This talk by Woody Norris touches on some of the physics behind ultrasound. Interesting stuff!
Back in the air
14 years ago
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Byte to Gigabyte in a Nanosecond- My Final Reflection Blog
This is an ultrasound of my oldest daughter, an ultrasound is essentially a reflection of sound from the tissues of our bodies. So I figured it worked in the context of this post, also as you may be able to see she is scratching her head, the same thing I've been doing as I contemplated this final post.
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."
This quote shows how I felt entering this course! I took this course to get out of the valley and to get up to date on all these fantastic (I call them fantastic now) internet tools that were passing me by. I came into this course having owned a computer for only six years and a cell phone for only 3 years! So it should be pretty clear that I knew very little (and that is being generous) of the cyber world. In Will Richardson's blog, Weblogg-ed he says, "What I want are master learners, not master teachers, learners who see my kids as their apprentices for learning." This quote encompasses why I took this course, I wanted to be able to learn these tools in order to provide a better environment of learning for my students.
In this post I will reflect on each tool from an educational stance first and then from a personal standpoint, I will touch on the valuable things I learned from my colleagues, and finally wrap it up.
Flickr
From an educational point of view Flickr fits in quite nicely in the world of ultrasound. After all day in and day out we are creating, observing, and critiquing images. At first I thought Flickr would be a fantastic educational tool all on its own, but of course as the class progressed on to other tools that used multimedia the love affair with Flickr alone kind of fell apart. I created a photostream to demonstrate how I could use Flickr in the classroom, what I've done is used the very first lab experience that our students encounter. I will be using this format throughout my post. The students can view the photostream and get acquainted with the 'knobology' and better prepare themselves for that first lab. The photos will have a question attached to them, and the students can go in and discuss the answers.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomb6/sets/72157623682585689/
Flickr as a tool is more useful to me personally vs. educationally. This has changed since we started the course. With so many other tools that are more educational in nature due to the multiple media that they use, the simplicity of Flickr from a personal stand point is very appealing. Having a site for all of our relatives to be able to tap into at anytime they choose, to keep up to date on all of our happenings is excellent.
YouTube
Like Flickr, YouTube has its place in the world of ultrasound. Often we will have to take a 'clip' of a fetal heart, or of a carotid stenosis, or perhaps of a 'vegetation' on a mitral valve. Having the ability to put these clips on YouTube and allowing the students access to them 24/7 is great option and superb supplement to their education. Just like Flickr using YouTube alone is an option, but having the ability to combine the 'clips' with images and text as you can on a wiki page is more appealing. If one is just starting out getting their class web 2.0-onized then starting with these tools is great foray into the brave new world. Once you see the benefits and the ease of the tools then one may move on to a more multi-media approach. That is just my opinion. As far as searching for information, YouTube is a fantastic source of information in so many areas. Students can use it as preparation for class projects or as a supplement to their courses. Again I've included a YouTube video that I created based on the introductory Physics labs that our students partake in. This clip is 5 minutes long so don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing, I'll never know anyway!
Personally, I'm not sure if I'll produce much on YouTube after this course, however I will always use it as a place to gather information on any topic that I may be curious about. There is so much material available on YouTube for one to access, and most of it is quite good.
Social Bookmarking
This tool was the first frustration I came across in the early stages of this course. Once I switched from Delicious to Diigo everything was just peachy! I will discuss this tool in terms of both personal and eduational usage, as I see no differentiation between the two. Having the ability to bookmark and retrieve your bookmarks from anywhere is a bonus, but that is not even the greatest part of the Diigo social bookmarking tool. You can highlight important areas, leave yourself sticky notes in any particular area that you are interested in, and you can put tags on them so they can be easily located. I'm just getting into this tool, but the more I use it both educationally and personally the more I enjoy it, having the ability to high light an important section and add a note as to why that was important to me is tres magnifique. Then to be able to open that article up later down the road from where ever I happen to be is just icing on the cake!
Podcasts
Ahhh podcast my arch nemesis! This was the most difficult section for me, obviously not from a listening point of view, that is quite easy. No this little tool has proven to be quite a challenge for me, I in my youthful naivity decided that I would do another podcast for this final reflection, a final attempt to slay my demons if you will. I decided to include a podcast for two reasons: A). To prove to myself and everybody else that I could do it, and B). To show how I could use it in an eduational format. In keeping with my theme of the intro physics lab here is my redemption podcast ( hopefully).
Powered by Podbean.com
I will continue to search for Podcasts that interest me, the Spark podcasts I've found are interesting and will keep me in the 2.0 loop, but also podcasts that are health related, and podcasts that are of personal interest. There is no question that I will have podcast subscriptions, just probably not a lot of actual podcasts.
Wikis
Having no knowledge of wikis prior to this course this was one of my favorite tools we played with. I set up a wee wiki for a couple of my students who were, and God bless them, willing to experiment with it in the middle of thier hectic schedule. The collaborative nature of the wiki and the ability to throw in images and video clips or links to Voicethread and other tools makes wikis such a universal tool and learning device. Having students....no giving students the power and ability to go on and challenge each other in a non-threatening space is priceless, in the world of ultrasound one of the key skills is to be able to work through the problem that has presented itself. Wikis allow students to go into the site and work through whatever problem you present to them, obviously it is instructored monitored, but it is the students who are working it all out to come up with a solution. That alone makes this a very powerful tool for learning, not memorizing but learning! I asked my two eager students to send me some comments so that I could include them in this final post:
" I really enjoyed the Wikispaces. It has the potential to be a great study tool as the class advances and more people comment on the images posted. It was nice that you could comment or edit the things that were posted on there."
" I think with more students on a site like the wiki page, it could be extremely beneficial as we could ask each other questions and learn from helping to teach others, yet the page would still be monitored by you so that we are certain the answers that students have posted on it are correct."
These quotes really solidify the use of wiki spaces in the classroom, and I will be putting one together (attempting to) for my Abdomen course starting in September.
From a personal side, I'm not sure if there will be much use for me in the world of wikis. Of course there will be the occasional look at wikipedia and a few sites here and there, but overall I will be using this tool for the educational benefits far more than the personal benefits.
Multimedia Sharing Sites
This tool has brilliant applications in the education world. Sites like Slideshare and Voicethread allow for student interaction. I created a small Voicethread for my two students to try and again I asked them to comment on what they thought:
"The voicethread was also really interesting. I have never seen anything like that before. For people that don't like to answer in front of the whole class it is a safe way to voice your opinions and answers."
"...but also got us used to the critical thinking / problem solving questions that would be on our exam."
Safe way to voice your opinions and helping them become critical thinkers and problem solvers, that is exactly why these tools are important. These are powerful quotes on one tool, multimedia sharing sites. Allowing the students to have a place to go and work things through and to collaborate to solve problems is beneficial in the classroom but also in the real world. Creating a society of people working together will create a far more efficient not to mention enjoyable working environment. From a professional development standpoint there are hundreds of 'Slideshare' videos out there that are beneficial in my professional life, and I will continue to search them for ideas and information.
Personally I can see myself signing up for an Animoto account just because of the ease of putting together a nice little music video, and with the sites out there where you can create your own music to add to your images well that makes it even more personable.
Social Networking
This is one area where my opinion changed the most, maybe not changed the most but where my eyes were opened wider. I did not anticipate the educational and professional benefits of social networking until this course. Now I am a member of Classroom 2.0 and also I follow Ning in Education. The ability of the Ning networks to allow you to choose the members and have control of the content makes them more appealing in the educational format as opposed to Facebook or MySpace which really only serve a personal basis. Classroom 2.0 is a great site and it proved itself useful many times over the span of this course. I will be checking it periodically to keep up with the discussions and to see what is coming over the horizon. Also I found some sites that are useful for in my role as a health care professional, sites that help families deal with palliative care patients and general health care nings that cover a number of health care concerns. These sites provide a multitude of information in numerous categories, all contributing to one's professional development.
Ahhhh, Twitter how skeptical of you I was! Some might say that being proven wrong as much as I have been for this course could be damaging to one's ego. Fortunately the opposite has happened, finding these tools to be anything but useless has boosted my confidence in the world of Web 2.0. Twitter is a fantastic educational/professional tool, completely caught me off guard. I've already began to use it to forward anything interesting I find in ultrasound or health care in general. When my new students begin in September I will ask them to follow me if they wish. It may not be class specific but it will always be profession related and that will help them to understand what is happening in their chosen career path. This ultimately will lead to a richer and deeper education in my mind, and that can't be a bad thing! Coupled with a blog reader, Twitter is a very powerful tool that can reach thousands of people very quickly with the re-tweet application and the ability to send and receive 'tweets' with your cell phone. Just today I re-tweeted a Rick Mercer tweet to all (15) of my followers, and it had already been re-tweeted by over 100 other people whom I'm sure had more than 15 followers, that is roughly 2000 people reached in under half a day! There are certain professional sites that I will follow for personal development interests, there usually will be at least one very interesting 'tweet' per week in the few sites I follow. Prior to this course I never even would have had that one.
Personally for me twitter has very little use, which is fine. There is always Facebook to keep up with friends and family, or that ancient telephone thing where you actually talk with your mouth! I will continue to follow people that interest me, I just probably won't be doing a lot of repartee with it.
Blogs/RSS Feeds
Last but not least by a long shot are Blogs and RSS feeds. "RSS allows you to create your own newspaper of sorts, from a conglomeration of whatever sources you like..."(Ward, 2007) This quote sums up the value of RSS feeds to me, having the ability to search through and locate Blogs that are of interest and then subscribing. Every morning you can peruse your aggregator and see what is there for you. There is also an educational value in blogging, by releasing your thoughts to the world you instinctively hone your craft, and learn the material. Putting oneself out there is a learning experience in and of itself. The tricky part with blogs is being able to weed out the weak or inapplicable ones. Once you've mastered that art form it is quite easy to skim through and find what is important to you. The best part is once you find a couple of sites that are great, you will now have links or references to other great sites, and the cycle continues. From a PD view this tool is fabulous and I will be using Blogs as a source to improve my learning and my teaching.
There are several blogs that I follow for personal reasons and I will continue to do so, as for blogging itself we'll wait and see, I enjoy it, I would just need to make sure that I know what I'm talking about, or at least be confident that I know what I'm talking about. George Couros has a great little article in his blog 'The Principle of Change', that discusses Twitter, RSS feeds, and Diigo in education quite nicely, and seeing how he is from Saskatchewan you know its good!
One of the greatest assets of this course was my classmates! What an unbelievably bright group. Every blog post I read I learned something new. Now to be honest and in the interest of time, I did not get the chance to read every blog from every classmate. Some I read more then others and commented on, others I just read, and some I never read at all. (Sorry)
Todd's Voicethread was the first time I had ever experimented with that tool, which gave me the confidence to create one myself. Todd also pointed out the security issues with Twitter, "...using four square and Twitter actually lets people know where you are...this also means where you are not..." This taps into the awareness parents/all users of these tools must have. In Joannes Trailfire there is a great article along these lines, 'Parenting in the Digital Age'.
Nicola's posts were always very astute, especially from the personal uses side of things. Using podcasts as memory banks, introduced me to the Diigolet, as well as PodBean two tools I was struggling with. Brad is the king of TechnoLand in my eyes, he was on a different level the whole course. I enjoyed reading his blogs as he always had something I had never heard of, Mindmap and Slideshare just to name a couple of the easier ones.
Brandi probably taught me the most important thing of all, and she probably doesn't even know it. Right from the very first blog what I learned from Brandi was that these blogs could be fun! That was a huge lesson, being able to relax and just go with it, 'free your mind and the rest will follow!' (Sorry for the En Vogue quote, I'm not sure where that came from)
Many of us had the bonds of being relatively new to the digital-cybertronic-techno universe we were entering and that was very comforting to say the least, having the comraderie and the online collaboration of our failures/successes really helped push me along when podca.... I mean when things got tough.
This has been the most difficult blog of the course for me. Trying to reflect on the massive amount of information and new knowledge that I have obtained in the last three months is horrifying. I tried to keep it simple (not too long, yeah right!) and to show how I could use these new tools in my professional career as a sonography instructor and as a sonographer. I'll have to admit that when we started this course I thought that I was at a disadvantage not being a Teacher/Librarian. I figured that there was so much material out there for all of you and very little for myself, well this course taught me many things one of them being, if at first you don't succeed try a different blog/wiki/ning/etc. and you will find what you are looking for. Web 2.0 is one the greatest educational sources out there. Like Will Richardson says in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, etc., "...there is little doubt that the Internet will continue to explode as the most comprehensive source of information in history." Another key aspect to Web 2.0 is the collaborative nature of all these tools. Input is coming from tens, hundreds, even thousands of people working together to create a comprehensive global outlook on whatever the topic may be. This is evident in the quotes of my students who had a limited exposure but still managed to see the value of collaboration! You can't measure the amount of growth that I have experienced in the past three months, literally I have gone from byte to gigabyte in a nanosecond!
Davis and Merchant (2009) discuss how education can benefit from the student's exposure to all this new media, as long as the students have guidelines and understand the nuances of what/who they are interacting with.
This leads me to the most important thing this course has done for me from a personal side of things, that 'knowledge = security'. Having two younger children getting ready to enter cyberspace and having this new knowledge better prepares me for what they are getting into. It allows me to educate them and gives me some piece of mind that I know what is out there.
I won't be sitting in my room wondering what they are doing, I'll be more involved and not just a passive bystander watching the world leave me behind.
This has been a most rewarding journey, I can't remember willingly spending so much time learning on my own? But that is what happened with this course you were just engulfed with information to test and play. Part of me wanting to implement these new tools in my classes is due to the joy and excitement that I experienced from them.
That says it all right there, 'do unto others as you would have them do to you!'
Notes:
Davies, J. & Merchant, G. (2009). Web 2.0 for schools.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms.
Ward, J. (2007). RSS feeds: Sweating the really simple stuff. Toxicology Pathology, 35, 846-847.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
B.L.O.G. - B for breaking news, L for latest updates, O for only what you want, and G for global. My Blog Post.
1.) Okay well its time to blog about blogging. I'll have to admit that blogs were a web 2.0 tool that I had heard of prior to this course, so I had that going for me. Unfortunately I never read any blogs nor had I attempted to post any blogs prior to this course, but at least I knew what they were.
Getting all set up in the blogging world was very simple, I went with Blogger as my personal blog site on recommendation from Will Richardson (2006). I was surprised at how smooth and easy it was, I was up and running in no time. Next step was to instantly begin worrying about what to say, how to say it, who to say it to, and so on. I don't normally struggle with things to say, however the thought of sending something into cyberspace scared me! Luckily Joanne eased us into it which was nice. I also started a Ning account at the same time and used that as somewhat of a practice field so to speak...err I mean blog.
Next we had to set up an RSS feed or blog aggregator. This area was completely new to me. I had never heard of an RSS feed before this course.
So with Joanne's suggestion I went in and set up an account in Google Reader, again very easy. As part of our course outline we were asked to follow/subscribe to at least 10 blogs of our choice and 8 blogs that were given to us in our outline. With my google reader all ready to go I went and searched for the 8 required blogs and then 10 of my own. There was absolutely no hassle in locating blogs to follow, the best part about it is that one of the blogs we were asked to follow, Copyblogger, had great tips on how to write blogs! I'm sure this was no accident. So with the knowledge I had gained from the copyblogger site and having the chance to see some of my classmates blogs, I began blogging. It became easier and easier with each post. Another part that helped tremendously with the whole finding my 'voice' dilemna was the discussion that our cohort had on eclass, knowing that several of us were having similar struggles and concerns really helped me relax. Support breeds confidence.
One thing that I've noticed that has gradually improved is that I've been able to find blog sites that interest me much easier now as opposed to 2 months ago. Perhaps it is due to my knowledge level of web 2.0 growing by astronomical amounts, I'm guessing not. When we first started I had found 3 sites that were profession related, and one of those was poor at best. Currently I have 30 blogs that I am following and of those 30 there are 5 quality ultrasound sites, this excites me for reasons I'll explain in part 3. I think what happens is that there are just millions and millions of sites out there and once you stumble on one good one you will always be linked or referred to others like it. That was one of the only frustrations that I encountered with blogs, was the difficulty in finding exactly what I was looking for, and the seemingly never ending searches that led to no where. Perhaps one reason for my struggles may be that there is not the same quantity and quality of sonographer blogs out there as there is in education.
As the semester progressed I began learn a bit more about our friend the RSS feed and what it was and how to use it. I never noticed that little orange square on all these web sites before, or the share option that you see. The name that most people give RSS, real simple syndication, makes complete sense. It truly is simple, with one little click you are instantly connected, and updates will now come to you!
David Rothman wrote something that really cleared up the RSS feed for me, in the Journal of Hospital Librarianship he said," when you check your email, you don't go to each of your friends' mailboxes to see if they sent you anything-you just check your inbox. Google Reader does the same thing for the Internet, by putting all the sites that interest you in one convenient location and indicating when something has been updated." Surprisingly simple and yet to be honest it took me a while to grasp the concept. Common Craft's video on RSS in Plain English also did a great job in explaining it as usual. One comparison that Lee Lefever made was how RSS is like Netflix as opposed to going to a video store. "RSS allows you to create your own newspaper of sorts, from a conglomeration of whatever sources you like..."(Ward, 2007) Bloglines does this very thing for you. You can go in, set up an account, and have all your favorite websites sitting there right in front of you. Your own personal front page every morning during coffee! An interesting side note about RSS feeds is that with some aggregators you can set up a Vanity feed. Richardson (2006) discusses this in 'Blogs, Wikis, Pocasts..' You can be alerted anytime somebody links something to you. During one of our earlier blog posts this happened to me when I linked something back to Will Richardson's blog site and was shocked to have him comment on my blog, kind of scary in a Big Brother type of way. This is a good lesson on making sure you are comfortable with what you saying.
2.) Discussing blogs in terms of personal use after this course required some thought. I have ten followers to my blog right now, and of those ten, roughly ten are from my cohort. I realize that I have not asked anyone to follow, I just wondered what would I have to say and who would want to listen? I have my Ning account which is basically the place I can go and type out my rants, I have no followers there last time I checked but funny enough I enjoy posting on there as my outlet from society. So as I pondered my blogging future I remembered that my Mum checks this site to see how my homework went for the week, yes she does, and yes I am a bit of a Mama's boy! So I thought I could turn my blog into a personal family blog. I could call it 'Ball Time', or 'Here are the Balls'....wait sorry that will not work for the internet. My point is I think there could be a blogging future for me, whether it is a personal blog about our family or professional blog related to ultrasound and education. As far as following blogs with Google Reader I will definitely be continuing with that, especially now since I have started to find some decent ultrasound sites. There are many special interests blogs that I will be following and now that I am in the know I will be constantly looking for things to add to lists. Also as my kids get older and start developing some special interests of their own or doing school projects we could use Google Reader as a source for them as well.
Just to break up the monotony of my 'voice', here is a little YouTube clip basically showing the immense world of blogging!
3.) Discussion of blogs from a professional standpoint did not require much thought at all. I will continue to use blogs as part of my own professional development and also as a tool for my students. As I mentioned above I've started to discover some quality blogs that are linked to ultrasound, I used Blogsearch and Technorati to locate these sites. In the Technorati site they actually had an area that had the top 50 blogs for sonographers! Now if I may go back in time to my Twitter blog, I mentioned there the value of twitter from an educational/professional view was the ability to send out useful links to co-workers and students. So if I may be so bold as to combine the two topics, now that I actually have some good blogs to look through in my blog aggregator, I can now use Twitter to 'tweet' any interesting blogs I come across to all my students. Just like Joanne has done with us. I can give them a hashtag and send it out to the whole class. If the students want to view them or not is up to them, it will be supplementary information that they won't be tested on but will enhance the learning process. This excites me and I look forward to setting something up for next semester. As far as blogging I'm not too sure if I will set a blog account that is geared towards our sonography students or not. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet. I will think about it, again it all comes down to my initial fears with blogging. If I do, I want to make sure that it is beneficial to the students and not just an experiment.
In the educational/librarian realm I can see the benefit of blogging in schools without question. This is a new era and this is how kids communicate, giving them the option to blog in class is beneficial for the material and the student. In an article by Lisa Zawilinski she speaks of all the blogging options for elementary schools; Classroom News Blogs- sharing news and info with parents and students, Mirror Blogs- allows students to reflect on their thinking, Showcase Blogs- blogs for student projects, podcasts, writing, and Literature Response Blogs- where students can discuss different literature from class. ( I've included links to examples of each one of these blogs) Another concept from the Zawilinski article that caught my eye was HOT Blogging. HOT blogging is said to develop Higher Order Thinking (H.O.T.) through four steps: 1. Bolster background (teachers post a blog to build background knowledge), 2. Prime the pump (blogging to help the students think deeply), 3. Continue the conversation (summary and synthesization of what has been read, chapters and blogs), 4. Make multiplicity explicit (inviting students to read, think, and comment on the classroom blog). This last point struck a chord with me, it mentions that students will encounter how differently they all we think and approach a subject. Student's encounter multiple perspectives and also develop the ability to defend or support their own perspective. I've found this from our cohort as well, after I've posted my blog I'll go and read my classmates and from every single one that I read I learn something that I didn't know before. Also just the different paths that we all take on the same subject is quite amazing and very helpful. One thing that needs to be in place in a school setting are some blogging guidelines for the students, in Joanne's trailfire there was a great article on this, aptly titled Student Blogging Guidelines. One important thing the article mentions is to only post things that you would want everybody to know, very important concept to grasp because as we know once its out there it is out there!
Blogs and blogging have a place in education there is no question and RSS feeds are just something that is needed in all professional walks of life. Seriously if there were 20 excellent sites out there on how to keep your daughters home on the weekend, don't you think there would be a swarm of fathers signing up for Google Reader! It just makes sense, like Will Richardson mentions in 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts..' (2006), "its the one technology that you should start using today, right now, this minute." Why wouldn't you? I know I will! And personally I will continue to use Google Reader, and perhaps continue to blog personally and professionally. The jury is still out on that, however I have enjoyed posting these blogs regardless of the incredible amount of time it takes. When I saw the syllabus for this course I thought, excellent no papers that will be nice! Whoa, I really have to stop thinking. Putting your personal thoughts out to the public is a lot more excruciating then doing a literature review on research, which I had to do this weekend also so I can make that comparison quite easily at this point. All in all it has been very educational and rewarding to put myself out there for the world (aka our class) to see.
This video shows the power and versatility of the digital 'word'!
Kirk out! (get it, Captain's Blog. Lame and unoriginal I know!)
Non-cited sources:
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.
Rothman, D.L. (2007). Getting Started with RSS Feeds. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 7(3), 75-83.
Ward, J.A. (2007). RSS Feeds: Sweating the Really Simple Stuff. Toxicology Pathology, 35, 846-847.
Zawilinski, L. (2009). HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promoted Higher Order Thinking. The Reading Teacher, 62(8), 650-661.
Getting all set up in the blogging world was very simple, I went with Blogger as my personal blog site on recommendation from Will Richardson (2006). I was surprised at how smooth and easy it was, I was up and running in no time. Next step was to instantly begin worrying about what to say, how to say it, who to say it to, and so on. I don't normally struggle with things to say, however the thought of sending something into cyberspace scared me! Luckily Joanne eased us into it which was nice. I also started a Ning account at the same time and used that as somewhat of a practice field so to speak...err I mean blog.
Next we had to set up an RSS feed or blog aggregator. This area was completely new to me. I had never heard of an RSS feed before this course.
So with Joanne's suggestion I went in and set up an account in Google Reader, again very easy. As part of our course outline we were asked to follow/subscribe to at least 10 blogs of our choice and 8 blogs that were given to us in our outline. With my google reader all ready to go I went and searched for the 8 required blogs and then 10 of my own. There was absolutely no hassle in locating blogs to follow, the best part about it is that one of the blogs we were asked to follow, Copyblogger, had great tips on how to write blogs! I'm sure this was no accident. So with the knowledge I had gained from the copyblogger site and having the chance to see some of my classmates blogs, I began blogging. It became easier and easier with each post. Another part that helped tremendously with the whole finding my 'voice' dilemna was the discussion that our cohort had on eclass, knowing that several of us were having similar struggles and concerns really helped me relax. Support breeds confidence.
Finding the perfect blog, was like finding a needle in a haystack at times!
As the semester progressed I began learn a bit more about our friend the RSS feed and what it was and how to use it. I never noticed that little orange square on all these web sites before, or the share option that you see. The name that most people give RSS, real simple syndication, makes complete sense. It truly is simple, with one little click you are instantly connected, and updates will now come to you!
David Rothman wrote something that really cleared up the RSS feed for me, in the Journal of Hospital Librarianship he said," when you check your email, you don't go to each of your friends' mailboxes to see if they sent you anything-you just check your inbox. Google Reader does the same thing for the Internet, by putting all the sites that interest you in one convenient location and indicating when something has been updated." Surprisingly simple and yet to be honest it took me a while to grasp the concept. Common Craft's video on RSS in Plain English also did a great job in explaining it as usual. One comparison that Lee Lefever made was how RSS is like Netflix as opposed to going to a video store. "RSS allows you to create your own newspaper of sorts, from a conglomeration of whatever sources you like..."(Ward, 2007) Bloglines does this very thing for you. You can go in, set up an account, and have all your favorite websites sitting there right in front of you. Your own personal front page every morning during coffee! An interesting side note about RSS feeds is that with some aggregators you can set up a Vanity feed. Richardson (2006) discusses this in 'Blogs, Wikis, Pocasts..' You can be alerted anytime somebody links something to you. During one of our earlier blog posts this happened to me when I linked something back to Will Richardson's blog site and was shocked to have him comment on my blog, kind of scary in a Big Brother type of way. This is a good lesson on making sure you are comfortable with what you saying.
2.) Discussing blogs in terms of personal use after this course required some thought. I have ten followers to my blog right now, and of those ten, roughly ten are from my cohort. I realize that I have not asked anyone to follow, I just wondered what would I have to say and who would want to listen? I have my Ning account which is basically the place I can go and type out my rants, I have no followers there last time I checked but funny enough I enjoy posting on there as my outlet from society. So as I pondered my blogging future I remembered that my Mum checks this site to see how my homework went for the week, yes she does, and yes I am a bit of a Mama's boy! So I thought I could turn my blog into a personal family blog. I could call it 'Ball Time', or 'Here are the Balls'....wait sorry that will not work for the internet. My point is I think there could be a blogging future for me, whether it is a personal blog about our family or professional blog related to ultrasound and education. As far as following blogs with Google Reader I will definitely be continuing with that, especially now since I have started to find some decent ultrasound sites. There are many special interests blogs that I will be following and now that I am in the know I will be constantly looking for things to add to lists. Also as my kids get older and start developing some special interests of their own or doing school projects we could use Google Reader as a source for them as well.
Just to break up the monotony of my 'voice', here is a little YouTube clip basically showing the immense world of blogging!
3.) Discussion of blogs from a professional standpoint did not require much thought at all. I will continue to use blogs as part of my own professional development and also as a tool for my students. As I mentioned above I've started to discover some quality blogs that are linked to ultrasound, I used Blogsearch and Technorati to locate these sites. In the Technorati site they actually had an area that had the top 50 blogs for sonographers! Now if I may go back in time to my Twitter blog, I mentioned there the value of twitter from an educational/professional view was the ability to send out useful links to co-workers and students. So if I may be so bold as to combine the two topics, now that I actually have some good blogs to look through in my blog aggregator, I can now use Twitter to 'tweet' any interesting blogs I come across to all my students. Just like Joanne has done with us. I can give them a hashtag and send it out to the whole class. If the students want to view them or not is up to them, it will be supplementary information that they won't be tested on but will enhance the learning process. This excites me and I look forward to setting something up for next semester. As far as blogging I'm not too sure if I will set a blog account that is geared towards our sonography students or not. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet. I will think about it, again it all comes down to my initial fears with blogging. If I do, I want to make sure that it is beneficial to the students and not just an experiment.
In the educational/librarian realm I can see the benefit of blogging in schools without question. This is a new era and this is how kids communicate, giving them the option to blog in class is beneficial for the material and the student. In an article by Lisa Zawilinski she speaks of all the blogging options for elementary schools; Classroom News Blogs- sharing news and info with parents and students, Mirror Blogs- allows students to reflect on their thinking, Showcase Blogs- blogs for student projects, podcasts, writing, and Literature Response Blogs- where students can discuss different literature from class. ( I've included links to examples of each one of these blogs) Another concept from the Zawilinski article that caught my eye was HOT Blogging. HOT blogging is said to develop Higher Order Thinking (H.O.T.) through four steps: 1. Bolster background (teachers post a blog to build background knowledge), 2. Prime the pump (blogging to help the students think deeply), 3. Continue the conversation (summary and synthesization of what has been read, chapters and blogs), 4. Make multiplicity explicit (inviting students to read, think, and comment on the classroom blog). This last point struck a chord with me, it mentions that students will encounter how differently they all we think and approach a subject. Student's encounter multiple perspectives and also develop the ability to defend or support their own perspective. I've found this from our cohort as well, after I've posted my blog I'll go and read my classmates and from every single one that I read I learn something that I didn't know before. Also just the different paths that we all take on the same subject is quite amazing and very helpful. One thing that needs to be in place in a school setting are some blogging guidelines for the students, in Joanne's trailfire there was a great article on this, aptly titled Student Blogging Guidelines. One important thing the article mentions is to only post things that you would want everybody to know, very important concept to grasp because as we know once its out there it is out there!
Blogs and blogging have a place in education there is no question and RSS feeds are just something that is needed in all professional walks of life. Seriously if there were 20 excellent sites out there on how to keep your daughters home on the weekend, don't you think there would be a swarm of fathers signing up for Google Reader! It just makes sense, like Will Richardson mentions in 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts..' (2006), "its the one technology that you should start using today, right now, this minute." Why wouldn't you? I know I will! And personally I will continue to use Google Reader, and perhaps continue to blog personally and professionally. The jury is still out on that, however I have enjoyed posting these blogs regardless of the incredible amount of time it takes. When I saw the syllabus for this course I thought, excellent no papers that will be nice! Whoa, I really have to stop thinking. Putting your personal thoughts out to the public is a lot more excruciating then doing a literature review on research, which I had to do this weekend also so I can make that comparison quite easily at this point. All in all it has been very educational and rewarding to put myself out there for the world (aka our class) to see.
This video shows the power and versatility of the digital 'word'!
Kirk out! (get it, Captain's Blog. Lame and unoriginal I know!)
Non-cited sources:
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.
Rothman, D.L. (2007). Getting Started with RSS Feeds. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 7(3), 75-83.
Ward, J.A. (2007). RSS Feeds: Sweating the Really Simple Stuff. Toxicology Pathology, 35, 846-847.
Zawilinski, L. (2009). HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promoted Higher Order Thinking. The Reading Teacher, 62(8), 650-661.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Twitter me Less, or Twitter me More. Here is my Twitter blog for You to Explore!
"Hey Dog, did you hear about Twitter?"
In true twitter fashion, I've decided to do my blog in the allotted 140 characters. So here it goes, getting signed on and started up with twi...
...Okay just kidding (I stole that little joke from Neil Patrick Harris's first tweet, November 16th, 2009) obviously my learning process and application of twitter in both my personal and professional life cannot be summed up in the 140 character maximum of the tweet bar. As a matter of fact I had difficulty sending a message period, in under 140 characters.
1.) Five months ago, I never would have imagined signing up for a Twitter account, first off I thought the name Twitter was lame and all the cute names that came with it, tweet, twits, tweeps, etc. were all horrible, again these are all my thoughts before even seeing it. So I sign up for this course and in January I sign up for a Twitter account, @tgb6, doubting the benefits of it the whole time. Signing on was easy as can be. One interesting thing about the process was that Twitter had much higher standards for your password then my local online banking account. With Twitter they at least had a scale as you were typing in your proposed password to let you know if it was easy, medium, or hard to crack. The bank did not, interesting!
Once I got into Twitter I instantly went looking for people to follow. The very first 10 minutes that I was a member I was following Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzeneggar (whose last name is 10% of the max. 140 by the way), Ozzy Osbourne, Kevin Smith, and the NHL. Quite the mix of people, instantly you find that some people seem to be twittering constantly (Kevin Smith), and others not much at all (Ozzy Osbourne). Initially I knew nothing of what I was doing, nothing of retweeting, nothing of hashtags, and I was scared basically of what to 'tweet' as well. Soon all of our class was on there and we started tweeting each other and that eased my tension somewhat. Then I was speaking to a good friend of mine who owns a business in Calgary and has a twitter account set up for work, so I began following him. As my followings increased and I started picking up pointers from the discussions on eclass I began to become more comfortabe with the world of 'twits' and also I began to see the benefits of the tool in both a personal realm and the professional world, more on that later.
There are many sites out there that can help a person get comfortable with how to use twitter, this one I found particularly useful because of its simplicity and straight forward advice. This was the first big hurdle for me to overcome with Twitter, the whole what do I say and sound 'cool', 'smart', 'witty', and 'handsome'(yes tough to accomplish in text, but its worth a shot). Once you figure out what you want to say using Twitter, things become a lot clearer. Joanne and my friend John (with the business) both said the same thing, they used Twitter to connect with their students and colleagues whenever interesting articles or events came across their radars. This makes great sense and once I started looking at Twitter with this new lens things became more clear.
As with most of these cyber tools in the Web 2.0 universe there are some risks to consider with a Twitter account. Some minor flaws would be hashtag hijacking, where people see a trend and then insert that hashtag into their tweet to attract people's attention. False mention, where someone will use your user name to attract your attention. Some others include: misleading links, mass follow, falsifying tweets, and twitterns. These fouls can be found in the November 2009 issue of Public Relations Tactics magazine. A more serious security concern is the false impersonation of an individual or business. Twitter has set up badges for famous individuals that allow other users to know that they have the real person, however this has not happened just yet for businesses that are now using Twitter, such as financial institutions. This is a major concern for indentity theft. There are steps in process to get these financial accounts verified with authentic badges to let people know they are dealing with the business they are intending to deal with. This scenario shows the path of Twitter's growth. In 2006 it started mainly as a social tool to communicate with friends and follow celebrities, hence the authenticity badges for the 'true' celebrities, but now it has gained popularity in the business sector as well, and these areas must now be protected. As of last May Twitter claimed to have over 30 million users, a huge network of people and companies and with the 'retweet' option that Twitter has, you can reach thousands of people in only minutes. A fantastic tool for spreading news, in 140 characters, of course. Setting up lists, and hashtagging are also great tools to organize and locate 'tweets' on a specific topic or to a specific group of 'twitterers'.
2.) From a personal stand point I've enjoyed Twitter. Once I got into the tool and started searching for people to follow or interests that I have, the value increased considerably. I started to follow a couple of the sportscasters from TSN that I enjoy, I started to follow Rick Mercer, I started following my friends business account. The first couple are for fun and information, the TSN guys keep me up to date on the canadian view of the world of sports, Rick Mercer is a house hold favourite and he always has an interesting take on Canadian politics, and the last one has really helped me get connected with one of my best friends and what he does daily. (I also am now following his blog thanks to this course) As a learner it is nice to be able to go through Joanne's tweets and see what she has recommended for our class by clicking the #tldl544 hashtag and seeing all that comes up. 'Twitterment', aka the ability to search for a specific term is also a useful tool, to quickly search for an item or topic, and you can browse through and see if anything catches your eye. From a personal standpoint I enjoy Twitter over a Blog reader simply because of the 140 character max. In a very short time I can see all the information and links and decide if it is for me, plus multiple 'tweets' will show on the page, again making the browsing easier. As a parent there are a plethora of things you can easily locate using Twitter, games, shows, books, educational tools, etc, all you have to do is do a twitterment search of whatever it is you are after.
3.) From a professional/educator stand point I believe there is a place for Twitter. In a class setting, particularly a distance learning set up, having the ability to check into your twitter account to see if any ineresting sites or articles have been recommended is very valuable. It allows there to be a constant connection between student and instructor without the need to be in contact, as you don't have to be logged on to your computer to get the twitter updates they can come right to your cell phone. I've already began trying to find sites that can benefit my students, so that next year I can recommend that they follow me on Twitter so they can see any interesting cases, developments, or learning opportunities regarding ultrasound. These may not benefit them in my particular class (although I'm sure it won't hurt), but that is not the point it will benefit them universally in their chosen profession and thus make them more employable when they graduate. In the long run that is our ultimate goal as an institution to prepare them for the 'real' world, not just the exam at the end of the semester. I feel that Twitter can help do that, give them a chance to see other opinions and protocols that are out there. Many physicians are using twitter in this format, presenting interesting findings, posing questions, links to interesting articles/procedures. It is such a rapid and easy way to disseminate information, why wouldn't you want to use it to enhance your business, or to improve your employees, or to better educate your students, it just makes sense! This coming from a guy who thought it was a joke, and just another way for the younger generation to seperate from us aging X'ers. How wrong I was. Social media has a place in education, as with anything of course guidelines need to be in place, users must be aware of security issues, and above all be aware of what you 'write' as once it goes out there, its out there! In a recent eCampus News article is states that in a recent survey 98% of students felt that social networking was beneficial to their education, only 14% of instructors felt the same way. This is a huge disconnect and it is the instructors who have to change their attitudes and perceptions, I don't think this cyber world is a flash in the pan! We as instructors need to engage our students, we need to do all we can to reach them. We draw pictures, write on the white/chalk board, have handouts, do group work, use powerpoints, and lecture. Well now all you have to do is add, blogs, twitter, wikis, etc. its all the same premis, just a different time. We always hear about different learning styles and how we need to try and tap into all of them, I don't understand the reluctancy then to engage these students with something like Twitter and social networking.
In my other role as an ultrasound professional there is a benefit to Twitter for sure, I've located a few sites that have interesting cases or upcoming learing opportunities, and updates on the latest equipment that are very helpful. Our national society has nothing set up yet on Twitter, perhaps because of the small size of the group, 2500, or perhaps the lack of funds and staff to set up, run, and maintain a site. Hopefully in the near future they will have something for us on Twitter, something that would be easy to follow and help our profession keep up with ultrasound across Canada.
This was a great tool to explore and one that surprised me. After all was said and done, who would have thought so much could come out of 140 characters or less??? What if we shortened it some more....
... okay maybe not....yet!
Non-linked sources:
Berger, E., (2009). This sentence easily would fit on twitter: Emergency physicians are learning to "tweet". Annals of Emergency Medicine, 54(2), 23-25.
Pilcher, J., (2010). Growing use of twitter raises customer security concers. ABA Banking Journal, January, 27-28.
...Okay just kidding (I stole that little joke from Neil Patrick Harris's first tweet, November 16th, 2009) obviously my learning process and application of twitter in both my personal and professional life cannot be summed up in the 140 character maximum of the tweet bar. As a matter of fact I had difficulty sending a message period, in under 140 characters.
1.) Five months ago, I never would have imagined signing up for a Twitter account, first off I thought the name Twitter was lame and all the cute names that came with it, tweet, twits, tweeps, etc. were all horrible, again these are all my thoughts before even seeing it. So I sign up for this course and in January I sign up for a Twitter account, @tgb6, doubting the benefits of it the whole time. Signing on was easy as can be. One interesting thing about the process was that Twitter had much higher standards for your password then my local online banking account. With Twitter they at least had a scale as you were typing in your proposed password to let you know if it was easy, medium, or hard to crack. The bank did not, interesting!
Once I got into Twitter I instantly went looking for people to follow. The very first 10 minutes that I was a member I was following Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzeneggar (whose last name is 10% of the max. 140 by the way), Ozzy Osbourne, Kevin Smith, and the NHL. Quite the mix of people, instantly you find that some people seem to be twittering constantly (Kevin Smith), and others not much at all (Ozzy Osbourne). Initially I knew nothing of what I was doing, nothing of retweeting, nothing of hashtags, and I was scared basically of what to 'tweet' as well. Soon all of our class was on there and we started tweeting each other and that eased my tension somewhat. Then I was speaking to a good friend of mine who owns a business in Calgary and has a twitter account set up for work, so I began following him. As my followings increased and I started picking up pointers from the discussions on eclass I began to become more comfortabe with the world of 'twits' and also I began to see the benefits of the tool in both a personal realm and the professional world, more on that later.
There are many sites out there that can help a person get comfortable with how to use twitter, this one I found particularly useful because of its simplicity and straight forward advice. This was the first big hurdle for me to overcome with Twitter, the whole what do I say and sound 'cool', 'smart', 'witty', and 'handsome'(yes tough to accomplish in text, but its worth a shot). Once you figure out what you want to say using Twitter, things become a lot clearer. Joanne and my friend John (with the business) both said the same thing, they used Twitter to connect with their students and colleagues whenever interesting articles or events came across their radars. This makes great sense and once I started looking at Twitter with this new lens things became more clear.
As with most of these cyber tools in the Web 2.0 universe there are some risks to consider with a Twitter account. Some minor flaws would be hashtag hijacking, where people see a trend and then insert that hashtag into their tweet to attract people's attention. False mention, where someone will use your user name to attract your attention. Some others include: misleading links, mass follow, falsifying tweets, and twitterns. These fouls can be found in the November 2009 issue of Public Relations Tactics magazine. A more serious security concern is the false impersonation of an individual or business. Twitter has set up badges for famous individuals that allow other users to know that they have the real person, however this has not happened just yet for businesses that are now using Twitter, such as financial institutions. This is a major concern for indentity theft. There are steps in process to get these financial accounts verified with authentic badges to let people know they are dealing with the business they are intending to deal with. This scenario shows the path of Twitter's growth. In 2006 it started mainly as a social tool to communicate with friends and follow celebrities, hence the authenticity badges for the 'true' celebrities, but now it has gained popularity in the business sector as well, and these areas must now be protected. As of last May Twitter claimed to have over 30 million users, a huge network of people and companies and with the 'retweet' option that Twitter has, you can reach thousands of people in only minutes. A fantastic tool for spreading news, in 140 characters, of course. Setting up lists, and hashtagging are also great tools to organize and locate 'tweets' on a specific topic or to a specific group of 'twitterers'.
2.) From a personal stand point I've enjoyed Twitter. Once I got into the tool and started searching for people to follow or interests that I have, the value increased considerably. I started to follow a couple of the sportscasters from TSN that I enjoy, I started to follow Rick Mercer, I started following my friends business account. The first couple are for fun and information, the TSN guys keep me up to date on the canadian view of the world of sports, Rick Mercer is a house hold favourite and he always has an interesting take on Canadian politics, and the last one has really helped me get connected with one of my best friends and what he does daily. (I also am now following his blog thanks to this course) As a learner it is nice to be able to go through Joanne's tweets and see what she has recommended for our class by clicking the #tldl544 hashtag and seeing all that comes up. 'Twitterment', aka the ability to search for a specific term is also a useful tool, to quickly search for an item or topic, and you can browse through and see if anything catches your eye. From a personal standpoint I enjoy Twitter over a Blog reader simply because of the 140 character max. In a very short time I can see all the information and links and decide if it is for me, plus multiple 'tweets' will show on the page, again making the browsing easier. As a parent there are a plethora of things you can easily locate using Twitter, games, shows, books, educational tools, etc, all you have to do is do a twitterment search of whatever it is you are after.
3.) From a professional/educator stand point I believe there is a place for Twitter. In a class setting, particularly a distance learning set up, having the ability to check into your twitter account to see if any ineresting sites or articles have been recommended is very valuable. It allows there to be a constant connection between student and instructor without the need to be in contact, as you don't have to be logged on to your computer to get the twitter updates they can come right to your cell phone. I've already began trying to find sites that can benefit my students, so that next year I can recommend that they follow me on Twitter so they can see any interesting cases, developments, or learning opportunities regarding ultrasound. These may not benefit them in my particular class (although I'm sure it won't hurt), but that is not the point it will benefit them universally in their chosen profession and thus make them more employable when they graduate. In the long run that is our ultimate goal as an institution to prepare them for the 'real' world, not just the exam at the end of the semester. I feel that Twitter can help do that, give them a chance to see other opinions and protocols that are out there. Many physicians are using twitter in this format, presenting interesting findings, posing questions, links to interesting articles/procedures. It is such a rapid and easy way to disseminate information, why wouldn't you want to use it to enhance your business, or to improve your employees, or to better educate your students, it just makes sense! This coming from a guy who thought it was a joke, and just another way for the younger generation to seperate from us aging X'ers. How wrong I was. Social media has a place in education, as with anything of course guidelines need to be in place, users must be aware of security issues, and above all be aware of what you 'write' as once it goes out there, its out there! In a recent eCampus News article is states that in a recent survey 98% of students felt that social networking was beneficial to their education, only 14% of instructors felt the same way. This is a huge disconnect and it is the instructors who have to change their attitudes and perceptions, I don't think this cyber world is a flash in the pan! We as instructors need to engage our students, we need to do all we can to reach them. We draw pictures, write on the white/chalk board, have handouts, do group work, use powerpoints, and lecture. Well now all you have to do is add, blogs, twitter, wikis, etc. its all the same premis, just a different time. We always hear about different learning styles and how we need to try and tap into all of them, I don't understand the reluctancy then to engage these students with something like Twitter and social networking.
In my other role as an ultrasound professional there is a benefit to Twitter for sure, I've located a few sites that have interesting cases or upcoming learing opportunities, and updates on the latest equipment that are very helpful. Our national society has nothing set up yet on Twitter, perhaps because of the small size of the group, 2500, or perhaps the lack of funds and staff to set up, run, and maintain a site. Hopefully in the near future they will have something for us on Twitter, something that would be easy to follow and help our profession keep up with ultrasound across Canada.
This was a great tool to explore and one that surprised me. After all was said and done, who would have thought so much could come out of 140 characters or less??? What if we shortened it some more....
... okay maybe not....yet!
Non-linked sources:
Berger, E., (2009). This sentence easily would fit on twitter: Emergency physicians are learning to "tweet". Annals of Emergency Medicine, 54(2), 23-25.
Pilcher, J., (2010). Growing use of twitter raises customer security concers. ABA Banking Journal, January, 27-28.
Monday, March 22, 2010
I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends! My social networking Blog.
"Hey man have you joined Facebook? You just have to, and then we can be friends."
1.) This is a comment that came from one of my best friends, a person I have known since I was in high school. A person I have been friends with for over 20 years, but apparently not officially, since I was not on Facebook! I caved to his request and eventually signed up for what I perceived was an online popularity contest! Getting starting on Facebook was very simple even for myself who a couple of years ago didn't even know the term social networking.
So when we received our materials for the EDES 544 course and Joanne asked us to join Facebook and mull around in there, I thought great I've been on there for two years this will be easy! WHOA! Wrong thought genius! Turns out when I logged on to my Facebook account in January, there were two messages from November 2009. One from a friend in Texas, and another from a friend who was in town for the evening passing through and wanted to get together, ooops! So I quickly sent back my apologies but never heard back from them, making me a cyber-snob! Promising to do better I thought I should get involved in something that would get me to log in everyday, BIG MISTAKE!!! At the time a lot of my coworkers and friends were playing Farmville, I'm sure you all have heard of this number one game on Facebook. Not being a very good follower, I started playing a different game, that will show them, so I started playing MyTown as a way to make sure I was in my Facebook account regularly. Now the plan worked and is still working, I don't have the exact numbers but I'm thinking that it is 90% MyTown, and 10% other. Its the thought that counts right?
I had heard of MySpace prior to this course but I've never been on there or used it for anything. As far as the plethora of other Social Networking sites out there I had no idea. When we were asked to explore other sites such as Ning, I thought we were supposed to sign up and create our own Ning social network. Which I did by the way, I have no followers but you can still look at it if you want. I soon realized the massive world of Social Networking sites that are out there. LinkedIn and its potential for business, and then Ning in Education, and Classroom 2.0 as sites for education, plus the plethora of Facebook/Myspace type sites that are out there. Again I realized how little I know about social networking and the sites that were available. After the past couple of weeks I have changed my initial opinion on these sites and their potential uses.
2.) So how do I see social networking from a personal perspective? I found the educational ning sites to be very beneficial to me as a learner, especially with the web 2.0 tools that we have been discussing. The greatest personal asset of this tool is the connections to distant friends and family. Distant in contact and actually geographical distance. I have been in contact with cousins from Ontario and Quebec that I would never have thought of calling two years ago. Last month I went for a beer with a friend that I have not seen in 24 years! We reunited on Facebook a little while ago and he was in Edmonton for personal reasons and we got together and caught up, it was very neat to have that chance. Without Facebook that would never have happened. There are groups on there from my graduating year of high school, as well as a group from my elementary school. We have our 20 year reunion for high school next year and the girls that are organizing it, advertised it on Facebook, and my guess is that 3/4 of our graduating class already knows about it. This task of finding people and getting letters mailed out, and getting responses back would not have been worth the hassle. Can you imagine the time saved by posting it on Facebook?!
As a father, well that changes my opinion slightly. Although there are security precautions that are available, it is difficult to weed out all the garbage. It would just be a matter of educating my children and making sure I have access to their accounts until they are 18. There are many criticisms of Facebook and many of those are quite valid, but with anything that is out there parents need to be aware and educate their children accordingly. The one thing that is a little odd is the stalker type feeling when you are peaking into the lives of people that don't know you are doing it! I had a good friend of mine, deactivate his account because this aspect troubled him. There are privacy settings that will alleviate this issue, where you only allow your friends to view your profile.
Once I was on there, the networking aspect snowballs rapidly. I have a friend and she has two friends that I know, so I invite them to be my friends, and so on. In no time there are 200 people on there and the majority of those are people I may have never spoke to again in my life. Not for any other reason then I lost track of them, and that is a huge draw of Facebook for sure. My perceptions of Facebook changed instantly, it was not just a contest to see how many friends you can get, to me it was a tremendous tool in connecting with friends and family.
3.) The area where my opinion changed the most this week was the use of social networking for me as a professional and as an educator. Being an ultrasound professional prior to instructing I try and think how these tools would be beneficial in that arena as well as the classroom. So I didn't see any benefit to Facebook in either field. Doing the research of course I discovered the value of Nings. I had never heard of ning before, realizing that it gives people the opportunity to start their own social network with their own interests is what sets them apart from sites like Facebook. From the health care angle I came across some sites that help families cope with illness. These sites allow families to send out requests for tasks or assistance with activities. It also allows distant friends and relatives of the patient to be updated on the health of their friend or loved one. This application of social networking is wonderful, giving families and friends the opportunity to help from a distance or to just be in touch from a distance goes a long way in helping everybody handle the emotional burden of loss.
From an educators view you just can't beat the Do-It-Yourself tools like Ning. Having the ability to set up an educational site designed the way you want and allowing who you would like to follow is excellent. The two sites I concentrated on were Classroom 2.0 and Ning in Education. Fantastic sites with information on almost anything educational and web 2.0 related. Combined these sites have approximately 50,000 members which creates a huge collaboration of educational professionals to bounce ideas and questions off.
Facebook still hasn't shown me anything that makes it a valuable educational tool in the classroom. They say there are over 1600 educational applications on Facebook, but if you go and look at them (I'm not going to lie, I did not look at all 1600) not many of them are truly educational, but just fun. Things like personality tests, IQ tests, how well do you know me quizzes. There are a couple that can make secondary education life easier, courses 2.0 which helps you see who is in your courses with you, exploreU helps students choose a degree and which university is best suited for that choice, and campusbuddy similar to courses 2.0. Making the transition from one educational level to the next is the primary benefit of Facebook in education. It takes away from the awkwardness of meeting new people and joining new groups. Students have the opportunity to get to know people online and then ease their way into this new atmosphere. Some of the controversy out there revolves around blocking these types of sites from schools, before this course I agreed fully. My attitude has softened considerably, now I don't believe they should be blocked. Ning type set-ups should be allowed and used, as long as there are guidelines that come with it. Scott Habeeb posted a good starting point for such guidelines on the Ning in Education site. Facebook serves a different purpose to me, but still a valuable one in the realm of education, its always on and always gives the students a place to communicate and collaborate. Some say that if it is not blocked that it will deter the students from their studies. This could be true, there was a study done by a man named Chuck Martin, he studied 1100 students at the University of New HampshireWhittemore School of Business and Economics. He found that students grades were not affected by using social media like Facebook. I'm sure if I wanted to I could find a similar study quite easily that says it does, like all research it depends on the researcher, the place, the time, etc. The point is that social media is more beneficial versus detrimental. Social networks have the ability to improve distance learning as well. Comparing the e-class that we currently use with a class specific designed Ning is not a fair comparison to me. With the Ning you design it the way that best works for that topic, you have complete control of the look and feel of the site. Overall it is more modern and easier to navigate compared to the eclass format. (that could just be my opinion of course)
There are so many good parodies out there about Facebook, I added a couple of my favourites that point out some of the annoying aspects.
Although both of these clips are humorous they point out that users must be educated about the social network they are using and be aware of the security settings that are offered. My feelings towards social networking tools has changed considerably, from there is no place for it in education to there is a place for it, and perhaps even a need! Whether it is for a course or just to facilitate the transition from high school to university, there is a need and a purpose. Its just another way to reach out to the modern student who has an insane ability to multitask and vast knowledge of web 2.0. I've rambled on enough, so in closing....do you want to be my friend?
Non-Linked sources:
7 Things you should know about Facebook II. Taken from http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutFaceb/156828 , March 17, 2010.
Simonson, M. (2008). Social networking for distance education.Where is the research? The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 9(2), p.vii.
Mayer, D. K., (2009). Social networking in cancer care. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 14(1), p. xv.
1.) This is a comment that came from one of my best friends, a person I have known since I was in high school. A person I have been friends with for over 20 years, but apparently not officially, since I was not on Facebook! I caved to his request and eventually signed up for what I perceived was an online popularity contest! Getting starting on Facebook was very simple even for myself who a couple of years ago didn't even know the term social networking.
So when we received our materials for the EDES 544 course and Joanne asked us to join Facebook and mull around in there, I thought great I've been on there for two years this will be easy! WHOA! Wrong thought genius! Turns out when I logged on to my Facebook account in January, there were two messages from November 2009. One from a friend in Texas, and another from a friend who was in town for the evening passing through and wanted to get together, ooops! So I quickly sent back my apologies but never heard back from them, making me a cyber-snob! Promising to do better I thought I should get involved in something that would get me to log in everyday, BIG MISTAKE!!! At the time a lot of my coworkers and friends were playing Farmville, I'm sure you all have heard of this number one game on Facebook. Not being a very good follower, I started playing a different game, that will show them, so I started playing MyTown as a way to make sure I was in my Facebook account regularly. Now the plan worked and is still working, I don't have the exact numbers but I'm thinking that it is 90% MyTown, and 10% other. Its the thought that counts right?
2.) So how do I see social networking from a personal perspective? I found the educational ning sites to be very beneficial to me as a learner, especially with the web 2.0 tools that we have been discussing. The greatest personal asset of this tool is the connections to distant friends and family. Distant in contact and actually geographical distance. I have been in contact with cousins from Ontario and Quebec that I would never have thought of calling two years ago. Last month I went for a beer with a friend that I have not seen in 24 years! We reunited on Facebook a little while ago and he was in Edmonton for personal reasons and we got together and caught up, it was very neat to have that chance. Without Facebook that would never have happened. There are groups on there from my graduating year of high school, as well as a group from my elementary school. We have our 20 year reunion for high school next year and the girls that are organizing it, advertised it on Facebook, and my guess is that 3/4 of our graduating class already knows about it. This task of finding people and getting letters mailed out, and getting responses back would not have been worth the hassle. Can you imagine the time saved by posting it on Facebook?!
As a father, well that changes my opinion slightly. Although there are security precautions that are available, it is difficult to weed out all the garbage. It would just be a matter of educating my children and making sure I have access to their accounts until they are 18. There are many criticisms of Facebook and many of those are quite valid, but with anything that is out there parents need to be aware and educate their children accordingly. The one thing that is a little odd is the stalker type feeling when you are peaking into the lives of people that don't know you are doing it! I had a good friend of mine, deactivate his account because this aspect troubled him. There are privacy settings that will alleviate this issue, where you only allow your friends to view your profile.
Once I was on there, the networking aspect snowballs rapidly. I have a friend and she has two friends that I know, so I invite them to be my friends, and so on. In no time there are 200 people on there and the majority of those are people I may have never spoke to again in my life. Not for any other reason then I lost track of them, and that is a huge draw of Facebook for sure. My perceptions of Facebook changed instantly, it was not just a contest to see how many friends you can get, to me it was a tremendous tool in connecting with friends and family.
3.) The area where my opinion changed the most this week was the use of social networking for me as a professional and as an educator. Being an ultrasound professional prior to instructing I try and think how these tools would be beneficial in that arena as well as the classroom. So I didn't see any benefit to Facebook in either field. Doing the research of course I discovered the value of Nings. I had never heard of ning before, realizing that it gives people the opportunity to start their own social network with their own interests is what sets them apart from sites like Facebook. From the health care angle I came across some sites that help families cope with illness. These sites allow families to send out requests for tasks or assistance with activities. It also allows distant friends and relatives of the patient to be updated on the health of their friend or loved one. This application of social networking is wonderful, giving families and friends the opportunity to help from a distance or to just be in touch from a distance goes a long way in helping everybody handle the emotional burden of loss.
From an educators view you just can't beat the Do-It-Yourself tools like Ning. Having the ability to set up an educational site designed the way you want and allowing who you would like to follow is excellent. The two sites I concentrated on were Classroom 2.0 and Ning in Education. Fantastic sites with information on almost anything educational and web 2.0 related. Combined these sites have approximately 50,000 members which creates a huge collaboration of educational professionals to bounce ideas and questions off.
Facebook still hasn't shown me anything that makes it a valuable educational tool in the classroom. They say there are over 1600 educational applications on Facebook, but if you go and look at them (I'm not going to lie, I did not look at all 1600) not many of them are truly educational, but just fun. Things like personality tests, IQ tests, how well do you know me quizzes. There are a couple that can make secondary education life easier, courses 2.0 which helps you see who is in your courses with you, exploreU helps students choose a degree and which university is best suited for that choice, and campusbuddy similar to courses 2.0. Making the transition from one educational level to the next is the primary benefit of Facebook in education. It takes away from the awkwardness of meeting new people and joining new groups. Students have the opportunity to get to know people online and then ease their way into this new atmosphere. Some of the controversy out there revolves around blocking these types of sites from schools, before this course I agreed fully. My attitude has softened considerably, now I don't believe they should be blocked. Ning type set-ups should be allowed and used, as long as there are guidelines that come with it. Scott Habeeb posted a good starting point for such guidelines on the Ning in Education site. Facebook serves a different purpose to me, but still a valuable one in the realm of education, its always on and always gives the students a place to communicate and collaborate. Some say that if it is not blocked that it will deter the students from their studies. This could be true, there was a study done by a man named Chuck Martin, he studied 1100 students at the University of New HampshireWhittemore School of Business and Economics. He found that students grades were not affected by using social media like Facebook. I'm sure if I wanted to I could find a similar study quite easily that says it does, like all research it depends on the researcher, the place, the time, etc. The point is that social media is more beneficial versus detrimental. Social networks have the ability to improve distance learning as well. Comparing the e-class that we currently use with a class specific designed Ning is not a fair comparison to me. With the Ning you design it the way that best works for that topic, you have complete control of the look and feel of the site. Overall it is more modern and easier to navigate compared to the eclass format. (that could just be my opinion of course)
There are so many good parodies out there about Facebook, I added a couple of my favourites that point out some of the annoying aspects.
Although both of these clips are humorous they point out that users must be educated about the social network they are using and be aware of the security settings that are offered. My feelings towards social networking tools has changed considerably, from there is no place for it in education to there is a place for it, and perhaps even a need! Whether it is for a course or just to facilitate the transition from high school to university, there is a need and a purpose. Its just another way to reach out to the modern student who has an insane ability to multitask and vast knowledge of web 2.0. I've rambled on enough, so in closing....do you want to be my friend?
Non-Linked sources:
7 Things you should know about Facebook II. Taken from http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutFaceb/156828 , March 17, 2010.
Simonson, M. (2008). Social networking for distance education.Where is the research? The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 9(2), p.vii.
Mayer, D. K., (2009). Social networking in cancer care. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 14(1), p. xv.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Multiple-Shared-Social-Mashing and Me!? - My Multimedia Blog
1.) 
All of this research and playing with the Multisharma (I've mashed it all
All of this research and playing with the Multisharma (I've mashed it all into one word, saves time) has left me empty and exhausted. There is no
end to the material it seems, it just keeps going and going like that cute little bunny on T.V. My skills and knowledge base on this weeks topic is similar to the others, zilch, nada, zip when it comes to the multimedia aspects. As far as the social media aspect thanks to this class I now have a base knowledge of user generated sites, social networking sites, photo and video sharing sites. So much more in my brain then I could have imagined at this point. In doing my research I found that the terms social media, and multisharing overlapped in some cases or were used somewhat interchangeably. I found an amazing article in ScienceDirect called, "Users of the World, Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media." In the article the authors classify social media by social presence/media richness and self-presentation/self-disclosure. For example the use of blogs scores very high in the self-presentation/self-disclosure area, but very low in the social presence/media richness. This makes sense as a lot of blogs are mainly just done in plain type. Where as virtual social worlds, such as Second Life rank high in both areas. I'm a bit weary on the self-presentation/self-disclosure being accurate in a situation such as the game Social Life. I have no experience with it at all, but it seems a bit sketchy to say the least. The article goes on and breaks down social media into six categories: collaborative projects (wiki), blogs, content communities (flickr, youtube), social networking (myspace, facebook), virtual game worlds (World of Warcraft), and virtual social worlds (Second Life). I won't go into the details, but a good read for a newbie like myself.
I went very basic and looked up the definitions of social and media prior to starting this post here is what I found:
"the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely..."(from dictionary.com)
Two things jumped out at me, #1. alleviating certain unfavorable conditions of life, well it is becoming clear to me that social media does this very thing. #2. communiction as radio, tv, newspaper....this was taken from dictionary.COM, and yet no mention of the internet and social media in the definition. I found this odd, seeing as the internet reaches people more widely than any other tool?!
This week has again opened up my mind a great deal to the wealth and the power of multimedia sights such as Animoto, and Voicethread, as well as social media in general. Lee Aase the Mayo Clinic's manager of syndication and social media, uses podcasts, facebook, twitter, and blogs to reach an international audience
for questions and information. He states, "...don't think of social media as another thing to do, but instead as part of your balanced communications diet."(Tactics, October 2009) This quote struck a chord with me, before this course I thought of all these tools as another thing to do, now I'm seeing them as beneficial, useful, and easy to use. I've added a my second Animoto video here, the first one I did is already on my blog, also I've included my Voicethread that I created for my students. The voicethread is also accessible to them on the Wikispace that we (I) created from last week:
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
2.) From a personal aspect, I've found many uses of social media/multimedia. The ability to use Animoto to show my friends and family our most recent trip, or to use voicethread in the same manner, to get comments from those who were there, and from those who were not, to allow them to ask what happened in this picture why do the girls look so mad at you? The ability to interact together and simaultaneously yet apart and asychronous, hopefully that makes sense.
Another personal benefit to myself, my family, my community, and my city that could be coming are way is in terms of an open city concept, I first heard of this on a Spark podcast. The interview is with a councellor from Vancouver, essentially they are discussing open data applications. This process is already being used in Toronton and Washington, D.C., the idea is to allow access to government data, and thus allow the public to view it and perhaps sign up for an email/text reminder of garbage day, or allow business owners to go in and update any information themselves, again keeping things current instantly one of the main themes of social media in my eyes. David Eaves in the same podcast talks about the power of collaboration and how there is this myth that all the knowledge is in one place, like parliament, but he astutely points out that one of the greatest innovations of our time, 911, is essentially a collaborative effort involving the general public and emergency professionals. This open city concept would allow collaboration to occur in regards to the city of Vancouver, again giving voices to those who experience life in all areas, not just sitting in a government desk signing off on things they may know very little about.
You can use multimedia to promote a home business, to do consultations using skype, to get feedback on home projects, there seems to be unlimited opportunities personally. One of my dearest friends just had his first child yesterday, and I've already recieved an email/video/pictures of his little girl. To me that is the best value personally. When we were in Newfoundland I could send our photos, now I would attach them in my blog, to my Mum daily, she knew what we were up to everyday. Priceless!
This youtube clip I came across really shows where things are going and I'm glad I took this class when I did. There is one slide that stood out to me, "social media is not a fad, its a fundamental shift in the way we communicate."
3.) In terms of multimedia in education, the opportunities here are staggering. I realize that in this week or so that I've only scratched the surface as with many of these 2.0 tools. Using animoto in the basic package was great more so personally, but Voicethread and Slideshare are fantastic education tools. I created that small little voicethread and then added it to the wiki and boom there it is, a quick and simple study tool. Now if they use it is another thing. I think if I had introduced these tools back in September it would be a different story. Now it is a bit late, but a couple of the students are in there and experimenting which is fun to see. One downside that was pointed out in a different article from Tactics is that perhaps the instructors who are trying to introduce these tools do not have the experience to teach them properly, to quote the author, " the problem with technology, expecially in 2009 more than ever, is that it moves faster than a syllabus". Now in my case that is not an issue, Joanne has no worries about me trumping her anytime soon, but it could happen in my case. So far the students in my course have not had much exposure to some of these tools, but each year they will come in with more and more knowledge. This puts the oweness on the instructors to stay up to date. This perhaps may be why there is some fear out there to get into this digital learning world, some instructors may not want to have to keep their knowledge up. The anatomy of the human body doesn't change every six months!!!
My favourite portion of this weeks learning is the group effort, or the gang learning as I call it. Everybody together, working through the problem. I find that this is way more conducive to retention then just a regurgitation of what I said in class. When there is this collaboration and teamwork the learning will have breadth and depth. In Will Richardson's blog there seems to be some progress in the integration of these 2.0 tools in the classroom, of course with anything don't count your chickens before they hatch.
There is some 'big shifts' mentioned in 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts...', one which pertains to both the personal and professional benefits of this tool, 'Open Content', and many others which sum up the usefulness of multimedia and social media, collaboration, many teachers-24/7, writing is no longer limited to text, mastery is contribution not completion. Great stuff! This was a fun week, but like I said at the beginning exhausting, so much so fast, wow!
Notes:
Zuk, R. (2009). Grow into your social media strategy:A conversation with mayo clinic's Lee Aase. Tactics, October, 7.
Taylor, A. (2009). The problem with teaching social media: "It moves faster than a syllabus". Tactics, October, 14.
Kaplan, A.M., & Haenlein, M. (2009). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. ScienceDirect, 53, 59-68.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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