Week 15. Networks of Personalized Learning --- Final Week

The Reflection of the Week:
Welcome to final week of this semester. In this week, we are going to present our final projects about the course. I am sure I am going to see brilliant projects, cool YouTube videos, and great wiki chapters, which make me excited. These presentations will provide to look at web 2.0 technologies from their perspectives.
The topic of this week is networks of personalized learning. Web 2.0 technologies offer great opportunities to teach and learn beyond classrooms, schools and even the borders and countries. People don't have to be tied any physical place or specific time and want to be more flexible and accessible to what they want.
I am not sure that web 2.0 technologies make people more social or not. I was thinking of emerging technologies like Facebook, twitter, blogs make people to confine them in front of computers and take away them from communities. But the Horizon Report (2010) says there is no negative impact of emerging technologies to make people unsocial. The report says people who use them more active to participate in activities in communities. These results made me surprised.
Emerging technologies have been shifting from teacher centered to student-centered learning in our education. I think emerging technologies enable and support both individual learning and collaborative learning. The rapid innovations and advances in web 2.0 technologies, people can communicate and work with people from different countries via blog, wikis, Facebook, twitters, etc. Also, people have a various opportunities to work and learn what they want individually with YouTube, TeacherTube, and other free open sources and tools provided on the web.
Finally, I have completed my reflections about this course, R685. I believe creating and using this blog really help to rethink, remind and criticize on what we did and have learned on the course. I would like to thank my professor, Dr. Bonk, Dr. Xiaojing, my critical friend, Hesham, and the other classmates.

The Example of the Week:
I have a lot of example to inform as you know: Wikis, Blogs, Podcasting, Webcasting, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TeacherTube,…………..

The Quote of the Week:
"The world is open with web technologies." Curt Bonk
Final quote is from Dr. Bonk. I chose it because this course show me the world is getting smaller and flat with web technologies.

The Picture of the Week:

I started with this meaningful picture of Dr. Bonk to my blog and wanted to finis with the same picture.
I hope you enjoy this blog.

Week 14. Podcasting

The reflection of the Week:
   Is there anybody hear me? You cannot hear me but read my ideas because this is not a podcast. Are you ready to talk about podcasting? Podcasting allows user to share their ideas verbally via internet. First, podcasters record their voice and then put them on the internet to share with people.
   If we look at using podcasting in education, we can recognize that they can be used for various educational purposes. For example, as some of my classmates (like Hesham) have been doing, podcasts can be used to reflect what we have learned from the course. This is useful to rethink, remind, and comprehend what we learned on the course and I think with this way, we can have permanent and solid information about the course. Also, they can be used to record lectures, student projects, assignments, and interviews.
   Some strongly recommend using podcasting for language learning. I believe they increase listening and speaking skill for podcasters and listeners who want to learn second language.  I am not sure about podcasting is useful for language learning for every language learners. I have an experience about using podcasting to learn language. English is my second language and when I was in Intensive English Program, my teachers recommend to listen podcasting and radios. After trying to listen podcasting, I realized podcasting was not an effective way to learn second language because 5 minutes after starting listening to podcast, I was falling asleep. : So podcasting could not work for me to learn English.

The Example of the Week:
Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. This can be used to create podcasting. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

The Quote of the Week:
Podcasting offers to extend universities' educational reach more than it offers to improve education itself..."      David J. Malan

The Picture of the Week: 

With podcasting, you can make your voice hear anybody around the world via web.

(Source:http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/09/2/a_business_model_for_podcasting.htm)

Week 13. Mobile Devices and Learning

The Reflection of the Week:

   The topic of this week is mobile, wireless and ubiquitous learning. Also, we have a great speaker, Dr. Paul Kim from Stanford University, who has a numerous of work about mobile devices and works in different countries such as India, Mexico, Palestine, Rwanda, etc. He works about how mobile devices can facilitate learning and be useful for students who live in rural areas and have no opportunities to have access and use technology.

   Let’s talk about the benefits of mobile devices. For me, the biggest benefit of mobile devices is that they can be used in bad economic, social and political issues. Let me give example, one of Dr. Kim article talks about Palestinian students in West Bank. He states that the students do not have access any technology and they have electric and water only two hours four a day. Mobile devices were provided to these students and Israeli students use and create their interactive storytelling. Mobile devices allowed them create their stories without any technologies like internet, web, and electric. Finally, these both Palestinian and Israeli students share their stories with each other, which should be useful to improve mutual understanding and make contributions to peace between two countries. Thus, mobile devices allow student to learn beyond classrooms and even the borders.

   However, there are some points needing to be improved on mobile devices. First, there are no common operating standards created and accepted by companies for different kind of mobile devices. Battery is also a kind of barrier. Also, mobile devices should need to be more functional and usable. From perspective of learning and teaching, new studies are needed and should be conducted to integrate mobile devices into pedagogy in order to increase effectiveness of mobile devices.

The example of the Week:

There are a lot of mobile devices to use such as IPhone, BlackBerry, kindle, and recently IPad. I heard that these mobile devices decrease the selling of PC’s and laptops. 

The quote of the Week:

The Future is Here; It's Just Not Widely Distributed, Yet.

                        William Gibson

The Future is Not Widely Distributed. Therefore, it is Not Here, Yet.

                                                                      Paul Kim

The Picture of the Week:

Mobile devices provide collaborative learning between students. This picture shows two students using mobile devices.

(Source:http://ldt.stanford.edu/~educ39107/paulk/NCTI_2.pdf)