For the connectivism module, I responded to the following blogs:
Soraya: http://rayaray.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/connectivism-soraya/#comment-71
Jan: http://jancutforth.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/connectivism/#comment-14
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Connectivism! Visions of Networks Swimming in my Head!
The above Mind Map shows my crazy world of connectivity!
Now, I have not listed Facebook because I just deactivated my account (with the option of reactivating it at any time). This has caused a feeling of "disconnectedness" in me, but it has also allowed me to have a few extra minutes to devote to something else. The convenience of networking and the online environment has a great impact on my life on a daily basis. I work from home. I teach for several online colleges and generate an income greater or equal to that of working in the traditional classroom. Flexibility from networking has created more opportunities and allowed me to excel in my educational studies as well as my career and social life.
My network has changed the way that I learn by providing me with this flexibility. I worked my way through school and was unable to major in Education in my undergraduate studies because at that time, online courses for this major were not offered and I could not discontinue working and supporting myself to student teach. I found a program at an online college that would allow me to complete my bachelor's degree in English and continue to work. I worked toward this goal and then I was able to secure a teaching position through the alternate route method. I still had to complete my teacher licensure qualifications via the traditional on-ground college course and I did this at night. I continued to work toward my master's degree via traditional college night courses. I succeeded in this and proceeded to find an online program to complete my Ph.D. At first, there was nothing online that I wanted to specialize in, but Walden launched their Educational Technology specialization and I knew it was what I had been looking for. I have been working on my doctoral degree program as I transitioned from public school teaching to online college teaching. I guess you could say my network is very important because I found my first online college position from meeting a classmate in one of my first Walden Ed Tech courses. Things have progressed from that point until I was able to resign my traditional classroom and work from home.
The online learning environment has become a part of my daily world. There were many things that I did not understand and I found that I lost knowledge as the technology world progressed without me during my time in the traditional classroom. Even now, I believe I am still not able to stay on the cutting edge of technology because it changes so rapidly. I am just beginning to understand the terminology of "Jing" and "Presi" and many new ways to interact via technology. There is so much out there and I want to prepare myself to contribute to learning by bringing my classroom into the 21st Century. Networking and being connected to others through technology as a student and as an instructor helps me to learn the latest developments and resources for making instruction as effective as possible.
I have self-taught by accessing as much information as possible about applications I am not familiar with and I continuously attend webinars and explore tutorials to help me to master new technology. I am a visual and kinesthetic learner, so "playing" with the technology helps me to familiarize myself with it. Videos and anything visual help me to learn more quickly rather than reading text only. The more interactive the tutorial, the better for me.
Blogging is my new way of free writing and I type more quickly than I can write. While I still love classic literature and I have a library of hard copies, without technology, I would be lost!
Go networking!
Cynthia
Here is a description of my Mind Map:
Social:
Skype
Blogs
Educational:
Blogs
Skype
Walden Classroom
Wikispaces
Work:
Anthem College Online Networks
CCI Online Networks
Grand Canyon University Online Networks
Blogs, Email, and Skype overlap from social to educational and some into work. I hope that in the future, it will be a crazy mass of overlapping as I connect all aspects of my world.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Collaboration-Module Three Responses Cynthia
During this module on collaboration and the constructivist theory of learning, I responded to the following blog posts:
http://april-carpenter.blogspot.com/
http://mrauthier.blogspot.com/2011/10/module-3-blog-constructivism.html
Cynthia
http://april-carpenter.blogspot.com/
http://mrauthier.blogspot.com/2011/10/module-3-blog-constructivism.html
Cynthia
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Mine, or Ours? Reflections on Collaboration
As I was viewing Rheingold’s presentation on collaboration, my sense of his historical example possibly showing humans needing to “share meat” between families from hunting, started to turn the wheels in my head about collaboration. Although my experience in the classroom has been that most students are reluctant to participate in team projects, including myself, when the students actually dive in and begin the process of collaboration, they usually have a great experience.
Maybe it is the fact that collaboration sometimes takes us outside our comfort zone, especially in the online learning environment. However, in order for us to be more culturally aware and to learn how others think, we need to collaborate. We cannot become a change agent and be globally aware without collaborating. So, inherently, I would think there is a basic need and instinct for humans to collaborate, but there is also a reluctance or fear of the unknown.
As Rheingold mentioned, I don’t think we are there yet. Collaboration in many forms is still undeveloped and not always productive. In the online learning environment there is still much work to be done to produce effective and engaging collaborative experiences. The constructivist would approach this with more social networking or a more collaborative learning environment that requires collaboration in order to build knowledge. Google docs and wikis, along with Skype and chat are other ways to meet both asynchronously and synchronously and will help the effectiveness of collaboration.
Facebook comes to mind, but for me, it is not the best collaboration instrument and I would choose to view it negatively (especially since I just deactivated my Facebook account yesterday due to all the privacy issues). Some of the collaboration in the strictly social networking applications only tells me what someone is having for lunch or who is on vacation. While this may appeal to burglars or those monitoring their food intake, it is quite ineffective and a time waster to me.
A more effective example of collaboration would be a research study conducted this year that focuses on using Google Docs as a collaboration for project-based learning. The study is an interesting read and since I am just now beginning to explore Google Docs, I find it interesting to think about the possibilities for myself and my students. Check out the link below:
O’Broin, D. & Raftery, D. (2011). “Using Google docs to support project-based learning.” AISHE-J 3(1), 1-11 retrieved from ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/download/35/29
Rheingold's Video:
Maybe it is the fact that collaboration sometimes takes us outside our comfort zone, especially in the online learning environment. However, in order for us to be more culturally aware and to learn how others think, we need to collaborate. We cannot become a change agent and be globally aware without collaborating. So, inherently, I would think there is a basic need and instinct for humans to collaborate, but there is also a reluctance or fear of the unknown.
As Rheingold mentioned, I don’t think we are there yet. Collaboration in many forms is still undeveloped and not always productive. In the online learning environment there is still much work to be done to produce effective and engaging collaborative experiences. The constructivist would approach this with more social networking or a more collaborative learning environment that requires collaboration in order to build knowledge. Google docs and wikis, along with Skype and chat are other ways to meet both asynchronously and synchronously and will help the effectiveness of collaboration.
Facebook comes to mind, but for me, it is not the best collaboration instrument and I would choose to view it negatively (especially since I just deactivated my Facebook account yesterday due to all the privacy issues). Some of the collaboration in the strictly social networking applications only tells me what someone is having for lunch or who is on vacation. While this may appeal to burglars or those monitoring their food intake, it is quite ineffective and a time waster to me.
A more effective example of collaboration would be a research study conducted this year that focuses on using Google Docs as a collaboration for project-based learning. The study is an interesting read and since I am just now beginning to explore Google Docs, I find it interesting to think about the possibilities for myself and my students. Check out the link below:
O’Broin, D. & Raftery, D. (2011). “Using Google docs to support project-based learning.” AISHE-J 3(1), 1-11 retrieved from ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/download/35/29
Rheingold's Video:
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Module Two Responses for EDUC 8845-2
My responses this week were to:
RaKinah Fletcher
http://rakinahfletcher.blogspot.com/
Marc Boese
http://mboese.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
Cynthia H.
RaKinah Fletcher
http://rakinahfletcher.blogspot.com/
Marc Boese
http://mboese.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
Cynthia H.
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