Week 5 Educational Technologies (Facebook and LinkedIn)

Week 5 Blog

Educational Technologies Blog

This week’s assignment focuses on networking technologies that will enhance adult learning. The first networking technology I will discuss is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the largest business-focused social networking site around. LinkedIn was developed to engage people professionally; this site is free allowing professionals to find clients, colleagues, and network with other individuals with a similar occupational background. The second networking technology is Facebook. Facebook is a widely-used networking site with over a billion users. Facebook allows customers to connect with classmates and new friends; it also reconnects users with old friends and family. Users can share family pictures and videos with friends while surfing the site to find out the latest news and friend update status. Facebook can be an educational tool useful for classroom instruction. Instructors can create a class Facebook page that connects all students where they can post useful information to classmates, ask questions, and communicate with the professor (Moore, Graham, & Lee, 2014).

Why I chose Facebook and LinkedIn as my networking technologies are, they both work great together and separately as a tool sufficient for classroom use. Facebook helps classmates to interact outside the classroom, create group activities, and watch videos useful to class assignments. LinkedIn helps students post resumes, and other critical information needed to catch the attention of prospective employers (Moore, Graham, & Lee, 2014).

Incorporating Facebook and LinkedIn into my professional practice takes time, people and patience. Using social networking can create a dialogue with students guaranteeing they receive the correct message. Utilizing social networking in professional practice gives the understanding that there are differences in the way we all communicate. To create a flow in my professional practice, I will design an app and link all social networking profiles (Kling, 2007).

References

Kling, R. (2007). What is Social Informatics and why Does it Matter? The Information Society an International Journal, (23), 205-220.

Moore, M. L., Graham, L., & Lee, S. (2014). A look at the Research on Computer-Based Technology Use in Second Language Learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, (34), 250-273.

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Week 4 Technologies

                               YouTube

For this week’s assignment, we were asked to research multimedia resources for enhancing the educational process and application resources for the educational process. For multimedia, I chose YouTube and Facebook. YouTube should be part of eLearning community because:

(1).  YouTube is easy to blend.

(2).  It promotes and engages students in discussing topics

(3). Creates a learning community

(4). A fantastic idea for mobile learning

(5). Promotes microlearning

(6). Encourages students to enhance their skills of note-taking

(7). Student’s can make their YouTube video (Hurt & Moss, 2012).

                                   Facebook

Facebook, provides language development, interpersonal communication, group collaboration and ICT skills. Language developments provided through Facebook enables students to conversate with others through written response, therefore, promoting writing skills. Interpersonal communication helps students with future employment by advancing their personal developmental skills. Group collaboration taught through Facebook by providing a forum for students to interact and engage with friends, therefore, collaborating with others in a group. ICT Skills, Facebook teaches students the skills of ICT without the step-by-step instructional hassle (Hurt & Moss, 2012).

             FOSS and GNU

The two application resources for educational process is,

FOSS and GNU. Foss is free software that helps students develop knowledge, ideas, and expertise. The objective of Foss is, encourage students to share information and complete their technology projects. Foss shares two movements, the first is free software, and the second is an open source. The free movement allows an intellectual freedom to students, and the open movement offers an abridgment of the student to student collusion. GNU is free software developed in 1983 for the purpose of encouraging people to work together with the control of self-computing. The developer shared the software with others in hopes they would analyze the source code, modify the software if needed, share the data with others, and publish the revised version of the software version they edited (Bonk, 2009). 

I chose Facebook and YouTube for this week’s technology because these tools have changed the game in education by taking learning out of the classroom and into cyberspace where students can share learning across the globe. How I might incorporate Facebook into my professional practice is create a Facebook page for the class where they can exchange ideas, ask questions and receive a special assignment. The second way is to encourage video conferencing among classmates for the purpose of completing a group project. How I might incorporate Youtube into my professional practice is, find instructional videos to change the pace of the classroom dynamics. Secondly, if teaching a lesson on variations in the criminal justice since the 80s, instead of talking about the changes I could show a YouTube video that talks about the changes and shares video on the changes that have occurred (Hurt & Moss, 2012).  

References

Bonk, C. J. (2009). The World Is Open. How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education. San Francisco, CA: Josse- Bass.

Hurt, Nicole E.; Moss, Gregory S.; Bradley, Christen L.; Larson, Lincoln R.; Lovelace, Matthew;         Prevost, Luanna B.; Riley, Nancy; Domizi, Denise; and Camus, Melinda S. (2012) "The                      ‘Facebook' Effect: College Students' Perceptions of Online Discussions in the Age of Social                 Networking," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 6: No. 2,           Article 10. Available at:https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2012.060210

Week 3 Technologies and their use in the classroom (podcast and social media)

Technology

This week as we dig deeper into the technologies chosen in a week (podcast and social media), it is important to understand, technologies are a useful tool in the classroom. However, not all techniques should be implemented in online education. I will discuss this week the strength and weakness of the two technologies, why I selected these technologies, and two examples of how I would incorporate each technology into my online classroom as a professor. 

Podcast

Podcast

The podcast, one of the advantages of the podcast is its convenience. Students can listen to the stream now and finish listening later when time permits. Students who have work and family can listen while cooking or between chores. Another advantage of the podcast, it is easy to access all you need is a computer or a smartphone. There are several places students can access the podcast, the classroom, and Itunes for their listening pleasure. The disadvantages of the use of podcast are, not all students have access to a computer or smartphone. Therefore, the use of podcast as a tool in the classroom might not reach all students without proper access (Vural, 2015).

          I chose the podcast as a tool for the classroom to keep my students informed about the weekly topics and to send messages to students quickly as the podcast can reach large numbers on students at one time. To implement the podcast into the classroom, I will incorporate the three P's: Plan, produce, and Publish. Plan- I must decide what to broadcast and if it will be broken into episodes. Produce- gather all the equipment needed to record the podcast. Once the podcast equipment is in place for recording, I must speak clear, and slow, to ensure my audience understands my recording correctly. Publish- once the information is registered it must be published online. The next step is to turn the recording into an MP3 format; an MP3 will make it readily available to all students. Lastly, name the file and create my podcast for my students to utilize for classroom use (Vural, 2015).

Social Media

Social Media

Social media has its advantages and disadvantages. Some benefits of social media are building a network, online sharing, widening business contacts, discussing ideas, post news, asking questions and sharing links. Some disadvantages of social media are the risk of fraud, theft, virus attacks and negative comments. I chose social media as a useful tool because social media helps everyone improve communication skills. Communication skills are something that is needed greatly in online classes to make the course run smoothly and more efficiently. Two ways to implement social media in the classroom is, require students to keep a blog and encourage students to share their classwork socially (Harmon, 2010). 

References

Harmon, K. W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Organizational Management Journal, pp. 129-131.

Vural, O. F. (2015). Positive and negative aspects of using social networks in higher education: A focus group study. Academic Journals, pp. 1147-1166.

Week 2 Technologies and their use in the classroom

     For this week's assignment, I chose the technologies podcast and social media. 

Podcast

A podcast is a technology that can be downloaded to a computer where students can listen to or opt to listen on a mobile device. A podcast is typically available when and if the student subscribes. Podcast material can be a useful tool in the classroom to help instructors prepare students for testing or to expand on material that is imperative to the curriculum (Kay, 2012).  Lastly, instructors can use a podcast to make classroom announcements, one example, the class will be canceled this week. Podcast are useful tools in the world of education and can be utilized to enhance the flow of the classroom dynamics. 

Social Media

The use of social media is an excellent tool instructor can utilize in the classroom as many students are familiar with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube before entering college. Therefore, the teacher can build on what the students already know and enhance their skills in communicating outside and inside the classroom with their classmates and teacher. Social media can help those students who have problems talking face to face express themselves on social media sites as they ask questions and respond to classmates in a more relaxed atmosphere (Guy, 2012). 

References

Guy, R. (2012). The Use of Social Media for Academic Practice: A Review of Literature. The Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice, pp. 1-20.

Kay, R. H. (2012). Exploring the use of video podcasts in education: A comprehensive review of the literature. Computers in Human Behavior, pp. 820-831.