Social Bookmarks Apparently Taste Good

http://delicious.com/dbrasser

            I have had a little experience in social bookmarking in the past, but I was more of a viewer than an active user.  When I first started teaching, our curriculum director shared links about my content and potential textbooks with me via Delicious.  I found this quite effective, considering the only alternative I could think of would be for her to send me links in emails, which would get annoying considering most people don’t find all the links they want at the same time and, thus, there would be many emails.

            One use for social bookmarking that would work well to my school specifically would be posting articles about our school and about our theme of aviation.  From time to time, especially considering we are a young school with a unique theme, there are news articles posted about our school and the changes we are making, so it would be nice to keep links to those all in one place.  Additionally, since most of our teachers come from a non-aviation background but are expected to integrate aviation into our classes as much as we can apply, social bookmarking would be a good place to post interesting resources that could relate to our theme and our content.

            I feel that probably the easiest and most natural use of social bookmarking in schools would be between teachers and student.  As I am looking more into the idea, I am finding that social bookmarking may be a very useful tool for my honors physics class.  Most of what we will be doing in that class will be the same as the regular physics sections, but there will be a lot more reading and writing relating current events to the topics we are studying.  Social bookmarking would allow for me to post options of articles that students can select to read and respond.

           

            More or less, the definitions laid out in the chapter on defining and naming the field line up with my views coming in.  There was really nothing that stuck out to me that made me think “That’s exactly my view!” or “That’s not at all what I’m thinking.”  Most of my feelings were more along the lines of “Yeah, that’s a good representation of (at least part of) my definition of instructional design and technology,” though I am going to have to force myself to get used to IDT title instead of IT.  I was quite pleased with the progress that has been made in the definition, moving from simply the processes and systematic approaches of the field and more toward involving the philosophies of using technology and the importance of the design of the uses of the tools as opposed to an emphasis on only the tools themselves.

            Additionally, I believe that even the most recent definition is nowhere near being the final definition.  Looking at the older definitions, the words used and the focus of the definitions was appropriate for the times and the resources available.  So too is the most recent definition.  As time goes by, and as technology and the needs of schools change, the definitions will continue to be reworked and shaped to better fit the situations at hand.

Wiki, Wiki, Wiki, can't you see? Sometimes your links just hypnotize me.

The Brasser Tech Wiki

 

I see a variety of ways I could use wikis in both my professional life and my personal life.  The first ways would be for students working on group projects.  Students could use the wiki to organize what needs to be accomplished in their project.  Similar in nature to how the friends in one of the videos organized who was bringing what on their camping trip, students could use a wiki to organize who was doing that various components of the project.  Not only would they be able to easily designate tasks, but they could also identify when components were done and also display the digital components of their work on sub-pages that can link to the original list.

After they have completed all the necessary work, the students could present their work on their wiki (if the project is conducive to being posted on a wiki).  This would allow them to easily link parts of their work to other resources for additional information, especially if that additional information would be distracting if it were included in the main context of their project.

            Wikis seem like they would work well for teacher collaboration as well, especially in settings like team teaching.  Similar to what students would do in the paragraph above, tasks could be easily organized and important info added by each teacher.  Additionally, teachers could use wikis to submit links to resources that can be used in a wide variety of classes.  Such wikis would not have to be limited to teachers within the same school, but could broaden the community of teachers to other schools all over.  The wiki would be a living document, and resources could be added and removed as they gain or lose relevance.  A parent wiki could be set up to serve a similar purpose.

Blog on Blogs. RSS in your RSS Feed.

            The idea of using a blog is not a new one to me.  I created my first blog back in high school on a site called Xanga.  This was in the pre-Facebook and Twitter days, but one could argue that the way a high-schooler uses a blog such as Xanga was/is essentially the same as using Facebook or Twitter just a little more long form.

            My first real attempt at a blog was a few years following, and what a mighty attempt that was.  It was intended to be an analysis of the correlation of professional sports teams getting new uniforms and those same teams finding new success (yes, I realize this seems weird and you may judge me for it, but you should look into it sometime).  I made one thorough post, with all the good intentions of following it up with another solid post…but that second post never came.  Yet.  I’ve still got the same ideas in my head.

            My first REAL real blog came as part of an assignment for a technology class in college.  My class partner and I were to create a blog discussing a variety of topics related to the use and missuse of technology in our modern world.  We made some good posts, but once that class was over, so was the blog.

            I have dabbled in other blogs over the years since, but none too seriously, must just an attempt at procrastination.  Though I have too much experience in half-baked blogging (note: all of my old blogs still exist somewhere in the vastness of the internet), I see the definite benefit, especially for educators.  It provides a way to share experiences in a not-so-condensed setting as you may find on some social networking sites.  Allowing for more long-form posts allows for thorough posts that give full descriptions of experiences.  Blogs also allow for a wide variety of feedback from a wide variety of sources, not just “friends” or “followers.”  Blogs can be a medium for the community of learners that is so important to education.

            The RSS feed is something with which I am familiar, but I haven’t had a chance to play around with it in a while.  So far, my re-introduction has been enjoyable, allowing for a wide variety of sources to be streamlined in one location.  Though an RSS feed does eliminate some of the visual elements that may have contributed to the original article, the main messages are easily and efficiently conveyed.  I do, however, wish there was some way to shrink and expand posts on Google Reader so that it would be more efficient to just get a preview of articles in order to decided if I want to read them instead of having to scroll all the way past a full article that I don’t want to read.

            Blogs and RSS feeds seem to fit best at the top of Dale’s Cone: Verbal Symbols.  With the exception of pictures that may be included in a post, blogs and RSS feeds are a very abstract method of communication, even more so that Dale states that “spoken words belong lower on the Cone than written words” (p. 127).  One aspect that I wish Dale had spent some time discussing is the fact that written word, such as blogs, allows for more processing time.  When conversing with someone verbally, immediate response is expected.  Immediate response necessitates immediate processing of what had been said, and sometimes that prevents ideas and thoughts from being fully developed.  But with written word, the reader can read at their own pace and can easily go back as many times as they want to make sure they did not miss part of the written conversation.

            This leads easily into the “imaginative” uses of blogs and RSS.  Blogs can allow for effective communication between teachers and students and also among students.  Students can process the information at their own pace and can review the material easily as necessary.  It also allows for students and teachers to provide feedback to each other in a less formal (and, for some, a more comfortable) environment.  Not only does it allow for students to process at their own pace, but also to respond at their own pace as well.  Replies can be written and edited as much as desired, allowing for not only the original posts to be well developed, but the response of others as well.

            RSS can provide a condensed, efficient source of information for students.  With all of the distractions around, both in terms of technology and non-technology, any means of reducing distractions in today’s world is welcome.  By putting necessary information in on place, RSS, in a way, provides an online “convenience store” of information and news, eliminating some of the need to venture into the unfamiliarity of some areas of the Internet world.

            Now Postman might argue that some of the “problems” that tools such as blogs and RSS “solve” are caused by technology itself, I would rebut by saying that they may not be full solutions to any problem, but instead are good alternatives that can facilitate learning and communication.  Providing alternatives, and, thus, differentiating, allows for learning to happen in a variety of ways.

Reformers and Luddites

            As the name of Charles M. Reigeluth and Roberto Joseph’s article, “Beyond technology integration: The case for technology transformation,” implies, they discuss the progress and importance of using technology in the classroom to transform how we teach.  With the change in the needs of our society, especially in terms of the types of jobs available, there is an obvious need to use our technology in ways to facilitate these needs efficiently.  As Reigeluth and Joseph describe, “assembly-line jobs have largely disappeared, and employers, even in the manufacturing sector, are now looking for people who can solve problems, take initiative, and offer diverse perspectives as part of teams.”  They relate this to the previous need for specializing in what (and, in some cases, whom) we teach to meet the specific needs of our culture to changing our schools to help shape all students to meet their full potential and not limit them to one specific path.

            I could not agree more with this aspect of Reigeluth and Joseph’s article.  With our every changing society, especially considering drastic changes seems to be happening at a higher rate than ever before, we need to help our students develop skills that can help them in a wide variety of areas.  Because we don’t know what the future will hold for our students, both years down the road and even next week, we cannot pre-sort our students for specific vocations.

            I do, however, tend to disagree with the apparent abruptness (or at least apparent to me) of their suggested transformation.  By saying “educators must recognize that using technology to support what they are already doing is not a productive course of action when compared to using technology to transform their teaching to a paradigm that is attainment-based rather than time-based,” they give off the feeling that some of the current actions teachers are doing have no benefit and their teaching needs to be totally transformed.  Other areas in the article are a little softer, and they may not have meant it as blunt as I am reading it, but I feel like the authors may be placing too much faith in the full application of technology in the classroom.  With the constant progress of technology, it can be hard to fully develop and implement effective uses of new technologies in the classroom.  I am hesitant to say that our old practices have no use in our current classrooms, and instead I feel that the old and the new should supplement each other.  Maybe that was the intended message of the authors and I lost that message as I neared the end of the article, but this more blunt statement toward the end makes me think that some may be jumping the gun and fully depending on some technologies that are still being developed.

            Neil Postman’s article “Of Luddites, Learning, and Life,” he puts a more negative spin on the progress of technology.  One sentence that I believe epitomizes his feelings states that “because the technologies are there, we often invent problems to justify our using them.”  And at the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon (note: I am only 24 years old), I tend to agree with him…to a point.  I have experienced a variety of ways in which we use technology in the classroom for the sake of using technology, not necessarily for the sake of improving learning.  In addition, I’ve actually seen the overuse of technology harming our students’ learning.  I am a math teacher, and I tend to be an opponent of the use of calculators in the classroom.  Don’t get me wrong: calculators can do awesome things.  They make things easier to do and thus make efficient use of our time.  But I have come to find that the prevalence of calculators in the classroom has prevented students from learning some of the basics.  The calculator was invented by those that wanted to make a machine to reduce the time they spent solving problems on paper.  However, they could still do such problems on paper if they needed.  I have seen a scary number of students that immediately do any math problem they can on a calculator, which not only can slow them down for some of the simpler problems, but it also prevents them from actually knowing what is going on.  I even notice the effects of this in my own abilities.  My mother, a retired history teacher who admits to having difficulty in the math classes she took, can do a variety of math problems in her head faster than I can.  I graduated with a degree in mathematics, yet my history teacher mother can do head math faster than I can.  My guess: I used calculators early on in my learning process while she didn’t.  The calculator solved a problem of time, but may have also created a problem of not truly understanding concepts.  So before people begin to question why I am in the Educational Technology program, let me say this: I believe using technology is important for our progression as educators, but we also need to be sure we are not using technology in place of learning and understanding.

            I do find Postman’s question of “What is the problem to which the new technologies are the solution?” overly pessimistic.  Does every advancement have to solve a problem?  Is it really so bad if we make something that is already fairly fast faster?  Not every form of progress can or needs to solve a problem.  In fact, even if a new technology does not solve any problems currently, who is to say it won’t solve any future problems, or even lead to other developments that can solve any current or future problems?  Even if a new technology does not seem to have any apparent benefit at the moment, as long as it