Blog #6 Social Media

(My Google docs spreadsheet link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjghPaXqe8GadDZjMW80MjE5Y2poSUdaSzFQQUp4eFE)


What counts as social media? According to Wikipedia, Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. 


I couldn't agree more! I think the main point of social media is to bring people together, all in one place. Most of them are extremely easy to sign up for and access. How could I use these in the classroom? Well, first off I would have to weed out the bad eggs. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, GetGlue, and some others are purely meant for social interaction. Those really have no place inside the classroom. Others like Google+ and Diigo could definitely be used as tools for learning in a classroom setting. Reddit can be a powerful news and opinion tool, if used correctly. The success of social media in the classroom really hinges on how they are utilized.

Blog Post #5

What makes a good online resource? Well, I think a better question is what makes a bad online resource? I think that it's much easier to tell if a resource is bad.

The first thing you can check is to see if it's a .com, .org, .gov, or .edu website. You have to remember that most .com websites are representing a company or other money making entity. The chance that their info is biased is much higher than that of a .edu or .gov resource. Once on the website, do a quick scan of the webpage. Does it look professional? Are there grammatical errors and typos all over the place? Is there an author listed anywhere on the page? Are sources cited within the page or at the bottom?

If your answer to any of the above questions is no, you may want to rethink your resource. Starting with a .edu or .gov website is your best bet. Those suffixes can be trusted more times than not.


My graphic organizer:
http://www.lucidchart.com/publicSegments/view/4f3ae47b-89f0-4c05-b3fd-0a8c0ace7185/image.pdf

Article Review Post

I read an article that talked about a professor that uses what's called a "mind map" to help her students be more prepared to teach. Basically a mind map is a treelike diagram built around a central idea. The idea can grow and branches can be added as it grows. It helped students organize what they learned during the semester, in hope that they would turn around and use it again in their classrooms.

I thought that this was interesting, because I'm sure a lot of first time teachers are overwhelmed on their first day of school. If they use this mind map tool, they can be better prepared to teach, and use it as a teaching tool for their students. Plus, since it can be added to, future classes can build upon the central idea and make it bigger and better.

(Article- Using 'Mind Maps' to Explore Teaching Resources, published May 8th, 2011 by Josh Keller)

Week 4 Blog

I think that Diggo could be a powerful collaboration tool in higher education classes because it allows teachers or students to highlight and annotate web pages without hassle. Teachers could use this tool to pull up webpages and share important points with the class.

RSS feeds make following news and blogs a painless activity. Teachers could require students to follow news stories or blogs to keep them informed on current events. Teachers could also use feeds to follow student homework postings without having to track down each individual post.

Wikis are powerful sources of information. If it exists, it's bound to have a wiki about it. Wikipedia is a well known (albeit controversial) source of most topics that you'd ever need to research. It has come under fire in the past for inaccurate information being posted. Wikis can't always be trusted because they are usually edited by the community.