Blog #8: Social Networking

Greetings:

My focus is going to be on face book, because it is basically the main social networking. I think face book is a good thing that can be abused- as with the young girls and boys who are being targeted by predators or the teacher fighting for her or his job because of comments they made on his or her own time. I also think it has hampered our abilities as a society to have meaningful face-to-face relationships.

The good thing to come out of a social network is re-established connections with friends from back in high school and college who have moved away and I'd lost contact with. It's good to reconnect with them; I deal with them through e-mail rather than in that public forum. We also exchange letters using the old fashioned method i.e. paper, envelope, and stamp. Whatever my feelings about face book, it's entirely up to the individual, but I do think we need to be careful how we use such a convenience.

Social networking as stated before can be good, but it’s a way that you do with a thing.  I am sure before face book, started the visionary internet and design was to bring individuals together for one coming goal, and that’s bring individuals back together, or those that are far, you can’t see from day to day, you will be able to connect with.  I think it would be very beneficial to the class room, however, but needs to be monitor heavily. Teachers should have access to any computer or account, which their students have, and should be able to log onto their computers, to see if there are any suspicious things going on.

Reference (s):

Spector, J. M., Merrill, M. D., Merrienboer, J. V., Driscoll, M. P. (2008). Handbook of research on educational communications and technology. (3^rded.). New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Thorsen, C. (2009). Techtactics: Technology for teachers. (3^rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Personal Use of Technology

There are many forces and factors that shape the society of today in America, and that is technology.  It has profound effect on how we as individuals conduct over selves in everyday life.  Life is absorbed with the use of technology. I personally utilize technology in my daily routine whether it be cooking, you tubes/music, emails, with peers.  I have to communicate to my boss and other colleagues by email.  Since, I have been using technology it have influences all aspects of my life by bringing about a new level of convenience.  I truly believe that future inventions of technology will impact future development, from paper to digital.  It has started already, that everything is going digital, instead of paper.  Which are a good thing and not a good thing.  The reason I say this is, there would be more identity theft, and the loss of important information. 

Also, being an Admin. Assistant, I have to use the computer heavily, due to time sensitive material that must be submitted to management team, early.  Also, I rely on technology to place our patients at the hospital, to be placed in a hospital bed, due to after surgery.  Really my job depends on technology.  Also, another thing I do, to really on technology is texting.  Through research, texting can be fun, but addictive.  It will have an impact on your family, but you have to balance this out.  What I mean by this is that many family members or friends decide to text instead of having a full conversation.

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Spector, J. M., Merrill, M. D., Merrienboer, J. V., Driscoll, M. P. (2008). Handbook of research on educational communications and technology. (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Thorsen, C. (2009). Techtactics: Technology for teachers. (3^rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Social Networking

Hello:

According to The Huffington Post, 2012, in this digital world, opportunities for education are available like never before. Though teachers using online tools are empowering students take part in their education, they may also expose them to inappropriate material, sexual predators, and bullying and harassment by peers.  Teachers who are not careful with their use of the sites can fall into inappropriate relationships with students or publicize photos and information they believed were kept private. For these reasons, critics are calling for regulation and for removing social networking from classrooms -- despite the positive affects they have on students and the essential tools they provide for education in today's digital climate. A listing of social networks used in educational environments or for educational purposes.

ScolaMates:

• ScolaMates is a free online educational social network for educators, students, researchers, and other actors in the educational community (Hargadon, 2012).
• It offers powerful features for collaboration in an educational setting, including resource sharing, course management, study/research group management, Q&A module, task/goal management, blogging, and a lot more.

BuddyPress:

• Apprendre 2.0 - Social Network across the world about education 2.0 and learning to learning - Most of the activities are in French in this network!
• Students Circle Network : Connects students, schools & teachers. There are over 10,000 course resources, 15 study groups for students to schedule study sessions, Social Networking features similar to Face book and University, Scholarship and Internship offers and provisions for students. Students connect to share ideas, learn in a social Q&A environment.

CourseCracker:

• Elementary School Teachers: Connect & collaborate with other elementary school educators to share information & teaching techniques.
• Orange County Math Teachers: The group homepage for the OCMTA to house all meeting dates, official documents, and online meetings.
• Teacher's Lounge: A place for educators to meet and network in a relaxed, off-topic environment.

Reference(s):

Hargadon, S. (2012) Educational network

     http://www.educationalnetworking.com/List+of+Networks

The Huffington Post(2012) Social networking in schools Retrieved June 21, 2012,

     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/27/social-networking-schools_n_840911.html

Blog Post #5

Hello:
Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools are used to facilitate collaboration between individuals and groups of people, and are particularly useful for e-learning environments. Synchronous communication occurs in real time and can take place face-to-face, and as technology has evolved, can take place irrespective of distance (ex. telephone conversations and instant messaging). Asynchronous communication is not immediately received or responded to by those involved (ex. emails and message board forums which allow people to communicate on different schedules). To enhance collaboration between people, many software applications offer a blend of synchronous and asynchronous technology. The focus of this wiki is an examination of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools for e-learning and collaboration.

Online learning has altered the role of educators from being the sole body of knowledge to being a facilitator of the learning process (Voerwall & Alderman, 2007). Within an online learning environment the interaction between students and teachers is primarily asynchronous; one too many technology. One teacher too many different students in different locations and working in different time zones. Asynchronous instruction is often delivered through text, audio, and video communications (Anderson, 2004).

Asynchronous communication first developed when people were able to scratch out small pictographs. This type of communication was refined with the creation of written language. Until recently, communicating across great distances was only possible asynchronously, as messages were written and then carried to their recipients. Response time for this communication was dependant on the distance that needed to be traveled and the conditions faced by the couriers. Furthermore, the messages could be easily lost or intercepted.

Blessings

Eric

Reference(s):

Anderson, T. (2004). Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.)
Theory and Practice of Online Learning, 33-59. Retrieved Feb 11, 2009 from:
http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/ch2.html

Spector, J. M., Merrill, M. D., Merrienboer, J. V., Driscoll, M. P. (2008). Handbook of research
on educational communications and technology. (3^rded.). New York, NY: Routledge Taylor
& Francis Group.

Vonderwell, S., Liang, X.; & Alderman, K. (2007) Asynchronous discussions and assessment in
online learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 39(3), 309-328.

Blogger #4: Web based Resources

Web based resources for education is greatly helpful because they provide better experience for students and are perfectly tailored to suit their requirements. It is expected that these resources would play a critical role in the success of educational establishments in the future.  Online video lectures are the most preferred form of online educational resource. The collection of engineering based video resource named Stanford Engineering Everywhere offers useful information as well. Udemy covers a diverse range of topics and offers videos generated by users themselves. Students can also opt for Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (admin, 2011).

This video resource offers teaching and learning opportunities across various academic areas. It is inclusive of guides, visualization and videos. Academic Earth is an aggregator that features the best video courses available on the internet. Nixty performs a similar function like Academic Earth.  Also, a vast number of resources for teaching mathematics in the elementary and secondary grades are now available on the Internet. Many of these resources are available for free. The resources discussed in this document are web-based tools and activities for teaching and learning mathematics (Thorsen, 2009).

Because of the vastness of the World Wide Web and the speed with which it changes, not all resources can be included in this discussion. Illuminations http://illuminations.nctm.org/ Illuminations, developed through a partnership between the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and MarcoPolo, has been designed as a companion to illuminate the NCTM standards for mathematics. It includes links to the standards and electronic examples from the NCTM website.  http://www.aaamath.com/ this site has practice activities for many math topics for grades kindergarten through 8. For each topic, it gives an explanation and a timed practice activity. Reports of results can be viewed and printed. Some activities are available only on a CD, which must be purchased, but many are available on the website for free (Ahmed et al. 2004). 

Resources:

Admin (2011) http://www.onlineeducationhub.com/blog/author/admin/

Ahmed, A., Clark-Jeavons, A., & Oldknow, A. (2004). How can teaching aids improve the
  quality of mathematics education. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 56, 313-328.

Thorsen, C. (2009). Techtactics: Technology for teachers. (3^rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson

   Education Inc.

Blogger #3- Discussion

Greetings:

As a learner, I know I am a Kinesthetic learning style which refers to a way of acquiring knowledge in which the learner uses sense of movement to gain information about the world. This learning style is sometimes referred to as kinesthetic-tactile. Kinesthetic learners tend to lose interests in activities that rely purely on listening and viewing.

However, kinesthetic learners work best in activities that incorporate physical activity. The understanding that some people learn kinesthetically has implications for approaches to teaching. I truly learn by actually doing the power point presentation.  I could remember, in my Junior college years, the professor allowed us to do a power point presentation, in which I truly learnered a lot by moving around and presenting the presentation to the class.

According to Gardner’s work, historically, classrooms have relied on lecture teaching, where the instructor stands before a group of students, speaks on a topic, and takes questions. Gardner's states by instructor led educators to begin revising their approach. Specifically for kinesthetic learners, educators have begun incorporating more ways to acquire learning through movement.

References:

Definition of the Kinesthetic Learning Style | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6494816_definition-kinesthetic-learning-style.html#ixzz1wVV72LpP

Gardner, Howard (1975) The Shattered Mind, New York: Knopf.

Thorsen, C. (2009). Techtactics: Technology for teachers. (3^rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

EDU 630: Discussion Board-Blog #2

Greetings:

According to (Thorsen, 2009, p.55) distance learning is a rapidly growing area in education that serves students who are not able to attend traditional manner classes. Most distance courses are delivered using one of two delivery technologies: interactive television and the Internet.  These technologies allow students dispersed over a wide geographic are to get instruction. Currently, I attend Liberty University Distance Learning, and I agree with the author, because I didn’t want to attend traditional classes, due to life being busy as it is.  I have truly enjoyed taking distance online classes and have learned tremendous from the prescribed classes.  Also, one of the reason, I enjoy taking online class is that you have the opportunity to spend more time with your family while taking classes online instead of being in a traditional classroom. This is great freedom for many single parents, who has desired to better themselves, while taking care of there family. Also, online will not hold you down to when you have to go to bed or wake up for class (Wenzel,2007). One of the advantages of online class for me is that you can pace yourself and learn at your own rate. Also, I have become more vocal due to my involvements in the discussion boards LU, has prescribed to its students.  However, in my junior years of school, I worked full time and by me taking evening traditional classes, became a bore and very tiresome, from my full time work that was done.  To me online classes have been a prayer answer.

Reference:

Thorsen, C. (2009) Tech Tactics: .technology for teachers Pearson Education

Wenzel, J. (2007) http://voices.yahoo.com/pros-cons-online-courses-vs-traditional-classroom-482075.html

Technology in the Classroom

The power of technology in the classroom can be very positive and exciting for the teacher and student in the classroom. Technological products potential is to revolutionize areas of teaching and learning but, not overthrow the methods of teaching. 

However, technology can have barriers that play a great role in learning such as fewer computers in the classroom, less I.T. Support and the knowledge of computers of the educators.  In today’s society, I have seen many educators that are not knowledgeable of technologies, but in order for them to exceed, they must tap into the power to technology to help change the school system in order to advance their students. Recently, I have seen many school systems create position such as I.T. technologist and technology directors to help expedite the infusion of technology in the classroom, and eliminate barriers.   

                          H E L L O:

          My name is Eric Phillips, and I live in the beautiful Magnolia State, Mississippi. I live in a small town of Pickens, which is about 45 minutes away from the capital of Mississippi, which is Jackson Ms. I recently completed my Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with Liberty, and really it was an experience.  However, it was enjoyable and now I am pursuing a Master of Education in teaching with a specialization in educational technology and online. I am fulfilling one of my dreams, and that is to become a teacher.  Currently, I work full-time for St. Dominic’s Hospital of Jackson, Ms as an Office Coordinator. I have one brother and two sisters in whom I love and cherish dearly. In addition, I have a niece, which is like my daughter.  My hobbies include fishing, reading varies religious books, walking alongside peaceful waters and collecting figurine elephants.

          Technology in the classroom provides current, effective, and modern instruction methods that enhance students’ learning experiences.  I enjoy sharing what I learn and know with my colleagues. I also enjoy learning from my colleagues. There is so much available in the field that no one person can be aware of it all. I think sharing and learning from each other is an absolute must. I feel my future students/many students’ learning will and is enhanced by the use of technology, to name a few, such as: Smart Board or Promethean Board, and Video Streaming.

          Also, the types of technology I enjoy using is:  DVD Player/Recorder: which will provide a means of showing DVD’s and serves as copying device of student classroom presentation projects. A VHS Player, which will be used to show educational film presentations. Mobile Laptop Cart: Allows all students in a classroom to utilize an individual computer for classroom projects and lessons. Digital Camera: Provides students with visual models in classroom lessons. 8mm Camcorder: Used to record student presentations and Internet and provides classroom interaction for students in ―real time. What I look forward and dream is to learn from this course is everything to become an effective teacher to my future students.

Blessings

Eric