Sicial Bookmarking(Delicious), Trends & Issues Chapter1

<Social Bookmarking> What value (if any) do you think social bookmarking might hold for teachers and/or students? You may think about students sharing with each other, teachers sharing with their students, teachers sharing with other teachers, administrators sharing with teachers, sharing with parents, or any other scenario(s) you can imagine.

The most excellent part of Social Bookmarking is bookmarked WebPages are not tied in only a computer. Usually, we can bookmark our own favorite pages in a bookmark toolbar on our own computers for checking them easily and quickly for just ourselves. However, we can share pages that we often connect or are appropriate for some objects to everyone if we use Social Bookmarking, as we know. If I think about this point, there are valuable ways to useful this. It means we can make some kind of connections like teacher-teacher, teacher-students, student-student, and teacher-parents via this. For example, teachers don’t have enough time to share each other’s happenings in classes, students’ situations, and class environments. Also, parents want to know the school lives of their children. So, first of all, the class teachers set up their own class homepages. Then, if all teachers and parents set up Social Bookmark, add the all class homepages, and tag each page as the name of schools, teachers can know each class situation easily by clicking the website and parents can understand what kinds of teachers work for the school even if they are not their own children’s class teachers. Also, parents can have expectation for the coming years for their own children. Moreover, in Japan, teachers publish class newspapers about once in a week, though teachers can’t hear the readers’ opinions. Just they finished publishing them. If they use this, they can communicate with them in a blog easily at the same time.

I guess it triggers the situations that schools, teachers, and parents become much closer and parents might have more credibility to the schools and teachers. However, RSS system in Google Reader seems to be much easier to find new posts, I guess. But, Social Bookmarking is easier to see the each page individually and organizing the added WebPages by themselves.

Here is my Delicious page.

<Trends & Issues reading> What degree do the definitions in this chapter correspond with what you have thought about this area and what it is you hope to do in your line of work (or in a future career)? Does is there anything surprising or very new you read in this chapter? Does something seem to be missing?

Actually, I knew the specific definition of Educational Technology hasn’t decided even now. Both of technology and education have changed in every generation. I’m not sure what are the right definition and ideas for this area, though every book involved in Educational Technology that I have read are written based on the idea that interaction between learners and collaboration study are necessary for improve their own motivation and make appropriate environment. Since I started studying about basic ideas and philosophy on Educational Technology, I have believed the philosophy of Vygotsky, L.S, Social Constructivism, which focus mainly cooperation and communication study among peers. Also, learners need to cultivate problem-solving skills, thinking skills, critical skills, describing skills, and more for learning to fit into society. So, I like to integrate technology into classes based on ideas involved in the definition after 1994, in Trends and Issues, that had appeared over the past long years piling up the observation and examinations. According to the result of my research papers that I wrote when graduated from University, it’s clear that we need to integrate technology into classes with textbooks depending on situations. I mean teachers need to care about each learner’s situation, each environment in the classes, and learners’ reactions, and then make use of appropriate technology paying attention the timing of the integrating. 

 

Web 2.0 / Wiki

When I watched the posted video, “Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us”, I was really impressed with it since I could tell how wonderful and useful Web 2.0 and technologies are by the video. It really influenced me to focus on introducing technologies into classes more. However, it was not so easy. 

First, I started to read Tim O’Reilly’s article, it was really stressful to understand and catch the pictures. One big reason is I don’t have enough knowledge about systems and understanding specific names to read it smoothly. After coping and read the printed articles carefully, I could feel better a little bit referring to information on wikipedia. On the other hand, creating my wiki was interesting with instruction of the posted video. Especially, creating link was fun from my, the creator, viewpoint. Even from the readers’ viewpoints, I guess it might be very informed page depending on the creators’ considerations. I don’t have English license, though it might be really useful for students to be motivated. For example, we post reading assignment that is including in unknown new words and phrases. Most of the students should stop reading if they hit the new parts. However, if we post link to check the meanings, they can preview and review easily and be motivated. Also, we can put a English video on the page every week. I guess students who study in junior and high schools don’t try to watch English movie by themselves. We can give them the chances to watch them and notice the interesting to learn. Moreover, it’s possible to leave comments for these readings and videos on the page in English, which will lead their communication skills in English on the page.  Most of Japanese students learn mainly grammar without listening and speaking. The English Education has useless.

We can change Education and children motivation by wiki.

Here is for my wiki  FrontPage.You can check other assignments from "EDT5410(Fall 2012)" in Pages&Files.

Blog and RSS

Blog and RSS Reader

I have been familiar with Bloger for a long time. This use for this class is better for me because I like to summary my ideas and write down what I have learned or experienced in my blog like a diary, which I can keep my thoughts and academic history in a one place. I sometimes post my records to Twitter or facebook to share with my friends.  Actually, I’ve tried book diaries a few times, though I always couldn’t keep doing them continually and lost or ruined these books in the end. Also, I have had experienced to put down and submit references for a class, though I lost these papers after the class finish because they would become mess and I didn’t feel like rereading the written visual records On the other hand, blog by tech can last forever as long as we can use internet, and it doesn’t be mess in a bag. Also, it’s easier to review my records whenever I want in the future and check ones my friends have experiences via laptop, iphone, ipad, and more. Moreover, if we have the page for specific field like this class, we can discuss in a blog and share ideas for ourselves.

I haven’t cared about RSS and it was my first try for it. To be honest, when I set up RSS, the page seemed not be clear, and I was really confused to handle it. I read what RSS is on wikipedia and instructions about it on e-learning over and over again. Also, I didn’t notice even I had set up it already. However, now that I have used and researched Google Reader, I enjoy organizing my page with interesting feeds. First of all, it’s easy to know there are new uploaded pages in any feeds, and if we divide feeds into some folders by their fields. I submitted to News and some interesting articles involved in Educational Technology addition to all students’ blog pages, so made News folder, EDT, and EDT5410. We can see many interesting websites via just Google Reader without opening a lot of sites. I noticed that subscribing on here is like “like” on Facebook that we can see new information of our own interesting pages that we did “like”. There is one question. If we open many pages for a long time, sometimes freezing or slow response happen for the high volume data.  How about this time? We can connect some feeds in one window at the same time, though does it influence to any damages?

The Cone of Experience, Edgar Dale (1969)

As a result, I think both of Blog and RSS lend themselves to Dramatized Experienced, Demonstrations, and Exibits depending on viewpoints of where we are standing since all of these experiences include in both of “observing experience” and “acting experience”.

First of all. Blog has two ways to participate. One of them is mainly to share our recodes involved in our ideas, experiences, thoughts, believes, and minds on our page with people who check the page. The another one is when we read other writers’ blogs, which means you “observe” their records. In Dramatized Experience, as the author states, there are two roles of this experience; actor or actress in the play and audience in front of the stage. According him, participants directly in the drama is more close than spectators. Similarly, I think owners who manage the blogs can feel the subjects of the contests in their blogs more and understand the objects. Visitor to the blog can also learn or feel objects via the blogs.

Similarly, in Demonstrations, students have observing experience. However, like his example of chemistry class, students would demonstrate by themselves after observing experiments. Considering to this, we can be observers with information vis RSS and Blog, and show our own opinions for the new source in Blog.  We can be positions of both of observers by RSS and demonstrator by Blog.

 Exibits Experience has also two stiles of exhibit; “ready-made” prepared by more academic agency and “home-made” readied by students according to him. Here, RSS can be former. We can learn new information by some feeds via RSS and other peoples’ Blog. On the other hand, students can show their own opinions and ideas on Blog even here as exhibition.

Therefore, Blog is mainly to show or share our own ideas and learn via others blog. RSS can be source of information and students can have “abstract experience” or “sensory experience”.

 Falling Asleep at Your Keyboard: The Case for Computer Imagination

 Martin Siegel(2003)

            As I state already above, the “imagination” educational use of Blog is that participates including in teachers and students can share their own thoughts wherever and whenever they can use internet with clearer visuals than notebooks. Face-to-face discussing with materials and memos is also similar, though sometimes the points are unclear and it should sometimes make participate be confused during the discussion. In the end, less information might be in their mind after discussion than sharing and learning their ideas on blog.

            Also, “imagination” educational use of RSS is to see much newly interesting information on a page without going several pages on web-site compared to checking a ton of textbooks. We can choose interesting keywords and focus on them from websites without looking for just necessary information by turning over pages from books piled next you.  

Week1(Optimistic or Skeptical View for Using Technolog in Education)

1. EDT5410 Fall 2012 (Week1)
2. Reigeluth, C.M. & Joseph, R. (2002). Beyond technology integration: The case for technology transformation. Educational Technology, 42(4), 9-13.
Postman, N. (1993). Of Luddites, learning, and life. Technos Quarterly, 2(4).
3. 9/05/2012

When we talk about Education, the most important and ideal classes are teachers are not at the center of th classes but students are. I mean students themselves should create a class with peers. Like Reigeluth & Joseph essay states, peers should be always the best partners to learn. Also, they say teacher shouldn’t lead the classes too much but just guide of the procedures of the classes from the side with a few instructions. That’s what I really have believed. These aspects seem to be from Social Constructivism by Vygotsky, L.S like they say. Communication and cooperation among learners is regarded as the most important factor under his idea, and one of the main three points of this philosophy is group learning and collaboration. The other one is Zorn of Proximal Development (ZPD). ZPD really equivalents to the status in Reigeluth & Joseph essay that learners can improve problem solving abilities under the environment amount peers who assist them each other. Considering these ideas and states, on-line classes including in EDT5410 are also regarded as the same situations and it’s better for us to learn with my classmates through these technologies.

On the other hand, I also agree with the states that technology and information don’t solve all problems in schools like Postman says. Actually, considering just my experiences as a substitute in Elementary schools, I feel there are more serious problems that don’t seem to be involved in technology like students’ family problems, bullies in fellows, teacher-parents relationships, and more. Whenever thinking about these problems paid attention in the present, I’m wondering why these problems didn’t happen in old times. If I consider about this, it might be correct that they happen because we lack something else that schools should manage now according to Postman.

However, I don’t totally agree the idea that technology is no reliability for solving these problems. I believe it depends on instructor’s abilities and experiences and flexibilities in schools and timing of integrating them.  Also, students and teachers are required to calculate media literacy first. Technology can connect students and students and students and families.

I will introduce two examples to mix the traditional methods and technology observing the class situation and environment. For example, when I was a substitute teacher, I felt like sciences classes require real experiences for having students activity for the subject like observation spring natures. However, the weathers weren’t always clear to experience physically outside. Moreover, it was difficult to observe wild swallows. Then I used interactive whiteboard in the class to show bugs, flowers, birds, and more in spring. Also, they could see the detail parts of the livings by enlarge of the video and pictures. Students were given visual information via the screen in even the impossible condition. Another example is English class that I researched for my graduating thesis. My object of the research was how to integrate technologies in ESL classes. As the result, instructors utilize interactive whiteboard with music and dancing between explaining. Students were motivated by the characters and moving, and all students answered the class was really fun and they liked English.

Therefore, my opinion is that not all problems are possible to be solved by information and technology and schools have to make efforts to solve them without technology first, though technology should be one of assists with better ways to use. I want to find a problem that happens in schools and how we can solve it with technology support.