Chapter 7 Review: Making a Contribution

 

“[YouTube is] democratized entertainment, where people watch what they want to watch instead of what the TV thrusts upon us.” –Matt Harding, YouTube traveling/dancing sensation (Bonk, Pg.215)

 

I can remember in High school and College having teachers and professors limit the amount of internet resources we were able to use on a given project. It seems, for now, that those days are over as Internet resources continue to grow, evolve and become more reliable. In Chapter 7 of “The World is Open”, author Curtis Bonk tends to agree…

Bonk argues that E-learning has shifted from a radical idea (with unproven effectiveness) to a widely regarded mainstream phenomena (204). In addition to becoming more popular, Internet research has shifted primarily as a text-based endeavor to becoming overwhelmingly video/multi-media driven thanks to sites like YouTube, Teacher Tube, School Tube, ETC. with over 65 million viewers a day and 10 new videos being uploaded per second, YouTube is by far the biggest of these video sites and Bonk points out that it is 4th in internet traffic only behind Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. I wonder if Teacher Tube, School Tube, ISIS, and Current TV are going to have to take a page out of the satellite radio book (we all knew 2 satellite companies were not needed and that XM and Sirius were going to have to merge to survive, and inevitably did) and band together to offer a safer, education friendly alternative to YouTube ???

 (side note: finally seeing Bonk agree with the doubt I’ve had all along with this book; all of this technology is great if students actually choose to learn with it, however that takes an ENOURMOUS amount of discipline and physical restraint. Bonk finally admits YouTube is generally used for entertainment!)

Internet and video learning has churned out pseudo-celebrities like Matt Harding (above) who quit his monotonous programming job in favor of traveling the world and video blogging (Vlogging) his adventures. Likewise, “Did you Know” creator Karl Fisch,a high school teacher in Colorado, who's presentation was merely created for a room of no more than 150 colleagues, has rapidly ascended to fame and has had his presentation viewed by millions. In essence, anyone with internet access has the opportunity to churn out work that can be viewed and appreciated by the masses. In fact, Harvard graduate Trip Alder, discussed later in the chapter, founded the website Scribd for that very reason; he was sick and tired of pouring his heart out in every paper, only to have it read and hurriedly corrected by one person (243). Harding, Fisch, and Adler are just 3 of many discussed by Bonk in Chapter 7 that have used web 2.0 technology to carve their own path in the democratized digital learning world and have all since been sponsored by corporations like Stride gum and have made appearances on TV shows and in Educational works.

How’s that for hitting “upload” to your bright idea?

Another part of the chapter that I also found interesting was the discussion on Wikis. I now know that Wiki is Hawaiian for “fast” and that others took the acronym from the phrase “What I know is…” While I do understand Wikimedia’s attempts at making Wikipedia more stable in moderating it’s changes and providing unchangeable pages, I do fully agree with Middlebury College’s suggestion (pg 239) that it is better for general, fast, useful knowledge rather than for citing sources and generating valid research.

I may adopt Middlebury’s policy in my future classroom that Wikipedia may not be cited as a source on research projects. Otherwise, students will limit themselves to trusting the first 3 pages that pop up on Google search (which usually involves Wikipedia) which may have questionable validity, but is also downright lazy. I’d like to see some deeper digging such as research done on sites suggested by Bonk in this chapter. I know I have had classes at SNHU in the past that only allowed students to utilize Shapiro Library database links for this very reason. It’s time to take research to the next level, make a contribution, and also to experiment with the vastly growing (sometimes overwhelming) web 2.0 tools available. However, all must be done in a reasonable manner.

Vuvuzela!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeotaq04JcE&feature=fvst

Reading Reflection, CH 11

 

Chapter 11 again showed us how easy technology has made it to “flatten” the world, that is, to knock down barriers and bring the global community right to your living room, classroom, or computer/mobile device of your choice.

The first links I made between this chapter and the first 2 we read were the suggested uses of web 2.0 technology. While the term web 2.0 is often tossed around, it is taken for granted that we know what it means. Chapter 2 did a nice job of breaking it down for me basically saying that web 1.0 was a one way communication flow (like reading a book or watching TV) content was posted to the web, and then we, the audience, retrieved it and viewed it with no medium for feedback. Web 2.0 now means 2 way communication in which we can now provide instantaneous feedback through email, blogging, instant messaging, attaching files, posting links, videos, files, RSS feeds ETC ETC instead of just reading published info.

Back to Chapter 11, in Bonk’s description of web 2.0 technologies he reflects back to the days of keeping journals and diaries. In essence, these were blogs, they captured and reflected on daily life, often times even providing historians insight to the period and culture. The main difference being, journals were and are often seen by only the author(or a few close family and friends) and rarely by others…

Let’s take it a step further, remember back in the days of school having a pen-pal from another country?! Now you have advanced to collaborating, reflecting and learning through your journals and letters from a peer from another part of the country of a different culture. However, you still did it with your teacher’s guidance, under your teacher’s terms, during school hours, using school resources, and often times it was the same pen-pal for the entire unit.

What I got from the first part of Chapter 11 is that Blogging is the natural evolution of diary keeping and pen-pal writing. Now, your diaries are kept online for others to view anytime, from anywhere, while offering feedback utilizing web 2.0 technologies. Essentially, it’s like having the entire world as as pen-pal without classroom limitations!!

The Chapter goes on to discuss the incorporation of Facebook and other Social networking sites into learning. While I chuckled (being a 20 something that had one of the first few Facebook accounts in 2005 that required a college ID to sign into) at first about having to read about Facebook in a text book (especially one citing changes made in 2007 to the site…when was this book written again?) I can respect the angle Bonk was taking on explaining globalization and the boom of web technology. I found it fascinating that Facebook applications became so popular, so fast that Stanford offered a course on how to create them!! I can agree too with Bonk however that these applications were overwhelming and often too confusing (or risky!) to install and am glad they have been simplified.

To wrap up, the final third of the chapter focuses on language learning and online tutoring/open source language learning alternatives. Starting with Livemocha, Bonk builds a resource list of websites, or, learning comminutes (sort of like Facebook but”All dressed up for an interview”) more focused on concentrating on language acquisition. For length purposes I will not list all of them, however note the differences. Some sites offer online podcasts and videos, while other actually put you in contact (weather it be via Email or Skype) with a tutor willing to teach you the nuances of speaking a new language for essentially free. Bonk’s take is that American education on world language is often fact memorization, and I can agree seeing most of our Spanish and French classes being taught Via worksheets. Bonk suggests that technology has again flattened the world allowing ample opportunity to practice the language with native speakers utilizing, often real-time, conversations.

Look out Rosetta Stone!

photo courtesy: http://edtechtools.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/the-world-is-open.jpg

Organizers of Dutch minidress model scheme arrested - Dirty Tackle - World Soccer�Blog - Yahoo! Sports

Organizers of Dutch minidress model scheme arrested - Dirty Tackle - World Soccer�Blog - Yahoo! Sports

not sure what to think of this one... i mean, really...could you even read the tag in that sea of people?? unless they had it across the top or something I really don't think the crime fits the punishment....

World Cup

I got thinking after hearing a few people complaining of the 0-0 draws in World Cup; The Reason that Soccer has not caught on in the U.S is because we can't appreciate tranquility, patience, simplicity. We are a society of instant gratification, multi-tasking, digital communication, Google, the "i want it now, no waiting" generation. A Sports Illustrated Article featuring U.S Soccer written by Joe Ponsanski demonstrated this in one quote"

[paraphrased]

"At the highest level of the game, a goal is nothing short of a miracle. You have to move a ball across a large field, eluding 10 obstinate foes, without using your hands. You cannot legally pass the ball to a teammate who has raced past the last defender, Once you approach the goal, you must put the ball into a net 8 yds wide x 8 ft high, guarded by the one man on the field allowed to use his hands. When you think about it, it is an impossible task." -Joe Posnanski "Why Good isn't Good Enough"

Consider this my first blog posting for 685...
Stay tuned for an interesting semester!