CEP811: Personal Learning Reflection

Years ago, a futurist predicted we would have smell-o-vision as an added feature on our home television.  Well, there is no hurry to crowd near the TV while Paula Deen is deep frying Southern fried chicken.  I would, instead, advise everyone to grab every moment to try out tools and applications that are pouring down from the internet clouds.  With technology tools galore, the internet is a learner’s delight!

The class, CEP 810, has taught me the following effective teaching strategies by integrating technology in my courses:

• Using online communication, collaboration, and productivity applications - I now appreciate the advantages of Google docs and Zoho Writer.  Skype is no longer used just to talk with my family in the Philippines.  I have realized that it is a useful tool to connect with classmates and teachers.
• Participating in discussion posts is another valuable means of communication especially when I would like to correspond with my classmates. The posts from the class were very informative and helpful and I don’t need to be present at the same time they leave their messages.
• Joining online communities like Macul, Thinkfinity, and Classroom 2.0 - Being a member in a group with the same interest and expertise benefits me by being able to receive and share great information and tips on teaching with technology.
• Creating media-rich presentations with Prezi, and Google Presentation.  Incorporating multimedia elements to the presentation like YouTube videos, and creative tools like Glogster, Andrea Mosaic , Aviary, and Xtranormal (animation)  for visual enhancements.
• Understanding copyright issues and observing the best practices in fair use in media - Before I enrolled in this class, I never knew anything about Creative Commons.  I now support this concept and I have been using this at work.
• Supporting the awareness in digital citizenship - This is a widespread and a crucial issue especially when we teach our students on how to be responsible and be accountable to whatever information we share though the internet.
• Creating, publishing, and maintaining a personal blog for educational purpose.  I have created and disabled a couple of blogs before because I was unsure of what to incorporate and how to make it useful.
• Social networking using Twitter, Ning, Facebook, and LinkedIn - Social media have opened up the opportunity of interaction among internet users.   This technology has a great potential to be used in exchanging educational information with the global audience.
• Social bookmarking like Diigo and Delicious can be a beneficial tool as I research, create, manage, and share my library of resources for learning and teaching.  I will definitely encourage my students to use this tool.
• Use of web-based course management system like Angel and all its elements where I can clearly track my performance, take my course sessions, join discussion posts, and communicate with my classmates and teachers.

The internet has been my major means of finding resources for my school and work projects.  It's easy for anybody to put anything on the internet which may make a resource not reliable for teaching or learning use.  But the ease and the accessibility of the Internet also allow me to test and evaluate its relevance, purpose, and its currency.  The comments and reviews from other users who have tested a technology are readily available in the Internet.  These feedbacks can influence me in ensuring that the technology tools, sites, or resources are from reputable developers and are reliable for teaching and/or learning.

The special interest group (SIG) project summed up the strategies and skills needed for good teaching with technology.  The proposal enabled me to think critically as my team came up with ideas on how computer science and engineering can be applied to solve practical problems.  This activity called for teamwork and collaboration among the members.  I used Skype to communicate with my team members and Google docs to share ideas.  The team’s annotated resources gathered for the SIG enabled us to apply research skills to find and evaluate the relevancy of websites and technology. The SIG presentation brought out our creativity, innovation, and openness to try out new tools to bring life to our project.

As I look back at my Personal Growth Plan, I realized the goals I listed have been met.  At work, I took the initiative to research and evaluate online training and assessments products like Skills Assessment Manager/Training Online Manager (SAM/TOM), SNAP, Custom Guide, eLab, and SimNet.  These products support online/hybrid learning for MS Office applications.  Currently, our school is now using SimNet because of my recommendations.

I have introduced to some of my students the use of Wordle and Andrea Mosaic for creativity and Zoho  as a productivity tool.  A couple of weeks ago, I proposed and demonstrated to three of my colleagues the use of Google Spreadsheet for a grant project.  They need to share and collaborate important reports with other project members who are not from our school.   I have been given an opportunity to moderate our school’s social media like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook which have been created in the past few months to communicate with students and other people that contribute to the success of adult learning.

Another goal met was increasing my skills in using technology by meeting all the course objectives and requirements listed in the course's roadmap;  working  well with my team;  positively contributing to the class (I hope), and enjoying  the learning experience. 

Dr. Plair, one of my teachers, commented in my Personal Growth Plan that at first glance this seems to be a daunting and complex plan of action. However, with my background she is sure I’ll pull it off with great ease.  Her believing in me is very inspiring. My teachers and the course have set high expectations which motivated me to work harder to accomplish the goals.  They have supported every student’s success. There was definitely a partnership between learners and teachers -  as  we, students, committed to achieving  our learning goals, the teachers have dedicated their expertise in teaching us how to integrate technology in learning.

I have to keep focusing on incorporating technology tools in my teaching every time I get an opportunity. It will be an unending commitment for me to continue in keeping myself current with how to effectively teach through technology.  I should also constantly keep in contact with my growing personal learning network. It will be few more years to complete the MAET program, but CEP 810 has already paved the way for me to keep my dedication to stay as an active learner in the program.

This class has been an enjoyable and personal journey of growth and discovery!

CEP811: (CC lab - Part 1) Keep your fork ...

Photo attribution

World's Biggest Fork 4,
originally uploaded by
Marshall Astor - Food Pornographer
Released under an
Attribution-ShareAlike license

After a meal, your mom or wife says to you, “Keep your fork!” What’s the first thing that comes into your mind? Dessert! In your mind, you are picturing something delectable, sweet, and rich to finish your meal after a long day in school or at work.

I am certain that this image will give readers, especially my lifelong learners, some intriguing and puzzling thoughts, why a fork? I might incorporate images into my curriculum to catch attention first. But as I go on with my real purpose of teaching, my objective is help people realize and be motivated that there’s something rewarding at the end as we dive in to learning new things or relearning foundational skills. Not all adults are prepared for modern technology or to try something new, or to take a risk after getting comfortable in their routines. As a teacher, these images can help me connect and build their optimism that education is essential to lifelong success. Keep your fork because something fascinating and worthwhile awaits after learning and perseverance. Keep your fork, the best is yet to come!

CEP811: (CC lab - Part 2) Motivation ... anywhere, anytime!

Photo attribution: Tranquility by Samantha
originally uploaded by Kit Fishell
 Released under an
Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License

Motivation does not only take place in school where I work.  As a mom, I also have a teacher role at home.  At a very early age, I have seen my now 10-year old daughter, Samantha, being interested in art and poetry.  What a great way to unleash her creativity and go beyond normal academics.  Recently, she has been painting beautiful pictures.  I see her paintings, poetry in her blog, and stories in Storybird, and it amazes me to watch as her talents develop.

Encouragement brings about confidence, action, and purpose for achievement.  Motivation is for anyone, anywhere, and anytime!

CEP811: My Take on LeArNiNg sTyLeS

I perform better when I am exposed to a visual and kinesthetic learning environment.   As a visual learner, I can "read" and understand images, graphics, and animations for information, and I also tend to define information to other learners through visual representation. It’s funny but true that visual learners are characterized as those students who sit at the front row of the class because that is what I always did when I was an undergraduate student.  Another aspect of visual learning that I see in myself is that I respond to the teacher’s body language and facial expressions to reinforce what I learn.
 
My learning is not complete without a hands-on experience.  After learning the concepts or theories, there should be projects, experiments, or activities that I can engage in to make learning more interactive.  And yes, a teacher who does not know my combined learning styles may see a restless “me” sitting in front of his class.
 
Here are some of my favorite links to visual/kinesthetic literacy:

• Visuwords  is an alternative and visual way of defining words.
• Periodic table of visualization methods. See examples by hovering your mouse over a tile.
• Interactives provides activities and strategies that enhance kinesthetic learning skills.

Auditory learning is less effective for me.  Listening to podcasts and sitting in a classroom to listen to a teacher lecture without any other stimulation may be less motivating to me.  I prefer to write down my ideas for brainstorming and note taking purposes before I discuss anything.
 
As teachers, it is a must to know and understand the different learning styles in order to understand how to approach and support their students’ learning styles. At work, I have been given opportunities to give customized training to employees in some businesses and public schools in Holland, Michigan for professional development.  Understanding the students’ learning styles help me identify their individualized training needs, for example: whether to use charts or slide presentations of my topic, or read all my directions out loud, or assign a lab work for my students to try out, or creatively combine these approaches.

I agree that we cannot teach each lesson focusing on every learning style that we have in the classroom.  What should be our focus instead?
 
Regardless of what grade level we are teaching, I think our focus should be on helping students learn how to learn. We should support our students as they understand how learning occurs, what are their responsibilities in the learning process, and how to succeed in learning. I believe that this is the essential foundation for students before they develop their skills in realizing what their learning styles are.

CEP810: PC Maintenance & Security

In this week’s lab activity, we went through online tutorials and chose topics on PC Maintenance and Security that are least familiar to us.   I went through most of the tutorials and yes, I still went through a familiar topic “Clean Up and Speed Up Your PC”.  I may have been doing my regular pc maintenance and software/hardware updates, but I still want to make sure I am not missing out on any topic, especially on speeding up my pc.  I always uninstall and remove unnecessary start-up files from the hard disk when I buy new computers, but I never use “msconfig” utility.  Also, the website on startup programs and executable listing is a good site to find out which program should I include in my selective startup settings.  Great tip that is worth sharing with others! 

 
Another bit of information that is worth sharing is the tutorial on Windows’ Universal Plug n’ Play (UPnP).  This is different from the “plug n’ play” that we use for most external devices like USB drives.  UPnP is a Windows service that basically turns a home computer into an open Internet server.  It surprises me that the FBI strongly recommends home users to disable this window service for protection.  Atomic Learning showed us a link where we can download a simple utility called UPnP. Once downloaded, this utility will toggle on and off the switch to disable and enable the service in home computers. 

Speaking of protecting our family online, my ten-year old daughter wanted to have her own email account on her iPod.  After some online researches, I found ZillaMail.  It is a web-based email system that is safe for children.  It is spam free and parent password-protected email.  She gets her own email account that can be accessed by any web browser and even in her iPod.  It fully complies with the federal COPPA law (Children Online Privacy Protection Act).  I can control and monitor who is in her mail list (buddy list).  The iPod has security settings for kids too.  Do not forget to disable the YouTube and Safari– young kids are not ready for these apps yet, download a kid-friendly web browser called Mobicip. 

Owning a computer also means owning the responsibility for managing and maintaining the computer’s performance and security.   It does not mean that we need to be technology gurus in order to keep our computers up-to-date.  Honestly, today’s computers are easy to setup that even a caveman can do it.  When problems do occur, there are numerous online resources available including specific forums, videos, techie blogs, and help sections on software/hardware company websites. 

The best advice is to be more proactive.  Practice safe web browsing and follow the weekly or monthly computer maintenance and updates.  Here is a sample of a computer health checklist. You can customize this list based on your needs and make it a routine.    Remember, a computer won’t BYTE if you know how to treat it right!

CEP810: Getting Things Done - A Life Skill!

Getting things done from Opentec on Vimeo.

When I heard the phrase “Getting Things Done”, two things came to mind:   organizational skill and time management rolled into one.  This process of getting things done is a challenge for everyone because of our fast-paced and busy schedule.  

At work and at home, I organize my everyday process by using several tools:

• electronic devices (laptop, ipod for fast access to information and updates)
• sticky notes, pen, and a highlighter (for important instructions, keywords, and deadlines)
• online tools and software for email, scheduling, bookmarking online resources (Have you noticed the widget found on the sidebar of this blog? It’s a homework countdown.  Since CEP810 google calendar is being shared and made public by our instructor, any homework updates she makes in the calendar is automatically linked to this widget as a reminder.)

As I go through any process for the first time, it can be overwhelming.  I usually wish I had a “panic” button to push for immediate help.  But I think the GTD stages will help me get things done.  How?  Through transfer of learning! The GTD strategy seems to be a simple concept but in reality it’s a difficult thing to do; but it is a skill that can be learned.  I consider it to be a life skill.  It can definitely be applied to any situation where being organized and managing time is very important.  I will continue to learn and use this process until it turns into a habit.  Wish me luck ;)

CEP810: RSS Feeder Reflections

• Sep. 23, 2010 – With the five given feeds, I can already look through 482 topics that are related to education and technology.  Then I decided to add and follow the blog, Technology and Learning, which made it to a total of 585 topics. I consider these resources as great examples as I start searching for additional feeds into Netvibes.

• Sep. 25, 2010 - After I have completed the task, because of Netvibes’ ease of use and functionality, it was uncomplicated for me to search and add nine more feeds that are related to education and technology.  I particularly watched the Adult Education and Technology blog.

•  Sept. 27, 2010 – I started with five sites with 482 topics and in just few days, I have 15 sites with 1070 topics that I can use towards my professional development.  At the "Adult Education and Technology" blog, I posted a comment on a video about a vision about how screen technology will be working by 2014 for adult education.  I waited for it to be approved for web posting by the blog author.  Unfortunately, the blog hasn’t been updated for days and my comment has not been posted.  The blog contains great resources which made me decide to still keep the site.   

• Sept. 28, 2010 – The “On Blogging and Social Media” site has not been active too and I decided to replace it with the New York Times subscription.  The following day, I left a comment on an article regarding a study where many children want to read using digital devices, while parents worry technology will distract young bookworms. This time, my comment (#30) was approved and has been recommended by two other readers.

• Oct. 3, 2010 – I have a total of 1,114 resources for teaching and learning! Podcasts, blogs, articles, lesson plans, creativity tools – you name it.  Now, all I need is 1,114 extra minutes to catch up. The sites I have are very useful sites. My rss feeds are set in public view and meant for sharing!  When I started searching for web sites, I tried to make sure there was a balance of learning and teaching resources that are related to technology.  It will be just a waste of time and energy gathering all these information if they are not useful towards my professional development. 

• Oct. 5, 2010 -  Read more of my insights that I have written about this lab activity. 

As Alvin Tolfer says, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”    As I reflect on this activity, I think I should always strive on focusing on these three elements:  I should always be prepared to LEARN and explore new ways of learning new technology and teaching strategies;  be willing to UNLEARN and shift my understanding from old models to updated views; and be open to RELEARN and revisit the foundations and the basic instructional design of education.

CEP810: Social Networking: friend or foe?

Social media, how do I think it can be useful to us?  Here are the ways …
 

Professionally, social media -

• helps me encourage students to connect and coach classmates and discuss unique and practical situations such as job searching, job interview experiences, and life lessons.
• serves as an extension of the classroom.
• is the most practical way of applying technology to real life.
• adds to the concept of informal learning.
• taps into existing students as well as prospective students.
• enables me to reach out to our school alumni.
• enhances student/teacher relationship.

Personally, social media -

• helps me maintain a list of contact details of people that I know and/or trust.
• connects me to my family and friends from the other side of the world .
• answers my need for speed of results as we increase our frequency of communicating with others.
• is the cheapest way to create my learning loop.
• helps me stay on top technology trends.

I see SOCIAL NETWORKING as an opportunity, instead of a distraction to learning.  Do you agree?

CEP810: Week 1: Xena vs. Zoho

It was a jam-packed week with lab activities and homework to complete.  I’ve already learned quite a bit in just the first session.  Collaboration features add value to productivity tools like Zoho and Google apps.  I felt like Xena the Warrior Princess wrestling with the Mighty Zoho especially when it didn’t do what I wanted it to do.  I was so dependent on MS Word in the past.  It was a test of will and willingness to learn new things.  I ended up understanding why a lot of schools and people use Google apps and Zoho. 

I’ve also experienced the efficiency of managing data and schedules when I created my own blog with a link to my internet calendar.  Netvibes helps me organize all my RSS feeds – I added 10 more feeds to the given 5 links which I will be watching and will be due in few weeks (10 on 10-10).  I cannot believe that Jing is free – it’s a very handy tool!

I wish I had super powers as I stared hard at the blank document and then started to write my Personal Development Plan.   I don’t think there’s a web tool to think and write for me yet.  Let me know if you find one!  I’m glad I had everything done on time though.

Well, I’m off to week two … so how’s your week?

CEP810: A Web Page and a Blog ... what's the difference?

A web page is a document usually in html or in xhtml format.  A collection of related web pages is called a web site.  It is created to provide information about an individual, a company, a service or other areas that require more of a description rather than of an opinion.  A web log or blog is a collection of posts which is formatted as a series of entries with dates and titles.  It is frequently updated by an individual and may serve as a set of journal entries.  Usually, it allows readers to leave comments about the commentary, idea, or issue that has been posted.  Both a web page and a blog may include graphics, audio, video, and links to web sites and involve internet access.  So can a blog be a web page? Or can a web page be a blog? What do you think?