Sunday, February 16, 2014

W5 Blogging

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):
Among many and evolving web 2.0 tools, blogging should be the first one worth being discussed. Blogging has changed web publishing in a radical manner, and it has revolutionized news publishing, marketing, and even journalism. Class lecture will go over good principles/practices of blog writing and in the lab, students will create a blog using blogger.com (should send the URL to the instructor via gmail by SU midnight).
  1. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs
  2. Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Reasons Students Blog by Carie (Windham) Page 
Blogging Tools - As a group/pair, select one blogging tool from below or any popular one, then post a needed information about the tool to the course Google Site.
Further Resources (for those who are interested in exploring further about blogging - these sources provide many excellent examples, ideas, or templates)
Your comment can be on any one of the followings, please make your comment as to the point, and address all parts concisely and thoroughly (200-250 words, using course contents, sharing resources/experiences are very helpful!):
  • Which blogging tool is your favorite, why? Which feature(s) did you find most useful for teaching or learning?
  • Any difficulty or problems experienced in publishing contents or using the tool? Did it make you think about challenges in adopting and leveraging blogging?
    For adoption or implementation within an organization, what is important?
  • For what purposes do you plan to use your blog? Class lecture showed possible applications, such as portfolio, content/file management, class discussion, etc. 
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Monday, February 3, 2014

W4 Find and Evaluate

Class discussion
I have little doubt that you frequently hear about problems, such as the poor quality and accuracy of information, and the information overload on the Web. About the information overload, sources below (#1 and #2) will give balanced perspectives (they say overload is a 'wrong' perspective. #3 and #4 clarify that the major innovations for the next generation of the Web are driven by 'post-filtering' and search algorithms (to improve search effectiveness and efficiency). On Monday, everyone will compare two different search procedures for his/her own topic of interests - online library database search (if you are not a student in IDT 351, try finding a journal article or magazine using an online library service (e.g., local university or city library, get help if necessary) vs. Web search (e.g., using Google search, Google scholar, YouTube, Slideshare.net, or professional association web site). Then on W, you will do a scavenger hunt to find and improve a rubric to evaluate the quality of retrieved search results using Rubistar (last resource on the list below). The goal is to learn how to find quality information when you have a topic that you don't know much, and how to evaluate the quality of such sources retrieved. 

As a class, it will be also very useful to brainstorm which filtering (e.g., like, # of views, tags, rating, indices, impact factor, selection of reactions on Slashdot.org, etc.) exist and how it has evolved to deal with information quality/overload, and how they shape/influence/affect "authority" or "expertise". If you like challenges, I like to state that some sees the next generation Web will focus more on managing exploding information and do quality control (Artificial Intelligence and algorithms are major drivers). If you think about location-based searches/services or community/group based organization (e.g., on facebook), these are all to make information management and learning more effective.

Your comment by Su midnight should answer how Web search vs. traditional (online or on-campus) library search compare in terms of quality, effectiveness, and convenience, and how the quality/accuracy should be evaluated.
  1. We’re on information overload by Thomas Washington.
  2. “It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure” by Clay Shirky. A little under 24 minutes. The problem of information overload, different perspectives can reveal positive aspects of abundant participants: Cognitive Surplus (by Clay Shirky, 13 min, and Captcha project: Massive-scale Online Collaboration by Luis von Ahn, 16 min)
  3. Tips for Handling Information Overload: Too Much Content by Dawn Foster (with Google Reader is gone as the most popular RSS tool, alternatives can be found here).
  4. The Chronicle of Higher Ed: The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority by Michael Jensen for subscribers only. For an earlier and freely available version, see Authority 2.0 and 3.0: The Collision of Authority and Participation in Scholarly Communications by Michael Jensen.
  5. The iPad and Information’s Third Age by William Rankin
Web tools/services:
Items 1~3 are information organization tools that allow browser customization. Zotero compares to a 3rd party citation tool called Endnote. Anytime you do online search, you can create a summary note. Rubistar is a great tool to create an evaluation/grading rubric. If you ever need to create a rubric to evaluate products or processes, it is a great, free, and easy to use tool. You will see one of the course project IDT 285: Technology integration for Preservice teachers is using it anytime software or web search is evaluated.
  • Netvibes - personalized dashboard publishing platform for the Web
  • Page Flakes - social personalized homepage (as of 2/02/2014, service is down due to DNS expiration)
  • Protopage also allows to create a personalized homepage
  • Zotero - A tool that helps gather, organize, and analyze sources and then share the results of your research
  • Rubistar - A free evaluation rubric builder with a search feature (if you create a web or information search task, and trainees or students create artifacts (list of useful sources, summary of sources, etc., you would want to evaluate their work. Don't reinvent the same wheel, chance is, if your topic is popular, Rubistar might have something you can adopt and even contribute. WebQuest is the most popular activity in K12 (sort of scavenger hunt and evaluation of the source).
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Saturday, February 1, 2014

W3 Reaction Paper (due 2/08 SU midnight as comments)

Past two weeks reviewed major trends and issues, such as learning 2.0, trends in education and society, and online rights and safety. Establishing a good reason for why one should incorporate Web/social media to teaching or learning is a must.

The following question doesn’t have correct or wrong answers, but naïve or over simplified arguments must be avoided:
  • (1) What is your perception/knowledge of the Web as teaching (or learning) tools now and why? (2) Assume that you are recognized for your knowledge in web/social media at school (or work), and have been charged  by your boss to improve digital literacy and web/social media use. Many employees have concerns about privacy, internet rights, and copyright infringement. 
Answer each question using contents from the previous weeks and knowledge you have gained. Your answer must be backed up by relevant materials/resources (about 1/2 page, single line spaced - see an example below). Reviewing related materials can greatly help (50 points total).
  1. Clear and concise capturing of major benefits/strengths of the Web for teaching/learning (30%)
  2. Use of relevant materials (minimum 2) to support views (30%)
  3. Flow and cohesion (20%)
  4. No naïve or over/rosy-generalizations (10%)
  5. Accuracy of grammar and spelling (10%)
Example:
My understanding of the web as teaching tools is that tools, such as xxx are readily available for teachers to use in the classroom as well as outside the classroom. They can motivate students more with resources that show the application of contents, and engage students into active and reflective learning. For instance, Brown and Adler in their article, entitled Minds on Fire, show many web projects where teachers make the best use of resource-based, inquiry oriented, and cooperative learning environments. Unlike past teaching that heavily relies on textbook and knowledge transmission (as seen in Wesch’s video, Machine is Us/ing Us and Information R/evolution), web tools provide greater opportunities for students to search, share, and discuss related materials easily and publish work in view of audience outside the classroom. 

Richardson (2009) also points out, work remains after the course and these artifacts can work as resources for future students as well as their portfolio that can grow over time… However, care must be taken for online safety (or identifies) because xxx indicates that students are using popular social networking tools with little parent or teacher guidance…  Unless teachers pay attention to the issue of fair use and the existence of sources (can add related sources, such as Creative Commons) to support your view or as a resource), students may impinge on copyright without knowing or reinvent the same work ....
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