Assignment 6: Slideshare

Slideshare is one of the more practical and useful technologies which I have picked up in this class. In fact, I used slideshare for my first assignment when creating my blog. It is a wonderful, convenient technology for uploading powerpoint presentations to be shared with a larger audience. In addition, slideshows designed by other teachers or researchers can be searched. There is something attractive and organized about a slideshare presentation which provides information with the assistance of graphics and animation, and which appeals to students and scholars alike when searching for new information and trends in the field.

I uploaded a powerpoint into slide share on the theme of "Multiple intelligences and creativity in early childhood" which presented an overview of some of my findings from a recent research project.

Creativity lesson design_Stage1

View more presentations from mrjgamble.

What I learned

Slideshare is an incredibly convenient and fast way to share ppt files which are readable online and which may be downloaded if permission is granted. There is a great incentive to provide many of our powerpoint presentations online, if the contents are useful for others, since this form of information sharing is certainly a two-way street. As we can find more and more presentations which are relevant to our research and teaching, by providing our own presentations for others, the wider range of students and researchers benefit and knowledge is expanded.

How slideshare is important for my field

For scholars who are looking for fresh ideas, tips, or inspiration from researchers which may not be available in journals yet, having access to slideshare is a definite advantage. One can observe the current state of the field and determine what direction we may be heading in next. Additionally, many resources which may be suitable for the classroom can be found via slideshare. For younger learners, there may be ppts which are available online, but which can also be easily made by the instructor and shared with others. This aspect of slideshare must also be considered, by sharing one's ideas, thoughts, and hard work, one is contributing to the field as a whole and can receive feedback and comments from others who are working in similar streams.

Future learning and teaching

I have considered making more slideshows available online, either as presentations for teaching students, training teachers, or providing research findings to fellow researchers. The opportunities are vast, and the greater the degree of cooperation and collaboration, the more that individuals on both sides will benefit.

Assignment 4: Youtube video

Although my use of youtube video was not related to my current research or teaching, I have learned a great deal through this course about properly uploading and editing materials which can be used as educational resources. I have also been exposed to a large number of sites which provide multiple multi-media sources which can be used to augment or supplement a lesson plan and evoke student interest.

My posted youtube video was from a trip to Taipei and provided my first experience in uploading multimedia content to the web. The video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lOcsfGz4Sc. Although I have added very few features to the video, there are many possibilities available to uploaders of videos, including tags, location, annotations, soundtracks, and commenting. Through the process of uploading my video I also found that there were literally dozens of videos the same as mine, and of better quality. This goes to show what Dr. Yuen means when he says "if there is something better available, why not use it; but if there is nothing available, you can make it yourself."

What I have learned

This is one of they key values that I have learned: that if you cannot find what you need, it is very easy to make good quality multimedia materials which are matched to your teaching needs. Using youtube was far easier than I imagined, although waiting for the upload does require some time. The features and options which are available to uploaders are equally impressive. As an educator, it is well worth spending some time to add the important features, such as balloons, comments, subtitles, or other details to the youtube video, in order to meet your teaching objectives. The freedom provided to producers of multimedia content is vast and increasing with each generation. It is a good time to take advantage of these options and produce quality materials for our students and for others internationally who may download our content.

How is youtube important to my field

It goes without saying that multimedia and engaging materials are vital for young learners. By providing new, interesting, attention-sustaining learning activities, our children are able to engage, gain learning motivation, and learn content with greater ease than through traditional lecture methods. By having a wide array of quality materials to supplement our lessons, we are truly providing learners with the best environment for challenging their thinking, growing their imagination, and fostering creative and critical thinking. Thus, the use of youtube and other user-generated media dramatically enlarges the quantity of materials which are available to early childhood instructors. The ease with which youtube videos can be generated is also encouraging for teachers to create their own content to be shared with others. Youtube's ease of use, rapid downloading, and vast array of features has almost certainly changed the curriculum design landscape and provided opportunities for multi-media in the classroom that is more specific and tailored to our students' needs.

Future for teaching and learning

For older learners, it is not difficult to imagine that they will be able to generate their own content, based on their own interests and using their own technology (such as the ubiquitous cellphone camera). Projects which encourage learners to express themselves in various formats will certainly take advantage of the ease with with youtube videos can be produced. In fact, young contributors on youtube seem to outnumber contributors of older generations. For very young learners, generating video content may be realistic, but anonymity and consent rights must always be considered. More relevant, it seems, is the use of youtube in the classroom as a source of supplemental information and colorful elaboration of lesson content.

Assignment 3: Diigo bookmarks

This was my first exposure to online bookmarking and I have discovered what I believe to be a very valuable tool for research and collaboration. Instead of saving links on the browser, which remains fixed to the PC which is used for browsing, online or social bookmarks can be saved online and accessed from anywhere. additionally, the options of collaboration, sharing, annotation, and commenting is extremely valuable for research, particularly when a lab or group of individuals is collaborating on research projects. I found the Diigo toolbar to be highly organized and powerful for sorting, organizing, labelling, and saving bookmarks. As a result of this project, I was able to cooperate with classmates on compiling a stockpile of several excellent links to Web2.0 technologies which will be of value in the future, as well as having the ability to transfer my offline bookmarks to the Diigo bookmarking system for access anywhere.

My diigo site, http://www.diigo.com/user/ahujeffrey, provided the opportunity to collect value websites, annotate them with labels, comments, and highlighting, and then share them with classmates. Additionally, I have begun to collect bookmarks for webpages and online data sources which will be of use in the future for ongoing research projects and my dissertation. Overall, this is one of the most valuable technologies introduced during the course.

What I learned

I have gained an appreciation for the habit of social bookmarking and collaborative sharing of data among labmembers. I believe that this is an important part of the research process, and one that can be better accomplished through the use of online tools such as Diigo bookmarking. The habit of making labels, highlights, and comments for materials is also something that is intrinsically promoted by the Diigo program and which allows for faster searching, indexing, and recall of the main point of pieces of retrieved information in the future.

Importance of social bookmarking to my field

As a scholar or student, the use of social bookmarking for academic collaboration as well as individual research is immeasurable. It is undeniable that anyone who engages in research requires a certain approach to organizing and saving data, all of which are facilitated and streamlined by this technology. In terms of my particular research and teaching interests, I would highly recommend this program for undergraduate students who are learning how to best conduct online research. For the much younger learners who are the focus of my research, however, I feel as though there is less practical application. Nevertheless, as active teachers and professionals, the acquisition of teaching ideas, tips, and research findings is a part of our professional development and lesson planning. Therefore I would encourage early childhood educators to use this type of program to save their links to lesson plan ideas, online resources, and information which they will wish to use or refer to in the future.

Future learning and teaching
For my future studies, I plan to use Diigo bookmarking to keep track of important information, data sources, and articles, as well as to annotate, highlight, and provide collaborative commenting. It is invaluable for busy researchers to have fast and efficient access to information from multiple locations (i.e. as when presenting in a conference abroad, or even when using a different computer in a research room). Thus, for personal research purposes, Diigo bookmarking will certain be an important part of my future learning.

Assignment 2: Twitter

Truthfully speaking, Twitter is an application that I had very little knowledge of and less respect for prior to using it for class. I didn't understand who would use Twitter for posting such short comments and how it would be used for education. Having a chance to establish a Twitter account and make a few tweets did a great deal to enhance my knowledge of the application. The genius, or madness, of Twitter is the 140 character limit. This requirement of brevity is something that most are not accustomed to, but certainly serves to limit verbosity and force the author to "get to the point". When combined with URL shortening websites, one discovers that there is actually a great deal of information which can be passed along in a short tweet.

For consistency, I chose to use my Twitter account to post ideas and research findings related to fostering creativity in early childhood. As such, I became the Twitter follower of many organizations or individuals who tweet on this subject, as well as providing my own in-class observations or results from ongoing research experiments. The final product: http://twitter.com/JeffreyAhu allowed me to post directly to my blog site using a feature called "Twitter updates". (See the side bar of the blog page for an example)

What I learned

Twitter is a mode of communication that relies upon concision, something that I often have difficulties in accomplishing in my own writing. Although somewhat limiting, knowing that one has a certain amount of space to communicate a thought can also be liberating and require more creativity and thoughtfulness. The writer is also reminded to consider the audience when designing a tweet, since people have limited time to read online posts. The growing popularity of this program undoubtedly demonstrates that a certain need for brevity and clarity in writing exists in the modern world. At other times, Twitter can take advantage of new programs, such as URL shorteners, to refer to larger files, meaning that data and information can be sent very effectively and efficiently through this means, with multiple targets (i.e. subscribers) receiving instant updates.

How Twitter is important for my field
Although Twitter is a common technology used by millions worldwide, I find few personal uses for it in my research or teaching. One positive use is the ability to subscribe to authors or topics related to my research field and receive updates immediately as posted. The other benefit is that I can post tweets to those in my network without worrying about forgetting someone, since all of the subscribers will receive the information simultaneously. Whether or not Twitter will replace emails (which allow for greater length, additional content, and more security and personalization) seems doubtful for my generation.

Future learning or teaching
In terms of language education, I believe that there are some positive and creative uses for Twitter which may be available. Requiring learners to compose a piece of writing within a limited scope is definitely a useful task. Use of Twitter for collaborative writing (i.e. one sentence at a time) may also have some potential. For my own personal research and teaching, however, I doubt that I will make use of Twitter in the near future. However, some ideas for activities include:

- using Twitter as a means of sending group messages, updates, and datafiles (i.e. through URL shortening download websites)
- use in simple composition exercises for ESL/EFL learners (i.e. one or two sentences)

Assignment 1: Blog

I truly enjoyed working on my first blog "Higher Order Thinking Skills in ECE". It was challenging, but rewarding to develop content and formulate posts which were aimed at sharing ideas, resources, and providing inspiration for fellow researchers and practitioners of early childhood education, while advocating the adopting of practices and perspectives for early learning which would favorable influence the developmental outcomes of higher order thinking skills.



What I learned

I was very impressed with the sheer amount of content and number of add-ons which could be produced, and very quickly began adding features, such as videos, pictures, polls, tweeter feeds, and any other tool that I could discover. Although the convenience of these tools and the integration which they provide were many (i.e. the ability to add data from other sources, such as tweets or social bookmarks), I discovered that sometimes "less is more" and it is important that your blog is readable, easy to navigate, and allows for more important information to be the most visible. Another lesson learned from blogging is that the "if you build it, they will come" motto certainly doesn't apply to blogs. Unless you already have a base of interested readers, are active to promote your blog, or have it linked from established locations, you can wait forever without any new visitors or readers. Thus, while I had pragmatic reasons for establishing my particular blog, in addition to the meeting of class requirements, much more work will be required to establish a reader base and a group of individuals willing to post, comment, and contribute.

How important blogging is to my field

It is my opinion that blogging will be an important forum for communication and collaboration among professionals, particularly those who are separated by time and space. The ease with which blogs can be created, managed, and posted to is certainly an advantage for busy teachers who may not have much time to spare after a busy and stressful day. As a means for expression, the blog is certain another tool conducive to use in some classrooms, particularly for writing assignments or other content-based instruction. For preschoolers, however, the use of blogs to communicate, must require greater amounts of teacher and parent assistance and may be less suitable. Nevertheless, while emphasizing professional development and the sharing of ideas and knowledge, I forsee a bright future for this type of blog among interested ECE professionals.

Future learning goals

As I have mentioned, fostering interaction and collaboration among early childhood professionals, scholars, and parents is a mission which is close to my heart. By simplifying the process, allowing for content to be made available online, and by attracting international commentators, I believe that a community of learners and community of educators is a feasible and appropriate goal. The use of blogging, to a certain degree, may also be plausible as a learning tool, although, as mentioned, with much more scaffolding, support, and supervision required than with older learners. Plans to incorporate blogging in future work and study include:

- continue to add content to and promote a blog for encouraging early childhood educator interaction and collaboration
- use of blogging to keep in contact with connections made to other scholars and professionals (i.e. from conferences, guest visits, or chance meetings)
- promotion of best-practice, useful tips for educators, and promulgation of new techniques or strategies for fostering creativity in early learning

Introduction

This blogfolio is as showcase of my work for class u383000 (Emerging Technology in Instructional Technology). The blogfolio contains examples of the many Web2.0 technologies which we taught by Dr. Steve Yuen of the University of Southern Mississippi. The showcased technologies range from social bookmarking and social networking to online polls and slide shows.

In order to document the invaluable experiences provided by this course and through the hands-on application of this technology, each assignment will be discussed in terms of a reflection, a discussion of how this application is useful for my field of education, and future teaching and learning goals related to each technology.

It is my hope that this blogfolio will successfully demonstrate how these Web2.0 applications can be successfully adopted and adapted for education, no matter what area or discipline you are working in. In my case, it was my desire to foster greater interaction, collaboration, and professional development among early childhood educators and researchers seeking to implement creativity and higher order thinking in their classrooms. You will see examples of how I make use of the technologies described and modelled by Dr. Yuen to develop a framework for social networking and collaboration through my assignments.