Heather's Darkroom

JCDL 2011

2011-06-15T20:53:00.002-07:00

There are still two more tracks of presentations and the closing keynote, but I want to write down my impressions and thoughts from the last two full days of JCDL 2011. I have thoroughly enjoyed both keynote addresses. I feel like there are many of the paper presentations I have attended I want to read now. It's nice that as one of the attendees I received a copy of each paper.

The first keynote, Daniel Caron a Canadian Librarian and Archivist, spoke about many ideas for libraries. He didn't say anything I hadn't heard before, but a few things were said in a different way that got me thinking. My favorite nugget was, "information managers act as waste managers". He basically meant that information specialists receive so much stuff from people that they have to wade through it all and pull out the nuggets that are actually worth keeping (whereas most of the information really isn't). The value of materials is different and there should be criteria for what should be preserved. This immediately makes me think of rating the quality of online educational resources. This is a very hard, subjective, and elusive idea. The context for the use of the resource brings a lot to the table and everyone seems to have differing opinions about what is important. I find it hard for groups of people to come up with a standard set of criteria that works well for everything. So I hope if he figures out this set of criteria for libraries that they work and are flexible. He said libraries need to be reinvented. I can't disagree with that. The library profession has changed so much in the last 10 years that everyone seems to still be scrambling to keep up. With that, he said libraries are still trying to build digital libraries based on the ideas and models of a traditional book library and he believes the libraries of the future need to move away from this and again, reinvent what they can become.

The second keynote was Joan Morris DiMicco. She currently works in the research division of IBM but her background is the MIT Media Lab. Her talk was focused on data visualization (another area I love!). She said data vis is often used for story telling and then proceeded to tell us some stories. She started her stories with this visualization by Hans Rosling. What an amazing visualization, that one hit my geek bell! She talked about wordle, manybills, saNDVis, many-eyes, and second messenger. For all of these visualization options, she said that when you tell a story where you are trying to persuade someone to an idea or for making decisions, you should be sure that your data is accurate and if you can provide access to this data. It makes for a more compelling story when people can drill down to the facts themselves. I truly loved the manybills site and think I'll be using that for US legislation I usually think is too complicated to follow.

I thoroughly enjoyed the full paper by Catherine Marshall and Frank Shipman titled "The Ownership and Reuse of Visual Media". When the papers are available in the ACM digital library, I highly recommend this one. It was about right associated with images and what people believe. Keith, MG, and Tammy won first runner-up for best student paper and have been invited to submit a more lengthy version of their paper for a journal article. That is one of the best prizes they could have received. Awesome! My presentation went well. Their full title: "Understanding Digital Library Adoption: A use diffusion approach".

The poster session last night was great too. The poster I enjoyed the most was done by Sally Jo Cunningham titled "How Children Find Books for Leisure Reading: Implications for the Digital Library". It was a fascinating study about observing children in libraries and bookstore and shadowing families and their activities in regard to books. She was very passionate about it and I look forward to hearing more of her work. Interestingly, one of the full papers presented during my session, "In the Bookshop: Examining Popular Search Strategies" by George Buchanan and Dana McKay was fascinating as well.

During lunch on the first day there were demonstrations and the two I liked the most were: The American Literature Suite (DOCEAR) and Machine Readable Digital Library (Mr. DLib).

It's been a good conference, I've enjoyed the little tiny bit I've seen of Ottawa and I'm ready to head home tomorrow to see my family!

Keeping up with readings

2011-06-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

I am finding it difficult to stay ahead of everything I find to read. There certainly is a large amount of literature being published about problem-based learning, education in general, science education, inquiry, 21st century skills, digital libraries, and teacher professional development. Curious to know what other people do to carve out time for reading. Looking for some good strategies.

Dissertation

2011-06-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy couple of months. I successfully defended my dissertation at the end of April, allowing me to walk for graduation the next week in May. I had an absolutely amazing committee and really appreciate all their hard work on my behalf. I am working on my revisions and would have them finished by now except I moved my family last week to a new state for a new job. With that, today I had the opportunity to be a research participant in a cool study that is looking at the activity in the brain when an individual is silently reading words and asked to comprehend the sentences to answer questions. I am excited to see the results, which I should because the faculty member doing the study has an office next to my boss. You can read more about him here: http://psych.colorado.edu/~aakim/. I left work today with bits of gel in my hair that they used with the cap on my head. But beyond that, I am really enjoying my post-doc position at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Have a queue

2010-08-26T11:19:00.002-07:00

Summer has been a bit hectic, so I've totally slacked on writing here. I have a queue of things to write about and plan to get these written about soon. I owe a couple of people some thoughts and plan to do it here. So stay tuned.

Self-directed learning and meta-cognition

2010-07-20T20:58:00.003-07:00

I had a thought tonight about self-directed learning (SDL) and meta-cognition. It seems that if you think of SDL as a method that it could be termed as being meta-cognition. Since meta-cognition is someone recognizing how they learn, what motivates them to learn, and how to apply that to any situation, SDL as a method fits that perfectly for me. I'd be interested to hear thoughts on this.

Implications for higher education

2010-06-16T22:36:00.002-07:00

I've been working on a paper with some colleagues and part of the focus is on the implications for higher education with the thought that K12 classrooms are increasingly using online resources in teaching. As teachers in corporate primary sources, electronic resources, and technology in their daily classrooms how does this change the way students learn? How does this change how they need to be taught as adults? Do they have different expectations as adults for the type of instruction they receive?

Day 2 TTIX

2010-06-11T21:34:00.002-07:00

Today was another great day at the Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange (TTIX) conference. I had the chance once again to talk to some old friends, meet some new people, learn more about technology, and I even tied for third place in the Grand Poo-Bah social media contest. I was surprised how many times presenters talked about TPACK (not something I am overly interested in right now), but they always tied their work into specific aspects of it. I loved the session that took TPACK and made it 3D, calling it TPC3D. This layers the TPACK idea as a knowledge adding in a beliefs layer and practical skills layer all within the idea of pedagogy, technology, and content. So you have TPACK, TPACB (beliefs), TPACP (practice). It reminded me a lot of the idea of the cognitive, affective, and conative domains, just targeting the specifics of technology, pedagogy, and content. I learned more about Equella and am very excited to have them visit USU. I even watch some World Cup action at the UofU Union Bldg at lunch time. At the end of the day I tied for third place in the Grand Poo-Bah social media contest. That was pretty cool because I wasn't even trying to play or win. I was just tweeting, blogging, and interacting like I always do at a conference. Good times!

Day 1 - TTIX 2010

2010-06-10T22:19:00.002-07:00

I have heard about TTIX for a couple of years now, but this year was the first time I’ve been able to actually attend the conference, and I must say it has lived up to the hype. From the keynote to the sessions and of course the networking, it was a great day. Being one to wear many hats, I find my thoughts wandering on how I can apply the things I learn in a session. The keynote by Nancy White today provided me with a couple thoughts; nothing earth shattering, but it re-invigorated ideas and helped me to remember that I need to have more refined focus in my work. As a researcher of problem-based learning (PBL), her thoughts on the reciprocity of learning struck a cord with me. It makes me wonder how PBL can use this idea more than it already does. And in an online environment using PBL, what are the best ways to capitalize on this idea? She also spoke about solo and group learners and my thoughts wander the same way. I loved the idea of group working being “Giving up a little bit of me for the we”. That should be the motto students have when doing group work, especially with PBL. Control is something to think about as well: student control. Makes me think that this has implications for being a life-long learner and having the meta-cognitive understanding to go outside the classroom and continue knowing how you learn. And what are the wisest ways to go about building your online and face-to-face network? I had a great discussion via twitter with @michaelcjohnson and @awjohnson about OpenCourseWare. We all agreed that portfolios and networking are high priorities for students (well everyone really). Putting on another hat I wear, I have to wonder how all of this fits into the academic library system. I love conferences that provide me with more questions than answers. Don’t get me wrong, answers are good, but to leave asking more questions fuels the fire for further work where hopefully better answers can be discovered.

As I learned more about difference technologies today (Prezi, cmap, google docs, rcampus, jing, wimba), I have to wonder how can we alert more practitioners so they know about and use these and other technologies? How can we help them make wise decisions in how to use them (or not use them) in their classrooms? One more thought I loved: "Knowledge is learning something everyday; wisdom is letting go of something everyday. We need to be asking ourselves what we should stop doing." I'm excited to view the sessions I couldn't make. Looking forward to another great day at TTIX!

AERA 2010

2010-05-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

AERA is now over, but I had a good time this year at the conference. It was a short visit for me (about 48 hours in Denver), but I had a chance to do some presenting, attend a couple of sessions, and best of all meeting some new people while interacting and networking with old friends. That has to be the best part of this and many other conferences. Looking forward to next year.

Dissertation proposal

2010-02-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today marked a good day, I defended my dissertation proposal. Looks like there are a few things my committee still wants me to do, but I am happy to be moving forward with this work on problem-based learning and self-directed learning. The area of motivation is quite fascinating to me and I want to be able to making a meaningful contribution to the literature and the practice of PBL through my work. Here's to hard work to get this last leg of my PhD finished!

Moving forward

2010-02-10T21:59:00.002-07:00

I am finally making another step in my PhD work, I am defending my dissertation proposal before the end of this month! My goal is to be completely finished by the end of summer semester. It is a bit ambitious, but I think it can be done.

Beginning thoughts from Open Education Conference 2009

2009-08-27T08:19:00.003-07:00

I have been meaning to write about my experience at the 2009 Open Education Conference, but haven't gotten to it. So, here is one of my thoughts (building from David Wiley's thoughts here: Feeling out of place). There were some ideas floating around the conference about the meaning of open educational resources. The one that caught me off guard was someone saying that to be truly open a resource must be reusable (meaning derivative works allowed). Wow, so that means some of the creative commons licenses can't even be used with that definition. I found that the definition of what open really means is changing, and in my opinion not always for the better. As David said, there were some radical ideas coming from many people and that scared me just a bit, mostly because I don't want to see people no longer respect the Open Education Movement. I think it is very important, but it needs to be handled creatively and carefully. At the end of the session by Chris Mackie I was chatting with some people who were saying that the Open Ed Movement needs to step up and be the leaders in changing higher education. I totally agree that the people in Open Ed could do this, but I hope that if and when they do, they approach it carefully. From what I took away of this session, Chris was saying we should be moving towards changing the pedagogical approaches to learning and incorporating open educational resources with it. Yes! I totally agree, but as he did in his presentation, he didn't really talk about OER until the end. I think most people in higher ed need to take some things a step at a time.

Graduation thoughts

2009-05-03T15:14:00.003-07:00

USU had graduation this weekend. It was fun to visit with a few people who are graduating and to see the excitement in their eyes. I was reminded that this could be me next year. Oh, I would love to be graduating next year. My path to the PhD certainly has been exciting, enlightening, and hard. But, I know it will be worth it in the end. Funny thing, is that I don't really see graduation as an end. It is just another stepping stone in my journey. Here's to another year of excitement and progression in my journey and looking forward to graduation!

ITLS Social

2009-04-25T23:07:00.002-07:00

Every year at the end of spring semester the department puts on a spring social where they hand out awards to students. I was honored this year to receive the Outstanding Research Assistant award. It is something voted upon by the faculty and I thank them for this honor. They are wonderful people to work with and have made my experience as a graduate student great! It truly is a pleasure to work with them and learn from them. I hope all doctoral students have the opportunity to work on research with faculty members. I always learn by doing, and by doing I feel I grow more.

Selected Works site

2009-04-17T22:39:00.003-07:00

I now have a Selected Works site with bepress. Check it out: http://works.bepress.com/heatherleary. I am planning to keep this up to date, although I still have quite a bit of work to do to it still.

More open access mandates

2009-03-21T19:05:00.002-07:00

We can add Oregon State University to the open access article mandates, along with MIT and Harvard. Yeah!

Another school doing open access for faculty articles

2009-03-19T08:11:00.004-07:00

I just read that MIT faculty have approved an open access policy for their publications. Looks like one more 'big' name school has made a step forward for allowing access to the research and scholarly work produced by the school.

http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/2009/03/18/mit-open-access-policy-approved/

NIH policy will persist

2009-03-12T12:06:00.001-07:00

I just read this posting on the SPARC forum. I am happy to see that this has been upheld and will be permanent.

First u.s. public access policy made permanent

2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act ensures NIH public access policy will persist

Washington, D.C. – March 12, 2009 – President Obama yesterday signed into law the 2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes a provision making the National Institutes’ of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy permanent. The NIH Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access requires eligible NIH-funded researchers to deposit electronic copies of their peer-reviewed manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine’s online archive, PubMed Central (PMC). Full texts of the articles are made publicly available and searchable online in PMC no later than 12 months after publication in a journal.

The NIH policy was previously implemented with a provision that was subject to annual renewal. Since the implementation of the revised policy the percentage of eligible manuscripts deposited into PMC has increased significantly, with over 3,000 new manuscripts being deposited each month. The PubMed Central database is a part of a valuable set of public database resources at the NIH, which are accessed by more than 2 million users each day.

The new provision reads in full:

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require in the current fiscal year and thereafter that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

“This is a significant moment for all of us in the health community, and for efforts in health reform. With free access to health research, individuals are empowered with the knowledge necessary to understand the health threats they and their families face,” said Sharon Terry, President and CEO of Genetic Alliance. “Congress recognizes the incredible power of technology and innovation in enabling new solutions for the proactive management of health, consumer-driven healthcare, and novel partnerships and collaborations in research. Congratulations to us all.”

The NIH Public Access Policy addresses the public’s growing need for high-quality health information and promotes accelerated scientific advancement in the biomedical sciences.

"Public access to publicly funded research contributes directly to the mission of higher education,” said David Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs at NASULGC (the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges). “Improved access will enable universities to maximize their own investment in research, and widen the potential for discovery as the results are more readily available for others to build upon.”

Heather Joseph, spokesperson for the Alliance for Taxpayer Access noted, “Thanks to the work of a wide coalition of patients, libraries, researchers, publishers, students, and taxpayers, the results of NIH-funded research can be accessed – and used - in ways never before possible. The successful implementation of this policy will unlock the potential of this research to benefit the public as a whole. ”

For more information, and a timeline detailing the evolution of the NIH Public Access Policy beginning May 2004, visit the ATA Web site at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.

###

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of patient, academic, research, and publishing organizations that supports open public access to the results of federally funded research. The Alliance was formed in 2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles stemming from taxpayer-funded research become fully accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American public. Details on the ATA may be found at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.

https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/4849.html

AERA

2009-01-14T23:20:00.002-07:00

I am excited to announce that I have been accepted to participate in the AERA Division C Graduate Student seminar. It will be a great experience for networking, one-on-one time with some fabulous mentors, meeting other graduate students, learning more about surviving the dissertation, and learning more about research. Looks like I am going to have a great time at this conference and I'm looking forward to it. There are so many things to do before then, but I am feeling good about the direction I am going. The whole PhD experience has taught me so much about myself, the variety of people in the world, and what I can do. I'm glad to be able to share my knowledge when I can and to continue to learn from others.

Course work, comps, dissertation

2009-01-13T00:36:00.002-07:00

My adviser signed off on my program of study today. Whew. I just need to finish up a couple incompletes and do my class this semester and I'll be completely finished with course work! In the mean time I need to be finalizing my committee, finalizing my cognate areas, putting together my article list for comps, scheduling comps, and doing them. Then it is off to dissertation land! Projected graduation date: Spring 2010! I have a ton to do before then (need to do some teaching!), but I am excited. I am nervous but ready to be moving forward.

I am excited to move forward with problem-based learning and assessing the literature for non-cognitive outcomes. If that doesn't make sense, let me put it this way. I know problem-based learning is as good as or better than traditional lecture classes for cognitive outcomes, so I want to know how it fares for non-cognitive outcomes like motivation, interest, engagment (behavior), self-directed learning skills, etc. I think it can be a very powerful way for people to learn that learning is what you bring to it and that learning is something we should do every day for our entire lives.

Learning

2009-01-04T21:44:00.002-07:00

Last week while attending my church services, the topic of learning came up. In fact, the entire lesson was on learning, how it is everyone's right to be able to learn, and how in this day and age opportunities for learning are more accessible than ever. With that, we all need to take advantage of these opportunities and learn. I believe this learning needs to be balanced (just like everything in our lives). It needs to have a portion of spiritual learning (whatever your beliefs), it needs to have physical learning (to me that is knowing what your body needs, how to take care of it, and actually doing those things), and then you need to have learning that helps you succeed in the world (that can be anything from college, apprenticeships, or personal study). Now, learning needs to be something that happens everyday. It should be something we all desire AND something we share in love and gratitude. For what is the worth of learning something? Just for you to know or for you to do and share?

All of these thoughts brought me back to what I've been studying and doing in school. I have been somewhat doubting whether what I do will really make a difference for someone so their life if better. But, this lesson was a reminder that my work can and will make a difference for people. I am so excited to be stepping much closer to my dissertation this semester and have decided I want to work with the non-cognitive aspects of problem-based learning for my topic. The cognitive outcomes are encouraging and I believe this learning philosophy/strategy can make a difference in how people learn and in how they perceive learning.

Meta-analysis, meta-synthesis, meta-study

2009-01-02T00:11:00.003-07:00

As I continue to work on my literature review on meta-synthesis and meta-analyses of data visualization, I am finding another word: meta-study. This is quite interesting as it appears that it is bigger than meta-synthesis or meta-anlaysis. It claims to be another qualitative technique that takes into consideration a large account of what is happening with phenomena and sorting it out, sythesizing it and putting forward new ideas. Funny, cause thought that's what meta-synthesis was. As I wrap this up for my prof I hope that it is good enough work to be making a contribution.

Thinking dissertation

2008-11-20T21:25:00.002-07:00

My advisor thinks I'll be ready to do my comprehensive exams sometime next semester. Sounds absolutely terrifying to me. But I am starting to think about narrowing down my topic for my dissertation, which will inform me better for my comps articles. Big sigh. This is going to be hard. Anyway, there are just too many things to do, and I am having a hard time choosing. But a quite prominent professor here on USU's campus told me that the best dissertation is a finished one. And he is right. I am not going to change the world with my dissertation. So I'm thinking there are several problem-based learning areas I could focus on, online educational resources quality, or institutional repositories. Ah! Way too broad.

PBL Tutors

2008-11-01T23:17:00.002-07:00

For the last while I've been focusing on problem-based learning and the role the tutor plays in student learning. As I finish up with an article examining the research in this area, I have to wonder what other scholars who have worked so many years in this discipline will think. The philosophy in problem-based learning makes sense to me. A teacher should be there to guide and assist a student. That tutor can have content expertise but should be considered as a facilitator of learning and not just giver knowledge. I am especially excited about doing more research in this area and getting the word out on what I find so that I can somehow make a difference for learning.

Open Education 2008

2008-09-28T21:17:00.002-07:00

This last week it was my pleasure to attend the Open Education 2008 Conference. I volunteered as well as presented. The volunteer work at this conference is always fun. It's great to meet people in the Open Education Movement. This year I helped out with some oral history interviews. I loved listening to everyone I interviewed talk about their involvement in the movement as well as what they thought of its future. Being still quite new to all of it, the historical side was fascinating. I also ran across a YouTube video while working on a presentation that I really enjoyed - Worlds Biggest Lesson - it's about education across the world and they mention education being open to everyone. Sustainability was a concept that swirled around this conference this year. We are all struggling with it and I hope we start to see some ideas work.

Contemplating the future

2008-07-31T20:33:00.003-07:00

So much has happened this summer in regards to school and work, that it has had my head spinning at times. I was very excited to learn that ALA has put out a digital copyright slider. It is going to be so helpful for the work we do in the Digital Library at USU. We have been talking a lot about the future of the Digital Library and it is very exciting to me. In conjunction with that I have been working with Sarah G. from the NSDL and receiving a lot of insight into digital libraries and how they function for education. To go along with this I have learned so much this summer in regards to writing proposals for conferences and doing research. It is refreshing to use the things I've learned in my classes, even if I can't remember them completely. I'm still learning and hopefully it will all stick in the end. The people I have been working with have been awesome and I really couldn't be doing this without them. So the future, I feel like the more I do the more things I become interested in. I know I need to narrow down what I'm going to do for my dissertation, which I'm working on, but I find that so many more things come my way and I can't pass them up. I guess we'll see what lies ahead (knowing that I need to shape that to the best of my ability).

Education is personal

2008-06-10T00:30:00.003-07:00

After listening to a recent conversation and reflecting back on my educational path, I have realized I need to find a way to help students (and some teachers) realize that education is personal. Yes, a lot of educational opportunities occur in groups; but the group cannot function as a whole without individual efforts. What a student really takes away from a class really depends on what they personally connect with and remember. Problem based learning looks at motivation in students, and I believe that motivation is a form of taking personal control of your education. Personal doesn't necessarily mean that the content relates to some experience you as a student have had, but rather that you own your education and take responsibility for what you do and do not learn.

Online encyclopedia goes wiki

2008-06-07T08:32:00.001-07:00

This is of particular interest to me since I recently did a literature review on Wikipedia. The online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica is moving towards wiki style contributions. Check it out here where I first learned about it.

Quality

2008-05-27T23:55:00.002-07:00

I've been working on creating a review rubric/quality rubric for online educational resources lately. I did a small study in the spring that helped inform us more on the subject. But I've been thinking about the definition of quality. From our rubric I am thinking quality is relative. It depends on the context and dips into Brown's idea of the teacher knowing what they need and adapting the resources (whether that means changing the resource or padding it) to fit their needs. I think a rubric that helps someone assess whether an online resource is of high quality really is for helping teachers (or anyone) assess the basic pieces of the resource so they can then adapt (as needed) the resource to fit into their classroom; where they put the resource into context so the resource has a quality purpose. Of course, there are going to be some resources that just won't fit into what a teacher wants. So for those I would say they are a bad fit. I don't think that necessarily means they are a low quality resource. Just that their adaptability/reuse is low for that particular lesson. Quality is a hard term to define. It can mean different things to different people. We have found that accuracy is a better way to begin talking about a resource. Quality seems to be the overall, high arching, umbrella term that everyone uses. I'm excited to be pursuing this line of inquiry more.

Motivation

2008-05-17T21:22:00.002-07:00

As I think more and more about what direction to go for my dissertation, I am stepping back to look at what I am doing right now and why. As an undergraduate I had the notion that the professors were there to fill me up with all this great information. Once I graduated I realized that the sponge idea is an attitude. A bad attitude. As a student (and student is very broadly defined as anyone in the world willing to learn anything), I need to take control of my own learning. Professors and other teachers are there as experts to guide me in my learning. I tried to approach my masters program with this attitude, but found myself slipping into sponge mode often. Ah, perhaps that is why I am still in school. I just haven't learned yet how to take control of my education and thought I'd have another go at it (laugh, that's a joke). Anyway, as I began my doctoral work, I found an idea that I'd never heard before that answers my question of motivation. Although it can be controversial, I see the value it has in adding to education (if only to change a student's attitude so they take control of their learning to a higher degree). This idea is problem based learning. Oh, there are so many other aspects to it, but the motivation piece and a teacher as an expert or not so expert tutor is fascinating to me. I'll be looking at this more this summer.

Interviewing

2008-05-16T21:17:00.003-07:00

Sitting on a search committee in a university setting is an interesting experience. I've had this opportunity in the Library, but recently in the INST Department. They are looking for a couple of new faculty members. Having some new insights into this process is a great learning experience for me and I appreciate the opportunity to be part of it.

As I move forward in my program, I find it is becoming easier and easier to have intelligent conversations with members of my committee. I'm sure most of that has to do with me feeling more confident to have these conversations. But I think it also has to do with more opportunities to generate ideas for creating and studying aspects of education. This next year is going to be very exciting as I continue with my course work. We are doing fun and exciting research in the DL Connect group and things at work are starting to move forward in a new direction (which is exciting but a lot of work).

Self plagiarism

2007-11-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have brought up some interesting conversations about students re-using papers for other classes. It is an interesting idea that when you think about it, and I'm not sure where it is a good or a bad thing. I know there are some professors who would balk at the idea. Why would you do that in the first place? You'll become a better writer to write more original works. But these ideas also brought up authors citing other authors incorrectly. I was advised to only cite another article if I have read it and come up with my own interpretation of what is being said. Don't just go off of what others have written. They could be wrong. Of course this is something I find fascinating. Why would you cite something like a seminal article in a field if you haven't read it yourself? Why take the chance of citing it incorrectly? Hmmmm, I see a possible conceptual idea here that could become a nice paper.

Open Ed - Week 2

2007-09-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

The reading this week Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources brought out some good points for me. This is certainly something I'm going to need to read a couple of times to pull out all the useful information for myself and my work. The first point that caught my eye said, "OER projects can expand access to learning for everyone, but most of all for non-traditional groups of students, and thus widen participation in higher education. They can be an efficient way of promoting lifelong learning, both for individuals and for government, and can bridge the gap between non-formal, informal, and formal learning." I hadn't really thought of OER's doing all of that. Of course I knew that an OER is great for expanding dissemination of a resource and/or the information in that resource, but the lifelong learning point hits home to me since that area of research interests me and fits right into an idea I am researching at this moment, problem-based learning. It is great to see how so many pieces of education fit together and make another point better.

With my current employment in a higher education digital library (Utah State University Digital Library), I have strong feelings over the repository idea in higher education and the metadata issues. I see first hand every day the time and expense involved in metadata creation. The Librarians I work with are very insistent on making sure the metadata associated with a digitized object is accurate and expansive. I have my days of disagreement with them though. We are also in the works for creating an institutional wide repository that will hold the research output and teaching output of the entire campus. One area we want to have in this repository is Utah State's Open Courseware so it is saved in it's many renditions. But many universitites are finding it is hard to get buy-in from faculty to deposit educational information in these repositories as well as use the information that is there. So it was great to read the advisement given to higher education institutions to have an "information technology strategy" in place.

The next notable piece I took from this reading has to do with the role of e-learning. Here again, Utah State University is a big player in distance and e-learning initiatives. It was nice to see that the report sees e-learning as relevant and a piece of open educational resources. Of course e-learning and OER's need to be "convenient, effective, affordable, and sustainable and available to every learner and teacher worldwide". My interests involve all of these, but sustainability is an issue that seems to always be mentioned. As defined in the report, sustainability must meet the goals of a project for continuation to occur. As a researcher I feel that definition of sustainability is great, but as an employee who deals with other sides of the sustainability issue, I feel that I focus so much more on the economic side of sustainability. Through all I have read and seen it is evident to me that sustainability models cannot include a monetary dependability. I should read David's sustainability piece (making note of that!).

Lastly I noted to myself the importance of creating and sustaining OER's that are accessible for disabilities, quality, and usefulness. Disability accessibility is very important to me and I feel that it needs to be considered more than it is right now. I also realize that this could be a next step for OER's and OCW's (unless they are already focusing on this and I don't know it!). Quality is another big issue for me. It the resource proves to have not quality for educational purposes, why is it there? That could be a very narrow minded way of thinking about quality, so I would love to hear more on what others think the definition of quality is and how that can be measured.

Open Ed - Week 1

2007-09-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

In your opinion, is the "right to education" a basic human right? Why or why not? In your opinion, is open *access* to free, high-quality educational opportunity sufficient, or is it necessary to *mandate* education through a certain age or level?

The "right to education" as a basic human right is a sticky situation. The readings for this week introduce this idea as one that is important to consider. I believe everyone should have the right to be educated, but how to do this throughout the entire world is complicated for many reasons (one of these reasons being that the people of the world do not all agree on what a basic right is). As Tomasevski says we must look at the economic, political, and cultural impacts this question opens. Of course one of my first reactions to this question is that everyone in this world deserves to be educated, but educated in what? Their culture, the world, politics, reading and writing (in what language?), some curriculum that has been developed? Of course I think that all people deserve the opportunity to learn about as much as possible and have access to this education as a choice, to me that's the key. I do believe education opens the way for freedom. But at the same time, I also realize that anyone who thinks otherwise is going to fight hard to not allow people to have the choice to have this right.

So now open "access" to educational resources and opportunity. This is a great step to distributing educational content, and from my experiences in education and my choices in continuing educational opportunities I believe that mandated education is probably a good idea to a certain age (but I don't feel expert enough to determine that age). How that education is delivered should probably have options (public school, home school, etc.). I think that people can either catch on to wanting to continue to learn in various ways, or they become satisfied with their educational level. Personally I want people to become charged by education and incorporate it into their everyday life (life-long learning). So opening up access to educational content and opportunities is important and essential to this idea.

Putting together my committee

2007-07-11T19:32:00.001-07:00

The time is quickly approaching where I need to get a graduate committee put together (even if it is temporary). I am starting to focus in much more on where I want to go with my dissertation and what cognates I want to be studying before I embark on that ship. It's funny how some days I feel very confident in what I am doing and the next day turns right around to be just the opposite. But I learned (at least I observed) a very valuable lesson last night as I took a break from school and attended a midnight movie with my husband and colleagues from school. I observed my professor interacting with his daughter and taking the time to not talk (as much as possible) about school and just have some fun with part of his family. Lesson learned: take the time to do things with those who are the most important. I just need to do what is necessary for school and let go of all the other things I know I'll never get too.

Problem based learning

2007-05-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

I have been reading more and more about this lately. Since I am working on a meta-analysis with my professor Andrew Walker here at Utah State University I've been exposed to a lot of literature on the subject. But recently I have found that others are seeing the benefits this teaching strategy has for the K-12 area and how it benefits students so they can be better learners. This is so fascinating to me. I want younger people to be prepared to learn their entire lives. I want them to value learning and be motivated to learn. I am starting to see where PBL can be a great strategy to accomplish this. Now I just need to do some research on it and prove with empirical evidence that it is helpful...

Sum up my first year?

2007-05-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have been terrible at keeping up this blog. I thought for sure I'd do it during school. Well, that didn't happen did it. Here's my attempt to begin going better. The last two semesters, which have been my first in the doctoral program, have been tough. It took me a while fall semester to get into the swing of things, but I think I've got the procedure down now. This semester hasn't been quite as bad.

I am working on a meta-analytic review of the problem-based learning (pbl) literature. My professor Andrew Walker and I are coding pbl articles that display cognitive outcomes between traditional and pbl groups inside and outside of medical education. We have a presentation at AECT in October in California. I have learned so much about pbl, research, and meta-analysis by working with him.

With everything else I am volunteering with a research group who has created a simple software called Instructional Architect. It collaborates with the National Science Digital Library and allows anyone to create simple webpages. It is targeted at K-12 teachers to help them have webpages with instructional information and links to online learning resources that students can view in or out of the classroom. The great part about this software is that its funding comes from grants so it is free to the public to use. The research team also delivers free professional development workshops on the software.

My summer school work has already started, but I am enjoying my work and excited to move ahead in this program!

Open education, problem based learning, life long learning

2006-10-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last week was the Open Education Conference here at USU. It was a good conference, and I learned about many different areas that open education is focusing on right now. (I know I should have written about this last week, but I must refer you to my most recent post on brain function and say I am feeling more together this week than I was last week). It was great to listen about open education resources, localization, grant funding from the Mellon Foundation, and to meet many different people. Since the last three weeks of one of my classes has focused on open education, I've been thinking about it a lot lately. There are so many places this area can take you. I enjoy the access to resources, whether that's through the computer or other means, being able to reach information is so critical. But just as important as the information you can get is how you learn to use it and apply it in your own life. This takes me back to basic principles of learning.

I have also been learning about problem based learning and find it fascinating. I still have so much to learn, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to be working with Dr. Andrew Walker on it. It falls into line with my interests in constructivism and life long learning. Which takes me to life long learning, how can this concept be taught so that the open educational resources can be used more fully? Right now I don't have an answer to that question. My program of school will certainly help me know how to answer it.

Brain function

2006-10-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

I have now been in my PhD program for about six weeks. Although some people may not understand this, I felt so much at the beginning as if my brain really was clouded. I'm not sure what, perhaps still recovering from having my baby (although that one seems more like an excuse), maybe from being tired and stressed, or even a mental block on my part. Whatever it has been, I have felt it lifting in the last couple of weeks. My mind is clearer, my thoughts are clearer, I am comprehending what I read and hear in class. For quite a few weeks I was feeling like I wouldn't ever catch on. Things are looking up and I think I may be able to get through this. Whitney has been wonderful to help out and take on dealing with me (that in itself is a chore). Ok, so off I go to do some homework!

Totally free math

2006-08-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a great math website! Check it out at http://www.totallyfreemath.com/.

Many thanks to the authors!

Open WorldCat

2006-07-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

I've just found out about an interesting and also exciting venture in Open WorldCat. It can be best described from the USU Merrill-Cazier Library blog.

LibraryThing

2006-06-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

Love books? Interested in keeping them all straight and cataloged plus finding out about more in your interest areas? Check out this new website I've just learned about: LibraryThing.

Fire at my parents home

2006-05-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

My parents home burned down this week. It has been quite a shock. But everyone is safe and doing well. My sister is keeping up her blog daily with photos and events: The Corner Garden. Thanks to everyone who has been so loving and helpful in this tragic time.

On a lighter note. I've been accepted into the PhD program at Utah State University in Instructional Technology.

Heather

Life long learning

2005-12-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Well, Fall semester is coming to a close and the class I was working on is ending. And with this end comes some feelings of guilt and disappointment. I have slacked so much in working on the class, I have yet to finish all the readings let alone get much done on the assignments for the class. (Good think I'm not receiving anything that will go on a transcript-although that should never be the motivation for a class!) But, it has made me think that for all my ambitions and hopes in many areas, like life long learning, that I will fail miserably because I cannot keep up with something like this. I could come up with tons of excuses, but when it comes down to it, it wasn't at the top of my priorities and so was pushed aside. Oh, I will continue to read everything for the class, but I just couldn't get it done in the time frame of the class. I guess one of my big disappointments is my communication with this class and its professor will be lessened. Too bad-I'd love to keep learning from him. No matter, I must continue reading and studying so that I am always learning and moving forward with my knowledge.

Learning objects - Post 2

2005-10-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

As I continue reading about learning objects I am surprised how similar they are to a piece of artwork. Let me explain. Internal and external context of a learning object can add or take away quite a bit from it. The meaning and relevance of the object basically differs widely depending on many factors. When a painter creates a beautiful landscape painting of mountains like the Tetons, this person may or may not add little hints into the piece through colors, brush strokes, shapes, shadows, etc. of how they are feeling and thinking (internal context, remembering the degree of suggestion added to the painting). Some of this is conscious and some of it is not. So this painting now has relevance and a lot of meaning to the artist.

In comes someone who has never seen a mountain range so large and magnificent. They are awe struck by the painting. And in some ways cannot imagine such a place (external context). In come someone who has actually visited this mountain range. Their perception of the painting is different. Since they have been there the painting recalls memories of sounds and smells (external context). It could create a longing for this person to return to the place. Although the painter may have painted the mountain range almost photo realistic, each person viewing it will read the internal context of the paining differently because of the external context they bring to it.

If learning and education are like art, we can conclude that within the learning field, you get out of it what you bring to it and how you view it.

Now on to 'things to consider'. What should we call a learning object other than a learning object? How about Instructional Doodad, or Instructional Gizmo, or the more appropriate Instructional Aid. Why should we use these in the first place? Essentially these are just tools to present for improved instruction and learning, right? I believe a learning object, which I think I'll call an instructional tool for the fun of it right now, should be used to enhance teaching. Enhance here meaning that by using this tool in a lesson the teacher can now reach more students and have them understand the lesson. Since we all learning differently (one reason for so many learning theories I think), using multiple types of tools to teach makes for better instruction. Now, we all need to remember that you don't want so many bells and whistles that the lesson goes by the way.

So cost...this is something to always keep in mind. Not really sure what to say on this issue. I think I'd like to have more information about the debate in this arena.

Learning Objects - Post 1

2005-10-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, so now that I am back to work from maternity leave I am finding it much easier to concentrate on reading for Wiley's class. From what I have read I am finding the learning object debate comparable to the debate about Instructional Design. Looks like there are still a lot of questions to be answered. Although there are questions moving forward with instructional learning objects can successfully take place.

So in the debate on a learning objects definition I believe that in this day and age learning objects should be considered digital. Other things like people and places are just that, people and places. They can be incorporated with an existing L.O., but why rename everything? As far as should content be explicitely instructional to be called a L.O., I don't have an answer but another question: If it can't be used for instructional purposes (even if you have to add context around it) why would it be considered a L.O.?

And reusability, that's the million dollar question isn't it. Do all L.O. have to be reusable? I believe that some great L.O. can be created that may not work in the future. But there are still many more that can be reused. Reusability is a great token to keep in mind while creating instruction, but don't let it stop you from creating something great. You can always try again when you redo the instruction anyway. This falls into the size of a L.O. Here you need to decide what is most important for you at the time. It seems like there will be some areas that are better prone to reusability than others. Creating a learning object for computer software may not be as easily reusable because the software changes so quickly, so why not add context to make it easier to learn? Whereas the basic and fundamentals of geometry are not changing anytime soon (at least I don't think so). So here you could create L.O. that will be reusable. I think taking into consideration the area you are trying to instruct makes a difference.

Digital Library

2005-06-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from the School for Scanning workshop in Boston sponsored by the Northeast Document Conservation Center. This was a great workshop for learning more about digital resources and how they fit into libraries, museums, and archives. It was very interesting to me to see how the world of resources is changing so much. I hope we can all keep up.

Graduation

2005-05-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Friday was the big day. May 6, 2005 I graduated from Utah State University with my Master of Education degree in Instructional Technology (Educational Technology and Distance Education). I am so happy to be finished with formal school work for the time, and excited for the challenges that are ahead. I need to make sure I am continually learning. I've discovered as a graduate student that the constant push to learn needs to be intrinsic and not mandated by a class at school. Learning can be time consuming, but I'm planning on making my life a time of learning and growing so that some day I will be able to help others with their education.

Another blog, for school

2005-04-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

So my cohort from graduate school now has a blog! It can be found at Cohort 5. Those of us involved with it are hoping that many more people from our cohort will participate.

Recent dist. ed. experience

2005-04-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

I presented a lesson last night in a class. It was a great experience to design the lesson and use the pedagogy and learning theory I felt appropriate for it. I remembered to take into consideration most of the ideals of teaching through distance education, like remembering to wear plain clothes, and look at the camera and not at the students in my room, etc. After it was all over, I realized that even though I'd practiced my lesson and tried so hard to remember all the good dist. ed. practices, that there were still things that slipped through the cracks or that could have been done better. Now I know that when you teach anything, you always think afterwards what could have been better, but I now know for myself how scary it could be for a teacher to teach this way when they have been used to a face to face classroom. I am comfortable with the technology, and I had a few questions at first. It was just a good testimonial to me of the importance of 'drilling' the ideals of distance ed. and that they are practiced. It was a great experience.

Projects

2005-04-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

As I finish up my final project for graduate school, I have found that everything I've learned makes so much more sense once it has been put to the test. I guess it is one of those ideas where if you practice what you preach, the preaching side is respected more. It has been fun and stressful all in one to work with others (who at times I have felt know more than I do) and do the developing of this training. I think I have learned just as much about the programs I am training on as I'll and others will be able to teach.

Even though formal schooling will be ending, I hope to be able to continue with my education in many ways. One way will be to continue working on projects. I have a project going where I am in need of more collaboration with others for the content of it. I think I'll send out a request for help on this. I've contacted several teachers in the K-12 area, but haven't heard much back. Now with my school work closing I need to focus on this more.

Learning as you communicate

2005-03-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

As I learn more and more about Instruction Design and Technology, I find that when I talk to people about it I realize more and more how much I know. Funny how that ties back to my beliefs that instruction, especially when technology is involved, works so much better when communication is invovled. It's this balance between the content, technology, and interaction that important. Wow, it's amazing that in everyday interactions the same concepts applies. I love it when I make connections!

Collaboration

2005-03-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to me that collaboration works for a student and a teacher. As I work more on my graduate project I have found that any collaboration I can get makes the project so much easier. It got me thinking how much more can you learn either as a student, teacher, or designer when you actually work with others. It makes sense that you would want to collect as much expertise as you can to make a project work. There isn't just one person who can do it all. For students, and at least my own experiences, I have found that working together you learn so much more.

Talking online

2005-03-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

It is so interesting to me to find that I crave any kind of interaction I can get online. I stick mainly to those arenas where my friends and family are right now (basically email and chat), but I find myself being so disappointed when I haven't heard from specific people. Why would you create an email address to then never use it?

Distance Ed.?

2005-02-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

Now that I have been studying distance education I have found that so many people have no idea what I am talking about when they ask what I'm studying in school. Others say 'I don't think you can learn as much that way'. In some of my work I have found that many people are either scared or quite unaware of the potential with distance education, or at least the tools used in distance education (technical software). They believe that an interactive program won't be used by students because they don't want to take the time to watch the simulation and interact with it. To this I say, not everyone learns the same. Not everyone wants to ask questions. Some students want to just sit in front of the computer with some sort of tutorial and figure it out. Others will have nothing to do with this and need a person standing over them. Others want a paper they can follow. So with so many people really needing different ways to interact and learn programs and aspects of the computer, why aren't all of the ways developed so the user can choose? I realize that you don't need to use all the bells and whistles to teach, but is it bad to have many access points to something? The development time really shouldn't be all that much more.

Final Synthesis

2005-01-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

Even though classes have ended for the semester, I have had this nagging thought that I need to write this up. The last assignment in my class was dumped from our grades so I have taken my time in getting around to writing it. I wanted to get something written, but knew I needed some time to think. It isn’t a master piece, but here goes…

Chapter 1

How do we learn? Can technology really enhance our ability to learn? What is the best tool to use? If you look back on your experiences as a kid what do you remember the most about learning? For me learning took place in a classroom and in doing my homework. Painstakingly longs amounts of time were put into this. But, I also learned through the social interactions I had. Yeah, at the time I would never have labeled it as “official learning” because that would have made me a geek, but now I crave social interactions whether they are face-to-face or online. There are so many people out there that know so much that I don’t know, and I want to learn from them. So in this technological savvy world, what is the best way to do this?

In all truth there isn’t a ‘best’ tool out there for teaching and learning because we all learn so differently and there are many great tools around. Not to mention the many topics to teach. When all is said and done, find the tool that fits best and use it. This could possibly be a different tool each time you set out to teach and learn. Let’s take a look at this small list of social software that I am familiar with and examine them briefly.

· Online groups like Usenet or Google Groups

· Blogs

· Fanfiction.com

· MUDS/MOOS

· IRC-Internet Relay Chat

· Online gaming-MMO

One could say that these tools all support learning in some fashion. Online groups like Usenet and Google groups and the IRC are used for chatting, socializing, and posting questions. I found these tools interesting and fun, especially the IRC. To have a good experience in the other groups I think a person would need to affiliate with it for longer than a week. They were not as exciting to me as the other tools I used, but that could be due to my learning style and preference.

MUDS and MOOS are an older style text based game that has its purpose just as all the other items do. It was a great way to improve my typing skills as well as my strategy skills. Again, I am a visual person so this challenged me more and bored me in some ways too.

Blogs, Fanfiction.com, and the MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online games) were so much fun and actually taught me so much about myself and others. I would have to say these were my favorite and I will continue to use them in some fashion when possible.

What you choose to use as a teaching method whether it is using technology or not, needs to be the right tool for the lesson. Yes, a tool like a screwdriver can be used to open a paint can or a ketchup bottle, but its main purpose is for screwing in screws. Don’t forget what you want to teach and who you are trying to teach. With those in mind, go out and find the tool that will give you the most success. With that said, Marion Jensen said this about good instruction:

There are four elements that must occur in good instruction:

An individual must see a relevant and/or engaging problem
The individual must have hope that they can solve the problem
The individual must begin to build strategies to solve the problem
The individual must have power to implement those strategies

Learning through interviews

2004-12-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

You know you always learn more when you go through the interview process. Well, I have had an opportunity to be on the other side of it. With the chance to be on a search committee and do the interviewing it has opened my eyes to so many different things that go into interviews and unique thoughts that I would never had imagined the interveiwers were noticing. It has especially been good for me since the organization is full or instructional designers. The position I helped interview for was not, but hearing insights into that field was very helpful. This probably sounds like one of those, oh duh situation where you're thinking everyone should know that, but it was a nice reminder for me. I certainly will approach applying for jobs and interviewing differently now. Here's a list of a few things I know I"ll work to improve now: resume (look and feel), correspondence-keeping it very professional, eye contact in face-to-face meetings, work on all my small fidgits and quirks, stop completing other people's sentences, make sure my resume and cover letter really match what I can do-not just what I have learned, make sure I have a breath mint before I go to the interview, oh I could go on with things I need to improve. All in all this has been a great experience for me.

Self-Organization/Netlogo

2004-12-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

Below are my screen shots from Netlogo.

Flocking:

Ants:

In the flocking simulation I found that the three turning sliders changed the dynamics of the flocking. And that the slider for minimum-separation changed if flocking would actually occur. Whether or not the birds flocked didn't interest me. What I loved was when flocking did happen, that the turning dynamics of them could change. This caught me by surprise. I hadn't thought of flocking in terms of straight lines or curves before. So, individually we all change slightly day by day (straight lines and curves). It may depend on how much sleep we received, how hungry we are, how much knowledge we have of the project we are working on, what personal things are going on in our lives, etc. The interesting thing about it is that with a different turn the dynamics of the flock or project changes.

The ants simulation showed that the higher the evaporation rate, the less number of ants that actually did any gathering of food. There were a lot of ants running around doing nothing. I expected that of the simulation. I found that interesting, since group projects can be like that sometime. There can be someone within a group that is there, but not doing anything. What ends up happening is the other group members, or ants, end up doing all of the work. It usually takes the ones doing the work longer than if all were tapping into the 'scent' of the work to complete a project.

With both of these simulations I found that the changes that could occur, probably do everyday in our social interactions, whether they are face-to-face or online. So how does that impact online self-organizing social systems? Well, when you look at the ants-if only a few of them are every doing any of the work, the colony will die out. For a social system to survive, people need to participate. It is great to have peripheral learners at all times, but eventually these people will take their places as full users. The OSLO group at Utah State University is working with MIT in their open courseware initiative. The social groups found on some of those courses started small. If they don't grow then the social part of learning there will die out and become quite useless. So how do the flocking birds fit in? They represent the changes within the dynamics of a social group. For self-organizing groups to continue, they need to have more people, as well as people who can add a twist to things. New blood is always good. And new blood with unique ideas is great.

I struggled at first with how the simulations fit into self-organizing systems. I hope that I've scratched the surface on how they work and what they can do for online social interaction.

More gaming-MMO2

2004-11-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

One more week of playing for class…that is playing the game Lineage. It is amazing how much is packed into this game. When you step aside from having some fun to analyze the games components and the interactions taking place there’s a lot going on. So is there learning occurring? What is true learning anyway? David Merrill states in his First Principle of Instruction five components of learning. Here they are:

1. Learning if facilitated when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems.
-solving the problem in progression, more complex as you go
2. Learning is facilitated when relevant previous experience is activated.
-have a foundation, take time to use the previous knowledge
3. Learning is facilitated when the instruction demonstrates what is to be learned rather than merely telling information about what is to be learned…
-media is used, examples of concepts and non-examples
4. Learning is facilitated when learners are required to use their knowledge or skill to solve problems.
-coaching and feedback with coaching gradually withdrawn, practice teachings
5. Learning is facilitated when learners are encouraged to integrate (transfer) the new knowledge or skill into their everyday life.
-Publicly demonstrate skill, explore new ways to use skill

So where are these found in the game Lineage? Here’s what I observed and experienced. First, engage in solving a real world problem. Well, I didn’t really find a ‘real’ world problem within this game. Since goblins and orcs don’t really exist, killing them didn’t show a real world problem per se, except that the concept of invaders is a real world problem. That can stem from insect invasion of your house and property to another country trying to overthrow another. So, yes the concept that there is an invasion of some kind applies to the real world. Learning can occur in this game as you learn to eradicate more evil invaders. The complexity and intensity of these invaders grows in certain areas of the game, so having the knowledge and skill to get rid of them is needed. It was fun for me to be able to progress in my levels of the game as I became more skilled and thought about how the basic concept of the game could be used to teach a real world concept.

Second, activate relevant previous experience. I don’t know how many people actually know how to kill goblins, deer, and boars, but the game gives you the opportunities to practice a little. Having an understanding of using a mouse and keyboard is previous knowledge needed to play the game. So that knowledge is harnessed with new knowledge added. I have played some games before, so I understood the concepts behind this game and what I should be doing (at least at beginner’s level). So my knowledge of using computer accessories to play helped me build on what I needed to do to play this game. Having something, anything to build on is helpful. This game also takes you through a little training course that helps. It is accessible at anytime, and I found myself going back to it frequently when I learned more about the game or couldn’t remember something. What previous knowledge can be applied to the invasion idea (bear with me on this)? Well, if you have an infestation of spiders what would you do? I would probably get some spider spray and try that. That is knowledge that comes from my parents. I’d try it and see if it worked.

Third, this just builds of my previous statement (building off of previous knowledge!) that learning occurs when the instruction is shown not just told. In the little training course in the game, there was some telling of how to do things, but there was also showing. The best kind of showing was in actually playing the game. It was great for me to watch other players and learn from them. I hooked up with some great characters. We joined together as a group and went out hunting. I learned so much from them. I watched and participated in the actions of fighting as well as trading, inviting to a group, and doing a little teaching of my own. It was great! It made the game so much more fun to play with others and interact with them. Most of the time we didn’t tell each other how to do something, we would demonstrate it and then if something was typed we told them. Back to the spider infestation…how did I know to get spider spray? I watched my parents use it when I was a child.
The fourth principle again builds off the third. Learning occurs when coaching is slowly taken away as the learner grows in knowledge. It also occurs when the learners actually use what they are learning. I went to lineage.com to read about the game before I started playing. It was nice to read the literature on the game, but it didn’t do anything compared to what I learned while actually playing the game. That simple act of doing instead of listening made a big difference for me. Spiders…how do I know how to use the spray? My parents would use it, and then allow me to spray with it. As I improved in my aim and control of the cans they would back off and let me do the work; coaching me through the process until I could do it on my own.
The fifth and last principle states that learners should use their knowledge and show others what they know. In Lineage I had the opportunity to coach some newbie in the game. It was so much fun, and I was so happy to help since I had received some great help from more experienced players. This again builds off the fourth principle; since I was coached I could then turn around and be the coach. I could transfer what I learned to others in the game. And with the spiders I can now teach my husband and others how to use spider spray when needed.
Now, is teaching and learning performed differently through this game than in a regular classroom? Unfortunately, I believe that they are. My experiences and observations of classrooms is that they are set more into the principle of telling not doing. Many teachers are now converting their teaching to use one of the above principles, but you need to incorporate all five to make the learning really meaningful. Why is this happening? I would think teachers are not being trained to incorporate the principles or can’t find ways to do so with the limits they are given. I think it will take some training of the teachers to do this. Lineage appears to support these principles, so learning can take place in the game. It would be great to see more games that take an approach to learning where fun is involved as well as teaching. I see gaming as a great tool for teaching, but I believe it needs to be used as all tools should be, at the appropriate time and place. Is there a point where the fun of gaming overrides the learning and teaching that can take place? The article, Killers have more Fun takes an interesting approach to this question. What are the consequences of players actions in a game? What about bugs in the software or servers? What about moral and ethical issues? This article is a little old, but it brings up questions that I think can still be found.
So why are people buying properties for virtual worlds? In the paper The Unreal Estate Boom, the author explains that people pay real money for virtual property. So there is now an economic state in these virtual worlds that is transferring to real world money. Are people learning about managing their property and accounts in these games? Can these acquired skills then be transferred into real-world opportunities? How is e-commerce being introduced into online gaming and where will that take us? Where are the lines drawn for virtual vs. real world? Will true learning take place with economic ideas-guidance, feedback, practice, presentation of information, timing of presentation? How can these be used in both worlds? There is a lot of learning that can take place out there…let’s go out and findit!

I had a great experience playing Lineage, and hope since I have an account for another month that I can continue playing and learning more about the game and the players found in it. This has really sparked an interest for me, so I am excited to play more. Also, I wanted to mention that Kami’s blog expresses so much of what I believe as well.

Lineage

2004-11-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

Now I know why people get so addicted to gaming, it really is fun. I have played games on the computer and on game systems, but never online like this. I had a blast! I must admit that I really suck, but I am having fun. After a long time I have reached level 10. My screen name is AvensGray (I'm sure I interacted with fellow class mates-especially RoeHaun, thanks for helping me). I signed on as a Knight (my class and race?) using a dagger, an pprentice knight sword, and a mace. I had a good orkish helmet, cloak, armor and leather boots to top off my look and protection. As you can imagine, I died A LOT. After dying 25 times I quit counting. Oh, and the most embarassing way I died was while others were trying to help me and they had to keep finding me again. I don't think I had a favorite creature, except the water snake women things in the dungeon were weird, can't remember what they were called. Looking forward to actually getting into the normal areas of the game, now that I feel a little bit more comfortable with it.

Synthesis 2

2004-11-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

Are people different online than they are offline? That seems like it should have a simple answer, but in today’s world it doesn’t. I found it interesting in the readings David gave my class Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community that what can be found in the offline world is found in the online world. Take a look at trolls, identity lying, identity of people by voice and language (or actions), etc. I was particularly interested in the section on trolls. In the example of someone on a community who started out being nice and following the rules suddenly turned on others and their posts. Was she (Ultimatego) a troll or just that way? The various reactions to Ultimatego ‘s malicious postings and know-it-all attitude were not far from what you’d see in the offline world as well. The range was from people who totally ignored her to those that would lash back. So why would anyone want to have two identities (an online and an offline)? There is always a chance that you can meet an online personality offline. Isn’t that deception? People are prosecuted by the law in the offline world for deception, and that is picking up in the online world as people start breaking the law and can be traced

One thing I have seen with that is identity theft. Hack into someone’s computer, add spyware, add bots, or send them a fake email saying they need to change something in their bank account, paypal, or ebay profile. Really anything that gets a user to go into a record where there is financial or identity information that can be stolen. Actually, I received one of those today on my email. ‘Update you paypal information, it is old’ is basically what it said. Yeah right, like I’m going to click on your link and do it from there. Besides, most credible places will address you by your first and last name (which this email did not). Is there anyway to know that someone can be trusted? Well, in online communities that usually comes with time and good responses. In a business, that comes with honest dealings. So trust and identity then become related. Back to my example of the update email, I can trust the paypal identity as long as I know it really comes from them. So, they have specified on their site what emails from them I can trust.

In the example given by Judith Donath in paper mentioned above, Ultimatego’s postings could have been trusted if she continued to be helpful and nice. She had handed out some great information and advice and was on her way to becoming trusted and having a good reputation, but then turned on the group. People respect good cooperation and she lost that. Her trust level was building even though her identity was unknown. Too bad she ruined that. This situation can be applied to many areas online (and offline for that). Since she was gaining trust and being respected, she needed to live up to the trust the community had in her. Her accountability for breaking that trust really ruined things because she had been trusted previously. Once trust is built and established, when that is broken the accountability stakes are high. Don’t people rant and rave when a trusted accountant runs off with money? There’s accountability in all aspects of communication and cooperation. It’s really the same concept of lying or being honest. You are accountable for your actions, so make sure you stay true to what you say and do and be honest in all those dealings. Too bad there are a lot of people who don’t live up to that “Golden Rule”.

IRCed online

2004-11-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

What a fun week this has been. Once I waded through the readings, I finally got to the fun part of talking with people. I must admit, that IRC is fun and informative at the same time. Quite the contrast to the MOO experience of last week.

So I was connected to IRCnet for a while. First off I visited the channel #Beginner to get started. That was a good experience. Everyone there was friendly and very helpful. I learned a lot about the interaction and shortcuts by observing and chatting. I was surprised how many people were logged on, but not participating. I guess like me, they were learing by observation too. I actually spent quite a bit of time here. It helped so much.

Next I visited the channel #Chatzone. That was a little slow. The conversation I had with one person was really hard to follow. Here I was also asked to join a small erotic chat. I declined graciously. My time in this channel was short-lived.

I also visited the channel #Worldchat. Wow, this was a fun place to be. So many people, and lots of conversation going on. Quickly I was asked to chat one-on-one with two different people. So we struck up conversations. Come to find out they are both in Australia. That was cool. One was 17 (which made me a tad nervous to talk to someone so young online), the other 23. We talked about Australia, traveling, hobbies, family, and chatting itself. It was great. I found myself talking to both of them for quite a while. When we finished we agreed to find each other on the #Worldchat channel again. This reminded my of my Father talking to people all over the world on his Ham Radio. As a child I always wanted to talk to people worldwide, but I just can't seem to make myself study to take the tests to move up a class. But this gave me the opportunity without needing the licence to speak.

I also googled for a channel on bipolar disorder. I found a great support group for it, a channel called #BiploarWorld. It was on webchat. This is a jewel channel. Oh, so many people who are dealing with a disorder that affects my life daily. It was interesting though, since I am not the one bipolar to enter this chatting session. Since it was a support group, I decided right off to act as though I was the person dealing with the disorder. It made me think back to the article Electropolis:
Communication and Community On Internet Relay Chat by Elizabeth M. Reid where someone had presented themselves as the opposite gender. When I read that I had thought, why would you do that? But once I was in this situation, I found that no one would really know I didn't suffer from the disorder, and I could intelligently chat with all these people like I did. It was fascinating. I had some great conversations with people in this channel. I think I'll revisit that one too. There was a person on the channel who was booted off because of the lanugage used. It was starting to offend others. It was nice to see that some 'policing' could take place.

Enough about my chatting on the channels, so what's the difference between IRC and MOO's? For me that is obvious from my experiences with both tools. I know each tool has a place and time to be used, but I see IRC so much more useful for educational and topical purposes. The MOO seemed like a glorified game where you could possibly find someone to chat with. It is the middle ground between games and chatting. My sister has been way into Everquest, and she loves the interactions in her game. She meets a lot of people and they work together to progress in the game. I think for the MOO it depends on what type of person you want to be...killer, socializer, etc. The interactions in LambdaMoo were very specific to your purpose for being there. And, for newbies, that interaction was hard. You had to prove that you could do things and know before you gained respect from others. The IRC didn't come with any notions of I'm better since I've been here more. (At least I encountered no instances of that). Everyone was very nice and happy to chat with me and others. I could tell people who frequented the different channels. It was obvious by the more intimate interactions that people knew each other from before. But that didn't stop them from accepting newbies in. The differences in interaction on these two platforms could be attributed to why the people are there. Everyone in the IRC is there to chat and socialize. Yes, some of them are just observing, but they are observing communication, not 'stuff in the room'. Reasons for being in LambdaMoo vary so much, that there can be conflict. IRC channels support social behavior. Each tool has a different purpose in my eyes.

Moo Y'all

2004-10-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

I have mixed feelings about this weeks assignment. I really enjoyed the time I spent in Zork playing. I remember my older brothers playing games like this when I was younder. I would watch them type in commands and then map out on paper where they were. It was fascinating. The hours of playing in Zork were fun. I found that for that sort of game I loved to explore the world and try to map out where I had been, like I had seen my brothers do. I found it hard to navigate the game without mapping.

LambdaMoo was a different story. I never had problems connecting with the server, but I had problems once inside the world. It took me quite a bit of time to grasp the commands. In the mean time the other people in the rooms with me laughed at me, jeered. At one time someone had mentioned that they were new (like me) and that they were a student. Someone who obviously was well known to the world said, "No one is holding class here. We're a small community that really resents untrained students being assigned to drop in." I wonder what kind of personality that person has. A killer perhaps? Or mabey a socializer that doesn't want to be interupted by newbies?! I don't know. I ran into a lot of rude people who talked back with bad language and then rooms where no one would communicate with me when it was obvious others were in the room. This was really frustrating. So, I found myself becoming more of an explorer than a socializer. I went through the gardens, the vineyard, many rooms in the house (setting off alarms too!), the forest, and even being taken into a mirror to a bar. It was fun reading details about things I found. There was more, but I won't bore you readers with the details of my explorations. I can see why somepeople don't socialize.

The social interaction in the MOO was interesting. I guess I need to spend copious amounts of time in it to really be appreciated by the other people and to begin to understand it more. Right now I am having a hard time seeing the benefits of the social interaction. Most of the people talking in the rooms I visited seemed to be talking in short hand. Not full sentences that everyone could understand. Mabey that comes with a lot more experience? The articles I read got me really excited about the possibilities for communication in a MOO. Now that I've been in one I don't share that same excitement as I did. What are some good ways to interact in the MOO that I should have employeed?

Synthesis I-Reputation and Trust

2004-10-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Reputation, trust, coopertaion, and incentives: there are many ways to build these up, and just one bad stroke can tear them down quickly.

Buying more and more online is creeping into my life. Until just the last 6 months or so I have never thought of problems with online purchasing like fraudulent dealings. Most of my concerns have stemmed from any paranoia about identity theft. In my online dealings, mostly ebay and Amazon.com, I have found that reputation and trust play very large roles in what I feel safe doing. Incentives I find to purchase online fall into cheaper items that come right to my doorstep. I usually have to wait a few days before they arrive, but Amazon.com offers free shipping for purchases over a certain amount, and that adds to the incentive. It hasn't ever been hard to purchase from Amazon.com because the company has a good reputation and I trust them.

On ebay, looking at the reputation system there (the feedback) is important to me as well. I won't even bid on an item if there is too much negative feedback. I don't even want to take the risk. I'd end up being the one in every hundred that has a problem, that's just my luck. Resnick and Zeckhauser's articles on ebay's reputation system got me thinking about why I look at feedback and what it really means to me, as well as the limitations and resources it has. I look at feedback to find out if the person's reputation is good so I can trust them. It would be nice to be able to go back in and change a negative feedback if the deal was fixed though. Feedback is so important to the dealings on ebay, why not leave some?

I love seraching ebay and my itch to look on ebay overcame me so I went searching for Christmas presents. In doing so I paid much more attention to the feedback people had left and even ran across an auction where the seller asked specifically for the buyer to please leave feedback when the auction was finished. He said that feedback created trust. The articles that mentioned ebay and its reputation system said that even though many people don't leave feedback, that the systems still gives aid. So why wouldn't you leave feedback? That was something I just didn't understand when I read that. Leaving negative feedback for someone who has ripped you off or done a bad deal seems logical to me. But along with that if you find a great seller or buyer you want people to know that you trust them and would recommend others do the same. That is where cooperation steps into the picture. Small acts of leaving feedback help in online cooperation. Once you've posted your thoughts they really are available to the whole world. Kollock mentioned that it is a risk to go online and purchase or have dealings with others. Reputation online can say a lot, just like offline reputation is important. It seems that fooling someone offline can be done just as easily online. They are just different. The convenience of fraudulency online probably lures more people into doing the scandles than if offline. It can take a lot more work to pull something on someone offline. This come mostly from personal experience, but it seems that offline people usually deal with stores or big corporations more than individuals somewhere out in cyberspace. So reputation is important to know that one person. People will always take a risk in dealing with others, online or off. So having that support of believing that others have had good dealings if comforting.

Reputation and trust incentives are in and of themselves in that they are necessary for anyone to feel comfortable in an exchange, whether online or offline. They are what can make a deal smooth or not. With that said, everyone must start somewhere to build their reputation. So trusting someone with small if any reputation is a risk. But trusting someone with a good reputation also is a risk. You never really know when someone might go bad.

Clarifying face to face class meeting

2004-10-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

I need to clarify what I had written in a previous post. David had made a comment to me that my question showed, "a pretty pervasive bias toward knowing "like we do offline", and that knowing should always be like that. I think we should recognize the legitimacy of completely online relationships...". After reading his comment I realized that I had not written or conveyed in my writing very well what I was really thinking. I do that so much. So, I am trying to redeem myself in some ways because I love online learning and interactions, and I guess I don't want people who read my blog to think that I believe online interactions and learning should be like face-to-face. I realize it is different, and I actually appreciate the difference. In my personal experience with online vs. face-to-face I have noticed though that the online relationship changes some once you've met face-to-face. That change usually isn't bad.

So back to my original post about the meeting I had with my class. I posed the question at the end of "What could I have done online more to get to know these people better?" Reading over this again I realize this question doesn't really reflect what I was thinking. What I was trying so hard to say in my ramble of a post was what are good practices online to get to know someone so you feel that you have a good relationhip with them?

FanFiction

2004-10-17T19:15:00.001-07:00

First I want to say how excited I have been about Fanfiction. This site has so much potential. It was sometimes hard to pull myself away from reading so many great writings. I found that just like gaming this site can capture you and keep a tight hold for a long time.

Authors followed:
1. The Village Girl:This author wrote based on the movie The Village. I read the story titled The Attack. I really enjoyed the realism the author inserted into the scene and the thoughts of the characters.
2. Dolce Notte:This author wrote off of the movie The Prince of Egypt. I read the story titled Side By Side. The story is great because it focuses on societal issues of the past that still exist today.
3. Galathilion:This author wrote from several ideas. It is interesting because it was an assignment for school. It incorporates a couple of books and a holiday. The stories title is An Elven Christmas. For the restrictions set on the writer from the teacher, the creativity in the writing is wonderful. This is the author I followed from the Terry Brooks area, and I found most of the writing to be spectactular.

My writing:
Just as a disclaimer for my writing, I do not consider myself a creative writer in any way. It has been a long time since I wrote something like this, so I chose to write a small poem. I really wish fanfiction were active when I was in Junior High and High School. It could have helped me so much with my writing. I based my poem off of Terry Brooks Sword of Shannara books. The poem is titled Bremen.

FanFiction and Instruction
It was so great to browse through this site. I am shocked and amazed at the number of writings found here. Wow! I can't believe so many people like to write. Creative writing is not my favorite tool for expression, so naturally I struggled a lot in school when I was required to do so. How helpfuln this site would have been to me, and many other students like me, for ways to improve writing. Just for the reasons of having a pen name that could hide my real identity and to receive feedback from a large variety of people would have been wonderful. I see the potential this has today in aiding people with their writing. Especially those people who are learning English (or another language).

Fanfiction appears to be so popular for many reasons: 1)it is free 2)easy to use 3)pen names to hide real identity 4)constructive feedback allowed & found frequently 5)fun, fun, and more fun and finally 6)a large audience. The site is not scary to a new writer. That alone makes writing easier. I think that a lot of people will shy away from anything where they believe they won't at least progress and improve what they are doing in some way. Fanfiction is set up to allow for progression and improvement. That all depends on the author of course (they need to be writing a lot to improve and get feedback).

So how can the above reasons for Fanfictions popularity be harnessed for instructional purposes? A great example can be found in one of the authors I followed (Galathilion). This author was asked to write something for a class. So it was written and then posted on fanfiction. What a great way for a student to receive feedback before an assignment is turned in! Not knowing an author's real identity can give a lot of power to the author. For so many students that can be the most important part. Receiving constructive feedback is important when writing, but along with that for instruction, being able to send students off to fanfiction to just read different writing on a subject they love has a lot of power too. Students can then post feedback without ever needing to write their own stories. A lot can be learned in just reading others works. Teachers can always ask that the work the student reads be turned in so the teacher can give their feedback to the student as to whether what they are reading adheres to certain rules or whatever. The point is, feedback and learning can be found and harnessed in many ways through this site. For many students just the fact that it is fun to read about a movie you love, a book that is great, or a television series you enjoy can make fanfiction more fun and less school (although they will learn). It is a great way to make learning so fun.

Another thought I had about this site is the learning theory it follows (although it may not have been set up with one in mind). It seems to me, and I'd love to hear what others think on this, that Fanfiction is set up like Constructivism...start your student in one spot as a guide and then let them take off from there and direct themselves with constant feedback and collaboration. Am I totally off with this idea?

Here's just a little add on I am happy I can do today (October 18th). I have received feedback from my poem on fanfiction. I must admit I was quite shocked by them. They were both very positive and truly make me feel like I should write some more. This is a very unexpected feeling for me, since creative writing is not my thing and I hadn't put a lot of effort into writing some masterpiece poem. But having other people tell me they liked what I've written has brightened my day and given me a little more inspiration. I can see now how much more power positive feedback can be for a writer.

Face to face with my online class

2004-10-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight I spent dinner with a portion of my Understanding Online Interaction class. It is so amazing to me how different interactions take place in face to face environments versus online. For the rest of the semester I will now read my classmates postings with a different perspective. I've met most of them and have a little bit of knowledge about them as people rather than just online students. I had wondered before dinner if this would 'taint' or change any interactions we had online or not. But then I realized that most of these people already knew each other. So their online perspectives have already been different than mine. I guess I'm not sure how to explain this, but communicating 'outside of school' has always opened up different doors for me. I'll admit that there are opportunities for me to interact with these people away from 'school' per say, but I have not taken the opportunities to do so. In the end it really is my own fault for not taking the time to get to know them better away from class. All in all it was a great experience. I am just wondering what could I have done online more to get to know these people better?

EduBlogging-blogging part two

2004-10-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

This week has been quite interesting. Once again I am learning more and more, and I am really enjoying it. David introduced the class to Sharp Reader, a RSS/Agregator. I was struggling with keeping track of my classmates’ blogs, but this software allows me to read them easily. The blogs I have followed this week for my assignment will definitely be ones to follow. Here are the topics I find interesting and that came up in the blogs I browsed.

Topics of interests:
• Learning Management Systems-this area seems to have some controversial aspects and I want to hear the whole story before I have a good idea of what is good for education and what is not.
• Distance Education and E-learning-I am fascinated with distance education and e-learning. There is so much within this area that I just can’t seem to get enough, and I’m always finding new resources, like the link from Dorothy Little’s blog to E-learning guru, a great blog full of resources.
• Educational websites and resources-This almost falls under the previous topic, but I found that some educational websites are good and some are not.

Here are the five blogs I followed this week:
1. EdTechPost:It interests me because my masters degree will be in Educational Technology, so I am always on the lookout for information from people who work in this area and have an interest in it too.
2. Educational Technology:I found this one from this blog:Abject Learning. I love that a blog that may not actually have a posting that interests me can have a link to a post that does interest me.
3. EduResources Weblog-Higher Education Resources Online:This website has some great references for higher education and elearning.
4. Stephen’s Web:
I am now quite fascinated by Stephen after hearing him speak at the IT Institute. The things he had to say have made me interested in what he shares all the time.
5. EduBlog Quest:I was so excited to find an educational blog where the K-12 realm was talked about. Although I have an interest there, I don't find much information or even work a lot right now with K-12 resources. So it was fun to find this.

So, educational blogging introduced me to a new world of education. I think the blog that helped me see how effective and fun technology can be for education was the fifth one I followed (which by the way wasn't really much for recent entries). It helped me see that using technology really can be as much fun as I believe it is. Stephen's blog/site, helped me to see the potential blogging and other technology can have on education. It took me a while to get away from it. I think that using new forms of fun and easy technology makes educational use of it so interesting and possible. Although many of the younger generations of students are comfortable with technology, I have learned many times the KISS idea: Keep It Simple Stupid. Less is more seems to be a good concept for learning and education, especially when technology is involved.

I spent 1.5 hours browsing the list of edubloggers and 4 hours tracking my list of blogs.

Blog list

2004-10-06T23:28:00.000-07:00

In browsing through some EduBloggers tonight I found a fabulous blog by Anne Davis about ways to use blogs in education. It is a great list that anyone interested in education and blogs should look at.

Reading others blogs

2004-10-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

My professor, David Wiley, asked me a question back in one of his comments to my blog (oh one way far back before I posted the same blog about 25 times!!) Anyway, he wanted to know how much value I was finding in reading other people's blogs. So to answer that question more fully, I would say that finding blogs with subjects that I am interested in adds a lot of value to my experiences (and especially for the class he is teaching, since I am being introduced and using blogs and other online communication tools.) It is a great educational experience to read from bloggers who have been blogging for quite some time and are part of the culture of blogging. There is a lot of information that can be gleaned from others. Although some of the blogs I tracked for my assignment last week were not necessarily educational in nature, I have found that even just reading the blogs of my peers (well, I like to think they are my peers-most of them are PhD students, which is a level much higher than I am at right now) is educational and furthers my knowledge. I will never know it all, so what I can learn from others is always valuable to me (as long as they are credible). That is something you really have to watch out for. But in the end, you can always learn more from others. That's one reason why I see blogs and other online communication such a great network of knowledge. It is amazing how far reaching it is. And, I'm sure I will have my eyes opened even more as the semester rolls on. I think I am only scratching the surface on all of this.

Looks like technical difficulties

2004-10-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

Well, looks like my Blog Hopping post shouldn't be missed! Wow. Oh well. I shouldn't leave writing my blog until Monday morning. Wiley shouldn't have a hard time finding my entry-heehee. Just for some clarification, my post was posting. So after trying many times I opened another brower and it finally posted my blog, and posted my blog, and posted my blog. I wish I had had the feedback from blogger saying it was posting my post even though nothing happened in my window and when I opened up my blog and refreshed it nothing changed either. Now I know.

Thanks for the help Bekir, I have successfully taken off all the extra postings.

Blog Hopping

2004-10-04T05:12:00.005-07:00

Ok, so another week gone by and I have been looking at blogs. Below are the five I have followed this week. Some of them have been a little boring because the people only posted a few times, but others have been actively posting everyday. It is interesting to see that those who post everyday seem to use their blogs as a way to vent or reflect on what is happening in their lives, at least for the personal blogs. The Blogging of the President has been quite an interesting one too. It appears that the people posting there are writing a little more formal, at least with less explitives involved. Each personal blogger seems to be adding whatever options of their personality there are to their blogs. Images and animated images were prevelant too. I found it amazing that I could go in and read what people had to say and then feel so connected to them. It made me want to go back everyday and read more, which made those who posted irregularly disappointing. I also found myself going through their archives and reading past the week I started in on their conversations. I was expecting to be so interested in what they were feeling and had to say. There is definitely power to blogs. I can see a certain culture, or at least a genre, that exists with them. I liked this blog from a fellow classmate Nomadic Thoughts. It seems to be along the lines of freedom of speech and mind. The personal blogs I read, especially Jenn's Ramblings, left you feeling so sad for the person writing but at the same time so enlightenend to know how she was feeling. Sort of relieved to know that she was expressing her true feelings and that she would actually do that with total strangers. The Blogging for the President: 2004 kept me on my toes and interested in what people have to say about the election this year. It was fun to read a blog that was more of a community area to post your insights and feelings. When I first started talking to family and friends about blogs and what a great tool they were, most of them asked what a blog was. They didn't know. At first I would explain they were like an online journal, but now after following these and searching around and looking at so many others, I am finding they are more than that. They are communication devices, they are journals, they are expressions of life and society, and they are fuel for online collaboration and gossip. It makes me feel like I should be searching for more and posting it to my blog. I guess I don't want to become someone who posts every so often just because I have a blog. I want to see if my blog can really add value to society. Anyway, back to my assignment for class. I did find that the most common thing among the blogs was structure. The format of a blog, giving you the most recent posting first was great. It made navigation for the blogs easy. I guess in the end I can say I have learned from blogging and reading these blogs. Assuming I go looking for blogs that are more "academic" in nature I could augment my education with some of them or at least read what others think and say.

Here are the blogs I followed.
1. Jenn's Ramblings
2. A Glimpse of the Vaguely Demented
3. weet_virginia's: welcome to my very strange mind
4. The Blogging of the President: 2004 ...notes on the transformation
5. Flit about in the woods like a faerie

I spent 4 hours reading blogs and creating my own.

Thread Mini-Analysis

2004-09-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

So this week in David's class I have been pondering over his question posted, "What are the economics underlying voluntary online collaboration and support?" I have struggled quite a bit with this question, reading other students posts and thinking some more. The biggest problem I have had is with the word economics. The word alturistic came up in the questions, and students have wondered if that even exists. But I want to know what voluntary communication and collaboration has to do with economics? Mabey I just have the wrong definition of economics, Dictonary.com says economics is, "The social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and with the theory and management of economies or economic systems." I guess I view this having mostly to do with money, monetary gain, etc. I had been searching for a word that might work better than economics, but I haven't found one yet. Anyway, I posted my question and since I waited till Sunday I probably won't get feedback on it (I just went back to the class site and found a direct response to my question-it was helpful-thanks!). Oh well. I probably just have a really narrow view of online communication/collaboration (which is one reason I am taking Wiley's class, to gain more knowledge and broaden my horizons in this area), but I suppose I WANT to believe that people communicate online because they want to better themselves and they want to help people. After reading John Dehlin's blog though, I am finding that a lot of people have other factors motiviting them. Check out his blog, it was great! John Dehlin's blog.

Now to my assignment...below is the url to the thread I looked over at Google Groups.

ADHD Therapy-Newsgroup thread.

This is in misc.education.home-school.misc newsgroup. The question asked was ADHD Therapy - no drugs/Experience anyone?

The woman posting this question had found out that her son has ADHD and is asking what others have done to treat it? Medications? Therapy? Both? What worked? What about school-should she consider homeschooling? She was concerned over losing her son through side affects of medication and possibly not treating him properly if she didn't use it. The people who responded to her inquiry were great at creating a discussion on the topic. They warned her of websites with false information, there was concern over pharmaceutical companies involved too much with alternative help, someone posted these ideas to try before medication:
1) regular exercise
2) consistent sleep schedule
3) tracking foods eaten and behavior, and doing an elimination test on
anything which seemed to be problematic (for him, it was anything
artificially colored).
4) consistent responses to behaviors by the parents and teachers (hard!),
Links to websites for more information were given, there were posts made to just add support, some people added information about the research they had been doing on ADHD and other diseases that are similar as well as ideas to try (like cutting out gluten), one woman suggested some books to read, the main topic branched into areas like schooling, activities, feeding, and parenting, and finally the woman who made the initial question was actively involved in responding. She took the time and effort to thank people for the information they gave to her. It was a very interesting thread. This thread does what Kollock and Smith say makes a good group, good cooperation and no flaming (well at least not too much). Although there were only 48 posts to this question, the substance found in them was great!

So why did these people respond to the question posed? Is there any gain for them in posting? In thinking on this, I ask myself, why would I post a response or give information to someone who has asked a question? If I don't know anything about what they are asking I'll just be a peripheral learner (lurkers or free-riders) and read what others say. But like Eric Raymond said in The Cathedral and the Bazaar "To solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that interests you." I think that applies here. If I were not interested in the situation, I wouldn't take the time to add to the discussion. Why waste my time and energy on something that is boring or dull to me? My motivation behind communicating and collaborating online begins with my interests and selfish learning. I want to see what others have to say, I want opinions and thoughts beyond my own so I can learn and grow. But when I find people who are asking questions or commenting on something I know about and I can share information with them in hope that what I share will be enlightening, helpful, useful, etc. I will switch out of me-mode and give my thoughts.

Ok, so back to the Google Groups posting. These people appear to participate in this thread for a few reasons:

1. To provide correct and reputable information/Squash misinformation (Teach & Inform).
Many of the posts included websites, book titles, and personal information about ADHD and people who are already dealing with it. These posts provided correct information to answer the questions posed by the initial question. Since many of them are personally dealing with the disease (either themselves or through watching others) they want to make sure that when someone else starts out with coping and treatment that they don't go blindly into it.
2. Support (Help Others).
No one should believe they are the only one dealing with a disease. Many posts included personal accounts as well the reassurance that what the parent was dealing with is truly a disease and did not come about because of bad parenting. Like what teacherDeb said, "...please PLEASE do not fall into the trap that people like
Catherine Woodgold and others will try to set for you, in trying to
make you think it is your fault your child behaves the way he or she
does...". This also falls into correct and reputable information. People who deal with the disease daily have a different perspective than those who just study it.
3. Suggestions (Discussion).
There was a lot of discussion about areas related to the the topic of ADHD, from schooling a child with ADHD to medication, anger, discipline, ways to treat without medication, websites to go to, and personal opinions. Some of them even metioned that the information in the posts were good suggestions. There was a tangent on homeschooling and suggestions with it, but the question was asked if homeschooling was a good choice for a child with ADHD. These posts were a little inflamed, but provided good suggestions on doing research about homeschooling. Mostly the responders suggested keeping the idea open and not being close minded about the idea.

This was a great thread to read and analyze.

Google Groups

2004-09-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

So this week I have been introduced to Google Groups. Wow, what a fascinating and big archive and discussion group. The archive was great. I liked that when I searched for something relevant groups were displayed. It was strange though that some groups I did go to had postings that seemed quite unrelated to the group. It was fun and heart wrenching at the same time to go and read postings in it. I couldn't believe how far back the archive went. I was finding postings as far back as 1998. I read some postings relating to 9/11 in the United States. I was so amazed that people were 'watching' the news and then going to Google Groups to post what was going on! I was just reading news that day. I found myself searching and reading way more than posting. It wasn't until this weekend that I realized for my class I needed to do some postings. Oops. Oh well, at least I did some postings. It probably isn't exactly what my professor had in mind (I think he wanted a much more interactive experience with the other people posting).

It struck me that many of the people who use these discussion use them constantly. They are sometimes their sole support and sometimes an addiction? I can easily see how surfing the discussions and posting could be addicting. Sort of like ebay? Anyway, I found myself searching for just about everything I am interested in to news items old and new. There were many postings I read that needed to be taken with a grain of salt. From some of the postings I found, many people use these groups to rant and rave. I must admit I posted on a discussion that irritated me to no end, but I don't think I ranted too much. At least my language was clean! Here's that group:
Depression without drugs. It wasn't the most active group when I posted, but I did get someone responding to my posting with a great link to some good information. This discussion started with some guy saying that bipolar disorder is just in people's heads and that they don't need medication for it. Well, since my husband is bipolar I had a couple of things to say about that. All of the other people who had and did write in pretty much had the same feeling I did. I just can't believe that he would post something on a discussion board for support to try and sell some hoaky stuff to help people with real problems.

Here's another link to a discussion I popped in on. I hope that I get some feedback: Unable to work. In this discussion a guy was looking for some support with his alcohol and depression/anxiety. I hope that what I had to say helps. the other posts seemed to help him since he wrote back to them earlier in the week.

I did post a question that I REALLY want feedback on in regard to my degree, so hopefully someone will write back with some intelligent information for me. Here's the url: Distance degree.

I spent 2 hrs. 35 min. in the archive and 3 hrs. 15 min. in active discussions.

Internet Personal History

2004-09-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

I began really using the tools of the internet my first year of college. I had used computers ever since elementary school but only for word processing needs (and that began using the DOS systems) or learning games. Of course, at that time the first desktop workstations were just coming into use and the domain naming system had just been introduced. During junior high and high school I used computers still for word processing and a little bit of searching, but nothing that really stands out in my memory.

In my first year of college I was introduced to email. It was great. I could eaily and very cheaply communicate with my friends who had moved to go to school at other universities. Of course, I could only access this from the school computers. I didn't have that access at home yet. And nbeknown to me, there was a lot going on with the uinternet at that time. After I was married I moved to Logan, Utah where I really began to dig into school and I learned so much more about computers and the internet. From this time until graduation in 2000 I was sending and receiving emails and learning more about how search engines on the world wide web worked. My husband and sister introduced me to online gaming. Although I did not actually go in and do any of this, I watched them participate in some games.

It wasn't until after graduation that I used the internet for more than email and searches. With a need to learn more about some health issues, I joined a discussion group that would email responses to me. I could then go into the group and post my own response. It was great. There was a lot of relevant information and some that wasn't interesting to me. But it opened up a little network that I need at the time. In my new job I was designing and updating a web page, so I learned some html and would save the pages I created to the server provided. I also was ftping information (text and images) to a company that made postcards. I guess I was learning most of this as I went. I hadn't every had a class that taught me about the internet.

In 2003 I went back to school to work on a masters degree. This degree would require me to take classes at a distance. So I learned how to use a learning managment system called webct so I could upload assignments, email within the class, and read & post to the discussion board. This opened up a big network of people and information to me. Here I was learning from people I hadn't met or had only met once. Then, with the acquisition of a new job I was once again using ftp at work, along with email.

It wasn't until half way through this degree (in 2004) that I learned about 'social software'. What was that? Oh yeah, a term I han't really heard before, but one that is beginning to really fascinate me. In a workshop I learned about instant messaging, why hadn't I heard of this before? Oh I had seen icons for it, but never asked anyone how to use it or tried it on my own. But wow, what a great tool for communication. My networking literacy was beginning to grow. In the same class I learned about wikis and blogging. Oh my, I feel like I'm really behind. I should have learned about these tools when they first came into existence: the 1990's. I am now interacting with people who have been using and studying this idea of 'social software' for some time now. I have some catching up to do, but I'm excited to do it. For example, in my current class I am learning more about the history of the internet. It is amazing how much was going on around me that I was unaware of. I had no idea the internet had been used for so long. So much happened with it before I was even born.

So for now, I can look back and see how important the internet has become for me. In my professional and personal life. Using the technology is like an itch I can't every stop. I find myself checking my email to see if anyone has written to me. I want my family to all have an IM address so we can talk easier and I am always interested in what new technology is coming out. I know I still have a lot to learn, but with such a changing area there always will be.

Hello World!

2004-09-03T01:59:00.000-07:00

Hello World!!

IT Institute 2004

2004-09-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

I have never attended the IT Institute at Utah State University, but it has been well worth my time. I have had the opportunity to hear from many people in and outside the field. It is great to hear how Instructional Technology applies to so many different areas of education and the corporate world. There's one more day, and it promises to be just as good as the first two. Now, all I need to do is jump into my school work and keep up with the issues and ideas I've learned about at the Institute. Oh, and hopefully be able to spread what I've learned.

All said and done...

2004-08-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

It is Friday and I have now turned in all of my work for the Summer Semester that can be done right now. There are still some questions floating around about one class, but the major stress is over. Yeah!!!! I have learned a lot this semester. It has been rough, but worth the long haul. My new job as Project Manager for the Digital Library is going well. It has been just a week, but I am already learning a lot and starting to think through the work flow of this department. Since we are still so new, there is a large amount of work to be done. I hope to be able to apply the concepts and tools I have learned in the last few months and really the last year to my current job and future employment.
-Heather

The aftermath...

2004-07-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well, class is officially over but there is still a lot of work to do. I have been quite pleased with what I learned over the last week. It was enjoyable and informative. It's great when those two coincide. I really enjoyed learning about Camtesia and RoboDemo. They are great tools. Ellie and I ventured to a movie Friday night to let our brains rest and when it was all said and done we were still analyzing the movie like we were still in class. I guess that's ok, sometimes. I feel charged up and ready to continue learning and growing within the field of Instructional Design and in Distance Education.
-Heather

Learning about Tools

2004-07-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it is day three of INST 6750 with Sandie Waters. It has been going well. We have discussed a lot of issues and have learned about some great tools. I have really liked all the tools we've talked about. I guess the ones that I have really liked and would be is Instant Messaging (IM) and Breeze in PowerPoint. I love the tasks you can handle with IM. It is dynamic and fast paced, but a great way to collaborate and discuss. Eddie Loo spoke to us this morning about Macromedia Breeze and using it for audio in PowerPoint. Oh, that was great! It was so cool to see and hear presentations by people overseas from the United States. I can see the potential this tool has for Distance Education, especially International Education.
-Heather

Testing, testing, 1,2,3...

2004-07-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a link in a blog: Instructional Technology Department/USU

INST 6750 with Dave Wiley

2004-07-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

I am here in class learning how to use blogs and setting up my own. This is my first experience with a blog. How fun!