Personal Learning Networks

To end the semester, I summarized my experiences in my personal learning networks. As my topic, I selected baking because I've never really tried baking from recipes on social media sites, but have always liked the idea. For my project, I chose Facebook and Pinterest and discovered that Facebook was ideal in sharing experiences and ideas, whereas Pinterest was great in storing a large number of recipes to try for later. 

Personally, I enjoyed both sites, but think I'd be more inclined to participate with Facebook more because I had a higher level of interaction with friends and followers. Many of the commenters shared their ideas, or requests for my opinions after I tried the recipe. Pinterest was great in storing a large number of recipes, but I didn't use it to its full potential. Instead of creating multiple boards specific to topics on baking (i.e., quick desserts, gourmet desserts, etc.). It lacked interaction between users, but did facilitate communication through tagging or sharing pins with others. 

Did anyone use similar sites? Please share your experiences and thoughts!

OER Commons, Thank you

I took a pause last week because I was in the process of moving into my new home, so I dove back into week five's folder for EME 6414. Going through the tool resources, I found a gem: OER Commons. At the beginning of this course, I found a TED Talk that shared the experiences of professionals teaching higher-education courses to those who could not afford to attend universities (because of financial, geographical, or social constraints). When I reviewed OER Commons, I thought of this TED talk because it gives such a great opportunity for anyone to learn, free of charge.

Education is so critical in society today. It is one of the only things that you can have that cannot be taken from you. It's useful throughout your life and work experiences, and it never be unattainable for anyone that has a desire to learn. I'm very passionate about this topic because I was born and raised in  this environment. I am the first in my family to leave home for school, support myself, and obtain a graduate degree. From where I was from, it is not as common to go to college; our resources are limited; and our education is average at most. I am in no way blaming our school system or community, but am shedding light on the limited access and resources that rural and impoverished areas fall victim to.

Sites like OER Commons fight this injustice and promote educational opportunities for all. I'm proud of the men and women whose goals are to make resources available to as many as possible because education is one of the greatest gifts we can ever receive.

Produsages in Canvas

Happy (Rainy) Afternoon!
I've been looking through everyone's Produsage Projects on EME 6414's discussion board and am astounded that there are that many sites out there for use! I'm curious if these are sites that you've found from the course, discovered on the internet, or have been using for a while.

I noticed a few of you used Canvas and am especially curious to hear your feedback. As the instructor/educator and creator of your lesson, did you like or dislike this application? Was it user friendly? Did you notice any potential issues?

From a learner's perspective, I found the site aesthetically pleasing and logically placed, making everything easily accessible from the toolbar on the left. I expect I won't learn this module overnight, but I feel that it is user-friendly enough to that I would catch on quickly.

Any Canvas users out there? Please share your opinions/experiences!

Trisha

What a Semester it's been.

We made it!

This semester has been a blur and very bittersweet for me. 

At the beginning of this course, I was hesitant due to my limited knowledge on technology. As we approach week six, I am humbled and appreciative of my experiences in EME 6414. 

I tested my boundaries by jumping into uncharted territories and learned so much (more so about myself). I've learned that while I may not be tech savvy, there are thousands of skilled users who have posted tutorials. My biggest revelation is that connection via blogging, posting, and sharing may not be my most enjoyable past time, BUT I can appreciate it so much more than I ever could have prior to this course.

Connection and distribution of information are critical in today's society. Now that I've been immersed in the many different Web 2.0 sites, I can catch up in this fast-paced world. 

So with that being said, here's to our last week! I hope you've all grown as much as I have and that you will enjoy the last few remaining weeks of summer!

Week 4 Reflection

As this week comes to a close, I'm exhausted from curating and navigating through the various sites the internet has to offer. It's unfathomable to me that there are some people that use more than 10 social media sites when I can barely keep track of three.

I've been pretty surprised with myself for trying as many tools. Going into this, I thought I'd fight tooth and nail (since I'm so tech-challenged), but I've been happy with my experiences so far. It's helpful knowing that I have an entire group of classmates going through the same troubles I am.

My favorite tool that I used this week was flickr. My favorite feature (#ISLTprobs) was that I could easily find the types of licensing an image had with detailed explanations for how it could be shared/distributed. Check out my VoiceThread to hear more about my experiences with flickr!

Please leave comments on which tools you used this week and which were your most/least favorites! I'd love to hear your perspective and continue keeping an open mind when using these programs.

Thanks! Here's to the upcoming week 5! :)

Edmodo = Facebook?

As soon as I created an account on Edmodo, I thought I was on Facebook. Did anyone else get that impression? Many of the features or aspects are very similar: profile picture/avatar, groups list, status/post updates, and a feed from the group you're following. I think I may enjoy Edmodo more than Facebook because it centers the focus on one particular group or topic whereas Facebook's feed generally has no filter. Your followers may post similar topics, but they may not be as centered on what a group may be focused on. It's not as easy to "tune" out some topics from others (politics versus recipes).

I also enjoyed the aesthetics of this site. It was easy to navigate. I could see myself using this for collegiate aged individuals in providing them pop questions with the surveys or by posting useful information as means of a forum/discussion.

flickr in the classroom

This week I tried flickr, and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to navigate its different features, as well as how user-friendly its interface is. I couldn't help but think how fun it would be to use this website a class assignment or group project (most likely targeted at the high school aged students). In the example of a class assignment, a teacher could request students find examples in the real world for a given topic and upload it to the flickr class account. They can set their own licenses in case they don't want it shared outside of the group. Additionally, this could also be used for a group project in collaborating photos that group mates have come across. You can even include the citations within the comments section as a way of creating an annotated bibliography.

What would you use flickr for, or have you used it?

Curation Project

Good Morning All!
I hope everyone's weekend fared them well--I've been stuck in bed with jello and ice cream all weekend after getting all four of my wisdom teeth taken out (there could be more to complain about, though).

Regardless, last week I was astounded by how many curation tools were utilized by internet users. I selected Pinterest and Pearltrees as my two curation tools for the Knowledge Sharing/Tracking project for EME 6414, and will be focusing on yoga as the topic for my curation and collection. I've linked my pages below in case anyone wants to check them out:

https://www.pinterest.com/trishjb36/yoga/
http://www.pearltrees.com/tjb14

I'm still learning the ropes of Pearltrees, so please let me know if anyone has tips! Good luck on your projects this week!

Sincerely,
Trisha

Online & Social Communities

As we come closer to the end of our community projects, I thought I would share an article on online and social communities. This article elaborates on the functions and dynamics within a community in an easy-to-understand way. It also discusses how marketing targets these communities to become successful. Identified below are the three purposes in using these communities;

1. Build relationships and trust

2. Gather those with similar interests/profiles

3. Promote interactions



Check out the below link to read more on these types of communities! :)



Online communities and social communities: a primer

Let's Get Down to Curating!

I started going through some of the common curation tools mentioned in week 3 of EME 6414, and am curious which ones you are using!

I've tried ScoopIt!, SlideShare, Pinterest, and Storify.

Storify would be great for popular interests in social media. I could see myself using this in keeping up with the latest trends in just about everything: music, politics, world events, television, etc. ScoopIt! seemed similar to Storify in that it shared the latest tips and events, covering a wide range of topics. In my opinion, when searching my topic for the knowledge sharing/tracking assignment, I could only find marketing/advertising posts related to my topic when I was more-so looking for How-Tos.

I enjoyed SlideShare and the "clip-it" feature, as I often like to post/share things for later viewing. I also realized that this source was more instructional in that it shared guides or instructions on what things were or how to perform certain actions. This seemed to apply better to what I was interested in searching.

Lastly, Pinterest is a curation tool I've been using for the past 4-5 years on and off. Typically, my sister will tag me in a post she's found and then I get hooked again. I feel like whatever I'm looking for, I can generally find it on Pinterest--whether it be as an article or website linked through an image, or as an instructional visual aid.

Has anyone used any of these or other curation tools, and what would you recommend that is similar to Pinterest?

Thanks!

What's Yours is Mine? Not Really...

Copyrights have always interested me, but to be perfectly honest, they've mostly intimidated me. Typically when it comes to citing resources, I go for the "better safe than sorry" route. This habit started from my early years in citing resources (middle school), and I have always been taught that ideas, thoughts, not originally produced by yourself are required to be cited, and that the common phrase of "What's yours is mine" does not apply within this arena.

When I began looking at Week 3's resources in the weekly folder, I was intrigued by the Creative Commons' website and how easy it is to use. I'm curious--would anyone think of utilizing this for their own coursework (i.e., research papers they write, presentations they produce, etc.)? I've never done so before, but am curious how many of you have done it or would be interested in doing it.