Weekend 1 Reflection

Wow, I cannot believe that weekend one is over already.  I feel overloaded but refreshed, if that makes sense.  I learned about so many tools and sites that I want to explore, but then I worry will I have the time.  I think there are two teaching related topics that I can see myself attempting to somehow implement into my teaching.  First would be RSS Feeds and google reader.  I never understood what the RSS meant nor that it was so easy to have many website's current information in one place.  I can see myself adding sites that have to do with topics I am teaching and then providing weblinks for students to explore current topics.   The other is blogging, this is one that I have wanted to explore but again have never made the time.  I can see this as a good way to organize thoughts and ideas not only for this class but in the other realms.  I think I mentioned that everything I do, I schedule on my calendar.  That way things do not get missed.  I want to include an item to check my feeds at least once a day and then find one new technology, teaching idea or tip, activity idea, etc and blog about it each night.  This may be rather optimistic but after this weekend I feel inspired to embrace and look for ways to improve my skill set but also improve the learning experience for my students.

Preclass Reflection from Wikinomics Chapter 3

Wikipedia, the topic in this chapter that I thought was very interesting was about the London bombing and the use of Wikipedia. Every course I have ever taken and now when I teach courses we tell students to not use Wikipedia as the information is not reliable. Granted it is not a scholarly source, but if it is down to earth and a way to explore a completely foreign topic, I am thinking why not. I still would caution using it as an academic source, but why not a way to start exploring a new idea. Then you can do your academic resource from scholarly sources after you have an idea or background.

Preclass Reflection from Wikinomics Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The second chapter had a focus for me around two realms first was the need for collaboration to reach consumers and then for private industry to adopted these processed to compete. To me this leaves the door wide open for education. I see tools like facebook and blogs to be the next wave of tools for educators. I would love to use some sort of blog to communicate with students. Also to have a space outside of the computerized classroom for students to connect. One of the big issues that I have seen with online education is the isolate of students, thus if these tools were able to bring my online students together I feel that student buy in would be improved dramatically.

Preclass Reflection from Wikinomics Chapter 1

Chapter 1:


This introduction was a reaffirmation for me of what I new on the fringe but had really never explored. Being both firmly entrenched in the education realm and the IT (Business Realm) there for me has always been a disconnect when it comes to collaboration. Education has from my experience always been more open and focused on the greater good for all involved. However business and IT has always been focus on the bottom dollar. Thus to read in this chapter about different collaborative efforts among various organizations was surprising but not totally foreign. The company that I work for is a contractor for the federal government one of the contracts that I had been a member on the project team involved creating collaborative space where various contractors would have a collaborative space for working on different projects for this government agency. This was foreign to most of the contractors and was resisted by most. Many of these IT departments still held on to the mind set of our knowledge, data, etc are ours, however the government representatives put it simply get together or do not get the work.