"Digital Media Grad Class Week 3--Nings & Wikis"

Well this week we looked at nings and wikis, collaborative web 2.0 apps that have taken root and are flourishing madly. As usual my thoughts drift toward "this is not a viable tool" but then my mind opens to the things I can actually do with these apps. This class is expanding my view of the web and the apps that make it what it is evolving into. This is the purpose of education of to me: allowing a student a comfort zone to learn and make mistakes and to challenge their existing beliefs. Well, my beliefs are being challenged and examined and I am happy to say I am not as static as I thought.

Here are two examples of how I visualze using these apps in the future with my students.

I can see the students creating a website using a Wiki that functions as a discussion board for different subjects from class. As far as a Ning I can visualize an area where students build a more interactive environment around a subject where they can learn the art of etiquette and the social subtle nuances of communication.

"Digital Media Grad Class Week 2--Blogs & Wikis"

This week we spent time looking over Blogs and Wikis. I am actually expanding my thoughts on these two areas. My initial thoughts were that these were a difficult and practically non-useful thing for students to engage in, but being relatively open-minded, I am beginning to see the creative way that these can impact my students in my class. I find that wikis are a great way to allow students to explore open software, engage in community collaboration, generate respect for other people's ideas (especially ideas different from your own), and how to really examine the intellectual property debate as well as to understand the idea of public domain. Blogs can be useful as a way for students to record their ideas and to compare/contrast them with others as well as begin to delve into the area of critical thinking that is beneficial to them as adults and humans.

The challenge for me is to present the usefulness of these tools to my administrator and the school board as a valid way for students to learn and grow. My school's policy prohibits the use of these two tools and prohibits students from publishing anything online. So I need to build a bridge between this mindset and the one that encourages the growth of student ability and knowledge through Read/Write web collaboration.

Digital Media Grad Class Week 1--My Question

I started a new class this week called Digital Media. It is a class that encompasses several apps of Web 2.0 especially blogging, Wikis, podcasts, nings, etc.. The question I need to ask myself each week is how I can apply what was discussed/examined in class to my life in and/or out of the classroom.

This first week presented an overview of the class as well as provided some time to explore the social network created for this grad class. http://cedu534-k-1008.ning.com/

Being that it is the first week I really don't have much substance to ponder, nor is there any real connection to my life. Yet! That is an important three letter word!

So, I use this first post to pose questions I ask myself.

Do we really need to stay connected to the world all the time? Is it necessary to use technology, as it exists today, to always "be in touch"? Has humanity come to such a point that solitude begins to evaporate and people can no longer seek solice in " being alone" for a period of time? Do we really need to bring our laptops on vacation? Can't we turn off our cell phones for a week? Do we need to be followed with Twitter? Does it really matter that someone responds to thoughts, opinions, and beliefs through blogging? How important is it to constantly need reinforcement through social interaction and connectivity? Have people gotten to a point where their psyche is is dependent on others and their affirmations?

Now having posed those questions, I know and understand we are social creatures and NEED the comfort, support, and interaction of others in order to really "be human". But, are we losing the ability for an internal locus of control through technology and the spores it ejects? If we are who we are from what we have, then what happens when we don't have? If we are who we are through the bolsterings of others, then what happens when those others are gone? If we are who we are by what we do, what happens when we don't do that anymore?

Now, it will be interesting if anyone responds to my musings. If you do, great. If you don't, well, perhaps you are taking some of the questions I have posed and are digesting them for a bit. Then again, perhaps you are simply not responding because you are not bolstering my need to see if people really care about what I think. Then I am the one left wondering!