Journey 7 Professional Learning Network

Journal 7

Before taking this class, I already had a lot of experience using Twitter. However, it was purely for personal use and I was not aware of some of the inner workings of Twitter. Now I know that there are specific topics that we can monitor using hashtags, and that these hashtags can be used for educational purposes. Out of all the PLNs that we have looked at in this class, I think Twitter is the one that is the easiest to integrate into a classroom setting. It is by far the most mobile friendly and allows for easy communication between classmates, or between teacher and students.

The Digg accounts that we talked about seem very useful for classroom usage. Unlike Twitter, they cannot be used for communication but allow you to conveniently follow certain topics or news sites in one location. I believe that it would be more suited to a history classroom or any class that involves reading a lot of reference material or following current events.

For the affinity group, I had to apply to get in and was unfortunately not admitted. I do not know if I was actually rejected or if the process is still pending. But I can still read some of the posts, and it seems like it could be very helpful once I am teaching to share new ideas.

Q1: Can I see myself still using PLNs once this class finishes?

A1: Probably not Digg, but I will definitely continue using Twitter. The affinity groups will be very helpful when I start teaching too.

Q2: What other uses are there for the PLNs in classrooms?

A2: Twitter could be used to send emergency messages to students from administrators.

Journal 6 Self Reflection

I learned a great deal about HTML over the past few weeks.  I have actually made and been maintaining a website since I was in middle school, but the HTML standards now are very different than what they are now.  A lot of the things I learned back in middle school are now examples of what not to do in our textbook.  Additionally, I learned a lot of things that simplified some concepts that I learned in the past.  For example, if I wanted to use several versions of a single image with slight modifications, I would use PhotoShop and save all these versions of the image.  But the css image assignment we did showed that we could just use css to modify the image, and skip Photoshop altogether.

The most important lesson I have learned was something that was said in the first 2 weeks.  That is where the content of a website should be contained in the HTML, and the organization and style should be kept separate(in cascading style sheets).  When I was making websites in middle school, all of the content was mixed together with the structure and style.  So whenever I wanted to change the layout of a website, it would be an extremely tedious process of copy pasting every single style rule across pages. 

Q1: What was the hardest and most rewarding assignment?

A1: It had to be the 1 column HTML site, because making the site was so different from what I was used to.  Normally I would make a series of tables to create the layout, but instead we used CSS to structure everything.
http://www.cpp.edu/~alu/512/1col.html

Q2: What was the biggest adjustment to make?

A2: Keeping the style rules in the CSS rules, and adapting to the new HTML5 standards.

Journal 5 Blog Post Try Twitter

I have been a long time Twitter user of many years, but I have never really thought about using it in the classroom setting.  Twitter has been a very important tool in my life, as it has allowed me to easily stay up to date with my interests.  It is also a great way to keep up with current events and even on-going events. All I have to do is just search for the proper hashtag on Twitter, and the service automatically shows new tweets regarding the topic.

Finding a way to use it in the classroom is a bit difficult though.  Obviously it could be used as a source of communication, but Facebook and text messaging is already available for that.  Twitter also has a character limit which can make expressing long ideas difficult.  In the classroom, we would want students to write eloquently and without abbreviation so this can be very difficult, if not impossible to do on Twitter.

Q1: What kind of skills can Twitter reinforce in the classroom?
The character limit can force students to express their ideas concisely, which is a very important real world skill.

Q2: What kind of benefits can Twitter have in school?
The main benefit is that it is another source of communication between students, which can keep them engaged.  And when it comes to learning, engagement and motivation are some of the most important factors.

Journal 4 Blog Post Project Plan

Site title - WIP

Developer - Anthony Lu

Rational or focus - The purpose of the site is to provide materials for the Chemistry lab class that I teach.  It will contain information about the course and will have the key points that were discussed each week.

Main features outline - PDFs of all the course handouts will be available, as well as links to supplemental material.  Every week will get its own section and will contain summaries of the key points that were discussed.

Content -

1. Course Information
2. Weeks(Week 1, Week 2, etc).  Each week page will also have links to related supplemental material
3. Grades
4. About me

Target audience - The audience for the site will primarily be people who are currently enrolled in the course.  But people who interested in taking the course in the future may also find it helpful.

Design consideration -

1. Easy to navigate
2. Mobile friendly
3. Loads quickly, should not have too many images

Limiting factors -  The main technical factor would be figuring out how to make a site that looks good on both mobile and desktop screens.

Site map

 Wire frame

Journal 3 Blog Post

Journal 3
Kessler, Sarah (2010) The Case for Social Media in Schools

This article talked about the rise in student usage of technology and social media, and took a supporting role towards implementing them in schools.  The main points the article made were that since social media is everywhere, it is a losing battle to try to eliminate it from school.  Obviously, social media can be a big distraction but that can be said of many things.  If used correctly, social media can be a great supplement to classroom instruction.  The other points of the article were that social media tends to promote student engagement, which helps learning.  Motivation is one of the biggest factors that affects student learning, and if social media can help with motivation then that can only be a good thing.  I do agree with the stance the article took.  A lot of times, trying to restrict usage of something tempting just makes the situation worse.  I am also a big proponent of integrating new teaching methods in the classroom, which includes making use of the technology that is available.

Q1: Other than helping students learn, what is another benefit of social media in school?

A1: Using social media in school can also build camaraderie among the students.  The majority of school work is done individually, but the majority of the jobs that are highly desired by people require collaboration and teamwork.  Social media can be used to promote student collaboration.

Q2: If implemented, how big of a role should social media take in classroom instruction?

A2: Probably just a supportive role.  There is no substitute for face-to-face instruction, but social media can be a useful tool to promote student engagement.

Journal 2 Blog Post

Journal 2
Affinity groups and RSS feeds

I joined an affinity group called Classroom 2.0.  The group is for educators who are interested in using technology and the Internet to help students learn in their classrooms.  I have an active interest in finding more ways of integrating educational technology to the lesson plan, so I hope to learn a lot more about this subject.

For the Digg RSS stream, I subscribed to The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and Scientific American.  RSS feeds seem to be an incredibly efficient way to keep updated on my favorite sites.  Instead of visiting each site individually, the feed is able to gather information from every site into one location.  Every new post or update is also displayed in the form of a headline with a quick summary so I can easily skim over the news to see what is interesting.  I also found that Digg works very well on mobile, either by using the mobile version of the website or the app.  It is very convenient since you can check the news on the go this way.  It is a great service and I think I will be using it quite often from now on.

Q1: What is the main purpose of an affinity group?

A1: The primary purpose is to share ideas with other people who have the same interests.  You can already do this in a school setting, but the online affinity groups allow you to get even more ideas as you are communicating with more people.

Q2: How can RSS feeds be utilized in the classroom?

A2: The Digg RSS feed allows almost any site to be added, so as educators we could have our students post all of their homework on their own blogs or personal websites.  We could then add all of these sites to our RSS feed, which will allow us to monitor all of these sites in one convenient location.

Journal 1 Blog Post Chapter 1-3

Journal 1
Jennifer Niederest Robbins (2012) Learning Web Design 4th Edition

The first three chapters of the book give a basic overview of the Internet and the principles of web design.  Designing a web site is not a one man job, and it turns out that there are usually 4 main roles that are needed: design, development, content strategy, and multimedia.  The general structure of a web page consists of three things: HTML, cascading style sheets(CSS), and JavaScript.  HTML dictates the structure of the site and is also where the content is located.  CSS determines how the content is presented, and is important because it sets rules that are consistent across all pages.  Finally, JavaScript is used when user input and interactivity are needed for a website.  Following this structure is important and is part of the concept of Progressive Enhancement, which allows us to futureproof websites.  The idea of progressive enhancement is that all of the content is stored in the HTML, so every browser and device will be able to view it.  It may not look exactly the way as intended on older devices and it may look different in the future as the standards change, but the most important stuff is still visible.  This is related to the idea of Responsive Web Design, where the presentation of the content changes depending on the size of the viewer window and type of device.

Q1: Why is this important?

A1: People are increasingly using different devices to access the Internet, so we must ensure that our websites are functional on all devices.  Even if the presentation does not look the way it is intended to, the content still needs to be accessible.

Q2: What is the most important thing that needs to be on every website?

A2: It should be the content, because that is the entire purpose of making a website.  Thus, the content needs to be stored in the HTML, and not in the JavaScript or behind some animation.  If it is in the JavaScript, this could potentially single out users who are on older devices.