BP4_200910_Social Bookmarking

When we think back in the ages we can see the evolution of bookmarking, from the ornate page holders to the “dog-eared” pages. To continue to the new generation we have eBooks, so it’s only proper that we also have eBook marks. Leave to the digital natives to make eBook marks a social networking method.

“Social bookmarking is one of the signature Web 2.0 categories” (Alexander, 2006). Social bookmarks are sites that users have selected as a favorite site or for future reference. User can also use “tags”, or keyword for others to find in a search. When users use the tags they are creating a categorization, like the scientific method of taxonomy. This new method of categorizing was dubbed Folksonomy for “the people's taxonomy” by Thomas Vander Wal, an information architect and Internet developer (Pink, 2005).

There are some obvious uses of social bookmarking in education like convenience, usability, and sharing. Since the social bookmark sites are web based students, and teachers can access their page from any computer. Convenience leads to the overwhelming usability for the users. Teachers can use the page to keep links to sites for homework, new lesson plans, and sharing with colleagues. Students have the ability to manage resources, organize information with tags, share with a group, and connect with others with similar int'erests.

“There are more than 100 million Web sites on the Internet." (“Social Bookmarking,” n.d.). This is a lot of resources for everyone to sift through. For some of the more advanced uses in the classroom, teachers could monitor the student’s research and their sources. Some bookmarking sites allow for comments giving the teacher the ability to leave feedback about the source. Another great ability is the tags users apply to the links could be used as a alternate search engine method.

The uses of social bookmarking sites are endless. The biggest trick will be to the one of the 100’s of free sites that fits your needs.

Some additional fun information:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_bookmarking_faceoff.php

http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/online-resources/databases/ict-in-education-database/article/browse-kb/6/kb/how-do-i-use-social-bookmarking-in-education/social/

Resources

Alexander, B. (2006). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning. EDUcause Review, March/April. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0621.pdf

Pink, D. (2005). Folksonomy. Retrieved October 6, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/magazine/11ideas1-21.html

Social Bookmarking.(n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2009, from http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking

AR/CBL tab

This is my AR/CBL tab contents

ETC Tab

This is my ETC tab contents.

WGO tab contents

This is my WGO tab content.


Fun cartoon about PLE from http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams

BP2_200910_Anti-Teaching

Our educational system today is not working for this generation or changing with our evolving societies. You hear people say that the government or businesses need to evolve but why not schools? I can only take from my student experiences and how I learn to think if our educational system isn’t working for a majority of students.

When I began at St. Petersburg College online they have you take a test to see what kind of learner you are. I already knew that traditional learning wasn’t my best option, but to have a test tell me I was a visual learner was not a surprise. Since taking the past three months of courses we’ve learned (or already knew) about the multiple learning theories and how to address them. If you look back in classrooms today more schools don’t even come close to addressing all of the types of learners or their needs. When thinking about what would work in classrooms today, I keep going back to the Anti-Teaching article by Michael Wesch, he makes several good points about how schools currently work with “John Dewey’s notion” and how “test’s offer little more than how well they can recite what they have been told”. Welsh’s ideas focus on the quality of learning not teaching.

Course Management System, or CMS, is a good start but I don’t think that all students would feel comfortable with this. We are also going to have that range of students from the traditional mindset to the new age. Can CMS handle both? Or would a hybrid style between the two work best for everyone? Taking Personal Learning Environments (PLE) in combination with the classroom to create a CMS hybrid experience maybe the first step. I found this site that has some very interesting graphics some users have made on what PLE are, you check it out even if for enjoyment. http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams#mcpheeters

CMS hybrid is something to think about for K-12 but in college level you have the right to choose how you want to learn. You aren’t forced to take an online class, most universities have campus based classes or online versions of the same class. If you choice to go into a online based program, you have to expects that CMS will be the best options for the school. The school can gear their CMS, or a more advanced learning management system (LMS) towards their goals much like Full Sail Online.

After thinking about my high school experiences and my college years I found that I was directing my thoughts at when the best time was for me to do my work. Some might say night owl, but how does ones biological clock play into learning? Could CMS help these students in high school?

Personally I would follow a model that my nephew was able use. My brother is in the military and during my nephew, Ian’s, sophomore year they had to move, this is never an easy task for kids. Ian found it difficult to connect with the teachers, and some of the students. By his junior year they found out that the school offers online classes in conjunction with the public school district. He was able to use a CMS to get his assignments, resources, and turn in homework. There were some times he would have to go to the school to take a test or turn in projects but he was able to focus on his schedule without the added stress of the school atmosphere.

This concept to me would be an ideal model to follow; it’s not required and could work better for some families and students. In Ian’s case he was a straight A student until he moved, he’s grades dropped in the new school until he was able to go online. He graduated with his high school and he received the diploma from that school.

With our evolving world we need to think that our education system also needs to evolve to meet the needs of the new generations. The new age of students is not in an industrial world but an electronic world and we need adjust.

Michael Wesch Article and Blog:

http://savageminds.org/2006/04/02/a-brief-theory-of-anti-teaching/

http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=168

Schools and Society book with great information:

http://books.google.com/books?id=_Bxy2_3lVFoC&lpg=RA4-PA18IA1&ots=fQ0dQrLKt3&dq=current%20educational%20system&lr=&pg=RA4-PA18IA2#v=onepage&q=current%20educational%20system&f=false

Biological clock and learning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

http://www.preteenagerstoday.com/articles/health/raising-night-owls-1036/

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_account/learning_by_biological_clock_cockroaches_are_stupid_in_the_morning_genius_at_night

LMS vs. CMS

http://it.cofc.edu/tlt/lms/communication/LMSBrochure.pdf

http://www.articlesbase.com/e-learning-articles/cms-and-lms-a-comparison-107069.html

PLE information.

http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams#mcpheeters

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Personal_learning_environment

NO cited materials.

Images are from Getty Images: Royalty free.

BP3_200910_RSS feed

RSS (Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content like news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers.

Check out this great resource I've found on RSS feeds:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2955978/RSSFAQ4


I've selected several RSS feeds to follow in my Google Reader account. The majority of them are about education and education technology.

TechSETS RSS feed from http://www.techsets.org/ . TechSETS is a collection of free and low-cost technology support resources, designed to provide improved access to training, tools, and information to assist the growing number of K-12 school technologists.? I was interested in this blog because of the few posts they had up at the time I was searching Google reader. The blog centers around IT tools for educational technologies. Since I?m not a teacher this path is interesting to become involved as a future option after graduation.

EDUCAUSE NEWS from http://www.educause.edu/. EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.? Educause has several initiatives or programs that helps with advancing education and learning through IT with research, resources, and support. The host live events about great education topics like emerging technologies in higher education.

Education IT from ZDNet.com. (http://education.zdnet.com/) ZDNet.com is a part of the CBS network of companies. This series of blogs in every topic possible are all informative and a valuable resource online. Christopher Dawson who is a high school teacher in Massachusetts writes this education technology blog, he is also the technology director for his school district. He has also has held several positions at John Hopkins, and other biotech companies. Dawson writes a lot about web 2.0 information, education careers in today?s economy, and technology products.

Education Week America from http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html. I found this one in the Google reader listings and found that this blog offers a lot of posting about government in association with education. Considering that the government has a lot of influence on education and schools this is a helpful post to follow.

Education Technology from http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html. This site is part of the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) campus website edited by Ray Schroeder. This site is this writer?s reflection of the news he reads every morning about changing technologies, issues and developments in education, online learning and distance learning. Ray Schroeder is a professor at UIS, director of Technology-Enhanced Learning and Faculty Associate at University of Illinois Online office in Urbana. This is just one of he few blogs, I found that his posts are clear, concise and informative.

I'm also following a Music Learning blog called Listen and Learn Music. The blog is located on their website http://www.listenlearnmusic.com by Rachel Rambach. She is a music therapist and educator, and her writing was inspiring and full of ideas. Rachael Rambach creates educational songs to assist in the learning process. This concept began to intrigue me after our group project in EDE when one of my teammates by used music and songs in an educational way. (Thanks Billy!)

Image from Getty Images: Royalty Free

BP1_200910_Blogs in education

Blogs are useful in several aspects of life, especially in education. Regardless of what part of education you are in an online blog or “weblog” can assist in conveying information or gathering information.

The overwhelming amount of information, talent, and resources in the world everyone has an opinion and these can be delivered in a number of methods. “Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts” ("Blogs," 2009, para. 2).

Blogs can be a personal spaces for daily commentary about what’s going in your life, like the old school diary in the new age. Students can uses these to reflect on their school experiences, and to grow with their writing while they do this. Teachers can grow on this concept and have specific assignments to write about.

These spaces aren’t just for writing; they can also be learning tools for teachers or professionals. Many webloggers, blogvangelists, newspapers, and magazines update blog links and feeds (RSS) daily to keep readers informed of current trends of education, technology, business, or government. These types of feeds can be used to help students find articles to write about or to keep up to date on current events. By using weblogs teachers can also conduct reading circles, discussions, review and feedback that extends the classroom experiences.

Many teachers, and students can use weblogs to connect with others with a common interest from anywhere in the world. These tools can be utilized to showcase your student’s talent. Any type of talent can be displayed through the multitude of media available in weblogs.

One of the most useful ways to use a blog is course management. With the ability to post links, resources, and articles for students to easily locate. Some of the more advanced multimedia blog sites can allow for uploading documents, audio, and videos for even more capabilities in the student’s overall experiences.

Other good articles to read about Blogs and Education:

http://incsub.org/blog/2005/blogs-anywhere-high-fidelity-online-communication

http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/blog-basics

http://digitalwriting.pbworks.com/Using-Blogs-in-the-Classroom

The American ‘Inside Higher Education’, which offers a number of different blogs:

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/blogs

References

Blog. (2009, October 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blog&oldid=317552248

Image from Getty Images: Royalty Free