Web 2.0 Max Time for Instructional Technology

Innovation in the Instructional Technology World

2009-03-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

One of the IT blogs I follow recently had a great posting. Ms. Nielson (The Innovative Educator) has served in the Office of Instructional Technology for the New York City School Board for five years. She put together an online resume and portfolio of programs that she oversees in the NYC school districts. Her blog includes a slide show that she produced in Google Docs and contains many projects and links to professional development sites for the IT professional.
For all those who are interested, the blog can be viewed as a professional development class in its own right. I have spent a few days reviewing the information and still have not completed all 17 slides, but have discovered several web sites that I will be using in the future.

Schools Using Mass Notification Systems

2009-03-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

One of our recent assignments included the evaluation and recommendations of mass notification software for use in school for scheduling to notifications and information. eSchool news recently ran an article summarizing some recent trends and shortcomings identified among colleges in the United States.
This article discusses the increasing need for administrators to obtain and implement mass communication programs that allow for practical communications with students. Schools are using electronic message boards, texting, and emails to alert students of severe weather alerts, acts of terrorism, and acts of violence. These systems typically run from $10,000 to $100,000 to install, and may suffer failures during peak usage. Some are using multiple alert systems to provide backup messaging if the primary system fails,
The eSchool News article outlines several methods currently in use and the passage of a federal law the encourages the implementation of mass notification systems. It is a good reference to administrators and technology directors in schools.

To live and Die on the Web

2009-03-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

The attraction of the Internet to change lives and lifestyles is becoming a major topic in the news. Sexting and suicide are two of the hottest topics in cyberspace today, especially the occurrences of these activities among teen-aged user of the web.

Sexting involves the use of cellphones or digital cameras to capture a photo depicting an explicit sexual scene or nudity and sending these photos to others. The problem with modern technology is that this process is so easy, to snap and send, that teens may quickly complete the process without considering the possible life altering consequences of sexting.

In the US, state and federal governments are pursuing teens who transmit (upload) and receive (download) nude photos of underage persons as participants in child pornography. Anyone who transmits or receives these photos may be charges with distribution of child pornography. Recently, Several men have been charged with such crimes, after they reposted photos of their ex-girlfriends in the nude to others. This is often viewed as an act of revenge, or payback on the part of the boyfriend who is paying the former girlfriend back for breaking off the relationship.

As educators, we have a certain ethical obligation to explain the laws and possible legal consequences that our students face if they engage in sexting activities. It is illegal to participate in any such activities in the United States. It is not a joke, it is not hazing, and it is not a new form of self-expression, it is a crime that will be prosecuted if discovered. It is equally important to discuss the incidents of depression, loneliness, and isolation that may occur among web related users, and steps to alleviate the untoward effects of such emotionally charged situations.

The problem that seems to be developing among teen and preteen users of social websites have developed a subculture that is substantially different from that of their parents who were not raised on social websites as children. I teach at a career college, and most of my students are the parents of teens. We discuss the sexting phenomena, and many parents do not understand the mind-set of their teens. I suggest that their teens have developed a different set of values online. Nudity is widespread on the web, and some teens do not find the experience of posing nude in front of a camera as distasteful, and may find some degree of acceptance from others in the process.

Recently a young woman committed suicide after she involved herself in sexting by sending nude photos of herself to her boyfriend. He later sent these photos to her friends when she broke off the relationship. Her friends ridiculed her and she was humiliated by the release of her revealing photos. She experienced depression, and even appeared on a morning television show in an attempt to warn other teen aged girls of the cruel treatment that she had experienced and find help. But, a few days ago, she was no longer able to face the life of a sexting teen and ended her life.

In a separate incident, a depressed teen-aged boy, in Florida, told others in his social network that he was depressed and planned to commit suicide. He went home and turned on his web cam and took a fatal dose of drugs and alcohol. People watched as he died and either chatted about the situation or ignored the situation, taking it as an Internet hoax. This situation has raised concerns about the level of responsibility demonstrated by Internet users.

I discuss these situations with my students, and explain that the use of social web sites by teens has changed the culture of adolescents and their norms have changed from those held by their parents. I suggest that parents discuss acceptable and unacceptable behaviors for their children on the web. The culture of the Internet leads to isolation, and different children will respond in various ways, and need guidance on what to do while online. An additional problem is establishing what is inappropriate content or activity while online. Both deaths were avoidable, but there were no reports of inappropriate activity, and no intervention.

I was reading a blog by an educator in Australia, Ali Hall, and noticed that there is a web site available for people in Australia who are depressed and need help with their condition. The web site is www.sane.org, and offers resources for depressed and distressed people. This is definitely a step in the right direction. As teachers, do you have suggestions about how to resolve these problems with students? Do we need better safeguards? Is education the key? Is there an equitable solution to the problems of sexting and web related suicides?

Presonal Learning Networks, iTunes, and iGoogle

2009-03-07T22:19:00.000-08:00

I have been following some of my educational knowledge networks and blogs, and find that I benefit from the ideas of others. I like to know what is going on around the world in new educational techniques.

Additionally, I try to also keep up in the areas of online learning especially, since I do teach online classes. My school has recently committed to creating a separate online department with global outreach. I was recently asked by my online supervisor about the Apple iTunes University concept. I told her that I had produced some educational PodCasts and had become familiar with the iTunes product at that point, but was not completely familiar with the process of setting up a school program.

Today I stumbled on the Apple website for iTunes University setup process. So, I read through the materials and called my e-supervisor and asked if the college is ready to further explore the iTunes University concept further. Now I wonder if that was a good idea since the whole program is in its infancy and not Web 2.0 friendly. If they contact me again, I may get even more busy than now.

The good news is that as an educator, iTunes is available as a resource. There are thousands of educational PodCasts available for download for free. You do not need to have an iPod or MP3 player to download and use. It can download directly to your desktop. Many selections are available as either audio lessons or as video lessons. This is an area that is experiencing considerable growth and is a hot topic in education technology. As I was upgrading my systems, I was acquainted with the latest version of Google Earth version 5.0. It is more comprehensive and educational than previous versions. It now has an expanded virtual field trip section that can be accessed, including videos that can be downloaded for classroom application. It seems more user friendly and education based, as such, it is a great Web 2.0 educational resource.

I recently expanded my personal knowledge network by setting up an iGoogle webpage. It is easy to setup and by selecting from a series of available widgets, I now have a daily glimpse of the world as I have selected it. I subscribe to several educational resources such as Scientific American, Science Daily, CNet News, and several other features including a world clock. I have a daughter who lives in India, in a village near Hyderabad, and every time I visit iGoogle I am reminded of her time. India is on a half-hour time zone when compared to the rest of the world. For example, when it is noon in the US Central Time Zone, it is 11:30 pm in Hyderabad.

India is quite unique in many ways. My daughter teaches as a private school which is located at an orphanage, and the school is open to the public, so many children from the surrounding villages walk to school each day for lessons. My daughter does not have a degree in education, but teaches classes for grades 2-10. The educational system in India is quite different from the United States, and seems to work to keep the masses in a state of confusion. In the region where she lives, there are almost no critical thinking skills used or taught in the classroom. Most teaching seems to be rote memorization, with no deviations between what is taught and what is tested. For example, if a student is taught that 5+7=12, they would be mystified if they were asked to solve 7+5, it is not as learned and would not be recognized as a similar principle.

One day she contacted me by IM and was asking me questions about blood typing. She was assigned to teach biology and was unsure of the whole concept of ABO blood types and what Rh factor has to do with blood typing. So we had about a 45 minute chat about the whole topic. At the end, I emailed information that she could use as a reference in class. Since I teach Anatomy and Physiology at my college, I was able to explain the concept to her in a way that she could understand.

I consider myself especially knowledgeable about a mother-fetus condition known as erythroblastosis fetalis which may occur when the mother is Rh- and the fetus is Rh+, but can be medically prevented through RhoGAM injections. So, we had a discussion about that concept as well.

Educational Blogs---Do they work?

2009-02-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

I have been reading some research findings about the benefits of educational blogging. Researchers in the UK have concluded that a majority of graduate students that were studied in 2003 -2005 report that blogging is not a major form of learning and holds a low level of interest in their assignments. The article was not available for download from my university's electronic library, but I was able to obtain it in e-form through the inter-library loan system.

Kerawalla, L. et. al (2006) An empirically grounded framework to guide blogging in higher education. Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keyes, UK.

I realize that in terms of Internet technology, this is old information, perhaps even stone age by comparison to the development of social website developments; but, it may still hold a degree of relevance among college students. In discussing one of my current online classes with my professor, he stated that he is experiencing some difficulty in getting students to communicate freely on the discussion boards. While this is not blogging, it is similar in that it requires similar technology and skills, so I propose that there are probably still some similar attitudes remaining.

This paper suggests that several factors affect the student's attitude towards the blog including: what is the basic motivation to blog?, what's in it for me?, what am I learning?, what is the instructor desiring?, and how do students communicate differently with educational blogs than in other forms of communications?

If the world is changing through the increased amount of information available online and an increased ability to locate, review, index, and create content online (Web 2.0), how can online college level classes be changed to increase student participation?

One of the alluring promises associated with the world wide web is the capability to meet and exchange ideas with people from around the world. This is true in education and collaboration using blogging methods. I propose a day in which education technology and educational content are on an equal level as the social websites like Facebook.

I was speaking to an online student recently who was reading "A Communist Manifesto" and asked to answer three questions, What was the background of this work?, What is the difference between socialism and communism?, and What is did Marx mean when he said that religion is the opiate of the people? I felt tired just listening to her, and observing her high level of frustration with her online class.

She was not understanding the book, and had no historical, economic, or political background understanding of the subject. The only resources that she was aware of was the text assigned and the three questions posed by her online professor. I was able to show her how to use Google to search for answers, and use my favorite educational search engine www.ask.com. She was expressing her strong dislike to her online provider, and stated she would probably flunk out if this was how it would be. She felt stupid. She said she wished she could see a picture of her professor's face and could have short introductory clips to watch.

I asked her, "Would you like it if your class was as much fun as spending time on Facebook?" She immediately brightened and said, "Yes, I would!" I told her that educators are working to create that type of online experience, she just needed to hang in there, and learn how to use web resources to learn from others. That conversation has greatly motivated me to learn more about the web applications and open source software that is available to me as an educator.

With the seemingly unending attractions and interest in Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks, there is certainly a strong attraction to the practice of blogging. New applications are constantly being developed and released for Internet and blog usage. In this dialogue, I ask, "What does Facebook and the other blog sites have that educational blogging lacks?"

In my experience, I tend to be either strongly attracted to my blog, or very indifferent to maintaining a blog. I am not an active Facebook operative, but I overhear lots of chatter about the usefulness of Facebook in a wide variety of areas. There is the "Current Status" section, in which bloggers may post a random comment. There are virtual, second life, spaces on Facebook including Pet Society, Yoville, and other such places. Then there is the profile, photos, videos, and comments on the exploits of others.

I am learning from the social power brokers what makes people be attracted to the websites and what works. What have you learned? Please join in the discussion.

Wikis

2009-02-21T23:51:00.000-08:00

I am initiating a wiki in support of my EDUC6005 Project.
Right now feeling I have many things to do and little time to do them.
I will be updating this posting as I go.

Creating an Online Personal Learning Network

2009-02-21T15:15:00.001-08:00

There are numerous blogs to explore in the Education Technology realm. I subscribed to one recently from an educator in Australia. I found a new website for use in schools, a visual dictionary Glossopedia.

In the getting organized category, I found this slide show that reinforces what we have been discussing in the first three modules, the creation of a PLN. PLNs can be created in various forms. There are open source software programs that provide a structured approach such as Elgg and PebblePAD. This program is used in the UK in higher education.

Please join me at TeacherPop, professional educator's website.

PLN reference sites:
1-Fishbowl, professional educator website, with instructions to set up a PLN
2-The innovative educator blog.
3-List of PLN sites

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Creating an Online Personal Learning Network

View more presentations from bethanyvsmith. (tags: feedreader twitter)

Open Source Software

2009-02-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

Open source software is the initiative behind the new web, Web 2.0 as it begins to morph to Web 3.0. Open source is a philosophical approach to software that allows for both personal development which is able to be licensed as well as shared. It is an approach that allows for collaboration, adaptation, and improvement of a program while recognizing the validity of the source.

Open source software is the software that is driving most web application programs available from Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, as well as most other social and learning websites.

One video that I recently viewed from the Apache 08 conference that gives a good subject matter overview is at the Linux Website, is quite informative.

The following is the video description from the website:
"Open source development has reached a stable and remarkable maturity. With services like SourceForge and Google Code for hosting projects, the Open Source Initiative to vet and curate Open Source licenses, and organizations like the FSF and Apache where like-minded developers can work together to build sustainable and open communities around Open Source projects, and the support of hundreds of thousands of developers and major corporations alike, the success of open source is firmly established.

Yet when we turn our attention away from open source and instead to specifications and standards for the open web, much of this infrastructure doesn't yet exist. Formal standards bodies may enforce interoperability, but they don't always guarantee that a standard is freely implementable by everyone or that the development community is open to all potential contributors. As software development is increasingly centered on protocols and formats instead of simply source code, many newer initiatives, like Microformats, OpenID, OAuth and OpenSocial, have had to each invest time and money reinventing the legal and organizational infrastructure required to ensure that the specifications they create are open and their communities are healthy and run in meritocratic fashions.

Isn't there a better way? What can we learn from the open source movement that will help us create open specifications for the web?

The newly created Open Web Foundation is tackling this exact question by borrowing heavily from the proven model established by the Apache Foundation. This talk discusses the Open Web Foundation's progress so far, our goals for the future, and how you can get involved."

Using Jing for Presentations

2009-02-18T21:26:00.000-08:00

Jing is a service that has both a free service as well as a subscriber service that allows users to create high quality individual screen shots for the purposes of creating demonstrations.

The following hyperlink will guide you to the Jing movie I created about how to post a new entry on Blogger.

Collaboration Project

2009-02-17T22:42:00.001-08:00

COLLABORATION AS A LEARNING TOOL by: Joseph Hall & Melinda Smith

Collaboration represents an extremely important aspect of online learning, a virtual education experience. Students in various locations, globally, have the opportunity to interact and share their interpretations, analysis, improve upon, and draw conclusions concerning a specific topic, assignment, or even explore across several disciplines. With the concept of collaboration, learners must have the ability to learn differently. Instead of independent and isolated studies, students share information between themselves prior to arriving at a final conclusion in their studies. They discover the ability to share information electronically without concern of language, cultural, or socioeconomic barriers.

Participants learn teamwork in a virtual environment. For the true values of collaboration to become evident, learners must learn to work together to establish learning and achievement goals. This requires a vital interaction between learners and and mentors allowing for a variety of perspectives and insights into the topic of choice. The development of web applications , available through Web 2.0 tools, has transformed the Internet into a highly interactive tool, which may be used to assist in the process of sorting, classifying, and evaluating information. The development of authoring, classification, and presentation applications allow for collaborators to rapidly assimilate data for evaluation in compare and contrast activities, leading to comprehensive evaluations and potentially life altering solutions.

Wikipedia, one of the first online reference wikis, offers the following definition:

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals —

For example, it is an intellectual endeavor,that is creative in nature—by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus.

Collaboration does not require leadership and can sometimes bring better results through decentralization and egalitarianism.

In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources.

Collaboration is also present in opposing goals exhibiting the notion of adversarial collaboration, though this notion is atypical of the annotation that people have given towards their understanding of collaboration.

Structured methods of collaboration encourage introspection of behavior and communication. These methods specifically aim to increase the success of teams as they engage in collaborative problem solving. Forms, rubrics, charts and graphs are useful in these situations to objectively document personal traits with the goal of improving performance in current and future projects.

Tools of Collaboration

Web 2.0 tools help users gain access to new or better organized data using a variety of web applications that allow for file creation, file sharing, and file collaborations to create improved results. Web applications improve the collaboration process by allowing the Internet to serve as a common resource to deliver a wide variety of data sources to learners without requiring the programs to be loaded on each learner's personal computer, Web applications are programs that are available to Internet users via the usage of a web browser, written in a web based language such as HTML, XHTML, and other web supported languages. Web applications are virtual in nature in that web access is the qualifying determinate for usage. In addition, web applications must offer Rich Internet application programs (RIAs). These programs are designed to increase productivity through increased accessibility, communications, and consistency across browser platforms. One example is the use of Google Docs as a collaboration tool across multiple platforms.

Google Docs as a Facilitator of Collaboration

Collaboration can be accomplished through the use of web application programs such as the Google documents (Google Docs) program. Once a Google account is established, I did this by creating a free G-mail account, collaboration may begin. Next, I used the drop arrow at the top of the sign-on page to explore "More," and I also used the drop arrow to explore "even more." On the menu page, I selected Google Docs icon and was able to create a document.

Google Docs offers a complete set of web applications in a form somewhat similar to Microsoft Office suite. The program offers spread sheets, word document sheets, presentation software, and other helpful organization tools such as a calender. Documents can be shared among collaborators that have Internet access. Documents can also be hyper-linked to give users the feel of a web page and accessibility to the Internet. This feature is a distinct improvement over older software document programs.

As an administrator, using Google Docs as a facilitator would possibly benefit all that are involved. For example, if administrators were required to develop, plan, and give instructions for a new program, they could use this to develop what they wanted to teach others. The key points could be included into this document.

Impact on Education

The usefulness of Web 2.0 on education and learning is remarkable. The impact is that there are initiatives of Education 2.0 and Learning 2.0 as well as Business 2.0. Education has a great opportunity to expand greatly through the use of collaborative tools such as WebQuest that help students form teams that can be used to guide the exploring, gathering, and analysis of small student learning group.

A WebQuest is a scaffolded learning structure that uses links to essential resources on the
World Wide Web and an authentic task to motivate students' investigation of an openended
question, development of individual expertise, and participation in a group process
that transforms newly acquired information into a more sophisticated understanding. The
best WebQuests inspire students to see richer thematic relationships, to contribute to the
real world of learning, and to reflect on their own metacognitive processes. (March, 2007)

Possible Problems

As mentioned above, collaboration is a team effort. If you have one person doing all the work, it is not collaboration. Collaboration is two or more people working together to develop a plan or a paper.

References
March, T. (2007). Revisiting WebQuests in a Web 2 World. How developments in technology and pedagogy combine to scaffold personal learning. Interactive Educational Multimedia, Number 15 (October, 2007), 1-17

Wiki Webquests

2009-02-17T18:05:00.001-08:00

Collaboration tools online
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Wiki Webquests

View more presentations from Robin Young. (tags: webquests wiki)

Online Image Editing

2009-02-14T08:55:00.000-08:00

I selected an editable image from Sumo Paint
and altered the image using the paint program.

Olpc Online SlideShow Presentation

2009-02-13T14:27:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Olpc

View more presentations from joehall45. (tags: olpc poverty)

Online Slideshow

2009-02-13T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is my online slide-show. It discusses the bold initiative of OLPC in addressing poverty and the opposition it faces from major corporations.

Group Collaboration

2009-02-13T00:46:00.000-08:00

Collaboration is a distinct process that requires a purpose and coordination of resources, responsibilities, and purpose to be effective. I added a YouTube clip, of Clay Shirky: Institutions vs. collaboration. This is also a widget on the right sidebar.
He discusses the need for a feature or artifact that must accompany an assignment for collaboration to be effective. In education the WebQuest format is a good example of how to effectively produce a sense of teamwork on a collaborative assignment. This valuable tool was actually developed prior to the advent of Web2.0, but serves nicely as a collaboration tool.
Another important consideration of educators using the Internet as a resource in collaboration is the need to model and provide scaffolding of effective collaborative behaviors. Scaffolding involves the teacher providing input as the student attempts to accomplish a behavior.

Web Apps Explored

2009-02-09T00:51:00.000-08:00

Web Applications are changing how business conduct their activities, how people connect socially, and how they learn. Web applications are provided through online services such as Google and Yahoo, using browser features to execute the application, assisted by such features as Flash and Java to facilitate the transfer of information.

This transforming technology is reshaping some important aspects of our lives by decreasing the amount of money and equipment that the end-user must spend on software and hardware and frees the user to search the Internet resources for information needed to enrich their learning, understanding, and quality of life. This is especially advantageous for schools, school districts, and their students because less is better. Schools can now focus on the technology of accessibility not maintaining excessive licensing fees for software that must be frequently upgraded.

Students are able to focus on learning skills associated with using web applications and the increased ability to create documents online for sharing, collaboration, and creating solutions for their betterment. Students may enrich their lives by communicating with a global network of learners and mentors who will propose challenging questions and offer insightful solutions to perplexing problems.

Web Apps

2009-02-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

The next two weeks appear to be quite challenging as we study web applications. The Flowgram application is especially nice. It is relatively easy to put together and incorporates audio and visual content creation and production.
The Flowgram introducing lesson 3,Web 2.0 technology that Dr. Luck is quite informative and the voice quality of the narrator is excellent. This is a good example of both the product and the process.

How can a leader of instructional technology use a blog?

2009-02-06T00:47:00.000-08:00

Blog sites are the ideal way to create content, communicate information, collaborate with others and create a focused web presence. A leader in instructional technology will learn to incorporate Web 2.0 and Learning 2.0 methods into one location.

The demand for graphics, content, video and music by bloggers worldwide has led to a vast amount of web applications to be developed for free usage on a wide variety of programs. Most of the application programs are written in HTML, XHTML, Flash, and other media enhancements, along with an assortment of widgets the can be imported into the blog.

A magazine that I recently purchased that is written for web site developers, has a majority of its space dedicated to developing application programs that are useful to blog site inclusion. Blogging is a worldwide activity that has high visibility and a constantly developing infrastructure.

The educator that seeks to employ instructional technology and desires maximum impact and visibility of educational methods in a high-tech world is best served by a well designed blog site.

2009-02-05T00:14:00.000-08:00

Currently taking classes in Education 5612 Maintenance and Management and Educational Videography. These are the last two classes that I need to graduate except for the EDUC 6005 Final Project, this summer.
This semester is quite interesting studying web applications as they pertain to educational technology. The class is producing a Technopedia Wiki for collaborating about the latest technical advances in education.

Summary

2008-10-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

The 23 thing project is quite interesting, challenging, and enjoyable. Learning about the availability of Web 2.0 productivity sites and being able to apply this new technology to improve classroom projects and assignments is an invaluable asset to me as a teacher.

This class definitely provides a push for class room bound educators to keep up with the latest developments in learning technology. I consider this project to be a high quality educational project that can be replicated in the classroom.

I have certainly learned quite a bit in this class so far and I will be able to utilize this in my classes.

Thing 19

2008-10-12T18:28:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what is going on with the system, several items that I posted yesterday and viewed online are gone today. I enjoy using TeacherPop in professional communications with other teachers. This web ring allows for both formal and informal communications between teachers as well as a storage portal for videos and photos.

Flowgram

2008-10-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

I finally followed the right instructions and was able to post my first educational flowgram. I find it hard to believe that Flowgrams are free. I believe I would pay a subscriber fee, but I am not complaining about the price. This two week process has been quite a memorable learning experience. Flowgrams are an excellent multimedia tool that is easy to utilize in the production of quality educational content in the classroom.

The Flowgram is the more effective teaching tool when compared to the visual PowerPoint presentation that I created last week. I certainly enjoyed the no words rule, it provided the opportunity to think outside the English language box. I carefully chose images and symbols to convey the best meaning possible; however, adding narration increased the likelihood of retention. I chose images that improved the vitality of the message by portraying the content. The Flowgram development website adds a second dimension for learning, and that is audio. Some people learn better when they see and hear the message together.

I teach a business communications class, and assigned my students the task of creating a Flowgram for a fictitious business of their choosing. I will find out next week how well I communicated the assignment.

I will be using Flowgrams in class and online in the near future. This is certainly a Web 2.0 feature of great potential to benefit educators.

Thing 23

2008-10-12T08:11:00.004-07:00

The creative commons is a not-for-profit chartered group that allows artist and publishers protect their intellectual property that has been posted online. The originator ownes the work and creative commons provides basic copyright protection, but allows for usage in a non-profit. educational setting.

Thing 20

2008-10-12T08:11:00.003-07:00

I visited the YouTube website and viewed videos concerning Web 2.0 applications in education. I have used YouTube and iTunes in my classes to supplement educational materials in the classroom.
The YouTube video I watched was titled Collaborative Technology and Engaging the Campus 2008 Panel Session: Learning 2.0: Making Sense of the explosion of Web 2.0 tools and their relevance and consequence in Higher Education Panelists

Thing 21

2008-10-12T08:11:00.001-07:00

I have toured the Animoto website and started the video clip, but I am having some technical problems. I used my digital camera to create a 30 second video clip, and uploaded it to my computer. The Animoto site recommends that all video clips be resized and gives several free resize programs. I have tried to download one of them but cannot complete the task due to insufficient memory. I tried to upload directly to the website, but the video is in api format that is not compatable with Animoto. I am continuing to work on that problem.

Thing 22

2008-10-12T08:10:00.005-07:00

Podcasts and Flowgrams are quite similar and are beneficial in education because it allows for a multimedia approach to learning. These programs allow for images to be displayed with other forms of input to be added including narration, sound clips, and music.

Thing 19

2008-10-12T08:10:00.003-07:00

Social networking is a growing phenomana worldwide, I have friends who are active in several different social networking sites.

Thing 18

2008-10-12T08:10:00.001-07:00

Social networking is changing American culture as well as those of other countries. The positive side of social networking is the virtual nature of the beast. People can easily meet and exchance information, create a virtual persona, and be creative. My school blocks all access to MySpace and YouTube.

The downside to social networking is the tendency of some people to attempt to use this technology to exploit others, gain illegal contact, and over represent themselves. It has led some to observe that the photos posted to these accounts are inappropriate and simetimes illegal. I read recently of a 17 year old boy who was convicted of engaging in child pornography because he posted a photo of his ex-girl friend on the web after they broke up.

I have discussed this behavior in some of my college writing classes. I observed that society is changing because what parents may deem inappropriate, such as nude photos being posted on the web, teens find socially acceptable. The social web sites allow teens to escape social censoring as occurs at the movies for self-imposed rules of society. Most of my students agree that social websites allow for activities that were disallowed a few years ago to transpire up to several millions of times per week. It can be argued that the Web is their electronic source of self-worth.

I set up a MySpace account several years ago, I also have a Twitter account as well. As a male teacher, I do not have students as friends; although, several female instructors have established MySpace accounts and use them to check in on students and to be available. I have no interst in such contact because I believe that it could lead to misunderstanding and allogations of unfair or unethical communications between males and females. My wife is very uncomfortable with this idea as well.

Thing 17

2008-10-12T08:09:00.001-07:00

The use of tags to create a learning trail is a useful idea for Web 2.0 users. I logged on to the class portal page at Del.icio.us and explored some of the articles and features. I signed up for a learning blogsite for a student development class that I teach.

Of the sites visited for this activity. I preferred Del.icio.us over Furl and Ma.gnolia due to my experiences with del.icio.us. I like the lay-out of the site. Due to the ease of understanding site instructions, I believe that students will enjoy the use of digital online technology to locate research and educational information for use in learning.

Parents may have to learn yet another skill, but should benefit from the process and be able to relate to their child or children better.

Educators will benefit from this technology by giving their students two vital lessons in one class. This is a good learning activity in which the students can learn by a hands-on approach, and explore exciting topics that are current and relevant.

Thing 16

2008-10-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

I went to the Zoho site for project management and signed up for one free project. I am setting this project for completing my capstone project for the instructional technology project. Major activities include producing a quicktime video, developing a mobi educational website for cell phone browsers, and developing a flash plugin for my wellness education site.

Thing 14

2008-10-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

For the relational programs, I chose Gliffy and Bubbl.us. I perfer mindmapping over flow charts. Both programs could be useful in classroom settings. Flow charts like at Gliffy help teachers or students define a distinct set of steps and options to be considered along the conceptual pathway. I teach a business communications class, and can use gliffy to demonstrate concepts such as how business decisions are made.

The Bubble.us program helps to show relations between complex concepts. When I teach healthcare, I could create mindmaps to show relationships among forms of immunity. There are several factors that contribute to immune responses, and using Bubbl.us I was able to create a basic interaction chart.

Web based applications are fun and can be used in presentations. One of my earliest discoveries was a free graphing program, Create a graph from NCSE, I have used it in PowerPoint graphs for class projects. It is easy to use and creates graphs at no costs in a variety of styles: pie, bar-graph, X-Y. It is great fun, and can be edited as needed. Students seem to love this great program on the web.
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx

Thing 15

2008-10-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

Schools can use wikis for a wide variete of purposes. One example is the Princton Public Library which is a collabrative activity to inform patrons of library functions and write online book reviews. Library Review offers an index at the beginning of the wiki to allow users to navigate quickly to a specific topic

Another such website is wikipedia.org, which is quite popular as an online information site. One drawback to wikis is that there is not complete control over information submitted, but is a popular way to trade information on the Internet.

I have written over 100 articles for wikipedia. It is easy to use. I wrote both medical and historical articles, including several about famous Clarksvillians. My first exposure to wikis was to wikipedia. I was viewing the Clarksville, Tennessee section and noticed the names of several people that had no biographical information. I had started writing online for a now defunct dot com website profiling the history of Clarksville. I was taking US History from Dr. Dixon at APSU in 1999, and was interested in helping promote Clarksville.

My first submission to Wikipedia was about Gustav Henry, who once lived in the APSU Pace Alumni Center. I was immediately challenged by an online editor who stated that anyone of that significance would already be featured on Wikipedia. I persisted, and was able to provide enough proof to be allowed to finish my wiki submission. Later I wrote about other Clarksvillians like Ms. Runion, founder of the First Woman's Bank of Tennessee, in Public Square in 1919. I also wrote about Tennessee's frontiersman who rivaled Daniel Boone, his name was Kasper Mansker. The famous Tennessee educator, Joseph Killebrew who has a hall at APSU named in his memory is another person I submidded a brief biography about.

One of the longer bios that I submitted was about the major league pitcher, Hod Lisenbee from the area which is now Dover Crossing section of town as US 79 S branches off near the North Clarksville Kroger store. He attended APSU briefly in the early 1920s when it was still a teacher's college. Another athlete that attunded APSU that I wrote about was basketball star "Fly" Williams, whose championship seasons at the university led to the construction of the Dunn Center.

The first wiki that I created as a teacher for use in my classes was Medical Terminology. I did not try to cover every topic, but provided some great references that I had gathered over the years of teaching the subject matter.

Thing 13

2008-10-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

I chose Zoho Writer to create an account, and found this to be an excellent site for producing online word processing documents. The features are comprehensive and allow for numerous presentation formats and the use of color and bolded text.

Also, the Sun Microsystems suite of free programs is very beneficial. The set of programs is called Star OpenOffice, and can be downloaded for quick usage. The OpenOffice suite of programs includes a word-processing program, a spreadsheet program, and a presentation program that have the look and feel of MS Office 2003. The files are similar to the MS 2003 office as well as capable of being saved in MS Word, Excell, and PowerPoint format.

I teach English writing and have several students that do not have MS Office on their computers at home. They are required to create one presentation to be presented via PowerPoint. I had a student that brought her laptop to school, but was concerned that OpenOffice Presenter would not work if she saved to to her thumb-drive and tried to run it from my desktop computer and into the PowerPoint projector. I reviewed her storage options and noticed the Save As command that included MS PowerPoint 2003 as an option. I told her to store the presentation in MS PowerPoint 2003, and it played perfectly.

https://cds.sun.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/CDS-CDS_SMI-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewProductDetail-Start?ProductRef=SO9-BETA-MP-G-F@CDS-CDS_SMI

Thing 12

2008-10-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

Google Tools has been a great help to me. I bought a Blackjack II phone and had little exposure to Google then, but soon started downloading specialty Google programs on my cell phone and laptop. I like the free stuff like SpyDoctor, Open Office, and maps programs.

Recently, I was driving to Douglasville, Georgia just recently to attend a funeral. The free maps program acted as a GPS system. As I was driving, I called for the address of the funeral home, and entered it directly into my phone which has a GPS chip. While driving, the Maps program located my current position and provided turn by turn navigation to the funeral home. I was impressed, I have been solicitated to purchase a GPS program and pay an additional $99.00 access fee. Now, I realize that Maps is saving me $99.00 per month.

Thing 11

2008-10-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

The RSS reader is a great technology tool. These feeds can provide specific information about a wide variety of topics. I have subscribed to serveal blogs including the EdTech Journeys. I located this blog using EduBlog's Award Winners 2006 which was easy to use. I tried to use Feedster, but had trouble logging on. It was not as user friendly.

For the motivated teacher, having a set of RSS feeds is like having a research staff that is constantly scouring the net for information. It can be used by students and teachers in forming a collabrative project on a topic of choice, such as the use of Mayo Clinic's RSS feed for health and fitness.

RSS feeds are easy to set up and contain good content, if carefully selected. I found www.ask.com to be an easy to use RSS feed search location. A good RSS feed can serve as a focus site for content. This allows a teacher to assign an online topic and not be concerned about students surfing to unrelated sites, provided they use the authorized RSS feed locations.

Thing 10

2008-10-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

The use of RSS feeds is an invaluable tool for tracking new information and news items of personal intrest. I started subscribing to RSS feeds two years ago, after my wife purchased a computer for me at Christmas. My older laptop was too slow, and crashed often, so it was time for a change.

I chose Google Reader for my choice of readers, and subscribed to several health and education RSS feeds. I like the fact that I can choose specific RSS feeds and receive up to date information on those topics. RSS feeds can be assigned by teachers as supplemental reading for students, and professional development.

Teachers can use this information in wikis and in blogs.

Thing 9

2008-09-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

Using image generators stretches the imagination and challenges the intellect. Creating a message that will be well received and spark some initiative can be an education in itself. When I first retired from the Navy, I spent some time in marketing. I sold yellow-page advertisements to businesses that had never advertised in the phone book before.

I would interview the owner, ask him or her what made them unique to the market. I would request further information, and within 20 - 30 minutes, I had a working ad for the customer. Now I am using some of the same skills to create educational comics.

This exercise takes me back to the days of glory when I had to think on my feet. Getting students into a pattern can be difficult. I teach English writing in a traditional classroom setting and online. I hear lots of stories of the paper that got away. On the first day of class, I review my technology standards using the syllabus. I try to discuss how to start a document, how to save the document and how to select the correct format, and how to transport files.

On the day that the first paper is due, I have about a fifty percent failure rate, because instructions are not followed. Some older students have never used a computer, and the younger ones just do not pay attention. I believe that I can use comics to make the point a little better. I look forward to using this in class in the near future.

Thing 8

2008-09-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

Yahoo is certainly attempting to rival Microsoft in its variety of services. It has staved off two takeover bids by Microsoft this year. Flickr is a great photo web-sharing and blog site. It certainly bears the marks of a Web 2.0 entity. Flickr has several application sites that enhance the digital photography enthusiast.

I used the slideshow feature at BigHugeLabs to create a series of some of my better portraits. I selected a set of photos from my account and edited it to create the following slide show.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/slideshow.php?id=55506

Using the Mosaic production tool, I created a mosaic of flora. All photos were taken in either Tennessee or Kentucky by me within the past year. I took several photos at Patties 1880s Settlement in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. Another group of photos were taken at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. The two photos in the bottom left row were taken in the Austin Peay greenhouse in the Sundquist Science Center. I called the phone number posted by the entrance of the greenhouse and told the professor that I was a grad student. She allowed me to spend about one hour in the greenhouse. The single blooming lily pad is in the pond in my front yard, the group of lily pads was at a museum near Louisville, Kentucky. I captured the two bottom right photos in the early morning in my back yard after a heavy frost.

Please follow this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29989483@N00/2895955381/

I also created a photo jigsaw using a cloud formation photographed about one-half hour before sunset in the rear parking lot at work, Draughons Junior College, Clarksville, Tennessee. The photo jigsaw puzzle can be viewed by scrolling down to the bottom of the web page.

Mashups do provide creative imagery to help focus student attention to the topic being presented. As a writing instructor, I can use Flickr photos and mosaics to stimulate student thinking and assign descriptive writing assignments. I believe that there are numerous training and educational opportunities that can be used in the new School 2.0.

Thing 7

2008-09-28T02:08:00.000-07:00

I took the Multimedia class last fall, and was introduced to the world of digital photography. I purchased a small digital automatic 5 MP camera and commenced my latest hobby/obsession of capturing images in full color photos. I had owned several traditional cameras starting with a Brownie, box camera when I was about six years old. I even owned an old Kodak Polaroid camera in high school. But as time went on, I lost my interest in photography. I looked forward with some degree of skepticism to the digital photography segment with Photo Shop CS3. By the end of the class, I was addicted to my new skill set.

I had established a Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/29989483@N00/) about a year before taking the class, but had no interest in contributing any photos. I read about Flicker in an article about a school teacher in Texas that had been featured in Flicker. But, by the end of my 5616 class, I had started making contributions to my account. I continued over the Christmas break, and by the following February, I had submitted over 200 photos. One of my projects became taking photos of sunsets in the Clarksville area. I am posting one of my favorite sunset photos taken in Saint Bethlehem in January 2008. I carefully photo shopped the photo to try to restore the photo to the same colors that I recalled during that sunset.

I made notes about the colors and the full spectrum that I observed. It is one of the most popular photos that I have posted on Flickr. I have developed some good prospective professional contacts and used a photo taken by another Flickr member in a follow on class. I was able to contact the photographer and obtain her permission to share it with the class.

One associated website that I have used successfully and then reposted to Flickr is www.dumper.com which allows for some artistic manipulations to a photo and alter the image in creative patterns. I altered some colorful photos of flowers, silos, and koi from a friend's pond in north Clarksville. I have posted some examples of Dumpr creations as well.

I have also incorporated two mapping programs and a photo tracking program on my profile page to give a more professional look to my profile.

Thing 6

2008-09-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

The Web 2.o Awards Site contains many interesting options. I have previously used several other of the listed websites, so I chose www.digg.com to explore. I joined the website and followed the link in my email account back to the members section. Digg.com allows for searches in numerous topic areas. It allows for blogging, reading, and searches for podcasts.

I like the flexibility of the website and searched for several topics including technology on the web, and a particular favorite of mine, the dot mobi web. As an instructional technology student, I plan to develop an educational website using the mobi high end user applications program for people like me who carry a web-enabled cell phone. Many websites now offer content in the mobile phone format.

Once I purchased my phone, the Blackjack II, I quickly learned that many websites are not mobile phone friendly, and will not allow for efficient searching or displays. I started using my phone to search for topics and used mobi, as a primary search variable. I was quickly directed to several high quality websites that offer the mobi format. I saved each one that I liked in my favorites section of the phone.

My favorite search engines for educational purposes are www.ask.com and the new site, www.cuil.com, that offers valid content over advertising promotional .com sites located by Google. Using these websites I investigated this mobi style website format. I believe that in the future that students will use their phones to view podcasts, watch PowerPoint with Flash multimedia, download assignments, perform keyboarding functions, create graphic content, do quizzes, and upload assignments to the school server all by using an educational application on their cell phones using mobi technology.

I viewed a PowerPoint type presentation that I accessed using Digg.com that illustrated and explained the technology that drives Digg. I next searched for a podcast that I may consider using with my students in public speaking class. The Digg program quickly located an interesting selection, and I was able to access the podcast. I listened to the CEO of a highly successful company describe how he overcame his personal anxieties associated with his duties as a public speaker as I scanned MSN for the latest economic news. I was able to multitask two items at once.

Next, I used Digg to locate a current political blog from Newsweek.com, and once I completed the article, I waded into the fray with a blog of my own. I linked the blog back to my Blogger website and my personal account. The link was quick and easy and I was able to complete my thoughts in about twenty minutes.

My discovery tour of Digg was interesting, challenging, and enjoyable. I searched, learned, and debated using my blogging skills.

Thing 5

2008-09-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

The next level of interactive learning has arrived. With Web 2.0, the web is no longer a high-tech billboard, it is now capable of creating multimedia experiences in a relatable manner. WEB 1.0 was awe inspiring in its inception, but began to stale as demands for a fresher approach began. Enter the new world of interactive communications and user designed web pages. For many, it began with a guy named Tom and a social phenomena named MySpace. In a short time, web developers were designing a wide range of plug-in tools to enhance the social network. Suddenly, it seemed that everyone was demanding "mini-htlm" animations that appeared to blow kisses or characters that dance a jig.

The obvious demand for more applications and better interactive programs transformed the web from a messenger to a digital meeting place for singles to meet, friends to chat, shoppers to explore, and students to extract meaning for their latest assignment. Today, a multitude of websites offer interactive games, artwork, digital enhancement, web publication programs, and a variety of educational offerings.

The interactive characteristics of the new web, coupled with the ability of people to create content for the web and post or publish their content to the Internet are all part of Web 2.0. The Atomic Learning link provides a multimedia podcast of the development of learning media from the one-room schoolhouse to the information age and a read-only web containing information Web 1.0, so called due to software publishing terminology, to a new information age featuring a variety of options from blogs, to wikis, podcasting, social networking, tagging and RSS options on a read-write web called Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 offers a rich variety of options to educators to create and publish meaningful classroom content to reinforce more traditional classroom models of lecture and group activities. In his blog, Steve Hargadon champions this new concept in his work titled, "Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education," by presenting his top ten list of the obvious advantages of this method of learning. He highlights the wave of new information, the expansion of online publishing, and the trend towards participation. He optimistically declares that as we expand our knowledge, we should immediately improve our experience by writing about these experiences and publish it on the web.

He declares that social networking presents a vast variety of learning and discussion avenues that students may explore including this excerpt: "from consuming to producing, from authority to transparency, from expert to facilitator, and from the lecture to the hallway..." He proclaims that learning is experiencing a revolution in the new Web 2.0 environment.

The new Web 2.0 expands how teachers can teach on a level that students will naturally gravitate towards, it represents the dawning of a new age in learning.

Thing 4

2008-09-27T04:23:00.000-07:00

Commenting in a blog is the skill set required to successfully ride the interactive web wave. The ability to comment in an interactive online setting is a desirable trait and a provocative learning tool. Much as the learning contract requires goals, reflection, production, and completion; so the record of student interaction must include the same set of writing skills. School 2.0 is the application of creative learning in an interactive and provocative environment, it relies on the input of teachers who can relate knowledge in a real-time environment.

Intelligent blogging requires teachers, driven to express curriculum to a tech driven clientele. Concise and provocative analysis of a proposed problem is the challenge for the teacher of today. As technology changes, so does the medium and the imagery. Effective commenting brings focus and perspective to the lesson. It provides a landmark of learning progress and authenticates learning achievements.

The educated commenter is able to express the problem in simple terms and present evidence that demonstrates a depth of understanding of the problem, and propose an acceptable solution. Effective writing represents a complex form of communication in which a problem is carefully presented, various options are explored and an effective solution is proposed. The writer assumes the role of a defense attorney. The effective writer is skilled his or her case selection, developing a reasonable defense, using the available evidence, and persuade the jury to acquit the client.

Case dismissed.

The same skill sets are employer by the writer in proposing a solution to the problem.

Thing 3

2008-09-27T00:22:00.000-07:00

It is important for teachers to post comments to the web. The Internet has become more useful to educators, by allowing for feedback, facts, and ideas to be presented on the web in the form of Web Logs or Blogs.

The specific benefit of writing is its relative permanence and serves as a record of our growth in learning. Writing forces the learner to focus on the subject, make evaluations of the subject matter, and to draw conclusions.

Writing is a complex neuromuscular process of receiving messages, decoding the messages in the brain, correlating and evaluating the message and reducing the process to written form. It allows teachers to collaborate, question, and present information for further discussion and evaluation.

Blogging is an important skill for teachers to develop for education purposes, because vast amount of educational materials are being transferred to the Internet.

Thing 2

2008-09-26T00:37:00.000-07:00

The blog site exercise was somewhat time consuming and challenging. I did enjoy the Pod cast "Seven and one-half Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners." This is the first time that I have set up a blog through Google. I do have a Twitter blog and had a MySpace about three years ago.
Creating the avatar was enjoyable, but I did not discover the instructions for exporting the avatar until I used the screen capture tool and imported the image into the blog.
The selection of screen name was fun, I used to go by JJ, so I added it as my screen name. The title I chose Max Time because this class offers maximum opportunity to learn about visual literacy.

Thing 1

2008-09-26T00:15:00.000-07:00

Lifelong learning is a natural instinct for me. I Spent 20 years in the Navy, and have been involved in training for 35 years, and counting. I tend to be a self-directed learner, and love to explore new topics. My strongest areas are learning about history and geography, and my weakest area is math.

My favorite topics in history are US history and Russian history. I spent 20 years in the Navy studying Russian ships and submarines, and took a course in Russian history in my undergrad work at APSU. My travels took me around the world, and I would study the charts and maps for each section of the globe that I traveled through.

My current interests are in becomming savvy in web based technology, website design, and instructional technology.