Creating online training

This past week we have been working on creating our own lesson in Facebook and our PBWorks accounts.  I found the PBWorks wiki format much easier to work with.  In creating my Facebook account, I found myself spending most of the time trying to figure out how to create a group without having a list of email addresses to use.  I still haven't figured it out.  The rest of the time, I was searching for ways to do what I wanted to do.  It was frustrating and a non-productive use of my time. The wiki, on the other hand, was very easy for me to work with.  I got really into it and was encouraged throughout the process because it came together easily.  The program worked the way I wanted it to and I enjoyed it.

Our discussions this week involved reflecting on our experience creating the Facebook and PBWorks accounts and whether we thought that Facebook or PBWorks could be used to replace an existing LMS like eCollege or Moodle.  My thoughts on this is that a wiki could probably be used to create an LMS, but I don't see it being done in Facebook.  My first question is why would you want to do this when the existing products like Moodle already do such a nice job for free?  Why recreate the wheel?

Our second assignment this week was to read and reflect upon the article, Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail and Learning 2.0 by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler.  The article addresses and explains the evolution of the Web into education and how it is evolving still into a more participatory environment.  It was quite interesting to read how things evolved on the Web, especially since I am of an age when there was no Web.  My son just mentioned this morning how computers have existed his whole life and he has been taken along in the journey in a natural and matter-of-fact kind of way.  For people of my generation, we have had to seek out how to be involved, and more importantly, whether to be involved.  Most of the people I work with have either never attended college or it was quite some time ago.  They are either intrigued by the Web, or intimidated by it.  Access to information, and education in particular, has taken on a new direction and environment that is moving and evolving quickly.  At work, my focus is on those that do not want to be left behind, but do not know where to begin.  All of this occurs while I am new to it myself to a great extend.  But, that's what Learning 2.0 is all about - learning by participation, student from teacher and teacher from student.

Lastly, I am including a link to a couple of articles that I found interesting from Edutopia.  Hope you find them interesting, as well: http://www.edutopia.org/student-reflection-blogs-journals-technology 

As always...Happy Learning until next time.

Week 3

This week we have been working on connecting to various social networking tools. We have created a Twitter, Blogger (obviously) and PBWiki accounts. We discussed in our forum 3 educational wikis that we would like to create. We also read the book Using Wikis for Online Collaboration, The Power of the Read/Write Web by James A. and Margaret L. West. It's a great resource! It takes you through the creation of a wiki, as well as giving you the types of wikis and their uses. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in creating a wiki for educational purposes. (Or, any purpose, for that matter.)
Our other discussion forum posed the question of possible pitfalls of wikis. From what I've read, the biggest problem with wikis is getting people to contribute and to do so in a fair and equitable manner. The aforementioned book gives valid ways to avoid this pitfall.
When creating my wiki, I got a bit carried away and actually created the entire project. I'm hoping to present the project to my boss for approval.

Facebook Privacy

This week we have been focusing on privacy on Facebook.  We read an article, http://thejournal.com/articles/2008/11/19/suspended-teacher-in-facebook-incident-ignites-debate-should-online-privacy-for-educators-exist.aspx, about a teacher getting fired over making a comment on her Facebook account about her school.  I don't think people accept and realize that the very nature of the Web is public and shared information.  When my son was in private high school, MySpace was all the rage.  The school actually went into all of their students accounts.  If there was any mention of drugs, drinking, sex or smoking, the student was expelled.  I thought the punishment was too severe and luckily my son didn't have anything to be repriomanded for on his account.  In my opinion, the parents should have been notified and have been the ones to deal with the situation..  But, I suppose the students got a rude awakening to just how public the Web is and that there is a responsibility that comes with everything we say or do.  Even though there are privacy settings, it doesn't mean it's private. 

The question was posed to us whether we think that teachers should be afforded more privacy on social networking sites.  I don't believe that they should have any privileges above what anyone else has.  The only thing that I think is necessary is that the identity of the students must be protected.  When using a social networking tool for class, teachers must teach the students about the public nature of the Web and how they must use caution when posting everything.  With every freedom, comes responsibility.  The greater the freedom, the greater the responsibility.

Introduction

This blog is for a project for my class EDU 651: Collaboration and Learning in a Virtual Environment.  I will be posting information on what I've learned about various class topics.  This will be linked to my Twitter account and a wiki that I will soon be creating.  I will be posting information from articles and possibly other blogs on the Web.  Mostly, we will be talking about how collaborative software and programs can be used in the teaching and learning environment.  I hope you find the information useful and interesting.

To get us started, here's an article from Learning Solutions Magazine that I found quite interesting and informative about using Facebook as your new LMS: http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/612/?utm_campaign=lsmag&utm_medium=email&utm_source=elg-insider  There are other articles available in the navigation pane.  Let me know if this sparks any thoughts!

Happy learning,
Colleen