Google Sites

GOOGLE DOCS

Having Google Docs means no more messy E-Mail attachments and no more duplicates floating out there in cyberspace. Now you can attach E-Mails to documents instead of Vise versa. Which takes up less space on your computer, and on these sites you can also decide who can and can’t access your documents. It is like having your own bodyguard for your documents. Also if and when you invite people to Google Docs, they can go on and read the document and even edit it. Others who are invited will be able to see it and any changes. http://docs.google.com/support

The Google Doc site is very useful for teachers, businesses and students like me. Why you ask, because all the documents we have saved on our computers can begin to be too much and this way we can remove the bulk of them from our computers and keep this information safe on Google Docs.

Teachers are becoming more and more aware of the great new ideas for help in the classroom. Google Docs has a great potential for being a good assistance in the classroom, like for group papers. All the students can access the same draft from any computer and add information, edit, tweak and more all because of a great site idea like Google Docs. Lastly as a teacher you can go on the site to see who has been participating in that particular collaboration. Wow how cool is that, I am going to use it too. As far as what “School of Learning”, I am guessing “Cognitive” category. http://www.smartschools.ph/SmartSchools/SmartTools/IntroductionGoogleDocsApps.htm

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

Social Bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks to a public Website and “tagging” them with keywords. Social bookmarking is particularly useful when collecting a set of resources that are to be shared with others. Anyone can participate in Social Bookmarking. Social Bookmarking open a door to new ideas in organizing information and categorizing resources. Users may also see how many have used their tag and how many resources have been assigned to that tag.

Teachers that visit the PBS website can visit teachers connect a new Social networking site. It is filled with information all about and for teachers. http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning/now

On the PBS site teachers use Social Bookmarking by adding tags to a particular discussion thread within the PBS Blog. Teachers also use Social Bookmarking when they are online and discussing information between teachers on a particular subject. http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com

Most importantly Social Bookmarking is a way for teachers to save all of their links in one place. Teachers can use a site like del.icio.us to keep track of the different sites they may want to use for a particular assignment for the week, and using this site to keep all the links they want, can keep it from getting overwhelming. This “School of Learning” category is also “Connectivism”.

SOCIAL MEDIA

New opportunities to create and communicate with people that care, is how I best describe Social Media. Social Media is media designed to be used through social interaction created using highly accessible publishing techniques. Social media also supports the need for social interaction, with the use of Internet and Web-based technologies, which transform broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues. Social media has three main components; concept, media and social interface. http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2009/07/22/10-ways-to-jump-start-your-social-media-thinking/

Social Media is a great idea, but somewhere along the way some people decide to drift away from the idea and go back to Face book or MySpace instead. Because of this social media must make itself more useful, in order to do this there must be new ideas and not duplicate or predictable ideas. Social Media is a great idea for businesses and can really help any company. Social media is especially useful when our Journalists are in another Country and are blocked or prevented from reporting on events, because then is when Social media can get the information to us in the U.S. anyways. http://www.ethanzuckermna.com/blog/2009/06/18/iran-citizen-media

As far as teachers and Social Media; teachers use Social Media through an RSS feed (sometimes) to see updates of where students worked within the Social Network. A School teacher named Dharmesh Ning uses his Social media (RSS feed) for this exact reason. Teachers can see if students have YouTube videos or blogs, and it turns out to be a great form of knowledge. This “School of Learning” category is “Connecti

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Social Networking helps you see connections that are hidden and others can see your connections too. Face book and MySpace are some of the most popular networking sites. Social networking sites are Web-Based services that allow people to view and publicize their list of connections. http://www.creditunions.com/articles Put together a list of other users with whom they can share a connection. Build and construct a public or semi-public profile for others to see.

Social Networking is useful for many reasons, but connecting with friends and loved ones is to me the most important. But, many businesses find that having the right connection can make a huge difference in their success or failure. Social Networking helps people and businesses be seen, and my make for many better connections to all kinds of people. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13

As far as how teachers use social Networking, I learned a few things. One, don’t and I mean don’t use Face book or MySpace as a teacher if you are going to add those pictures from your last party out, because all this information can get out to the community in which you work, and that may not be good for your career. Two, I could not find any personal Teacher stories, just some general ideas about how teachers are using Social Networking. Teachers use it to connect to each other and share ideas and information; this gives teachers the advantage of a lot more information. Teachers also use it as a teaching tool, by gathering information from other teachers and using the Internet to teach the information. This School of Learning is in the Constructivist category.

PODCASTING

Podcasting was created by Adam Curry, former MTV Video Jockey with the cooperation of RSS feed developer Dave Winer. (http://www.voices.com/podcasting/history-of-podcasting.html) Podcasting is a sophisticated method of broadcasting that makes audio available to listeners at their own convenience.

There are many benefits of Podcasting, it is a great idea for marketing your item and a Podcast format can also improve the quality of your information. Podcasting helps you see and hear things at any given time, so you can watch or listen when you want to. Anyone can Podcast from anywhere as long as you have the Internet. Podcasting can be downloaded to all sorts of devices like I-Pod’s and more.

In schools Podcasting is used to deliver information to students anytime of the day. Also you can, as a class build your own Podcast to reach out to students in other Countries or States. Or you can watch a Podcast of another classroom. The concept is pretty darn cool. I went on a site that had Podcasts that were done by an Elementary classroom, it was very creative.

In this day and age, people are so busy and Podcasts give you the opportunity to view your favorites at anytime. Also if you’re the creative type (which I am not), you can make your own Podcast on anything and then share it with everyone. We sure have come a long way in Technology since I had my first Apple computer in the late 80’s. I never thought I would be going to school online, having a MySpace or a Blog, I guess Podcasting will be next on my list!

Web Search Strategies

Web search engines are a vital part of the Web, because they help you get to the information you are looking for. You can find the things you are looking for faster if you use Web Search Strategies. These strategies help you search quicker by deleting the search items that do not pertain to exactly what you are searching for, this can save a lot of time. It is helpful in saving time when you are trying to write a report, because only what you need will come up, it narrows the choices closer to what you are actually looking for.

The History( http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush) of this wonderful idea has been in the process since July 1945 when Vannevar Bush published an article in “The Atlantic Monthly” called “As We May Think”, in this article he reached out to all scientists to find a way to build a body of knowledge for all mankind. But the actual father of Modern Search Technology (http://www.searchenginehistory.com/ )was Gerard Satlon (1960-1995). He spent most of his life directly involved in the important aspects of Search, and all its strategies.

Phil Race a teacher in Higher education uses Web Search Strategies to help students with the Lecture process from online classes. He recommends students use these strategies to further their understanding of the Lectures. I believe this falls under the Connectivist category.

I learned a lot today about Web Search strategies, like how to remove parts of the search so your choices are not as many. It is important especially as a student taking online classes, to not waste time looking through a bunch of sites. I would much rather jump right into the good stuff.

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The Web

As I was doing research on the topic of the Web, I came across many different sites that gave you plenty of useful information. But of all the sites the one I found to have the most information and the History and inventors of the Web was http://w3.org/www/ , within this website I learned information which I had not know. But let me back up, before I talk about the History and Inventors, let me tell you about the web. The web is a bunch of servers connected to each other to send information out to all the computers out there. Each Server has different information to pass on. Our computers are connected to Ethernet and this Ethernet is connected to the servers. The servers send out information in what could be called “little packets of codes, which is then sent to our computers and translated by our Web Browser. So there it is in a nutshell, and don’t you think it is pretty amazing!

On to the Inventors first from what the articles tell me, “CERN” was the original developers of “The World Wide Web” and within this company there were several people that help design and create different aspects of the Web, there were even people from “NASA”. As far as the History goes http://netvalley.com/archieves , in 1973 is when Global networking became a reality. But the idea of the Web goes all the way back to 1836 with Morse code, and on up the chain through Transatlantic Cable and the Telephone. All of these were necessary before the Web could be made a reality.

The Web is useful for communication with anyone no matter where they are and also so you can find any type of information for anything you can think of. It is a learning tool which I myself have been using for 4 years to go to school. Lastly there was a lot of information on how teachers use the Web for teaching, but I had difficulty finding this information on the Web. I did although find that Teachers Charlotte Haley and Rene Fuller from Texas use their knowledge to write a book for Teachers about the Web and Teaching. This “School of Learning” category would be “Cognitivist”. So this is what I know and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

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ONLINE PHOTOSHARING

I spent a long time on this particular subject and researched everywhere, but could not find who invented the idea behind online Photosharing. But I was able to find several sites that allow you to back up and share your photos online. There are sites that list all of the different choices like http://www.photosharing.us. There are also sites that explain all about exactly what each site themselves offer, like “Flickr”, http://www.flickr.com.

I also could not find anything on the History of online Photosharing except a site that talked about the history of “Flickr”. But in this site (http://www.itconversationsnetwork.org/shows )they did discuss that the Co-founder of “Flickr” Catrina Fake, said the beginning of “Flickr” was not originally about Photosharing, it was an application in a game. The Photosharing component was the last gasp in the games development.

Photosharing is a great way to show people your photos without dragging out a big photo album. It makes it so much easier to find a particular photo without looking forever to find it. It is also safer to have your Photos online, but if you do you need to protect them from computer failure and loss of all you data. The best way to do this these days is to go to a Photosharing site and back them up, then they are protected.

I keep all my photos online at Yahoo, and because I have four children, I take a lot of pictures, and enjoy doing it. If I did not have “Kodak” keeping my photos it would make me extremely nervous. I love having photos online to share with all my family and friends, especially when I show my family far away how much my youngest is growing up. Photosharing to me is a great invention, to bad I don’t know who invented it!

HENRY JENKINS ON NEW MEDIA

Henry Jenkins is the Director of Comparative Media Studies, MIT, and is qualified to discuss learning with New Media because his background is in this area and he is educated in the processes of New Media.

One of the key points he makes in this Video is that schools are shutting down the archives on the Internet, and this in turn is causing the students not to be able to access information that they may need for an assignment. An example of this is that the schools for the most part do not allow students to access “You Tube”. “You Tube” has so much essential information that students could use to do assignments, and without these capabilities of utilizing the information on “YouTube” their assignments may be missing important components, and in turn not being finished properly.

Another Key point Henry Jenkins makes in this Video is that students are learning a lot more about computers and how they work, and in turn they would like to have these experiences be a part of their learning in school and at home. But as parents and teachers we are not noticing or expecting what they have learned and this stifles their growth. We need to allow them to bring their knowledge into the classroom after all growth in learning is what it is all about.

I agree with these points, because to me if we do not expand on what our children are learning we are blocking them from learning even more.

Virtual Classrooms .

VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS

There are many advantages to Virtual Classrooms. Students are able to connect with students in other Countries and States and learn with them. The virtual Classrooms are open 24 hours a day and this means students can work around their schedules. The teachers are able to have more personal relationships with their students and more one on one time. As they work school around their schedule they are able to pursue other hobbies and dreams they may have. Students can also take courses they normally would not be able to take at a regular school. They can access work anywhere that has the internet. Students can have a chance to advance their education. Also students finish online courses 99% of the time and usually get better grades then in a regular classroom.

There are although disadvantages to the Virtual classroom. The teachers have to be very careful with wording and really spell out their expectations, or students may fail to understand the work. It is not a good idea for students to have their whole High school experience be in a Virtual classroom it takes away from the social aspects that school has to offer. The Virtual classroom is not for everyone, you must be self-motivated. If you are not self-motivated you will fall behind.

I think the blended classrooms are a great idea for some students because they get to do work online and also be in the classroom with the teachers sometimes to ask questions and get help with things they might be struggling with. It improves the quality of Education. I also think the way they used the classroom on this video was good. I really think it is a great idea for the teachers that are teaching these classes to get the training programs they are getting; this in turn helps the Teacher and the Students.

I love my Virtual Classrooms and with my schedule and having young children it has helped me fulfill my goals so far.