Social Media

I joined the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) group. I joined this group because the focus of my coursework and education is education in the workplace, training and developemt, performance technology, etc. I felt that it would be beneficial to receive information and be able to network with others from this agency. I think the appeal of networking tools like Diigo is that they provide an easy, cost effective environment for professionals, students, teachers, etc. to meet and discuss their profession or field of study. Without networking tools like this, it would be hard for these professionals to all be in one place together.

If used in a classroom, networking websites could positively affect teaching and learning by providing a new avenue for information sharing. Also, students and teachers could link to each other, and receive and share the same information from outside sources like journals, professional societies, etc. Networking websites can negatively affect teaching and learning by removing the interpersonal aspect that the classroom provides. Students and teachers in distance learning courses rarely meet with one another, or experience the interaction that only a classroom can provide.

Most of the time I spend on networking sites is spent on sites like Facebook or Twitter for the purpose of interacting with friends, family, and co-workers. The benefit is that I can easily communicate with people close to me, or people that I may not have seen for an extended period of time. The drawback is that it may be a waste of time, or a distraction from more important things.  Also, it seems as facebook, text messaging, blogging, and email have become more prevelant in our soceity, the level of actual social interaction in conversation, phone calls, etc. has decreased.

Gaming

I think that there is an appropriate place in the classroom for gaming. If used properly, gaming can be effective in reaching students who do not respond to other forms of instruction. Gaming can also provide students a fun way to do educational activities. Furthermore, it can also be useful in simulation activities.

Simulation gaming can be used to experience and walk through situations where learners may not be able to prepare for a situation any other way. For example, someone preparing to fly an airplane would more reasonably be able prepare to do so in a simulator as opposed to an actual airplane. This would provide for an effective, cost-effective training session.

Channel 4 learning is a site for young people to participate in science games and activities. I think this site is beneficial because it provides students a fun way to participate in science activities. Things that may usually be boring the students can be perceived to be fun, this would increase the learning quality.

SimSchool is a classroom simulator for educators. This offers a great benefit in educational environments because teachers can become acclimated to the classroom environment without actually standing in front of a group of students. This is beneficial as teachers can hone their skills and continue to evolve without having to do it in front of a group of students.

Industryplayer.com allows a potential business person to simulate management of a company. I find this website to be valuable for many reasons. First, it always someone who is pursuing a career in the business field to simulate real world activities. Many of these activities and experiences would be difficult to obtain in an internship or work setting.

Open Content

Open content information is placed on a public domain where anyone with an internet connection can access it. Open content has some effect on any of us who access information over the internet. Most of us access writings, research, entertainment mediums, movies, and music through open content forums. It is important to consider that when information is copyrighted. It cannot be accessed, or edited by anyone other than the copyright owner without permission, payment. However, as discussed in the What are the Licenses Within Creative Commons Article, there are organizations such as Creative Commons that allows owners of copyright to place them in a public domain (or common area) to allow other people to build, improve, and reuse their works.

As explained in the What is Public Domain? writing, public domain allows copyright owners to essentially give their works to a public domain. This allows others to view, alter, and change these works. While, this seems overall to be a positive idea; it could also make the claim of an original work to be blurred. For example, if someone posts something in a public domain, someone else can take the work, alter it, and submit it as their own.

In the 2010 Horizon Report, the emergence of E-Books is discussed. Not only are these books being used by people to read their favorite books at home, but now, they are making their way to college campuses. In addition to this, there are several companies (Amazon, Sony, Barnes and Noble, etc.) now offering E-Book platforms. However, as referenced in the 2010 Horizon Report, they’re still obstacles to get past. The biggest being that there is still some limited availability of textbooks on electronic format. Although, it seems that this will be less of a problem as more books become available in the electronic format.

As we continue to evolve as a society that utilizes technology, I think e-readers will eventually become the primary mode for the use of textbooks in the classroom. This will effect education as people will be able to download their textbooks remotely, not have to visit the book store, and hopefully the price of these books will lower once companies no longer have to pay for the high cost of production. However, students will no longer have a hard copy of their book to hold, read, highlight in, etc.