Flock- mash-up social software app.
connect to flicker, blogger, youtube, facebook, all in the same place.
a little slow, but good.
Google Reader and Delicious = library of commonly used sites that can be placed into iGoogle on your homepage for easy access.
Google Doc - all can collaborate on docs, open source, similar docs of Word.
Stephen Downes blog: OLDaily
Types of Blogs:
According to WordPress.com personal is the broadest of categories.
Banned blogs: re-publish, SEO blogs, get rich quick schemes, pirated blogs.
Presentations:
1. Tagging, Social Bookmarking, and Folksonomies
Social Bookmarking (tagging):
Delicious, citeulike.com (application does the tagging), furl, magnolia.com
organize and categorize info, sharing, discovery, mash-ups
Folksonomies -- a method of collaboratively tagging intended to make info easy to access
Brainpath.com ---elearning community
all classification methods
2. Joshua: RSS
you can set up an RSS news screen saver (go in screen saver settings)
not all sites have RSS, but you can know by preforming a search or looking for the orange icon
feed
RSS in Blogs:
Atom is an alternative to RSS
you have control over what you see, you can shorten, take away graphics
click on subscribe to: Posts(Atom)...in Safari
Firefox has own tab for RSS options
RSS readers: on podcasts, iGoogle, Looking Forward
Homework:
21st Century Learning:
read article, take notes with Freemind Map, post map to wiki and/or blog
Web 2.0 Tools to Use:
Diigo: http://www.diigo.com/welcome?name=cantos
VoiceThread: VoiceThread.com
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
MacWorld Web 2.0 Presentation
The Web 2.0 video presented the latest tools and technologies that teachers, students, and everyone and anyone could use to collaborate and learn on the web.
The presenter listed several open source resources that will assist in getting the most out of the Web 2.0 experience. He also cited and explained some very interesting facts about the types of viewers, critics, and contributors of this web era. For example the age range of most people contributing content to the web and critiquing information are young; between the ages of 12 and 26 and the age range of people just viewing content on the web are of an older age.
Of the plethora of resources presented I found a majority of them to be helpful and interesting and a handful of them interesting enough to explore further into and use in the future.
These tools and resources are:
There are so many more resources that the presenter brought to light that I want to research further and apply to my everyday learning and collaborating applications.
Extra Notes:
packaderm.com (open source web applications)
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) - family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content. XML based format for content distribution.
The presenter listed several open source resources that will assist in getting the most out of the Web 2.0 experience. He also cited and explained some very interesting facts about the types of viewers, critics, and contributors of this web era. For example the age range of most people contributing content to the web and critiquing information are young; between the ages of 12 and 26 and the age range of people just viewing content on the web are of an older age.
Of the plethora of resources presented I found a majority of them to be helpful and interesting and a handful of them interesting enough to explore further into and use in the future.
These tools and resources are:
- marumushi.com -- a mash-up platform that allows you to combine several of the same types of sites and information in the same easy to access platform. The example the presenter used was news from a variety of different websites (Google, yahoo, CNN) and mashing them together so that the viewer can access all information easily and distinguish what news source is most appealing.
- ePortfolios -- a site that allows users to contribute content to be analyzed and critiqued by others through a medium of productive collaboration.
- FeedBurner -- a site just purchased by Google in which users can subscribe the URL to their website, blog, or wiki and receive advertisement in exchange.
- McGraw Hill website -- an interactive learning site in which teachers and students can collaborate and learn together in fun and interactive ways. Two of the most interesting tools on the McGraw Hill website are "Meet the Authors" and "Poetry Mosaic", platforms in which one can learn about different authors through a variety of mediums and create and learn about poetry.
- ThinkVitamin -- a website that keeps web professionals and students updated on current web and digital design technologies, tools, resources, and platforms through AJAX, a tool that turns websites into web applications. Job postings by location and category are also available through this website which helps people in technical and design fields tap into the hidden job market.
There are so many more resources that the presenter brought to light that I want to research further and apply to my everyday learning and collaborating applications.
Extra Notes:
packaderm.com (open source web applications)
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) - family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content. XML based format for content distribution.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Learning in the Digital Age
The article "Learning in the Digital Age" by John Seely Brown discusses the shift in way people learn and develop knowledge and how certain universities are making new strides in order to accommodate this new learning style.
Brown comments that "learning is a remarkably social process" and that "it occurs not as a response to teaching, but rather as a result of a social framework that fosters learning." In the past most teaching methods were based on a lecture basis and not so much on a hands on and collaborative basis, but since the dawn of the digital age the way students learn has shifted and therefore educators have felt the need to adapt.
Many universities are "stepping up their educational game" by introducing "enculturation" into their curriculum, in which students "can watch, listen, and peripherally participate" in their subject matter and really start to understand their community of interest. At MIT, the "prototype physics studio mixes lecture, recitation, and hands-on laboratory experience" in order for students to participate in a more active learning style.
While many more universities are realizing the need for their teaching tactics to adapt to their students learning styles, many other schools and educators are resisting the change and damaging the potential of their students. Nicole Herz, an Asian Studies professor quotes "in other words, we refuse to learn from the culture and technology that thrives outside the university--the visualizing, messaging, and innovating driven by the young."
Just like with any kind of shift or progress, there are going to be people who are scared of it and not willing to adapt. I think what surprises me most is that I would never expect the kind of people that would resist progress would be educators, but as I reflect on my educational history it is clear to me. It was not until I came to San Francisco State University that I witnessed the type of "encultural" teaching methods that are so essential in this day in age. In high school and even at my junior college these important tactics were never practiced and barely discussed. If universities are changing their methods of teaching, I believe it is just as crucial, if not more crucial, for all levels of education to follow the same path. I think if our country can get up to speed with these digital age advances than we would see a larger number of kids graduating high school and many more kids interested in pursuing higher education. In order for America to maintain our status and competitiveness, these changes are essential and should no longer be ignored or put on the back burner.
Brown comments that "learning is a remarkably social process" and that "it occurs not as a response to teaching, but rather as a result of a social framework that fosters learning." In the past most teaching methods were based on a lecture basis and not so much on a hands on and collaborative basis, but since the dawn of the digital age the way students learn has shifted and therefore educators have felt the need to adapt.
Many universities are "stepping up their educational game" by introducing "enculturation" into their curriculum, in which students "can watch, listen, and peripherally participate" in their subject matter and really start to understand their community of interest. At MIT, the "prototype physics studio mixes lecture, recitation, and hands-on laboratory experience" in order for students to participate in a more active learning style.
While many more universities are realizing the need for their teaching tactics to adapt to their students learning styles, many other schools and educators are resisting the change and damaging the potential of their students. Nicole Herz, an Asian Studies professor quotes "in other words, we refuse to learn from the culture and technology that thrives outside the university--the visualizing, messaging, and innovating driven by the young."
Just like with any kind of shift or progress, there are going to be people who are scared of it and not willing to adapt. I think what surprises me most is that I would never expect the kind of people that would resist progress would be educators, but as I reflect on my educational history it is clear to me. It was not until I came to San Francisco State University that I witnessed the type of "encultural" teaching methods that are so essential in this day in age. In high school and even at my junior college these important tactics were never practiced and barely discussed. If universities are changing their methods of teaching, I believe it is just as crucial, if not more crucial, for all levels of education to follow the same path. I think if our country can get up to speed with these digital age advances than we would see a larger number of kids graduating high school and many more kids interested in pursuing higher education. In order for America to maintain our status and competitiveness, these changes are essential and should no longer be ignored or put on the back burner.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Connectivism Learning Theory
Connectivism is a learning theory for the digital age. Prior to technology's impact on the way people learn were three learning theories: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. These theories have limitations; they do not address learning outside of people or describe how learning happens within organizations. Even after these three theories were revised several times for the new age, they still come up short. This is how the concept of connectivism blossomed.
Connectivism realizes that "action is often needed without personal learning - that is, we need to act by drawing information outside of our primary knowledge."Recognizing and forming connections and patterns is how people learn in the new digital age and it "is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations."
The quote: "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe." concludes the concept of connectivism. Individuals must have the ability to constantly learn new things at a fast pace because new amounts of knowledge and technology are ocuring at such a fast pace, our minds must be two steps ahead at all times.
Connectivism realizes that "action is often needed without personal learning - that is, we need to act by drawing information outside of our primary knowledge."Recognizing and forming connections and patterns is how people learn in the new digital age and it "is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations."
The quote: "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe." concludes the concept of connectivism. Individuals must have the ability to constantly learn new things at a fast pace because new amounts of knowledge and technology are ocuring at such a fast pace, our minds must be two steps ahead at all times.
Web 2.0
The discussion on Web 2.0 that took place on the first day of class reminded me a lot of a book I read last semester, The World is Flat. The book explored the history of technology, globalization, and discussed ways in which America must compete with the rest of the world in order to stay on top in the new "flat" world. The book explored a number of different topics including Web 2.0 and how the internet is constantly changing the world for better or worse.
I consider myself to be pretty knowledgable about Web 2.0 technologies: blogs, flicker, photobucket, myspace, facebook, wikis, web tagging, etc., but there is always more to learn and always more to explore as these technologies evolve. For example, until last class I had no idea about igoogle's capabilities. After class I quickly set igoogle up as my homepage on my desktop and I am loving it.
Preparing for a career in the technical communication field I know that this class will be very helpful to me and I am excited to dive into the projects and learn some cool stuff.
I consider myself to be pretty knowledgable about Web 2.0 technologies: blogs, flicker, photobucket, myspace, facebook, wikis, web tagging, etc., but there is always more to learn and always more to explore as these technologies evolve. For example, until last class I had no idea about igoogle's capabilities. After class I quickly set igoogle up as my homepage on my desktop and I am loving it.
Preparing for a career in the technical communication field I know that this class will be very helpful to me and I am excited to dive into the projects and learn some cool stuff.
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