EDUC 439/639 Social Networking - Fall 2012

Learn how cellphones, e-book readers, and tablets are getting kids engaged with learning, focused on working smarter, and ready for the future.

"An estimated 135 million people play video games, spending three billion hours a week glued to a screen. But that's not necessarily bad news. In fact, playing video games may be part of an evolutionary leap forward, according to Howard Rheingold, educator and author of the book Net Smart: How to Thrive Online. Rather than characterizing them as hapless drones wasting time, Rheingold's book contends that this massive population of gamers is part of a growing group of "supercollaborators," as described by Jane McGonigal, director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future, who's interviewed in the book."

This is true for digital natives...my grandson is always on- line playing games with people he has never seen in person. I am not quite there yet! I still like to make eye contact -:)

Michael: This content is protected... Can you find an open source to point us to?

Interesting...had no idea that they've been around for that long!

I use these little pictures quite a bit. I kind of like it when the little green guy replaces them because he seems very playful and helpful.

Great...a TO-DO list!

"I had expected that people signing up for a course like this, a non-traditional course where we work mostly on our own or together with other students in the class, would be students who embrace that kind of learning, students who feel a sense of independence and self-determination as learners. What I've learned, though, is that this is not the case for at least some students in the class, who are very much expecting the teacher to function as the voice of absolute authority in the class."

Isn't that the nature of humans? We want freedom for creativity and original thinking, but ultimately it makes us uncomfortable when people actually do achieve it; ultimately it seems that humans instinctively cling to rules, tradition and order.

Good point Tammy. Still, the "grading" paradigm is a strong one. We should expect today's students to start being a little more autonomous in their learning process.

I found this to be helpful in seeing the differences between aggregation and curation.

"In today's post, we're going to explain how you can use these two powerful marketing tactics to improve your social media campaign. Best of all, once you know how to do them, they'll add lots of great content to your pages."

"In "The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior," we discovered that 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that's on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV. We set out to learn not just how much of our media consumption happens on screens, but also how we use these multiple devices together, and what that means for the way that businesses connect with consumers."

The book deals mainly with the processes to the GTD system which include clearing your mind (and living space) of useless clutter, organizing it, and storing it in appropriate places, and reviewing it on a consistent basis.

"I am posting a few tips to help you out this year that I found while reading posts from my Personal/Passionate Learning Network (PLN). I hope these tips help inspire you! And one of the best things I can recommend to help you successfully integrate technology, is to get connected. Begin to develop your on PLN by interacting with educators on Social Media."

"Below you'll see a guide to who is using social media (pretty much everyone is aware of it) to which actual social networks they prefer. Surprising Info Most teachers don't use Twitter. They opt for Facebook and YouTube by a large amount LinkedIn is preferred over both wikis and Twitter Just about every social network can play a pivotal role in education, so it's time to start learning about all of them!"

"The important thing is to manage the flow of information in your life. Information is power, and you can't do without it. Managing the flow is the key."

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It seems pretty legit.

In this same thread, I just saw the article in Inside Higher Ed called "Paying for an A" and I thought it flowed with this conversation-they actually review the site you mention here. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/21/sites-offering-take-courses-fee-pose-risk-online-ed

"PLN stands for Personal Learning Network.  Simply put, it is the people you connect with to collaborate, share resources, and discuss ideas.  We each have a PLN of some kind, even if you have never logged onto a computer in your life."

I think I can start getting my head around all of these tools as long as I keep reminding myself that this is my PLN, this is my PLN. And then use it like one.

"From the first week of school, the six year olds in my classroom begin to create an online presence in the form of a digital portfolio.  We use a blogging platform to do this, and include artifacts that show their progress in writing, reading, math, social studies and science."

This is what I LOVE about this article: "Students relish the feedback a comment gives, whether it is from a classmate, a parent, or someone they have never met. The audience becomes part of the student's learning." Now, I still have privacy concerns, but from reading her comments to others who were skeptical she says that she has not received inappriopriate comments in the 8 years she has been doing this. OK- Matt, my eyes are opening...a little bit. ;)