Thoughts, Research and Module Activities of Amanda Newton
Tomorrow we have our presentation on blogs wikis and eportfolios. We had our wiki draft due a couple of weeks ago and our comments were quite good, only a few things to fix up which we have done. Our presentation is going to be an interview style asking questions on the three technologies we are doing. We are being filmed which I do not like at all. However I think our approach to the presentation is quite effective and should be easy to follow.
Social Networking
‘What is your experience of social networks?’
My experience of social networks involves the use of myspace and facebook. In Boyd’s article she implies that only teenagers set up these social networking accounts. I disagree here, while i would assume that yes, it is mainly teenagers that do have these sites, a lot of younger people do use them. She also suggests that parents are panicking because they are unaware of this technology and do not have control over it. I have experienced this with my parents and my younger sister.
I believe it does make communication a lot easier as well as a lot more frequent. I loved myspace when i used it and now i love facebook.
‘How could these be used in learning environments?’
Learning through social networking is done fairly informally. Ie my workplace has its own facebook group where we share ideas and comments. This is a form of learning by socialising. Otherwise, generally I do not think facebook and myspace should be used for formal learning. However, if UTS Online is classed as a social networking site, which im not sure if it is, then yes that is used for learning. Discussing ideas, informing people of important notices, providing readings and workbook modules.
References
- Boyd, D. 2007, ‘Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?’ <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/edition-13/social-network-sites-public-private-or-what/>
Synchronous Communication:
‘What is synchronous communication?’
‘What is the benefit of synchronous communication?’
‘What do you think are some of the drivers in the current environment?’
Asynchronous Communication
‘What is asynchronous communication?’
‘What is the benefit of asynchronous communication?’
‘What do you think are some of the drivers in the current environment?’
Today we had people come in to talk to us from DoCS (Department of Community Services) to explain about their organisation. The talk consisted on what the department does and their current situation on training for the staff. This information will be useful to help us with assignment two.
We also talked about Activity 1.3 which is looking at RSS feeds and aggregation (check). We have a little experience with RSS feeds from Elearning Experiences when we set up our netvibes account. Anne showed us a little video about RSS in easy terms and it mentioned something called Google Reader, which I have never heard of before. Sounds similar to netvibes.. in which all the information from your favourite sites can be uploaded to one web page. I think I may have a look into it.
It was actually a bit annoying today when I went to log into my blog to write a post, it said something about enabling cookies – which I dont actually remember what they are, however remember hearing the term in elearning experiences. It sent me to instructions to change settings on my computer. However they did not link with my computer so that was annoying, but i tried later and it worked.
Im going to have to see what I can do to better organise my blog. Because now that Elearning Experiences is finished, I dont think the separate pages need to be there. Maybe I can join them together under the one page. I also would like to have a page where I can write casual posts like this, and another one for the module activities for this subject. I also need to wrtie on my ‘about’ page, which I do not actually remember being there before! Must have been.
P.S Really do not like Mac computers.
Also.. This post was in a different section. I attempted to make a new page for this subject however all the posts keep automatically going onto this page. So ill just add it in here. There must be something that can be done to change it, but it is too late now.
“Last week was the first class of the new subject ‘E-Learning Design’ which follows on from ‘E-Learning Experiences’ which I completed last semester. This subject requires us to continue making use of our blogs. I havent used or looked at my blog since november last year and was very surprised when I came back to notice that the background had changed! I don’g remember doing that so not sure what happened there. I quite like the new set out so will leave it the way it is”
We had our last class on Monday.
At the beginning of this subject I was very wary. Although I realise that technology is increasingly being used in businesses and now, training and development (the career I wish to work in), I do not really embrace new technology unless forced to. After being forced into using new technologies, this even includes moving from a CD player to an ipod as happened mid this year, I am always happier and can see the benefits once they have been demonstrated for me.
Victoria was very patient and I believe the class as a whole did not have much trouble being introduced to the new technologies of netvibes, delicious, uts online and blogging. There were some who picked up on it earlier than others. I feel I was able to adapt to this blogging thing pretty well, however netvibes was rather difficult.
Therefore in one of my final blogs I would like to say that I enjoyed this subject more than I thought I would. It makes me consider my opinion towards our e-learning subject for next year.
I am still going to attempt the extra assignment for module three which is due on Wednesday, must remember to post it on a separate page. Im planning to finish it on Monday or Tuesday night.
Signing out,
Amanda Newton 
Now i have completed almost four hours of an e-learning course I am able to come to conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the course. Most of my evaluation is shown through my final reflection which you can see by clicking on the link at the top right hand corner of this page.
It was a good course, I do not regret choosing it. It was easy to follow and understand. The only negative thing I can see (which i keep saying) is lack of different activities at the end of each small topic. And feedback, which is hard to do through a computer (at this stage in technology – im sure in a few years this comment will seem very outdated).
Last night I did another hour of the BBC German language course. I finished module 3 and got up to ‘Holiday Accomodation’ in module four. This hour was not too bad. As i knew i only had a small amount of time to complete I was enjoying it. However as I had not really retained that much from the modules before, I was finding it hard when we were asked to call on the knowledge of basic things such as introducing ourselves.
I was planning to complete the final 1.5 hours to make it four hours of the course, however after the hour I had had enough and did not want to complete anymore. Each module was pretty much the same, therefore I felt i had seen enough to be able to make judgements and write my final review (Plus I was running out of time and did not want to waste time doing the same things when I could use that time to write more blogs).
Yesterday I completed a further 1.5 hours of my BBC German online e-learning course.
Before starting my second part of the course, I had a think of what I remembered from the first hour of the course, which was a few days ago. I found that i could remember the course structure and the layout perfectly, however could not really remember much of the German, which I was supposed to be remembering.
My comments are fairly the same as they were after the first hour. Structure and layout of the course is very appealing, however the repetitiveness is annoying.
By the end of this 1.5 hours i have completed module 1, and worked my way through module two. I began module 3 however stopped after the first point. Next time i start back will be at ‘Having a snack.’ This time I was not spending as long on each topic. The choice is there wether you participate in the activities or not. Therefore sometimes I did not. I believe the flexibility to do this is a great idea. It also offers the opportunity to complete any tasks again if needed.
Today I completed the first hour of my e-learning course. From the website http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/lj/index.shtml
I began with the first module called ‘meeting people.’ I thought I would at least finish the first module in an hour, however by the end I had only completed the first three outcomes of that module. There is a lot in each outcome that the learner can explore, and I looked at all of it in each outcome. Once the learner has finished listening to the conversation that is being played out they are able to participate in activities which help the learner practise their skills and help to retain the new knowledge in their minds. These activities are interactive and involve the learner, such as guessing the meanings of words and writing and saying answers to questions.
I felt the e-learning program is set out well with an easy to understand and follow structure. The learner interaction is interesting, however a little repetitive over time. I did particulary like that if provides links to other sites where one can learn about the culture of Germany and its people.
However as languages are hard to learn, I was getting rather sick of it after the first hour, not sure that I will be able to make the four hours because it is hard and confusing. I now know more than I did before I started, and can remember a few phrases, I dont believe I will still be able to remember them by tomorrow morning. This could be a combination a lack of summary in the course and also the nature of learning on the internet.
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