Sunday, January 30, 2011

EDU651 Week 6

Week 6 is quickly coming to an end but collaboration and learning in a virtual environment is just beginning. This course provided me with the opportunity to learn about wikis, blogs, podcasts and social networking sites and possible applications in the classroom. In my opinion, wikis offer the greatest opportunity for collaborative learning. Corporations like Disney, McDonalds, Sony and BMW use wikis to manage documents and other information. The City of Rochester, New York has created a wiki where people can share what they love or dislike about the city. From restaurants, places of interest, tours and more, this site serves as an innovative way for the City of Rochester to capture information and resources that can be shared with millions of people for little to no cost. Rocwiki.org currently has 11,578 pages with more to come.

Dr. Dave S. Knowlton, Director for The Center for Distance Education and Learning Technologies at Crichton College wrote:

"Knowledge construction is best accomplished through collaboration. In general, students learn through the give-and-take among classmates. That is, as students write contributions to discussions, they learn what it is that they are trying to say. The replies that they receive from their classmates further this learning. (For a discussion of writing to learn, see Lindemann, 1995.) When students share ideas in a discussion, they receive feedback on those ideas. Often this feedback from classmates will cause cognitive dissonance for the student because it conflicts with their original views. The dissonance encourages students to revise their views and test their revised views in light of further peer review among the class (Knowlton, Knowlton, & Davis, 2000)."

I strongly believe it is time for the school boards and districts that oversee and manage K-12, to begin considering combining asynchronous, high learner control programs where the learner controls the pace of learning with synchronous programs where there is interaction with an instructor who can facilitate learning activities and stimulate creative thinking. The most effective educational programs are those that train cognitive and metacognitive skills. If the goal is to educate today's youth to be the leaders of tomorrow, these are the skills that will be required to solve problems that will be specific to our work and social environment in the future.


 

City of Rochester, New York. Retrieved from http://rocwiki.org/Front_Page on January 24, 2011

Knowlton, D. (2001). Promoting durable knowledge construction through online discussion. Retrieved from http://frank.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed01/11.html on January 24, 2011.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

EDU651 Week 5

This was a great week in class. We all created and shared our links on all of the different social networking sites we have studied and analyzed through this course such as Facebook, Blogger, Twitter and Delicious to name a few. My favorite project was creating a learning event in PBWorks. I am writing an email to our Design team to propose that we use this site as a fun and collaborative activity that might be shared between a few classes in the region. The activity might address some of the social skills that some scientists argue are lacking in our young people who primarily use social networking sites to communicate.

In an article entitled, "Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains?" published in USA Today in 2008, Dr. Small argues that technology takes us away from being exposed to people. He said that the brain, "…drifts away from fundamental social skills like reading facial expressions during conversations." In my role as corporate trainer, I have seen some of the younger employees struggle with face to face communication. As a sales consultant, lacking these skills can derail their careers. We teach skills that will help them recognize non-verbal cues which speak volumes. There are various customer conditions that sellers must be able to identify and address in order to be effective. Repetitive activities in the form of role plays help to develop these skills.

In my opinion, it is not the technology that is creating a lack of social skills. Since being exposed to Facebook, I have received positive messages of support and affirmations from others. People share their photographs; we laugh and learn from each other. It is a great way to socialize with others and receive immediate gratification. What Facebook lacks is, of course, the face to face interactions and I think those of us who are educators, mentors and parents need to teach those face to face social skills that complete us. No matter how much technology is out there, people still have to work together in groups and collaborate on strategies that make businesses successful. Even the founder of Facebook has to meet with his staff and collaborate to make Facebook innovative and successful.

Mizuko Ito of the University of California, Irvine concluded that, "hanging out online with friends…teens learn valuable skills they'll need to use at work and socially in the digital age." (USA Today, 2008). So, there may be some validity to a rewiring of our brains as we continue to use technology, but we should not abandon our ability to pass on those valuable life skills such as face to face, non-verbal communication skills to others. Our young people deserve that much from us. It is the very fabric that makes us who we are as human beings.

Dovarganes, D. (2008, December 3) Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains? Usatoday.com. Retrieved January 19, 2011 from http://wwwusatoday.com/tech/science/2008-12-03-digital-brain_N.htm.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

EDU651 Week 4

This week I reflected on the pros and cons of using Facebook and PBWorks as educational tools and whether or not Learning Management System (LMS) can be replaced by either.  I am not convinced that LMS can be replaced by Facebook and PBWorks.   There is still much to discover about social networking sites, their uses and privacy issues to abandon an online classroom such as eCollege or Moodle that are user login accessible.
Facebook and PBWorks are very interactive.  Students are able to access links to other sites for research and allows students to create content that can be shared.  Students have the opportunity to collaborate on projects with little to no costs to educators and schools.  Working on virtual projects in the classroom provides students with the experience they will need in the workplace as companies expand globally.  Travel costs can be reduced and productivity increases as project management can be achieved across departments in multiple locations.
Unfortunately, the low level of security, lack of privacy and distraction of social networking will make it very difficult for educators and students to accomplish their educational goals in these environments.  Facebook offers a Group feature where only the members of the group can interact and exchange information, such as course assignments, however adding members to the group requires that these members are added as friends.  Who is to say that we will all be comfortable sharing information with classmates and peers that is also shared with family members. 
Another consideration for keeping LMS is the administrative tasks that can be achieved through the system.  In a corporate environment, LMS is used by all the employees in the company to enroll in web-based trainings as well as instructor led trainings.  Companies can keep track of training completions, enrollment/non-enrollments, provide corporate compliance trainings at any time through a secured, intranet site.  I really don’t see where a large company could use Facebook or PBWorks to fulfill all of its trainings needs and meet legal requirements as well as control the content that is made available to employees. 
I believe Facebook and PBWorks can be used in conjunction with a Learning Management System, provided learners are educated on how to use these technologies.  Certainly there are benefits to Facebook and PBWorks in the development of collaborating skills however using them as suitable replacements for LMS is still up for debate.



Saturday, January 8, 2011

EDU651 Week 3

The holidays are over and it is back to work and higher education.

Week 3 was eye opening and I have come to realize that any information about our likes and dislikes and our opinions are not private but rather they are easily accessible by others and can be interpreted in many ways. I read an article from The Journal written by Dian Schaffhauser (2008) about a teacher who posted an offensive comment on Facebook about the school where she works. The local newspaper conducted a search on the social networking sites of individuals who identified themselves as staff members of this particular school and when the comment was discovered, it was reported and the teacher was disciplined for her comment.

Educators and leaders are responsible for their online content. Life is an education. Much of what we learn comes through life experiences. Students, children and adults are influenced by their leaders and educators. We should be a positive example for others rather than a negative one. A respect for diversity is another reason why educators and leaders need to be responsible for their online content. We can't very well expect others to be tolerant of differences if we are not.

However, we also have a right to our opinions and free speech and should have a reasonable expectation that our comments on social networking sites are only available to those who we invite to read our information. Therefore, educators and leaders need to be vigilant and stay abreast of privacy changes to social networks. Facebook recently changed the privacy policies and much of the information in our profiles that was once available to only our friends is now open to the public; unless you were one of the wise ones who read the privacy notification and updated your profile visibility.

Using social networks for educational purposes can be collaborative and provides an environment that engages students and educators must protect the privacy of their students by understanding what can be seen by others on the Internet.

Retrieved from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23611 on January 4, 2011.