Social Networking Sites Blog

1. Reflections on the process of learning about the tool
Facebook
I created an account on Facebook prior to starting this course. The process was pretty straight forward, I was invited by a friend (or many friends) of mine to join Facebook. I entered all my account information and started uploading my pictures and tried to get a feel of the network. This is usually the best part from me, personalizing my page. Even though I was reluctant to move from Hi5 (which I’m still a member of) to Facebook, I looked forward to personalizing my page. I was disappointed as my Facebook page did not allow me to change my colors and background and give my page a little flair. I soon got over it though - at times you just accept the things you cannot change.

Ning
I wondered to myself which Ning I would join since my particular interest was not in TL. So I googled ‘Jamaica Ning’ and the list came up with Jamaican Diaspora Ning. I went straight to join that network as I was always hearing about the Jamaican Diaspora while I lived in Jamaica. At first I was able to view the different blogs and pictures and posts made by members on the page, but I did not have access to a homepage. I then signed up and was quite surprised when I got a message that they would inform me if I qualified to be a member. I don’t know what kind of checks they did (if any) but the next day I got an email that informed me I was approved as a member. I logged in with my username and password and uploaded my profile picture. I had now become a member of the Jamaican Diaspora Ning.

2. Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning
Ning and Facebook (FB) offer slightly different things for me as a person, subsequently I do things differently on these sites.

Relationship
FB is more of a personal space for me and I use it differently from Ning. For one, I only have my friends on FB. I don’t invite people that I don’t know to be a part of my network of friends, neither do I invite my friends’ friends that I know but do not consider my friends. I have connected and reconnected with friends from church, high school, college and university – and of course I have some family members there too. My high school classmates are currently planning a reunion online. FB gives me the feeling of nostalgia and family and that’s one of my main motivations for having an account. With Ning, I am in a network of mostly strangers, except from a few of my friends that I invited to join after I became a member. The relationship factor is different in Ning, while we (users) may not be friends we share a commonality of being Jamaicans united “worldwide for our common good.” Persons upload pictures of events that take place in Jamaica and that is what peaks my interest, being current with what is taking place at home.

Posts
My posts on FB tend to be more of a personal nature. I find out how my friends are doing or wish them happy birthday and at times engage them in a live chat. I hardly ever update ‘What’s on your mind’. Frankly, I don’t have the time to be speaking constantly about my frame of mind or say what I am currently doing - it is just too much of a time consuming activity. When you post, then most times you end up in a dialogue with your friends commenting or asking questions and you need to be courteous enough to respond. With so much work on my ‘plate’ now, most times I am just a lurker when I log on to FB. In the holidays I will engage more, just not now. Even though I am not on as frequent as I would like to be, most of my friends understand that I have not deserted them, it’s just that my focus is elsewhere now.

I am yet to post a comment or write a blog on Ning. Firstly, it’s because I am fairly new to the group. I originally thought I just needed to be a part of 2 social networks, I didn’t know that one had to specifically be a Ning, so I recently joined. Secondly, I have a feeling that whatever I post will be scrutinized by people that I don’t know. Thirdly, because the nature of the network is more formal than informal, so I prefer to read for now until I have something valuable to add. The thing I enjoy the most about the Ning that I am apart of is BlogTalkRadio. There are different feature topics and persons who are interviewed engage in dialogue with the hosts- there is something about hearing your own accent that gives me that ‘at home’ feeling.

Although FB has the functionality of creating fan pages, Ning provides the avenue for persons and groups to unite around a common theme. Even though only my friends are in FB we have varied interests, interests that are maybe best captured on a network like Ning. As a graduate student or a professional, I would prefer to create a Ning, I think it would be easier to disband a Ning, if intended to use it in a committee fashion, or it would be easier to leave a Ning, if your profession changed and you were moving to another network. I don’t like the idea of putting people on your FB friend list only to remove them shortly after.

3. Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning
The use of SNS continues to generate much discussion in the educational sector (Saunders, 2008). While some teachers are thinking of ways in which they could enhance the teaching learning environment, others comment on the distracting and distasteful flavour that it could have leave within the classroom. These are just some of the considerations of SNSs where teaching and learning is concerned.

Psychosocial benefits – “Tynes(2007) highlights the psychosocial benefits of SNS, these benefits includes the provision of social cognitive skills such as perspectives taking, social support, autonomy and intimacy and the facilitation of identity exploration. Students are able to develop certain communication skills as they interact with their friends and other students. While younger students may seek to explore their identities, adult learners are more likely to develop and strengthen cognitive skills as they engage in discussion on topical issues and are less intimidated when sharing their views. Griffith and Liyanage (2008) states “the sharing of information amongst groups can have a positive effect...academics are learning more about the students they teach simply by viewing the students profiles on SNS”(p.78).

Networking – Seckor (2005) conducted a case study for the London School of Economics and Political Science where they looked at the use of Facebook amongst librarians. It was noted that while many of the librarians joined FB for social reasons the application can overlap into their professional world when they promote library events. That is just one example as other SNSs are created explicitly for networking opportunities and career enhancements. Until I watched the SNS in plain English videos, I realized I had never really understood the networking aspect of FB and other SNSs. Maybe it is because I have never thought of using FB in the light that they mentioned. As I mentioned earlier in the blog, I use FB to stay in touch with family and friends, but never to forge new personal or professional ties. SNSs are meeting different needs for different kinds of people. I think teachers and adult learners are more likely to take advantage of this functionality of SNSs than would K-12 students. Whatever our motives are, the “forging of new ties” or “networking” seem to be the driving force behind the creation of SNSs.

Joining individuals of similar interest – SNSs bring people of similar interest together. For example, “Facebook users can join groups based on similar interests and can connect with each other through networks of friends.” (Coutts et al., 2007). The learning experience can be greatly enhanced when peers are given the freedom to share with each other in their ‘own’ space. A lot of informal learning takes place in these environments. Students and even teachers can belong to communities that address issues or events that they are passionate about and this can be a means of expanding one’s knowledge on a subject and engaging members in critical thinking.

Converging Selves – SNS can be a place where the different identities of a user merge. This can either work for or against members of the network, depending on the nature of their profession or the grade that they are in. In a study done by Saunders (2008) on pre-service teachers, many of them noted professionalism as an issue for them and ended up removing or editing their Facebook profiles once they became teachers. Saunders (2008) also noted “these teachers lives are in motion; teacher “selves” rub up against their young adult social selves, their sister selves. At the same time these young women’s identities are in flux, in motion between a college student and teacher.” While younger learners are less concerned with what they write on their wall in FB, adult learners/teachers have to be constantly gauging their conversation for their audience as individuals can be held liable for what the comments that they make on SNSs.

Safety issues – for many K-12 educators and administrators, internet safety is a topic of great concern. (Coutts et al., 2007). Information shared between SNS users can vary greatly; information can be collated and data mined for illegitimate use, resulting in students becoming victims of sexual predators or cyber bullying (Griffith & Liyanage, 2008). Safety will continue to be an issue in the Web2.0 world and teachers can share in the responsibility of educating students how to navigate safely within these environments. Appropriate use of discussion boards may be a starting point for teachers to encourage students to be respectful to their classmates when posting comments and responding to questions.

Notwithstanding the numerous benefits of teaching and learning within SNSs, teachers still have to contend with the blocking of popular SNS sites on campus along with the considerations that I mentioned above. While some universities have started using SNSs for improving pedagogy, others are still reviewing the research that has been done on them and are deciding if the challenges outweigh the benefits.

References
Coutts, J., Dawson, K., Boyer, J. & Ferdig, R. (2007). Will you be my friend? Prospective teachers’ use of Facebook and implications for teacher education. In R. Carlsen et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2007 (pp. 1937-1941). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

Griffith, S. & Liyanage, L. (2008). An introduction to the potential of social networking sites in education. Proceedings of the Emerging technologies Conference.

Saunders, S. (2008). The role of social networking sites in teacher education programs: A qualitative exploration. In K. McFerrin et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2008. Chesapeake, VA:AACE.

Seckor, J (2005). Case study 5: Libraries and Facebook. London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved from http://clt.lse.ac.uk/Projects/Case_Study_Five_report.pdf

Tynes, B. (2007). Internet safety gone wild? Sacrificing the educational and psychosocial benefits of online social environments. Journal of Adolescent Research. 22(6). Retrieved from http://jar.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/22/6/575

http://www.facebook.com/

http://jamaicandiaspora.ning.com/

Multimedia Post

1. Reflections on the process of learning about the tool
It was quite a simple task after I followed the trailfires and then went to visit the Animoto website. I watched some sample videos and then quickly created my user account. Creating the account was just as quick as when I created an account for my WikiRecipes. I had no difficulty navigating the site and following the steps in creating my video. I straightway went to Picasa 3 on my desktop and uploaded some of the pictures I had taken when I went to the Muttart Conservatory this past summer.

It was then time to move to step 2, adding the music. I had a lovely song that I wanted to use as for the background, but, when I got Animoto’s warning as to the copyright issues, I decided to choose from their list that they had available. So, I searched and searched until I found a song that was quite fitting with the theme of the pictures that I had uploaded. It was like searching for a diamond in the rough, but it was worth it. I chose the song Indescribable by Chris Tomlin. I had heard it once before, maybe about three weeks ago when I went to a worship service and I thought what a beautiful song that was describing God’s magnificent creation.

Anyway, after those two short steps, I hit the finalize button and waited a few minutes for the video to be created. The finalize button, did throw me off track though, for, as I watched the sample videos created with Animoto, I thought that the creator of the video (myself in this case) would be the one to choose the animation and slide transition that they wanted shown in the video. Alas, this was not the case; maybe that option is available after purchasing the space to create a full length video, although nothing on the website implies that. A few days have passed and I am still the only viewer of my Animoto video, so I decided to post it to my Facebook account; I am sure many of my friends who have noticed a marked decline in my status updates will be checking out the video even as I write. It was a great experience using Animoto, the two regrets I had were that I couldn’t do a free video that was longer than 30 seconds and that I wasn’t able to do the animation myself.



With regards to Voicethread, I can’t truly speak of the process of learning with the tool, even though I did create an account and explored the whole voicethread experience, it was incomplete. I had difficulties with separating the picture that I wanted to talk about and uploading an image that represented me. I first uploaded the picture of a sunset and talked about the picture for about two minutes, then I realized it was saved as my identity and not for the thread. So, I uploaded a picture of me – my identity, and then uploaded a set of sunset pictures. By this the vocal juices had stopped flowing so I just added a comment to the picture. I sent it to some of my friends, but since they haven’t commented on it, I figure I needed to have sent some explanation along with the thread; or maybe if I had sent the one that I had original voiced over talking about the sunset I would have evoked some response. Till then I am still learning about voicethreads.

2. Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning
Last week I started this discussion by saying "Of all the tools that we have been/will be introduced to in this course, I must say I am most familiar with wiki", this week I could say exploring multi-media has been most fun. While I do remember being informed of Animoto in a presentation, I must say that I am least familiar with the how to of Voicethreads. This week we explored multi-media sharing sites and all the bells and whistles that comes it.

As a student I would be less inclined to use Animoto as I just view it as delivering video and sound, which may not be suited for most of my school presentations. I remember an Animoto video that I viewed this week that was created by a academic conference organizer to give a feel of what the conference would be about. That has just caused me to think on how the future of conferences could be enhanced by Web2.0 technologies. Who knows, maybe five years down the road (or less), posters will be a thing of the past for academic conferences, and electronic boards with one or two minutes "research trailers" will be the norm. Voicethread would be more useful for me as a student. It can allow group members to engage in meaningful discussion on a topic or an issue. The ability to use multiple means of commenting makes Voicethread more inclusive and allows learners the flexibility of communicating in ways they feel most comfortable. In certain instances I would prefer using text to share my comments (as my voice does not sound like I thought it did), but in instances where I would have a lot of information to share with the group, commenting with audio may be the best option.

For sure Animoto comes in quite handy for creating and sharing videos of family and friends. The name Animoto is well suited as it gives some life to still pictures and uses sound to amplify them. I see how Voicethread too would be a great tool for me as an individual. I spoke last week of my high school reunion that is currently in the making with Facebook being the meeting ground. Since recently my classmates have been digging up old photos that we took while in high school and posting these pictures on their profile – which has generated many comments and laughs (lol). I think using Voicethreads to reminisce about some of these photos would be a way of capturing not just the past (our high school memories) but the present (our comments and present identities). I tried but didn’t find a way to embed Voicethreads in Facebook, but if it can work (which I am still researching) that’s the route I will take when I get a hold of my high school pictures after visiting Jamaica next January.


3. Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning
Multimedia, as defined by Wikipedia can either be a noun or an adjective, it “is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms”(Wikipedia, 2009); it is “the seamless digital integration of text, graphics, animation, audio, still images and motion video in a way that provides individual users with high levels of control and interaction. The evolution of Multimedia is a story of the emergence and convergence of these technologies” (Barabash & Kyllo, 2009). Wikipedia’s description of multimedia being a noun or an adjective has caused me to stop and think a while. In education circles multimedia is embraced as an adjective that describes what a student-centered classroom is all about. But then can all multimedia be described as multimedia, and are multimedia created equal? I would place multimedia on a continuum with the two anchors being passive and interactive.

Passive Multimedia
Shank (1994) relates how many educational software programs provide a passive experience for the students, as to a large extent, they mimic what occurs inside the classroom. He describes many of these programs as having a “page-turning architecture or “change channel” capabilities. Students were only required to press buttons (next, back or home) and that was as interactive as it got. Even with all the glitters of these programs the classroom still depicted a non student-centered approach as students would now for a fraction of the time, turn their attention from the teacher at the front of the classroom to the “multimedia” at the front of the classroom.

Since Shanks’ article has been written, great strides have been made in the functionality of educational software. Friedland, Hurst & Knipping (2008) posits “Web2.0 phenomena such as Youtube leads us to suspect that multimedia now will play an even greater significant role” than did earlier 1990s educational web technologies. While the tools of the early 1990s did include text, graphics, audio and animation, they for the most part lacked interactivity, thus prompting Shank’s description of the page-turning and change channel functionality of these programs. Shank(1994) further described “creating educationally effective multimedia programs means taking seriously the idea of learning by doing. Good educational software is active, not passive, and ensures that users are doing, not simply watching”.(p.69). This leads me to the next anchor of the multimedia continuum - interactive multimedia.

Interactive Multimedia
Vaughan (1998) gets to the heart of the matter stating "when you allow an end user -- the viewer of a multimedia project -- to control what and when the elements are delivered, it is interactive multimedia".(as cited in Neo & Neo, n.d., para. 2). When educational software within the classroom allows students to interact with the technology then this interaction will allow students to "learn by doing". That being said, interactive multi-media accommodate a number of learning styles that may be present in any one classroom.

In my opinion, Animoto is closer to the passive end of the continuum while Voicethread is closer to the interactive end. Voicethread allows the student (user) to interact with the technology and not just look, listen and learn. When I saw Alex’s Voicethread on a Halloween story, I immediately thought of how Voicethreads could be used for teaching foreign languages. His story was written in French and even though I could read the French (as I would English) the audio in the thread informed me of how to pronounce the words (which was somewhat different from English). Voicethread provides an avenue for not only formal but informal learning to take place, I didn’t notice there was someone in the window of Alex’s haunted house until someone else mentioned it.

On his website, Thomas Armstrong postulates "the theory of multiple intelligences also has strong implications for adult learning and development. Many adults find themselves in jobs that do not make optimal use of their most highly developed intelligences (for example, the highly bodily-kinesthetic individual who is stuck in a linguistic or logical desk-job when he or she would be much happier in a job where they could move around, such as a recreational leader, a forest ranger, or physical therapist). The theory of multiple intelligences gives adults a whole new way to look at their lives, examining potentials that they left behind in their childhood but now have the opportunity to develop through courses, hobbies, or other programs of self-development". Adult educators usually provide adult learners with more opportunities to express their learning using their preferred intelligences to articulate their thoughts, albeit without digital multimedia as we know it, as the experience of these learners are highly valued. K-12 educators should also provide these highly interactive and multiple learning opportunities for young learners too, as they too enter the classroom with their own experience and their learning preferences.


References
Barabash, C. & Kyllo, J. The history and development of multimedia: A story of invention, ingenuity and vision. Retrieved from http://www.ucalgary.ca/~edtech/688/hist.htm
Friedland, G., Hurst, W. & Knipping, L. (2008). Educational Multimedia. Multimedia, IEEE ,15 (3). pp.54-56. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4623944&isnumber=4623929

Golshani, F. (2008). The All-in-One Box. Multimedia, IEEE , 15(3). pp.1-1. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4623932&isnumber=4623929

Neo, M. & Neo, T.K. Innovative teaching:Integrating multimedia into the classroom in a problem-based learning (PBL) environment. Multimedia University,Malaysia. Retrieved from http://pbl.tp.edu.sg/PBL-Resources/articles/others/NeoMNeoTK.pdf

Schank, R.C. (1994). "Active learning through multimedia," Multimedia, IEEE. 1(1). pp.69-78.Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=295270&isnumber=7295

http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm

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

Wiki Blog

1. Reflections on the process of learning about the tool
When I did a course last winter called Learning and Teaching with Technology(EDPY597), one of the assignments required that we created a class wiki and updated it as we went through the process of using SecondLife as a teaching/learning tool. One of my classmates created a wiki via wikispaces and invited us to join – which most of us did; however, that wiki went no further than the first comment, as some of the students dropped the course while others opted to audit it, leaving just two of us signed up for the course. Our instructor then allowed both of us left in the course to choose a more appropriate tool and we opted for Google Docs. That was as close as I came to authoring/editing a wiki.

After I searched the Internet for some existing wikis and viewed some of the content. I decided that I would not create a wiki but instead join one of the wikis and author/edit content. I was too intimidated to even think about Wikipedia so I passed right on to Wiki Recipes at http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Recipes_Wiki. The site was pretty straight forward to use, I just created my username and password and went in. I copied some Jamaican recipes from the web, which I thought to add to the cuisines of the world/Jamaican category. However, I faced two roadblocks.

I think the first resulted in my eagerness to post a recipe, I spent about ten minutes posting the recipe information to the blog and hitting ‘save’ only to get a message which indicated that no content was uploaded. So after I started looking around the page I noticed the button that said “Add a Recipe” (what a dummy!). Well, I was able to add a recipe in a jiffy. But, before I saved it, I recognized the website’s policy on copyright –there appeared the second roadblock. The site stated that its users should “not submit copyrighted work without permission.” Since one of the recipes that I wanted to post was taken from a cookbook and I didn’t request any permission to use it, I decided against using it. Although, I don’t know if it would have been sufficient had I posted the recipe and referenced the cookbook. That forced me to go into my memory box and find a recipe that my mom used to make a real simple and quick one so I searched and found a Raisin Jam recipe and posted it.

As far as editing entries go, I did edit a page the night I created my account, simply correcting a spelling error. When I checked today, someone edited my entry, just placing the recipe in a category: something which I deliberately ignored. Good to see that persons are really on top of having their wikis organized and worthy of use.

2. Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning
Of all the tools that we have been/will be introduced to in this course, I must say I am most familiar with wikis, as I am constantly researching and reading content on Wikipedia. Although I knew that wikis could be edited by just about anyone, I never created an account to add information to any wiki – I am always thinking that I do not know enough to add to a wiki. But then in doing this assignment and reading of the dos and donts of adding content to wikis, particularly Wikipedia, I recognized that anything that is added to the page needs to be validated and a source indicated. I followed Richardson’s tinyurl link to the discussion page on global warming and read to my heart’s content. I then started to search for various words (the good, bad and ugly) just to see the discussion that took place behind the scenes. Some were sombre, others interesting and some were hilarious to say the least. It really is a task to determine what stays and what goes.

As a student, I have no qualms about using Wikipedia; but lecturers and professors sure do. I have developed my “Wikipedia work around” though, by going to the reference list and finding the original source. This is the first class that I have taken that has allowed the use of Wikipedia as a reference, or any wiki for that matter. Wikipedia was a “no, no” when I did my post-graduate Diploma in Education and Training but it has been a “NO, NO,NO” since I have started my Masters. It felt very weird having it as a reference for this course and I still have to ensure that I do not accidentally/otherwise add it as a reference for any of my other graduate course assignments.

While the thought that others were able to critique or change the content that I had created, was at first a daunting one, it later felt more liberating and less threatening – (it sure seems like one potent character builder).

My high school classmates are planning a reunion for next year and while I think using a wiki would be more than worth the while, I honestly don’t see them giving up Facebook’s Discussion board for anything else.

On a side note, the one and question that I have with Wikipedia is: what makes an entry worthy of being an entry? The five pillars of Wikipedia stated that “Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information; merely being true or useful does not automatically make something suitable for inclusion in an encyclopedia.” Even though I read this statement I was puzzled by the fact that they chose to include the ‘Balloon boy’ that recently made news, as one of their entries. I think including things like these work to undermine their credibility instead of building it. In the discussion, this was undoubtedly an issue. In reference to the story one of the contributor’s mentioned “another example of how recentism is taking over Wikipedia. By this time next year this news incident will be largely forgotten and will seem very trivial to be included in an encyclopedia. Especially when compared with the countless of similar "bored America" gossip/sensationalist news stories from the past, from before Wikipedia was created, none of those will have articles. But anything that makes the news these days, no matter how trivial, will have a Wikipedia article. Although it can be a good thing that we're maintaining a record of popular culture.” (Wikipedia, 2009). I honestly don’t think that that’s a popular culture worth maintaining - but then, it goes to show that the consensus of the group determines what is shared and what is not.

3. Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning
While there are many discussions flailing about with regards to wikis as a tool for teaching and learning, I will just focus on the issues that resonate with me.

Acceptance
Lamb (2004) discuss how the concept of how page authorship have been “radically altered” since “content cloning (sometimes referred to as plagiarism in other circles)is often acceptable across wikis. It will be a challenging task for educational institutions that are totally against plagiarism to openly accept wikis as an integral part of the pedagogical process as the nature of wikis cuts across the social fabric of these institutions.

I totally agree with Will’s description of Wikipedia being the “poster child for the collaborative construction of knowledge and truth that the new, interactive Web facilitates” (Richardson, 2009). It provides structure for a project based environment where different students are able to work together, dialogue and deliberate until a final product/research is created. The reality is most adult learners who are in classes are also workers and the idea of team work and collaboration is most times supported within a work environment. Why should it be that different within the classrooms? Isn’t a student centered classroom supposed to provide authentic tasks that learners can work on/learn about in a group setting? I presume it will continue to be more of an uphill battle for Wikipedia to gain full fledged support from academia than from other educational institutions. Maybe if more professors were educated on how wikis could be used by their students in doing group work, or if their professional development courses involved using wikis, there would be a buy-in of what wikis have to offer.

New Roles
I can’t remember the text that I read but I do remember a statement that spoke of “university lecturers being the gatekeepers of knowledge”. If wikis become the norm, the roles of teachers will have to be redefined. What will those new roles be? Only time will tell, one thing we know for sure is that the gates of knowledge will no longer be hinged on academic gate posts, but more universal/global posts. Not many within academia are open to relinquishing their stronghold on knowledge. Institutions like MIT who were trail blazers in providing Open Courseware were chided by other universities and colleges. Time, however, seems to eventually heal all things. Lamb (2004) states “they are popping up like mushrooms, as wikis will, at colleges and universities around the world, sometimes in impromptu ways and more often with thoughtful intent.”Augar, Raitman, Zhou (2004) describe how an icebreaker used in a traditional classroom setting in Deakin Univeristy, was adapted for use on a wiki to remedy the lack of interaction that was observed in previous online discussion groups. The use of the wiki proved to be successful as the student interaction was notably increased. The university also created some wiki commandments, one of which I found very cute, it read “Wiki unto others as you would unto you (When posting on the wiki, treat other online group members as you would like to be treated).” Deakin used wikis in a social setting, but its result has implications for its use in a classroom-evaluative setting.

Intellectual Property Rights
“Another policy issue that threatens to complicate the widespread adoption of wikis in higher education is the specification of intellectual property (IP) rights by contributors to a wiki page. IP issues can be dauntingly complex under any circumstance, but when contributors may be anonymous, or where the origins of texts are uncertain, copyright questions are significantly complicated” (Lamb, 2004). Lamb later referred to communitywikis which spoke of the three common schemes related to copyright issues - CommunityCopyright, PublicDomain, and CopyLeft. While all these had simple and straightforward definitions, problems arise when authors have conflicting views as to the copyright policy that should be enacted to the wiki that they have created; and since each author has an equal right to say how the data should be shared, the ‘majority rules’ principle cannot be applied to such situations. In my view, these niggling issues will soon be resolved to make way for the more ‘rights’ and less ‘lefts’, more collaboration and less competition, more sharing and less hoarding.

A CommunityCopyright policy allows individuals to assert rights over their work while allowing their contributions to be modified within the wiki. (Of course, the copyright owner can subsequently reverse those modifications.)

A PublicDomain policy dictates that any contributor to the wiki space surrenders all copyright. A modification of this approach is PrimarilyPublicDomain, which assumes a PublicDomain policy unless an individual specifies otherwise.

CopyLeft allows anyone to use the content of the wiki for any purpose and to make derivative works, under the condition that all copies and derivative works are released under the same license as the original. The contributor maintains copyright.


References
Augar, T., Raitman, R. & Zhou, W (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis. School of Information Technology. Deakin University.

Lamb, B.(2004) “Wide open spaces: Wikis, ready or not”. Educause Review.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms 2nd edition.Corwin Press.

http://blogs.ubc.ca/brian/
http://www.communitywiki.org/cw?CopyrightImpossibilityTheorem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Colorado_balloon_incident/Archive_1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:5P
http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Recipes_Wiki

Podcasting Tool

http://www.divshare.com/download/8946114-49f

1. Reflections on the process of learning about the tool
I have been hearing about podcasts for quite a while now and have listened to some podcasts on my computer, but my relationship with podcasts has really been distant. Like a spectator at a football match I have watched the ‘game’ of podcasts, but this week I came off the sidelines and became a player on the field.

These days I have really been going in fast forward motion. We spoke about information overload recently and how students engage in surface reading when there is much information to be processed. I read Richardson’s text on Podcasting about 2-3 weeks ago, trying to be one step ahead, and highlighted the process involved in doing a podcast. However, when I started creating the podcast, I went through the trail-fire and then went straight to Youtube and searched on ‘creating podcasts’. I found some tutorials called “Podcasting 101 By: Black Light in the Attic Podcast” and followed the steps in downloading Audacity (to create the podcast) and the Levelator (to equalize the podcast created). It was great using Audacity for the most part.

The one glitch that I encountered was trying to record a podcast from my micro-phone at first; the default was set to stereo and all that I was doing was recording music files already on my computer. I then went to the help section and discovered what the problem was and how it was to be remedied. It was after doing all this and successfully creating a MP3 file that I went online and read a question that one of my classmates had on using Audacity that I went back to the textbook and saw all the information that I had highlighted on creating Podcasts. I think my mind was just racing too fast for my own good.

Once again I went back to Youtube and found a tutorial called “How To upload Mp3 On Your Blogger Or Wordpress Step By Step” where there was detailed instruction to use DIVSHARE. DIVSHARE was pretty easy to use, I just logged on using a yahoo email address, and then accepted the confirmation email and right away I was able to upload the file and play it.
I wasn’t able to embed the podcast how I wanted to. I wanted to put it in between the text (this text), but I got an error when I pasted the html code in the editor and tried saving it. So I added it twice to my blog, both as a gadget and with a web link.



Ok....I've figured it out two days after my original post - after reading Lando Blogrissian :) . It's now embedded

2. Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning
It was a different experience using this tool. I have always been told by my family and friends that I talk pretty fast, but now I heard it for myself. The first podcast that I created was way too fast, so I did a second one and tried to slow it down. Although it wasn’t recorded as slow as I wanted, it was better than the first.

As a learner, I have some hang-ups about the final product of a podcasts. I remember listening to the first podcast that was done introducing us to this course EDES501. I heard a cough two times in the recording and I thought to myself... ‘Ew, that recording should have been edited and that part removed.’ But then later on the same week I was watching a video on Youtube where a professor was doing a talk on ‘Open courseware’ and heard him cough while doing the presentation. The same editing thought came to me again, but with an additional thought. When persons are doing live presentations, all that they can do is apologize for the disruption and then continue. Maybe leaving little ‘uhms’ and ‘ahs’ while creating the podcasts will add to the authenticity of the process. After all, the editing process can become so time consuming in and of itself - a couple podcasts could be created in the time it takes edit one podcast and have it picture perfect.

As part of a social group, it really doesn’t matter quite as much. If its music then I just want live streaming, apart from that maybe I would just be interested in getting news feed. I feel that disconnect with this topic as I do not have an I-pod to get the real feel of having a feed updated on it daily and listening to it ‘on the go’. It can be quite relaxing to have music that you want to listen to within your reach, especially when you are travelling long distances.

3. Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning
Compared to most of the new technologies that have been introduced in recent times, podcast seems to be the closest one that mimics a typical lecture. It would be interesting to do a study on the satisfaction level of educators who use podcast to deliver lectures as opposed to other (more interactive) tools. Podcast is less interactive, more didactic and may require little or no interaction with the students (depending how it is recorded).

Separate and apart from that podcast is very handy for adult education. As I had mentioned some time ago adult learners are usually self directed and prefer going at their own pace. Roy & Roy(2007) attributes the following to using podcasts in and adult education environment:
1. It facilitates self-paced learning and allows a restructuring of the use of class-time.
2. Allows for the remediation of adults who may be slow learners
3. Learners can listen and multi-task.

Class time can be used differently if students are able to listen to podcasts before class. It’s like reading a text before coming to class – thus allocating more time to discuss what was learned and clarify any topic that was unclear. In this respect, podcasts can allow for better use of class-time.

The way in which podcasts can be played over and over again, would really serve to help remedial learners to grasp concepts better. Slower learners who might have missed a concept in class would be able to grapple with the recordings and internalize what was being said during the lectures.

Of these three advantages, I hold the third one dear to my heart. Just last week I was becoming overwhelmed with the numerous journals that I needed to get through while doing my chores at home. So I downloaded DSpeech which converts text to voice to listen to all those journals while doing other things.....other than the getting used to the automated voice and pronunciations, it has worked wonders. It would be so awesome if all books were available in podcast format.

Podcast, however, is not appropriate for all courses. The nature of the course is a good indicator as to whether or not a podcast should be employed. Roy & Roy (2007) tells of the challenges of using podcasts to ‘teach learners how to do something’, and for ‘recording group sessions’. It can be very confusing listening to a group discussion via podcast, as learners would be forced to identify who is saying what and follow the line of conversation for an extended period of time.

Flanagan & Calandra (2005) sees great potential in using podcasts based on its cost-effectiveness in delivering instruction, its natural integration with voice-dependent courses (e.g. music and foreign language) and the inexpensive and quick way students can communicate with peers all over the world. While this may be true for some learners, the reality may be different for learners who are on the receiving end of the digital divide. Podcast, may however be the most inexpensive teaching tool that can be used in usher developing countries in the digital classroom.

References
Flanagan, B. & Calandra, B. (2005). Podcasting in the classroom. International Society for Technology in Education.
Roy, A. & Roy, P. (2007). Intersection of training and podcasting in adult education. Australian Journal of Adult Learning. 47(3).
http://www.blacklightintheattic.com/
http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Chemistry/5-95JSpring-2006/0F7AC018-48F7-4CE8-B5F0-2A061901147A/0/podcast_lecture.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7pAoXdkSck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGk61WJp1xw&feature=PlayList&p=E442E2EF8F733A08&index=0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

Podcasting

http://www.divshare.com/download/8946114-49f

Sample E-learning Bookmark

E-learning

Shared via AddThis

Social Bookmarking

1. Reflections on the process of learning about the tool

I chose to use the social bookmarking tool, Diigo and my decision to do this was based on some online reviews that I came across and Richardson’s comparison of it with Delicious in the text. I had before hand heard of Delicious and the bookmarking capability that it offered, but had always left made a ‘mental note to self’ that someday soon I was going to explore the site. Sadly, that mental note never made it on my to-do list, but now that I am covering the topic of bookmarking in this Web2.0 course and I am required to use a tool, I chose Diigo.

Of course, for me, it was a breath of fresh air to create a Diigo account, just create a user name, enter your username and password and you are ready to start using the service. For the most part, using Diigo was like participating in a ‘guided learner’ environment as Richardson in sharing with us all the cool features of the tool, took the fun out of my exploration and ‘aha’ moments.

I just need to work out the dynamics of this bookmarking tool and see how best it works for me. I have started bookmarking some pages and following some persons. I must say clicking that “Follow me” button gave me an unnerving feeling.....It just feels weird to have total strangers follow me or for me to be following them, -it’s a Twitter feeling that I just haven’t been able to shake yet. Since I installed Diigo, I at times get an Internet Explorer error that tells me it has to close the page. Although the page is bookmarked, it is frustrating to keep launching Internet Explorer. I am thinking that maybe that’s something that has to do with the settings on IE. When I have some free time I will attempt to correct this problem.

2. Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning

Social bookmarking, what in the world is that? I know what book-marking is, so if it’s done electronically, why isn’t the name electronic bookmarking? Social bookmarking, that just sound like it’s a kind of bookmarking that involves interactions with other people, but then why should it? These were some of the initial questions that I had when I saw the topic – prior to my exploration of social bookmarking. Well now that I have done the readings and created my own Diigo account, I have come to appreciate and understand the concept of social bookmarking.
Now, I have bookmarked web-pages before, I always do, but then I don’t usually use it as a point of reference. I just happen to stumble on some of these pages when I am bookmarking other pages and then I would say “Oh, this is where I had placed it”.

Well, in exploring Diigo, I realized that I could import other bookmarks that I had created, and that’s just what I did. More importantly, I realize that, it’s not just about bookmarking, I need to go a step further and organize all the information that I have bookmarked. As we spoke about in our group discussion, we constantly have to sift through a pile of information – unless we categorize this information, it will just make our lives more complicated and force us to waste time sorting through all the bookmarks that we have made.

As a graduate student, I am now working on my thesis and social bookmarking comes in quite handy where accessing resources online are concerned. I immediately started bookmarking pages that relate to my research topic. It not only helps in that respect, but I can also see other articles that individuals with similar interest have bookmarked and choose from those list, and they can do the same from my public lists. I thought to myself that the only thing that Diigo falls short of is referencing, that would go along perferctly with book-marking, especially for my thesis (it would be great having a ‘Refworks’ of my own). Then when reading I discovered a tool that offers both functionalities- Connotea. That is definitely a tool that I will be toying with in the very near future.

It really gives another dimension to collaborative work. We are regularly placed in groups to work on different tasks and this usually involves sending emails back and forth, with documents attached or sending links. There is just so much more that can be done with Diigo as we can highlight text that we need group-members to take note of and even leave sticky notes (now how cool is that?).

3. Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning
“There is something in the air, and it is nothing less than the digital artifacts of over one billion people and computers networked together collectively producing over 2,000 gigabytes of new information per second. While most of our classrooms were built under the assumption that information is scarce and hard to find, nearly the entire body of human knowledge now flows through and around these rooms in one form or another, ready to be accessed by laptops, cellphones, and iPods. Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation.” (Wesch, 2009).

After reading Wesch’s article, I reflected on just how this explosion of data has really thrown out the door, the notion of ‘teacher’ as the source of knowledge. The author entitled the article “From knowledgable to knowledge-able” and this play on words sends the message home to the reader. The new technologies that now exist allow students to have new and ground breaking research at their finger-tips that they are ready to share in the classroom, research that their teachers may not even know exist.

When reading about what social bookmarking has to offer, I question what will become of librarians? Will their skills still be needed and how functional will they be when everyone can now tag and ‘shelve’ their research according to specific titles? Wastay suggests that librarians of the 21st century will have the following roles:
•Cultural Role
•Teaching Role
•Providing Access to Information
•Space Provision
•Act as Information Advocates
•Advising Role
•Information Organisation and Retrieval
•Knowledge and Digital Management
•Information Mining

I think of the teacher in the classroom and the tensions that may arise, if they introduce their students to ‘social bookmarking’. How do they get their students to improve or develop their research skills when at the click of a button students can pull a list of resources that other persons have already researched and made readily available?

These Web 2.0 technologies are constantly raising the bar and changing the parameters within which teachers and students interact. While many administrators have embraced this and are encouraging educators to factor this in their delivery of content, the methods of assessment seems to still depict a traditional way of thinking. In recent times, the style of teaching has changed – the teacher is no longer sage on the stage but a guide on the side, the teaching aids have mostly become ‘technological’ in look and feel, but the assessment seems to still be stuck in the ‘achievement test’ mode. Curricularists and school boards will need to review their processes, and the objectives and tests that are being set need to start reflecting ‘a climb’ towards the higher order skills that Bloom’s taxonomy depicts. (Trivia: I just read that the page that I researched on assessment and bookmarked was first bookmarked by Will Richardson :) )

Discussions of social bookmarking in terms of teaching and learning...I see numerous potentials for this tool in the classroom, but I am left with more questions than answers about how it will really impact the dynamics that occur within classrooms.

References

http://lib.tkk.fi/ifla/IFLA_Science_Portals/Presentations/Wastawy.pdf
http://www.apa.org/ed/new_blooms.html

http://www.cartoonstock.com/
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/lund/04lund.html
Wesch, M. (2009). From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments. Retrieved from http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/knowledgable-knowledge-able