially FREE, there is only one reason why I can see teachers not using OER's...and that is because they do not know about them. We HAVE to get the word out there!

Atkins, Seely, and Hammond (2007) did A review of the open educational resources (OER) movement: Achievements, challenges, new opportunities. In their findings, they listed way more challenges than achievements. As a student, I find this disheartening as Open Source can also be used in Higher Education. Yes, there are new opportunities such as finding ways to both "advertise" these OER's to teachers as well as educate these teachers but we still seemly run into the challenge of teachers wanting to take the time to learn as learning then planning around their subjects in itself can be time consuming especially with subjects that get updated regularly. Though it is easier said than done, life is full of changes so deal with them.

References:
1. DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education. Chelsea Green Publishing. February 2010.
2. OER Commons. 2007. Retrieved Monday, November 22, 2010 from  http://www.oercommons.org/ 
3. Atkins, Dan, Brown, John Seely, & Hammond, Allen (2007, February). A review of the open educational resources (OER) movement: Achievements, challenges, new opportunities. William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. (84 pages). Retrieved on June 25, 2010, from http://www.oerderves.org/?p=23

Week 5: Do you Sakai?

Monday, September 27, 2010


This week we did a mini-conference on Open Source Software. For those not familiar with this according to Wikipedia (2010), "Open Source Software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software". The class was divided into 5 conference sessions each of which were 30 minutes long. Each conference had guest speakers and a moderator who kept the conference going with questions and data.

In my first conference session (#2), I played Brad Wheeler. This name is very familiar on IUB's campus as Dr. Wheeler is the Vice President of Information Technology & CIO, and a Professor of Information Systems at IU Kelley School of Business. Internationally he is well known for co-founding Kuali, the HathiTrust, and most importantly the Sakai Project. The Sakai Project is known as a "transformative software and service collaboration for teaching and learning in higher education". He is not simply known as Dr. Wheeler but as the Sakai guy.

In this conference session, we discussed The Open Source Cause at EDUCAUSE. "EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology" (EDUCAUSE, 2010). Speaker on this panel included:

1. Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development (bought by IBM) and the  designer of Lotus 1-2-3 used by IBM.

2. Sally Johnstone, First Executive Director of WCET

3. James Hilton, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the University of Virginia 

This was a heated battle as all of those on the panel, though they all had very high militant ranks in the Information Technology department of their prospective organization, they all had very different views of the process and how it should be done.

In my second conference session (#4), I chose between Toru Iiyoshi and Cheryl Richardson as they have worked collaboratively. I chose to be Cheryl Richardson for the mere fact that I listened to her radio show and was drawn in by her words and thoughts in her very professional yet personal public speaking abilities which caused me to feel extremely connected to her as though I was in the studio having her talk specifically to me. This conference session discussed the innovate looks at Open Source in Schools and Beyond. Panelist included:

1. Gary Hepburn, who discussed the strategies and many challenges of getting Open Source implemented into schools.

2. Robert Stevenson (of which I am still unsure of what he does)

This conference was more of a background on what each person does and less of a debate like the previous conferences.

Other conference sessions were The Gaudi Cathedral and the Really Bazaar, The Movement of Open Source from North America to China and An Intimate Session with the Founders of Open Source. I found this week difficult to blog on as I learned a tremendous amount during each conference that I had little to no knowledge about prior to this which was extremely different from the past 4 weeks where I knew somethings even if in very little detail prior to the When we debriefed, we were given a prop from Dr. Bonk's bag. My prop was that of a light bulb which meant I had to state the new idea or awareness that I received during this conference. During the break i had text five friends from different departments (Biology, Linguistics, Kelley School of Business, Art, and Music) the text: If I say Open Source Software, what does it mean? the only person that didn't text me back something like "what are you talking about", was my friend Michael S. who was a senior studying Finance in the Kelley School of Business Honors College. I was shocked! Something so important, not that many people know about. Though my conclusion of this came from a small number, it was still shocking. It made me wonder what other types of technology that are rapidly become prevalent that the average person just overlooks. Yikes!

References:

Bradley C. Wheeler, Ph.D.

EDUCAUSE

Week 4: To blend or to fully online...that is the question?

Monday, September 20, 2010

During this week, we spent a lot of time looking at "The Continued Expansion of Blended and Fully Online Learning" as the title of week 4's agenda stated.

Before we get into this weeks topic, let me give you a little background as why this is one of the best week of this class that we have for this semester. In the spring when it was time to register for classes, I had no idea which classes to take. The reason being my first year as an IST student was very much structured as the majority of the classes that I had taken were almost all requirements for the Masters of Science program. Since the second year left it open to the classes that I could take, my choices seemed limitless however this made it difficult as I was not sure what my niche was in terms of IST. I first decided to talk to both doctoral students and second year masters' students to get a sense of the classes that they would recommend. Long story short, 2 of the 3 classes suggested to me had one common theme, Dr. Bonk as the Professor. Secondly, I have a wonderful professional relationship with my advisor and I value her opinions and suggestions so I thought she was the perfect person to get advise from. Once again, the reoccurring "theme" of Dr. Bonk popped up. I decided to do a little research on this professor by looking first at his Indiana University School of Education Profile C J Bonk, Ph. D. The information written was quite basic however he did have a link to his website. Professor Curt Bonk's e-Learning World was what sold me. He had so much to look at that I did not know where to start. I simply decided to click on random links and just see what he was all about. In the 30 minutes that I explored his page I was both fascinated and anxious all at the same time. I was fascinated to see how a professor TRULY loved what he was doing with this life but at the same time I was anxious to know what I was getting myself into.

With all this said, this brings me to week 4 of this class. By something simple as Oncourse, C J Bonk, Ph. D profile, and Professor Curt Bonk's e-Learning World this showed howe important e-Learning is to our current education process. You may be thinking "How my friend?" I am glad you ask and I am about to explain. In this growing age and time, both blended learning and online learning have exploded exponentially especially over the past few years. At this point in time if you are even a grade school student less alone a college student and you have not been exposed to at least one of these phenomenal, then you must either be living in an electricity ridden, unexposed, submerged environment. Though this may should harsh, in a sense it is the truth. Why? Let us take Indiana University for example. It is  impossible to get a degree without at least receiving one's education through blended learning. All of IU's traditional campus classes are no longer "traditional" as they incorporate more than going to a classroom, sitting in a class, listening to a lecture, and going home to study through physical books. They use blended learning tools such as Oncourse, online tools specific to the class (i.e. CALM) or a website specific to a certain class (i.e. CJBonk's Syllabus) that in itself may have many links to external devices like articles, YouTube, or blogs for example.

The various articles that we had to read for this week from the Sloan Reports* had one major theme: the growing on online learning. Each of these reports talked about blended and online learning growing. If you did not realize it by now either by our society or from previous information in this blog, then I hope that these various Sloan Reports will help you to see this. We learn that education is Growing by degrees: Online education in the United States. People can not only get certifications and associates online, they can also get hefty degrees such as Ph. D's online. The question now how received are these degrees by U.S. corporations and the like? In the Sloan Report of Blending in: the extent and promise of blended education in USA, which was explored in 2007 talks about the increase of blended learning and it will continue to grow and become almost needed for years to come. Earlier I mentioned that e-Learning is not specific to Universities but also used among grade schools students. In the article K-12 Online Learning: A 2008 Survey of U.S. School District Administrators it explored students learning, school districts, and retention of those using e-Learning versus those using traditional. Obviously, those engaged in e-Learning were better prepared for the next phase in life (i.e. secondary school or even something simple as the next week of school).

We explored as well which more or less showed the same impact perceived in the Sloan Reports. One of the other articles that stuck to me was that of John F. Watson, A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning (April 2007). In he talked about the three positives on Online Learning. First, those who engaged in online learning especially the younger students had better written communication. Second, the time management skills of both the teacher and students were immensely improved. Third, those who  exhibited the use of online learning increased their technology figuration. For example, when they had any technology malfunction they were first more inclined to try to figure it out on their own than those who did not who were more inclined to either give up or immediately ask for help.

Online Learning is almost 100% essential in our society less alone internationally though we are focussing on the USA. For example, in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina occurred, those who went to school in that area needed a way to continue their education. Berkeley College played a role in helping to make this happen. Sharon Goldstein of Berkeley College explains the need for Online Education. Please see the video, Berkeley College Online: The Benefits of Online Learning, to hear her thoughts.

So to answer the original question at hand, "To blend or to fully online". You should know that answer by the conclusion of this blog if not before...Duh!


*Sloan Report (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) and Free Report Downloads.