I am not a very complicated person. I like to help people and love to spend time with my family. In my spare time, which I do not have a lot of, I like to train and play with my animals. I have too many, at least my husband thinks I have too many. I still think I need a bird and a horse and then my animal family will be complete; LOL!
Seriously; I love my dogs I have two a German Shepherd that actually belongs to my Mom and Dad. My Dad passed away but I bought and trained the dog for them. My husband and I own an Austrailian shepherd. We also keep and care for my sons German shepherd/chow mix or some kind of mix. We think he's chow. He could be an Akita. He is a very beautiful dog! Funny how mix breads that we rescue of the highway can turn out to be soooo beautiful!
I own a dwarf rabbit that my sister-in-law gave to me and a cat that I rescued. Then we bought my Mom a cat so...that's three dogs, two cats and a rabbit..yeah that's a lot of animals! ok, he wins.
I take care of my Mom and that takes a lot of my time. My hands aren't as full as they were when my Dad was still with us; he had cancer. But I wish he was still here; I miss him lots!
My kids are grown and live on their own so just when my husband and I thought "YAY!, Time to enjoy being just the two of us." We inherited my parents. But that's ok. We committed before we ever married that when the time came we would take care of both our parents. Now the time comes to see if we were just blowing hot air...I guess we weren't. :-) Good thing we both love and cherish our families above all else. My advice to everyone; cherish the time you have with your children and parents...it doesn't last long. The kids grow up and move on and the parents DO get old and pass on. You do not want to look back in regret. It's better to look back with a smile and a warm heart.
Our marriage is strong and healthy so our committments to our family are strong and healthy as well. We are supportive of each other and cherish each other.
As you may have guessed my real name is not Sanamina; that is my online gaming name. I play online games with my husband and kids. We have done that as a family for years. Lots of family fun.
That is basically me.
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World Wide Web
ReplyDeleteThe World Wide Web was initially thought of by Tim Berners-Lee in the year 1989. He put together a proposal designing a way that a system of interlinked hypertext documents can be accessed via the Internet with a web browser. Web pages contain text, images, videos and other multimedia documents and designs where people can use hyperlinks to navigate between the documents and designs.
Tim Berners-Lee wrote this proposal that became the World Wide Web and was joined in his venture by a Belgian computer scientist named Robert Cailliau. Both were working a CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The created and proposed this hypertext 'world' of nodes which become known as the World Wide Web and was released in December of 1990. "The World-Wide Web (W3) was developed to be a pool of human knowledge, which would allow collaborators in remote sites to share their ideas and all aspects of a common project. If two projects are independently created. Rather than have a central figure make the changes, the two bodies of information could form into one cohesive piece of work” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web#History
The World Wide Web has become a way for people to research literally anything. We use the Internet to look up simple daily helpful hints or advice; recipes when we want a to make a special meal or throw a special party. We use it to research political information when we are trying to figure out who we want to vote for or what initiatives are good. There are tons of good arguments out there for both sides of the story. You can find anything on the Internet. We use it to research for homework for school the knowledge that can be gleaned is enormous.
Teachers use the Internet to encourage students to research to widen their research potential. This allows their students to take into consideration so many more perspectives than was ever possible years ago. We don't have the limitations we were plagued with in the past that kept our older generations so limited if they didn't have the financial ability to travel or otherwise reach out beyond their general surroundings. We really have no boundaries today. We also use the Internet to allow for better communication between the students, teachers and parents. Now parents as well as the students can, at any time, simply go online to find out what the status of the students grades and assignments are. This is pretty common especially in the high school and college settings. My son had a teacher that that used the internet for communication in this way; she considered this the connectivist school of learning approach.
References:
http://www.w3.org/WWW/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web
Web Search Strategies
ReplyDeleteSearching for specific topics on the web can be very frustrating especially if you don't know how to use the different short cut and specially search techniques. It's important to have a clear understanding of two things. First, what you need to find and how you need to prepare you research and second how to use the search techniques or Boolean search tools to perform the search functions to assist in finding the information that you need.
One thing that I learned this week in my studies is that you can use the minus sign in front of a word to narrow the results of a common term word. For example: if you are searching for a fish “mullet” you can type “mullet -hair” and it would leave out all results of web sites that would be about the mullet hair style. This was a very interesting and exiting new feature for me to learn.
Some of the more common search techniques are:
1.Use quotes to to be distinctive or search for a word or specific phrase.
2.Use “OR” to join similar general, equivalent or synonymous concepts.
3.The AND operator is generally used to join different kinds of concepts, different aspects of the question.
4.The “AND NOT” is operator should be used with extreme caution, because it eliminates the entire page and some pages may be of value to you for other information they contain.
All of the schools today use some type of search technique to find the material they have available for the students whether that is in a physical library the way we used to research in the old days and still do today. Or whether we are researching in an online collaboration of libraries, collections or the web. I have attended the University of Phoenix on ground campus and we had to research for all or our assignments using their online libraries and collections, as well as the Internet.
Part of my responsibility at my place of employment is to maintain what we call our Knowledgeable. In order to find the articles in this Knowledgeable, we use the Google search engine which employs all of the above search techniques as well as many other techniques that we have not discussed in this article.
References:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html
http://www.learnwebskills.com/search/
Blogs
ReplyDeleteA Blog is a contraction of the words “Web Log” it is a type of web site that is created for the purpose of sharing news. It is usually maintained by an individual for the purpose of sharing news and posts about a subject, person, or collection of photos, music, videos or some type of information that he or she wants to share with others. Sometimes it's just random chat, depending on what the creator of the specific blog wants to write about. Basically whatever anyone wants to talk about.
It's a way for people to post stories about any topic and then others can comment or link those stories to their own and either use them to support their own personal opinion or view or they can use these other stories or comments as a basis to build their arguments against that opinion or view. It doesn't matter if the topic is personal, political, religious or whatever.
I have never used a blog before this class is the first time I have ever used it in a class type setting. This will be interesting to see how this plays out. I can see how this can be helpful as far as making the content of the assignments more public for all in the class to share. In an online class setting this sure helps to make the participants a little more acquainted with each other. It is very interesting.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
https://www.blogger.com/start
Wiki
ReplyDeleteA Wiki is a site that is a collection of interlinked pages and links that allows easy editing and upating from multiple people from multiple locations so they can jointly plan and collaboratively create any type of material that can be updated in real time by each member without having multiple copies floating around back and forth between the group.
The site uses a simplified markup language or WYSIWIG test editor, which means What You See Is What You Get. This allows you to type what you want and the it is converted into the HTML language that is needed to update the web site.
The Wiki software developer is Ward Cunningham; he originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possible work”. Wiki is a Hawaiian word meaning “fast.”
Below is a short description of how a couple teachers use Wiki in their classes:
TomH: My class is making a documentary film. They use the wiki as a place to share resources, make decisions and discuss. They also have a blog where each of them can reflect on the learning and the process that they are going through
Teacher Bob: With an international group of ESL learners we planned the site in class. Students made questionnaires and researched local information that they could pass on to the next group of students. Different students had responsibility for different areas but could add to each other's.
I can see more and more teachers and schools using this type of media in the near future. This seems to be a very effective tool. I would think this would be considered a connectiviist school of learning category.
References:
http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/How+we+use+wikis+in+class
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
Virtual Classrooms
ReplyDeleteVirtual Classrooms are classrooms constructed in cyberspace where students and teachers interact online. Each log in via an Internet connection and share their media. They are able to communicate and get to know one another and build relationships all online.
This could be very successful way of teaching. I believe that there are certain people that can be successful in online learning depending on how is it structured. Online courses are definitely not for everyone. For example; I do not think that most teenagers can do all of their high school education online but a blended style for some could be very effective.
It allows students and teachers to log in at times that are convenient for their schedules, allowing them to complete other schedules that are important to them or their future dreams and desires. Online classes allows the students to bring in other studies via the Internet at the same time and get differing points of view on any topic; it opens the world up to them.
One disadvantage is that it really is difficult to see the confusion on your students face if they don't understand. Sometimes people will say they understand when they really don't. In a face-to-face setting, you could see that. Online, you cannot. You lose the essence of body language when you are in a virtual classroom. You really have to hone your written communication skill and learn how to get people to open up and be honest if they don't understand.
I think that the folks in the video are using the blended learning style very effectively. As I watched the video I was quit impressed with the appearance of their teaching plan. The only problem is that some of the teachers seem to be stretched pretty tight. It would be nice if they could add more teachers to the mix to the teachers weren't having to work such long days. But the class plan seems to be an effective one.
I like the idea of blended learning. I do believe it is the best of both worlds. People need social interaction especially young people but the online experience allows them to bring a much more wider influence into their world. This allows them to experience things that in some remote areas these people would not be able to experience or it would be very costly to experience. Overall I just think that blended classrooms are a great tool and as many people that can take advantage of it should try it at least once during their educational career.
Henry Jenkins on New Media
ReplyDeleteHenry Jenkins is the Director of Comparative Media Studies Program and a Full Professor of Literature at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned his BA at Georgia State, Communication Studies at the University of Iowa and his Ph. D at University of Wisconsin. He is currently teaching at least 23 courses. His Curriculum Vitae shows that he has held Academic Positions in his career thus far. He has at least 110 published articles and 9 published books since 1992. His fields of interest include cultural media, film & media, genre theory, children's culture, gender studies, and digital media. He has also held numerous lectures and conferences on the subject of media and technology. Based on the amount of study and education that Henry has invested in the subject matter; I believe he has the experience necessary to qualify him as a subject matter expert and would trust that his input in valid and valuable.
Henry made the point that people with no access to technology are left behind. That is a good point I've seen it. Schools need access to technology. This should be standard in every school by now. The sad thing is, it isn't yet. We need to make this a priority; it opens the learning field for all our students.
He talks about the “do no harm” and if the teachers are not allowing their students access to technology then they are doing harm to their students. I agree with him on that. I once made a move from a more technologically advanced area to a less technological area and the community I moved to felt so shut in and they were not reaching out to improve or grow. The kids in this area had no clue what was out in this great big world. It was sad really. The world was just beyond their reach and they had no clue. I'm not talking about partying and things of that nature..I mean in my biology class. This class could have benefited from some outside technology. We learned by the textbook, strictly. The grades in that class were horrible for all the students. No field trips, no lab experiments, no Internet to bring science close to us, coincidentally; no interest by any of the students. Technology does help to generate student interest and participation because we can offer so much more in so many more ways to get the interest of so many more students to meet them where they are and where their interests are.
He also talked about how we hurt our students when we tell them that stuff outside of school doesn't belong in school and essentially what we are saying is that stuff in school doesn't belong outside of school. I totally agree with him on that point. Whether you think of it that way or not...you can bet the kids do! And, more importantly, they will leave the school stuff right at school just like you told them to. Even though it was inadvertent. We have to find ways to blend it all together. Get the kids interests blend them and show them how to the “stuff” as school does apply. That's why we are teaching them. Let's not let it all got to waste. It does apply!
Online Photo Sharing
ReplyDeleteOnline Photo Sharing allows you to upload all you photographs to a public site and then share them with the public for all to see. There are free and paid sites that you can choose from with a wide range of services from simply a place to store pictures to a place to organize, share, catalog, and print. Some of these sites even allow you, for a fee, to make things like calendars, mugs and other special gifts with your precious pictures on them. Them possibilities are endless. Eamon Hickey and Aimee Baldridge did some research and printed and article on the Cnet web page comparing several of these web pages, listing pricing and services structures that are offered so customers could get an idea of what's available in the way of online photo sharing.
Photo sharing would be a great way for teachers to share things with their students. They could post all kinds of images and because these images can be organized in so many ways and you can use so many key words to to identify these photos or images, it would make it so easy for students to find the particular images that they need for certain assignments. I can see how this type of tool can be very useful in the educational world. Hopefully this one will pick up and more and more teachers will begin to see the benefit of this valuable tool.
I would consider the a connectivist style of learning because someone else is using technology in a networked environment and they have control of the information to change and manage what is learned in this format.
References:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6451_7-6245099-1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPU4awtuTsk
Podcasting
ReplyDeletePodcasts are a series of recordings, either audio or video, that are recorded in media files and then stored on a public server for anyone to download to their computer or IPOD to listen or view through web syndication. Web Syndication means: “Most commonly, web syndication refers to making web feeds available from a site in order to provide other people with a summary of the web site's recently added content for example, the latest news or forum posts”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_syndication). These files are simple files to download and and cover any topic of interest. Anyone can create a podcast to share all they have to do is find a web site to post the podcast on. This is not difficult to do. You can even post the podcast on your own web site and have it listed or shared with another more popular web site to help share it with the general public.
Podcasts would be a great way to post lectures or classroom material. This would allow the material to be available anytime of the day or night and then the student would be able to download the file so he or she could carry it with him/her wherever they go. This would also be good for the teachers because they only need to make the podcast one time and then just keep it posted for multiple classes. They never need to repeat the podcast unless the material changes. This is a connectcivist style of learning.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&source=hp&q=what+is+podcasting&rlz=1W1ADFA_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=WDL3Sp6EPYfgswPt4PkD&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCIQqwQwAw#
Google Docs
ReplyDeleteDefinition: “Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form applications offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Docs).
Google docs is an easy way to do online word processing and share the articles for editing, help and access with anyone who may want or need to have access to those documents. Having these documents shared online allows others to easily access them to modify or edit the documents where revisions can be automatically saved for easy tracking of all changes and revisions to the documents. This allows each document to be modified and revisions tracked without having to e-mail multiple versions and worry about forgetting to save revisions each time someone touches the document.
This is good for the students for learning and it's good for the teachers because they can see the progression of the document to see the contribution of the student and the input of the help the student received as well. I would consider this a cognitive style of learning.
This tool is good in the writing profession as well. In my job I am responsible for publishing a newsletter once a month and I in the process of implementing the use Google docs to help with the review process for the articles we publish in our newsletter. This will be such a helpful tool for our publication.
References:
http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Docs
Google Sites
ReplyDelete“Google Sites is a structured wiki offered by Google as part of Google Apps" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Sites). This a is tool that can be used to create a group web site. Individuals can go in and add to the web site to create a team site to share multiple points of interests or information. It's as easy as 1,2,3. 1. Start an account with Google web sites; 2 create the web site; and 3 share the information so everyone in the group or organization can begin to upload data to share.
What kinds of things can be shared? The possibilities are endless but to name a few; videos, documents, pictures, important tasks and their due dates, important dates to remember i.e. birthdays, anniversaries, parties or meetings, etc. You can even make memorials for loved ones.
Here's some functionality that is available for your Google site:
Customize your site's look.
Create sub-pages to keep your content organized.
Choose page types: webpage, announcements, file cabinet.
Keep your web content (for example, videos, online documents, Picasa photo slide shows, iGoogle gadgets) and offline files in one central location.
Keep your site as private or public as you'd like.
Search across your Google Sites content with Google search technology.
Teachers or educational institutions can use this for creating a central place for all the students to access to view instructions; help videos and lectures. Students can also leave helpful documents, pictures, links or videos. They can also upload their assignments for the instructors to access and grade. I would consider this a connectivist style of learning.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Sites
https://sites.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=90447
Social Bookmarking
ReplyDeleteSocial bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them.
This allows you to save web sites and mark or “tag” them so you can easily find them later. You are able to add descriptions to explain what the web site is about or rate the experience of the web site. You can add key words to tag the web site making it easy to find the web site later. Then you can make the web site public allowing others to see your list of recommended web sites so you can collaboratively share important or just good web sites between each other...or not, if there are certain sites that you want to mark and keep private, you can do that too.
Keeping your favorite web sites organized by using bookmarking is so much easier than using a method of adding to favorites. The web sites no longer become lost in the mire; you can find what you want by typing in a key word in the search engine. And the search engine keeps track of the latest sites added. It is just simply a better way to track your favorite sites in order to find them easier and quicker when you need them or when you want to share them.
In a teaching setting this would allow the instructors and students alike to recommend a myriad of web sites where students could find helpful information on specific topics and then students can pick and choose the web sites they prefer based on the ratings or content of the site. I consider this a connectivist style of learning.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking
http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialbookmarking101/p/aboutsocialtags.htm
Social Media
ReplyDelete“Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many)”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media).
Social media is a category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content they include such networking sites as LinkedIn, FaceBook, social bookmarking sites as Delicious and social news sites like Digg and reddit and other sites that are centered on user interaction.
This is a form of how all of these tools can be used together to enhance the online classroom experience for the students and instructors alike. Through the use of these tools the learning experience can be and has been enhanced over the last several years. The learning experience will only get better as more and more educators take advantage of these tools and implement them into their teaching toolbox of techniques. Students will get so much more out of their experience in the classroom rather virtual or physical classroom. I would consider this part of a constuctivist theory of learning.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
http://searchenginewatch.com/define
Social Networking
ReplyDelete“A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social-networking).
Social Networking is a great way to link with people you know and have worked do work with. It helps you to build and keep connections. On a professional basis this is a great way to get your name out in the business world and keep you “in the know” as far as what is going on in your profession. It will help to keep your name out on the market if things go poorly and you find yourself in need of employment. Rather you need to find a job because you lost your job or if you want to find a new position to help move your career in a upward motion. Unfortunately, sometimes to move up you have to move out; having good external contacts can help to facilitate those movements.
On a personal basis social networking can provide the same kind of benefits. Because unfortunately, things can go wrong on a personal basis too. When things go wrong, it's good to have connections where you can link out to help make other connections. It is important to use care and caution in social networking online. Sadly, there are wolves out there who are looking for people to attack and this is true in both the professional and personal aspect. You can never be too careful. If you have never met these people in person and don't know them personally use care with the amount and type of information that you share with them. Never put yourself in harms way; it is easy to do.
These social networking tools are good ways for the instructors and students to connect and keep in touch both during and after the course. It can enhance the learning experience and help to build a lasting relationship to carry into their professional career. It's not a bad thing for either party. I consider this a connectivist style of learning.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social-networking
http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/