An Obligatory "Learning" Post

What did I learn? This is an incredibly hard question to answer, or even attempt to answer. How can I start to encapsulate all that I have learned in a few lines of text? Besides, what I have learned in this class isn't learning in the traditional "formulas and word definitions" sense. It is more a learning of trends and future skills. The trends of where technology is going and the future skills of computer literacy.

I started my educational process with attempting to focus solely on technology/Web 2.0 and how that is evolving and where they are going in the future. I soon learned this was a futile effort; the sheer amount of information being released and interpreted daily was overwhelming. I could not possibly hope to keep up with learning about ever minute advance in technology, or every frantic blogger's idea on how to best change education. I needed a focus. Enter: education. It seemed logical. I'm currently enrolled in an institute of "higher education" and am dissatisfied with how education in America is progressing. Where to start, though?

With the help of Miller, I was able to locate a few bloggers who were able to succinctly sum up the problems in education and how the future (read: Technology and Web 2.0) was affecting education. Bloggers such as Karl Fisch and David Warlick allowed me to learn about the trends in education, and the opposition the incorporation of technology into classrooms was facing. As well as numerous articles and case studies I found online, these bloggers helped me to define Web 2.0's meaning in the classroom and how those tools can best be applied to teaching kids how to function in the changing world.

One of the most important things I learned was that technology is ever-changing; educators should not teach technology, but instead teach the tools needed to master all current and future technology. Computer literacy seemed to be one of the buzzwords I encountered most often; meaning that students should be taught how to be technologically savvy. This all makes sense. We were taught in middle-school how to make Powerpoints; now we use GoogleDocs. We were raised on Internent Explorer; now the vast majority of us surf the Web on Firefox. These are just a few examples of how what we knew changed, and how we adapted to that change. Whether that was because we were taught how to adapt to change or because we were forced to change remains to be seen.

Another important tenant (though that sounds too rigid for this topic) was "content over form." This relates to Web 2.0 and its difference from Web 1.0; as Warlick put it in my email interview with him, "Web 1.0 is a library, Web 2.0 is a conversation." Conversation, another buzzword. There is an important difference between the two types of "Webs", that is, how the information is being relayed and processed by the reader. Without going into painstaking detail, Web 1.0 was all about getting the information out there, Web 2.0 is about combining that info with opinions/facts from others and combining all that to create our idea of what we are trying to find out, and then sharing that information with others so someone else can benefit from it, and them sharing new information with us, and on, and on, and on.

I learned a lot else, about how technology affects our lives and about how we must always be ready to adapt to new situations, but it is simply too much to summarize here without being verbose and long-winded. It was both interesting and fun doing the research I did, though I think research is too formal a word for what I did; namely trolling the Internet. I hope that what I learned can be applied to my future in college and my future in the working force; Web 2.0 is not about interacting with the machine, it's about talking to each other.

Presentation

I am embedding my video presentation in here just in case the school's firewall blocks the website I have it hosted on.

Challenges of Technology and Education

I've had this feeling lately that I don't really know what I'm doing/where I'm going with this project. I get the basic concepts of technology and education; that it's good to have technology in the classroom and that technology/web 2.0 helps students pay attention and more actively engage in the learning. But I've had this thought that all of this is just like: "Oh, duh. Tech stuff is cool." So, I talked to Miller and he helped me to decide to investigate the challenges faced by technology in the classroom. I had already thought about challenges, but the only one's I could think of were monetary or involved the teachers themselves.

This website I found lists some of the major challenges that education and technology face. Although money is listed as a challenge, it is less a lack of money in the school and more a lack of money at home that is worrisome. Many schools in urban, poverty-stricken areas may have access to technology at school, but the children are not able to use computers at home because the parents cannot afford it. Without access to computers at home, the technology in school does not have the desired affect because the kids spend more time learning basics than anything that would actually help. This brings me to another point mentioned on the website, about how, on average, students only spend around forty minutes a week on the actual computer, which is no where near enough time to actively learn from the computer. Kids would need to be on the computers much more often to get a real benefit from them.

One of the final points that the website mentions is the involvement of the teachers in the technology. The teachers need to actively embrace the technology if it is to be any good. The teachers need to plan lessons around technology, not just have technology be something cursory that is thrown in there because the the board of education wanted it. If a teacher uses the technology, so will the students. The students will embrace it if the teacher will. But, if the students can sense that the teacher doesn't really care, the students will not care either.

So, the future for my project looks pretty good. I have a plan, and I just need to figure out what tools I want to use. I am planning on using a movie picture site, where the pictures get mixed together to create a movie. I just have to finish up some research next week and then start the presentation.

The Future of Education

I have been continuing to do research for my project on Web 2.0/technology and education and have been visiting the blogs and websites of various educators who have studied this field. I have been reading some interesting articles on the status of technology and education, including this one on how education is used in colleges. I was planning on focusing on education in the secondary school or high school level, but this article was just too good not to use.

The article begins with a discussion of the different theories in teaching, and how some believe in "open education" in which the student is more actively involved in his learning and how some (mostly the octogenarians) believe in a more lecture orientated curriculum. The problem is that many students, at least those who actually want to learn something, do not want to be talked AT. They would rather be engaged/involved in the discussion. From personal experience, I would much rather have a teacher who involved the class, whether through debates or simple anecdotes, than a teacher who stood up and lectured for forty minutes.

The article then goes on to mention how Web 2.0 and open education are linked, and how, in modern times, one cannot have one without the other. Web 2.0 technology and tools engages the students and makes them more interested in the lesson, leading them to learning more. If a student can experience the concept being taught by the lesson in an engaging way, such as through an Animoto video or a collaborative Wiki, this will stimulate their minds and allow the knowledge to more easily be absorbed. The article ends with a discussion of how some Internet tools take us away from humanity but how some, such as Web 2.0, brings us closer to humanity by providing a way for us to interact with each other in a learning environment.

This article reminded me of a blog post I read by Patrick Higgins that discusses his recent trip to an education conference and how some teachers seem almost too timid to really embrace the educational tools allowed by Web 2.0. It got me thinking; could it be that some people really, whether subconsciously or actively, fear Web 2.0 for the simple reason that it will make them obsolete? I do not think teachers, or any type of educators, have anything to worry about as computers can never replace human contact/intelligence (unless you're considering AI, and I don't think we're quite there...yet.) Regardless, the link between the article and the blog post was interesting as they both hinted at the ultimate purpose of all these talks and conferences; finding a way to engage the student in a manner hitherto unknown. The ultimate goal of education is imparting knowledge and any way in which that goal is more easily achieved is indeed an advancement in the field.

Technology and Education: The Final Frontier

I've been mentioning Technolgy and how it relates/affects to education a lot on this blog lately. However, with this approaching research project, I have perfected my idea, and decided what I really wanted to focus on and investigate. I have been researching how education has infiltrated schools and how educators are using technology. Also, I have been looking at those educators who are resistant to the change in education, who may not embrace technological innovations in the same way that a more modern teacher would.

I have been reading numerous blogs and bloggers that write about these topics. One of these people is David Warlick whose blog, 2 cents, has been very helpful and informative. He often writes about how technology has impacted schools and what people learn from technology. Other sources I have been using are: 10,000 words (which involves journalism more, but is still helpful, especially as it concerns how journalism and technology meet which is a whole other blog entry) and chalkdust101, written by Patrick Higgins Jr. that has a plethora of informationm regarding the education of children and what the future of education is from a hand's on perspective. I have also been using various technology blogs, including: Mashable and NY Times Bits.

My future plans are to continue researching a bit more and then begin to compile my sources and start the project. I am planning on using a picture/music site to present my information, such as Animoto. I also hope to use an information gathring source and another Web 2.0 tool from the list.

Lions and Tigers and Social Networks, Oh My!

My group did a presentation on social networking and, through it, I learned of the many different ways in which social networking could be used. Of course, the obvious social network sites exist, such as Facebook and Myspace. However, during the course of our research, we also discovered sites like Friendster, SecondLife, and Last.Fm which are all used in interesting ways. SecondLife is more of a virtual world, where people can create avatars and talk. Last.fm is a music orientated social networking site in which a person can "scrobble" their songs and Last.fm will then make recommendations based on what other users who listen to the same songs as you do also listened to. I also learned about the history of social networking and the ways in which social networks could connect people. It was also interesting to discover the ways in which social networking sites could use your personal information in ways you may not have wanted. Below is the presentation my group made for this assignment:






Social networks are important to understand/use because they will, in the future, become even more vital than they are now. Social networking, in its most basic form, is a way to connect people who may not know each other or who may not have seen each other in a while. To that end, all social networks provide ways for a person to make "friends" on the site, either through matching the people directly through shared likes or providing ways for people to chance upon each other. Social networks also provide ways to instantaneously communicate, such as status updates, or more private avenues of communication such as e-mail built directly into the website. These skills will be needed in the coming years because people will need to know how to communicate with those they may not know quickly and efficiently and to find those they need to find.

The common theme that ties the different projects together (social networks, social bookmarking, wikis, and RSS feeds) is the fact that the user, the individual is now in charge of the information they view and consume. In days past, the news agency or company presented the information to the viewer and the viewer could then choose which of that information they wanted to read. There was some form of choice in this, but not much. The technological age brought about a deluge of information where people have so much information that news agencies are now catering to the individual. The person can now choose not only what they want to read, but when they want to read it (by using archives) and who they want to read it from. It the New York Times does not have the information a person wants, they can be at the Washington Post's homepage in less than ten seconds. The power of knowledge is now in the hands of the people. Let's hope we can figure out what to do with it before we self-destruct.

A Plea

Hahaha, score one for the techies. A recent study claims that the Internet and social networking do not, in fact, encourage anti-social behavior. The study actually claims that there is a correlation between those who use Web 2.0 technology/social networking and positive, social interactions. As the study states: "frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race" and "most internet activities have little or a positive relationship to local activity." What does this mean for the future? Hopefully it'll lead to the abolition of the image of pale, nerdy, anti-social teenagers sitting hunched in front of their computers, screaming in agony if a concerned parent flicks on the light. Let's face it; there is a stigma attached to being someone interested in technology/computers. It is true that obsessions are not healthy, but is a fascination with computers, something that will be important in the future, any worse than a sports' fanatic, staying glued to the TV for hours on end to watch a ball get thrown around?

(Rant mode activate.)

But, no. Sports fans are accepted by society, lauded even. Watching sports, in my opinion, is a complete waste of time. Playing/participating in a sports activity I can see; that's a healthy form of exercise. However, sitting on your butt watching a televised game for hours just doesn't do it for me. I don't get it. Computers, though, are fascinating. You can connect with so many people online, either through social networking (see, social is right in the title!), forums (connecting with real people on the interwebz!), or simply online shopping (where you can interact with the machine, Amazon recommending you stuff, or with a person by reading reviews.) Anything you can do on the Internet (OK, maybe with the exception of MLIA, but that's just funny) is an education process. As you are using the Internet, you are learning important tools for the ever-changing world and...the future! (That was corny. So sue me)

The study goes on to mention that the amount of adults who do not have any serious confidants in their lives remains unchanged (about 6%) since 1985, and that social networking users are actually more likely to visit with neighbors or go to cafes/bars/social activities. Just because you enjoy technology does not make you a misanthropic, indignant, freak. It just makes you someone who enjoys computers.

I am not disillusioned enough to believe that there will be any radical changes in thinking due to this study, but I do think it is the first step on a large path towards acceptance, one the entire world will eventually have to tread. Computers (or some advanced form of our desktop entities) are the future, and those who know how to use them will have an advantage. Those who wasted their time watching 333 hours of football...not so much.