Tech Summit 2006
From the presentation this morning, what do you see as the possible applications of social computing tools in your instruction? What activities would you like to be able to do online that you can’t do now? What challenges do you see in using some of these new tools in your instruction?
Good session
Barbara
9 Jun 06 at 10:52 am
Very interesting session, I now know of more blogs besides wine tasting!
KM
9 Jun 06 at 10:52 am
Thanks for the interesting and helpful ideas and tips regarding social collaboration!
P.S.
9 Jun 06 at 10:53 am
Finally! I know what a blog is. I will need to work on it a great deal more, but it may be possible to make it work with Accounting. If nothing else, the students can find that other students all over dislike accounting as much as they do. Many thanks.
Kathy Lukcso
9 Jun 06 at 10:53 am
I teach sociology. I would like to have my students experience “blogworld,” not just talk about it. Virtual society is growing and students need to be aware of the implications.
Deb
9 Jun 06 at 10:53 am
I really learned so much about this style of communication. It is used so widely by the public, yet I was totally unaware. Thank you for opening up a whole new world to me.
You did an excellent job presenting an overview that I understand quite clearly.
P.Smith
9 Jun 06 at 10:54 am
This was interesting because at least now I know what blogging is. At this point I am not sure that I would use it in my classrooms. I don’t see that much benefit to using it with math students, but at least now I have enough knowledge about blogging to think about it.
D
9 Jun 06 at 10:54 am
I can see much more relevance for the “millenials” coming up now, than for my generation. Engagement is the concept that comes to mind. The downside is engagement in a unidimensional environment that becomes a substitute for real human interaction.
Good job on a difficult topic.
Charlie
9 Jun 06 at 10:54 am
The use of the blog is an interesting idea, but most teachers are afraid to let go of the “control”; me included. However, with that said, sometimes it is the free exploration that sharpens the learners ability to learn. So the dilemma is how free can we be, and how prepared must the instructor be to make this work in education/critical thinking acquisition.
tt
9 Jun 06 at 10:55 am
HI, Heather, this informative as my knowledge of blogging was limited and negatve in nature. Thanks and my best.
Sherlyn
9 Jun 06 at 10:55 am
Now I know what my kids are up to! Thanks.
Catherine
9 Jun 06 at 1:04 pm
I will explore these possibilities more to see how they may be used.
K7
9 Jun 06 at 1:04 pm
Have been teaching “filtering” web sites for three years, so this was interesting.
CT
9 Jun 06 at 1:04 pm
It’s still all shovelware to me. It’s value it to keep up with what the kids are doing.
Ted Woods
9 Jun 06 at 1:05 pm
Thanks for an informative session.
Ruth Greene
9 Jun 06 at 1:05 pm
I see applications for AFTER class discussion via blogs/wikis/or discussion boards. My website (set up through bluehost) has tools I am working to learn so that some of my most opinionated and knowledgeable students can keep the conversation going.
Kimberly
9 Jun 06 at 1:05 pm
Thanks, Heather, for an informative workshop.
I understand how creating an authentic audience for students really improves communication. Using blogs may be an improvement to threaded discussions in Bb.
I’d like to think through how to use RSS aggregators for student use during a semester.
Karen
9 Jun 06 at 1:06 pm
I know much more about blogging and how to find them. Thanks!
Miss Librarian
9 Jun 06 at 1:07 pm
I would most likely use the RSS agrigators to search for information to generate topics for discussion in my classes. I would recommend that my students use the blog searches to search for suggestions for places to find good information. But, the challenge I see in using the tools is that RSS feeds and blogs will become yet one more source of information that my students and I will not have time to use or students may come to rely on yet another bad source of information.
Leslie Norris
9 Jun 06 at 1:08 pm
Blogging appears to be great for discusions in disciplines that are suitable for text, but not as suitable for symbol-intensive disciplines such as mathematics. Students/ teachers could certainly discuss concepts or procedures, but I think this would be confusing to students without the benefit of seeing/entering the symbols. I don’t see how opinions/feelings about a math process/ concept would be of much use since there is little/no room for how one feels about a math process. I need to know/see more…
Joe
9 Jun 06 at 1:10 pm
It would have been difficult to find anyone who knew less about this stuff than I. This was very interesting. I’m glad to know this stuff is out there, however I am mystified why all of a sudden everyone has such a need to share personnal information and opinions. I think it is fine and good to have opinions, I am just unclear why it is so important to put all of them out for the masses. Wonder what’s happening to people’s social and verbal skills?????
vmckay
9 Jun 06 at 1:10 pm
vmckay: I’m not sure it’s a new thing. One way of looking at it is sharing information and opinions—another perspective is that people are reaching out to make connections with others. For some people, the local community is important, for others who have not found people with “similar interests” in their local community, these tools offer an opportunity to identify like-minded people over distance. I put similar interests in quotes—because it could be anything from hobbies to critical life issues, such as coping with an illness to lifestyle choices to coping with every day life. And any one person can belong to a number of different communities that can now exceed distance limitations—hence the importance of distance education as well for meeting the needs of students with time/location constraints.
Administrator
10 Jun 06 at 8:00 pm
Charlie said: “The downside is engagement in a unidimensional environment that becomes a substitute for real human interaction.”
This is a common misconception but the reality is that the people at the keyboards ARE real humans and — by extension — the interactions are also real. Yes, the communication is mediated by the computer and shifted in time but no less real for all that. (I would like to know what you mean by ‘unidimensional’ … )
The analogy I use is calling your mother on the phone. Of course, you need to go visit her, but sometimes it’s not possible and phoning her up is a substitute. In fact, you can phone her more frequently than visit physically and can make up in quantity what you may feel is lacking in quality.
Online social spaces are the same for all that they are often asynchronous and text based. There are some few interactions that cannot be digitized — smell, touch, taste — but in most cases I can do without those in my social engagement. Body language is often cited as missing, but the reality is that it’s only missing because people don’t bother to encode it. It’s like nodding when you’re talking on the phone instead of saying ‘Uh huh.’ It’s a common mistake for neophyte users of the technology.
Nate Lowell
11 Jun 06 at 7:39 am