So we're 4 modules into the course, and I'm already giving a reflection! This is a great way to express our feelings about the course thus far, and make changes if needed for everyone to be comfortable and most importantly learning. I'll start with this blog. Although I am fairly comfortable with it, I'm still not sure I am as clear as I would like to be in my writing. I can say what I'm thinking, but it seems like I can't yet get those emotions on paper (or digital text, I'm corrected). The blog gives me a more personal touch to my thoughts and opinions on the assignments, rather than just a statement. I am free to make my incomplete sentences...example....I like that. It means a pause in thinking, by the way.
CMSimple, a user-friendly website, is still a work in progress. You can view my site here. I love my template, and the logo just adds what it needed. I'm really not sure why CMSimple was included in this course, it really isn't what I think of when I look at our definition of web 2.0. It's a website meant to be a portfolio, right? But it's not a tool or something to be collaborative on...hmm, just my two cents...maybe it will be more apparent to me later in the course. There have been a couple of assignments thus far to rate our peers. I am going to tell you...I am EXTREMELY uncomfortable rating anyone on anything. Maybe I'm looking too much into this, but I just feel that peer grading should be outlawed! Giving a response or helping each other is one thing, but grading is very different.
I like the perspectives that have been brought into the course so far, especially the work of Wesch and his KU team. Youtube is a great learning tool, and I'm happy it has been introduced into the class. I see that collaborating is an essential to the success of the course, but I think that when we have assignments such as the "Defining Web 2.0", it was difficult to do so in Moodle. Saving and editing from other peoples work was difficult to cut and paste, and the final definition didn't include some of the originals.
Having a course glossary is brilliant! There are many words/tools I knew nothing about, and some I have heard before but didn't know what they meant. The glossary gave me some new tools to check out and cleared up definitions I didn't know. Now, we are adding to the glossary with Web 2.0 companies and people...something we all need to be familiar with. It ties in with the history of Web 2.0...we need to know where we've been to move ahead. I added Darci DiNucci, someone I thought would be interesting to others.
The most challenging assignment so far??? SECOND LIFE. WOW. Who knew??? I think I've wrote in a previous blog, I had visited SL 2 times before the tutorial, and both times were a mess. The very first time was on my own after downloading it. I was on Welcome Island and I think I heard and saw some of the most vulgar language I've ever come across. Crazy. Once I had the navigation tutorial, things were a little more clear as to how to get around, etc. SL is a very public place, but I prefer to stay as anonymous as possible. I'm going to add to my profile later this week, and spend some money..which is always exciting for me. On one of my visits, we had a random visitor on our location. Before I knew she was a visitor, I thought she was a part of the class...I had no idea no one really knew her. I guess exploring SL island is part of the culture, but I thought it was kind of weird that she had landed there and stayed there. Is that the way you meet new people, just go places and invite yourself? I really don't know...maybe someone should give me the scoop on SL etiquette. As for an educational tool, SL could be a break from the norm in classroom or presentation-type lectures, but I couldn't see it in corporate training, not at this time anyway. Could be that we are so behind in technology and alternate learning and must stay on a strict budget. Aside from a few tech difficulties with the viewer, I think SL is an interesting tool and a mere glimpse into what Web 3.0 may inspire to be.
Wiki etc...what I'll call it, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiversity. I love the collaboration tool and the learning edge it gives all users. It was a little confusing at first, but the tutorials and explanations really can help the user get the basics fairly easily. I was able to log-in with just one profile, Chilover30, where you can see my profile, my contributions, and what I am watching. The only thing I had trouble with is formatting my profile. On most social media programs, you can make your page be what you want with different templates, etc. I found that Wiki wasn' t that way, and it had very few formatting options...from what I saw. I really wanted to add images of the pages I changed on the "New Jersey Housewives", but couldn't do it. I tried adding a gallery, and uploading, but I had problems doing both.
Overall, my feelings of the course are positive. I do, however, at times feel like we are all over the place. It's not as organized as some of the other courses I've taken...and I'm meaning in terms of the assignments, not the course outline. There are several places to post, read, comment, and it can be a little overwhelming. We had a discussion of where to post/read, but it still hasn't seemed to come together. Thank goodness there are only 6 people, and thank goodness to Delicious (another tool I was introduced to), so I am able to bookmark most of the pages and view from anywhere. But, as stated at the beginning of the semester, the internet isn't organized and things will not always be put in a box with a pretty bow. So this is my reflection for the first 4 modules...I have learned a lot about web 2.0 tools and such...but I have really learned more about myself and how I can attribute to web 2.0.
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