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.