Final Post - thats all Folks!

Ok, not really but for my FSU Graduate School experience I call this a wrap.  I am finishing up my summer semester and will graduate with my Master's in Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies.  In a few weeks I start back full time as the Assistant Training Officer at Special Missions Training Center located on Marine Corp Base Camp Lejeune, NC.  So does my blogging days end with the class, no?  I plan on changing my blogging to be used in two different locations, this one for my continuous journey into the HPT field and one for my military training programs.  I found that by blogging forced me to reach out to look for articles and studies that fall in the line of my graduate studies.  In order to stay up to day and continue my growth in my personal learning network (PLN) I need to have something to keep the pressure on.  

Prior to my current course my web 2.0 tools really consisted on a few applications like Facebook, well ok Facebook.  I was amazed at the different types of tools being used and I was corrected on a lot of my understanding of some of the common tools like Pinterest, Twitter and few others. Where I looked at them as another social media type of thing that my wife and daughter are always killing time on (lol, noticed I didn’t say wasting time on) that they can truly be used not only for academic research but for development of a PLN for my professional development.  So this is not a good by but see you later.  I hope that I will be able to continue to stay connected with my classmates and it will be interesting to continue to follow their blogs and see how they develop. 

Social Media Ticket

Have you noticed that when you are on facebook that the ads seemed very directed towards you?  Did you know that anytime you go online you create a digital footprint for others to find?  There are two types of information that can be found online from a social network, shared and electronic tracking.  Shared items is information that is posted online to web 2.0 tools or social networks like Twitter, Facebook, etc.  This can include things that a person set to public access, items that the social network site changes to public (check your user privacy policy, many have a clause in it), people share the information that you are friends with and third party applications that you authorize access (did you read that fine print before you hit accept?).

The other way is for the tracked items.  When you search through the websites your system is creating cookies. According to PCmag.com, "a cookie is a small text file (up to 4KB) created by a Web site that is stored in the user's computer either temporarily for that session only or permanently on the hard disk (persistent cookie). Cookies provide a way for the Web site to recognize you and keep track of your preferences". These cookies are accessed when you are on the internet by websites to gain your preference.  

So who can access this information?  Obviously, third party software developer seek the information to find out what is popular and what will work in their development.  Advertisers seek the information to make sure ads like you see on Facebook is applicable to your taste.  Then there is those that are interested in conducing illegal activities to include identity thieves and those that are looking to scam or harass others.    

There is always  a level of security that you give up when you are willing to go online. As one of my classmates cleverly pointed out, there is always a price to a ticket and sharing of a certain level of information is your ticket. 

Are you ready for online courses?

Our summer semester is coming to and end and with that my end of my graduate school and back to work with the U.S. Coast Guard (CG).  This has been a great experience and busy year.  This was not my first time with online classes for school.  I had received most of my undergraduate school online and the CG has a Midgrade Officer Career Course that is 11 months long with majority of it being online.  This year has been focused on strictly my Masters Degree through Florida State University and the experience was vastly different then from my undergraduate degree.  Some of the major differences was the level of interaction that our classmates and professors had with the course and discussions.  In my undergraduate school it was more like an independent study course that I followed the required course work and just turned in the papers and other homework. In 2012, 1 out of 10 students was enrolled exclusively on online courses.  The number of those that took at least one online is even greater.  So what does that mean for online courses?  Ina few of my classes, the professors always ask us to provide some insight on how to be successful in our graduate online courses.   Most people give similar recommendations and I figure that I would share this with you and encourage those that are thinking about entering college to not shy away from online courses but look at it as an opportunity to jump on board with what seems to be a growing field. 

1.  What program should I go into? Be mindful of the program that you decide to enroll in.  Just like anything you should take the time to research what you plan on taking and the college that provides these courses.  Not all school are created equal. With online colleges being a growing field you have both public schools and for profit schools seeking your attendance.  I saw many of the for profit school seeks out the military to help them get a quick degree but the level of quality was not the same.  This issue expands to anyone looking for a quality degree, find out about the place offering the degree.  Check out these reports to help you determine which one is for you. 

2.  Technology. Make sure you have the right technology for your program.  Many of the programs will have a list of minimum requirements for your computer (system requirements).  Beyond that, each type of program might require their own type of technology for courses based on the degree you were seeking.  This includes computers, tablets, software, etc.  I hadn't gone out to buy a computer in a long time and my original thoughts was that I could use my daughters laptop for at least the beginning, I was wrong.  Her computer was fine for her but the level of time I needed to spend online was a lot more and how slow the computer worked to just open a program required more time waiting to do anything and raised my time to do work.  By getting a better system cut my time in half just due to the speed it took to do anything on the computer.

3.  Accountability:  Welcome to college where you are the adult.  There is not going to be someone there to hold you accountable for your work and level you provide.  This all depends on you to put in the work in order to get the most out of it.  For those in the Masters program, you are typically juggling work, family and school.  It is tough, but we all signed up with an end result in mind.  If we do not spend the time to grasp the material how can we use it in our future careers.  Create a schedule


4.  Schedule.  Everyone has many things going on every day and week.  Find a schedule that works for you to get your work done.  You can easily see those that had schedules that allowed them to get the work done at the beginning of the week and those that only had the weekend.  The great thing about online courses is that it allows you to interact with the entire class no matter what your schedule it. Set something that works for you and stick to it. 


5.  Interaction.  As mentioned in number 3, you get out of the course what you put into it. Since this is online there is different ways that you might have to interact with each other.  In our group assignments we found ourselves skyping, google+ chatting or using programs that allows members to share and edit documents through online tools.  You will find that people have different preferences but the time you take to collaborate with other learners will not only increase the experience but will build your network in your field of study. 

6.  Help!  Like anything, you are not alone in these programs and seek out help from your professors and especially your fellow learners.  They are going through the same thing and you will be amazed on how many are facing the same trials and have the same questions. 

7.  Breaks.  We all have a breaking point and can only take in so much information.  I found that I had to push away from my computer and get out of the room, spend time with the family or go fish. When I found myself working non stop I ended up realizing that half the material I read went right over my head due to burn out. You have to schedule yourself breaks during work and make sure to enjoy life also. 


Many people seemed hesitant to go back to school or just look at online courses as an option.  I have found through experience and through work with others that it is a great opportunity and many of the professors and other students are encourgaing and understanding.  Give it a try!

For those that have experienced online courses, what other advice would you give to someone?

You Tube

I had to set up a few online projects in another course that had me create various videos and upload them to You Tube.  This was really my first experience using You Tube beyond just watching random videos myself or how to videos.  Even after that class I played around with some of the tools I learned, including videoscribe, I decided to create a video with my daughter based on a book that she wrote when we first got married (well poem and illustrations).   Fast forward to my current class that has exposed us to so many new web 2.0 tools and the use of blogging.  I had searched for a a how to video for fixing something at the house when I ran into Mr. Beats Social Studies You Tube channel.  I was curious about what he was about and looked a little more into his background.  He is a seven grade teacher and musician that decided to make interesting videos for people to use.  It looks like based on the comments that students and random people like who loves history are checking out his videos.  While looking at his his videos I decided to look at other subjects.  I found Professor Rob Bob, who has been teaching high school math for over 19 years.  This guy doesn't only have a few views, some of his videos reach into the 50K.  Your thinking what a tutorial on math is getting that many views.  Think about it, when you are home or somewhere else, other then school, it is sometimes to recall what you learned or if you are like me, read my chicken scratch that I call notes.  These You Tube videos create tutorials that you can reach out for a refresher or to expand on the subjects you love.  Looking at the Emerging Ed Tech site, I found an article on the same subject that list six excellent You Tube channels that were created by inspired teachers in the school system, check them out. 

This week we took a heavier look into pedagogical in our readings and in our assignments.  The article "Tweet me, message me, like me: using social media to facilitate pedagogical change within an emerging community of practice" by Victoria A. Goodyeara, Ashley Caseya & David Kirka interest me the most as it seems to fit into y work environment and things that we are trying to develop.  This article looked at how social media, outside the the actual physical state, was a space for communication and building a community of practice for teachers.  I have been thinking about my instructors at work and how they all have various responsibility and courses they run but ultimately their job is to educate. This was a great article of research to look at this phenomenon.  I am hoping to take some of these same lessons and implement them into the work place.

In the process of developing our produsage project I was able to explore more of the web 2.0 tools (wiki, reddit, quoto, pinterest, edmondo and facebook) to figure out what would be the best fit for the subject.  I felt that this project was a little harder to perform and never felt like I moved to a solid standing with my produsage project.  What I did find was that you have to be mindful of your audience or learners and pick tools that will attract them and ones that they would be willing to use. We also looked at a few articles that focused in different countries and cultures can bring many other concerns when developing material to be used.  

Quora vereus Reddit

From http://heroicsearch.com

I was searching through the web 2.0 tool Quora to see what subjects people are talking about and who actually uses it.  "Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are asked, answered, edited and organized by its community of users." I chose to follow the topics of graduate studies, technology and education.  Even before I finished my profile the first email had already been blasted out with the top topics.  Since I chose to pick some adult type of subjects I was surprised to see the first post was on "German kids feel when they learn about what Hitler/Germany did in WWII? 

As I read through the posts I found many where older and had parents or grandparents that were alive during WWII.  I liked reading their stories and what things they experience in school but then it came down to Katharina Kolerova, a tenth grader in a German high school.  Not only could she give an up to date perspective of what it taught in school about WWII but also could give us her perspective of what she felt and how she felt the adults around her expected her to feel.  I will admit that I was blown away by the level of response she posted and received.  For the most part is was positive and encouraging for her.

I then wondered what is the difference between Quora and Reddit and begin to search the sites. Many people had their opinion on which one was better over the other but overall many people felt Reddit was more for entertainment with not as heavy on the moderation and Quora was more for information seeking or education with a stricter hand on moderation.  I have played around with both this week and tend to agree on these comments.  Even tough entertaining at times, Reddit had more comments that I had to skip or overlook due to the level of interaction being more immature versus Quora.  What are your thoughts? 

Wikipedia - good or evil?

I know that when wikipedia first kicked off its role as an online encyclopaedia as we know it in 2001 that many in the education field didn't like it and really restricted learners from using it.  Since then wikipedia has made great strides in regulating itself.  Anyone can make suggestions in changes but not all will be accepted.  They have editors that review the changes to pages before they go live.  I made some changes to sites based on things in my community and it only took a few days for them to get approved and live.  Like anything you find on the internet I feel you shouldn't take everything to be gospel but it does make for a great starting point for research.  I like to type in the subject, read the material and then focus on the references.  I then go to the actual references to see what they read. 

You also have to keep in mind that wikipedia is written by normal people and with that comes their own biases.  According to wikipedias on statistics in 2012, majority of the editors are still men, 90%.  In the U.S. there is a a higher ratio of 15% but that is still far from the average ratios of men to women in the U.S. (50/50).  So wikipedia has down falls but it also has advantages compared to other sources of information. Wikipediais trasparatne in there are no secrets, even chats or discussions are made public for all to see, which provides a little protection for our younger learners but still allows them to just interact with anyone.  The material can be updated quickly and often, compared to a history text book that might be outdated in high school just because of the cost to replace them and then declining school system budget.

What are your thoughts on wikipedia and do you use it or participate? 

Open Educational Resources

What is OER?  So the first time I saw this in our discussions for my graduates course I automatically thought about work since we use OER often but to stand for Officer Evaluation Report, which I hate to write but required for officer promotions. So the use of OER was first introduced to me in graduates school and ti stands for Open Education Resources.  According to JISC, OER are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student or self-learner.  This subject became very important in the development of our blogs and some of our assignments for the course.  I was amazed in the number of OER materials that was actually out there and found that really people were eager to share information for free, as long as people didn't abuse it for profit.  So how do you know if something is an OER or not?  Nicole Comforto in her article, The Teacher’s Guide To Open Educational Resources, points out one of the best places to turn to is to look for a Creative Commons (CC) license.  Each license is not same and it is important to look how the author has ok'd the use.  You can also look at the permissions section on the websites to get more information on what they have agreed to the use of the material.  

Last semester we worked with various tools to create some items.  One of those items was an eBook, in which I created one based on my daughters list of Endangered Species she likes to read about and her teacher started to use it in the classroom.  My plan is to expand this book and in checking out OER resources in order to make this book available beyond my daughters class and for every little naturalist out there. 

Week 4 - Wrap up

So this week we took a look at a few more web 2.0 tools, Google Maps, Webquest, Fakebook and Edmodo.  Had used Google Maps to create my own maps before but I was introduced to the Google Map game where you pin a location based on a question, called Smart Pins. This game was a little addicting and my daughter and I played it for to long. Webquest had 1,000s of different subjects to chose from and I allowed my daughter to pick a subject to explore and we ended up doing some nature exploring based on the teachers directions in the webquest. I did explore Fakebook and as some of my classmates pointed out the ability to take a character from history or even a book and develop a Fakebook page to conduct a book report is taking something old and making it new.  This combines our social networking with our education system.  I love the idea and hope that teachers are using it to change up the old book reports we all use to do in school.  I spent a lot of time with Edmondo this week and trying to compare it to Symbaloo.  I wonder if I am missing something because Edmondo has numerous more features and can become very interactive with a class.  I wish that Edmondo would allow you to set your groups to public or private to allow it to be more open if you wanted an open class to attract more people.  Where I feel like Symbaloo is a great way to create a webmix of shortcuts that are focused on a specific subject and share that webmix there is really limited interaction from there.  I do have it set as my home page and have links set up for my grad school and another webmix set up for some hobbies. 

eLearning Modules Are Dead... They Just Don't Know It.

Arun Pradhan has marked eLearning modules as dead in his article "eLearning Modules Are Dead... They Just Don't Know It".  Do you think that eLearning is on its way out or do you think there will always be a place for it?

One thing that Arun pointed out is that when he is looking at something that he needs he tends to turn to google or a friend.  I have fond that I do the same for everything from working with various programs to issues around the house.  The other day I was getting my oil change and they called letting me know that I need to have my filters changed and wanted to charge me $90 for parts and labor.  I told my wife that I can order online for $40 and do it myself.  She asked if I knew how to do it and I brought up a YouTube video and told her sure I do here is a video.  I have used YouTube for many how to projects around the house and for hobbies.

At work, we have eLearning training for various programs to include Microsoft Office and internal programs that we have developed.  In most cases, I agree with Arrun people do not turn back to their eLearning often to figure out any issues that they might face.  Since we know that people will continue to seek it out somewhere we have begun to develop how to quick reference sheets (QRS)  that people can pull down to answer some common issues they face in the work place with the programs that we use.  Instead of our IT folks having to connect to each person computer they are able to provide a how to QRS to assist the employees with their issues.  In a recent project we looked at a couple of positions in order to do a job task analysis and was able to determine that the biggest need was the develop of job aids to help the employees with their tasks.  We found that even if we developed formal or eLearning training that it would not be as useful since some of the tasks they accomplish have a great time length between when they would get the training and when they will need it.

Even though I do not think it is completely dead, I can see his point on how things have changed and we are changing to meet those new needs and trends. 

Connection in a Social Age

Image from https://essaybox.org/

This is really to follow up with my last blog and the use of web 2.0 in the classroom but what about the teachers themselves?  How are they using the web 2.0 to develop their skills and programs used in the classroom?  In 2012 the Primary Source Survey by Scholastic and the Gates Foundation found that teachers only spent 4% a day collaborating and 44% would like to see if increased. Amanda Roman in her article, How to Connect with Other Teachers in the Social Age, takes a look at the different types of tools that educators can use to connect with one another. Amanda introduces us to five platforms that can be used to connect these educators.  This includes Staffirm (mostly UK), Google+, podcasts, and Linkedin.  She admits that educators have a lot on their plate and it makes it hard to juggle the different requirements and needs pulling at them every day but I think it is still like dating when married, some times you have to plan it in and just make it happen, even if its not the perfect time or tasks are knocking at your door.  If you do not plan it in, it will never happen because there are already so many things that we try to do in a day that just cannot be done.

This also brings up the question of identity.  You just have to do a quick search of the headlines and see the cases of educators being fired or discipline for something they said on a social platform or pictures they posted.  So how do educators get around this issue when they are trying to connect in a social world, do they really have the freedom?  I can see these restrictions placed on them restraining their ability to connect and freely speak.  As our class had discussed in past discussions, should they post anonymous or under a pseudonym, so that there ability to speak freely is there or should they hold back the things they say?

Web 2.0 Practice in the School

All of my experience has been in the work force and training adults.  When my daughter entered school we, as parents, were heavily involved in the school.  As I started my Masters degree in Instructional Systems and Learning Technology I tried to aim my assignments, projects and papers towards either my work that I was involved in or with my daughters school so that I could implement the work right away.  Technology is growing and I wonder how teachers balance their work load and the introduction of technology into their classroom. In the article by Charles Cook, The ‘digital native’ in context: tensions associated with importing Web 2.0 practices into the school setting, Mr. Cook looks at 53 mixed gender focus groups from age 13 to 15 in the UK.  Many of the findings were ones that I expected to see, for example the tension of blocks that are placed on the schools web 2.0 to prevent learners from going to certain restricted sites.  What I did not think about was the separation from in-school web 2.0 use to out-of school web 2.0 use.  I guess I never thought it as two separate types of cultures and that the use of web 2.0 would differ so much but as the article pointed out if neither the learner or teacher fully embraces web 2.0 in the classroom the learner will follow the culture that they are comfortable with, out-of school.  In the article, many of the learners admit some of the same concerns that educators have with the abuse of the system in the in-school web 2.0 use but at the same time there is a contradiction when conducting school work and a site is blocked and the teacher tells them to just look it up at home then.  My daughter is still young where I do not think that this same type of concerns have crept up on her yet but I wonder for those that are educators in the middle to high school do you see these same conflicts of two different cultures coming to head and how do you deal with it and balance the use of web 2.0 in the classroom?

Exploring

I spent a lot of time exploring this week with various web 2.0 tools for my knowledge sharing assignment.  After creating my items for the knowledge sharing I posted on Pinterest, Diigo, scope.it, Slideshare and tweet about it all.  I liked the ability to pin easily with Pinterest but found it hard to share my information with other people unless they were following me.  I didn't like the idea thata I had to follow various topics as when I first open Pinterest I do not like to see a full clutter of suggested things.  What made it worst is that I chose fishing as one of my topics and every 5th suggestion seems to be a bikini clad girl with a fish.  I quickly stopped following that topic as I do not want my wife and daughter thinking I am pinning those type of items.  There might be a way to stop hide that specific suggestion but I have yet to find it.

I found Diigo a little hard to create a group and just share it with the public as you have to subscribe to more then just the free user plan. You are able to invite others but my goal with my board was to share it with all that might be interested. I can see how this would be great when working in small groups and you are able to invite them.  On the Scoop.it site I ran into similar issues as many of the extra functions required me to pay for it.  I had a lot of people that were interested in my material message me asking if they had to join to see it rather then try it out they prefer to skip it.  I found that slideshare gave the best all around analysis data and ease of sharing. More to come when I start to wrap my assignment up but in less then 24 hours I have had 1,045 viewers and over 20 different countries. Tracking this has been exciting to me and I have received a lot of emails  and messages through social media with questions or comments.  Check out my original blog post to get the links and check it out.

Flounder Gigging

I have been trying various applications and tools to figure out how to share my information and items posted for my graduates course project. I chose the topic of flounder gigging based on my interests and some work that I was developing for others.  The first item is a step-by-step module on how to build your own wading flounder gigging light.  I have chosen to use slide share in combination with scoop.it to get the word out.  I will also post various links in other applications that have public access in order to hopefully share the information and get interaction from others.  For the purpose of this project I will post the various items links as a response to this blog.  So far playing with the different options I found tools like diigo had to many limitations for the free users or like scoop.it I could not create a public group with my free access. 

I have been in the Coast Guard for 20 years this September and have moved every 2 to 4 years based on the needs of the service.  I recently moved to a brand new house that was built with only 40 houses in the community.  Out of the 40 households about 60% are Marine Corp families, 10% are Coast Guard and 20% are civilians. I never really thought about the various aspects of a PLN or communities in general until we started to have these conversations about networking and communities through web 2.0.  Ok, about this time your saying ok so you live n a neighborhood but that's not connected to web 2.0.  I seemed to connect to the other Coast Guard families pretty quickly, partially because we are all in the Coast Guard in a Marine Corp town but also because we all work together at the same unit. The strange thing is that I met most of my other neighbors on Facebook prior to meeting them in person and some of the them I have still not met in person.  The thought of that blows me away.  We have a closed neighborhood Facebook group and almost all of the families are on the group.  When there are issues in the neighborhood, play groups, get togethers or even house issues since we all have the same builders it all goes on the Facebook group.  The other day I had a couple walking down the street and they asked if I was Ron Nakamoto.  They said that they had spoken to us on Facebook and my wife wanted something they were giving away but they didn't want to knock on the door just in case they were wrong.  It is amazing the boundaries or barriers we put up around us but yet we let those same barriers go when we are interacting online.  I think that we can follow the lead of the kids in our neighborhood and just go for it.  When I first arrived a biker gang of 4 yr olds to 13 years old rolled up on me and asked if I had any kids.  Every since then, the kids have no fear of knocking on my door at 7am on a Saturday and asking if my daughter can play. It is amazing how web 2.0 tools have entered every aspect of our life to include how you get to know your neighbors.

Periscope

 I clicked on a link from one of my RSS feeds that was discussing the challenges that teenage girls go through not only in the U.S. but all over the world, especially when it comes to equality in education.  This article was really an announcement for a series that the public radio was doing on a perspective through a teenage eyes using periscope.  This was the first time that I had heard of Periscope so I figure I would check it out.  The idea of Periscope is that its an application to allow you to see things through the eyes of someone else.  It can be from what a teenage girl faced daily as mentioned in the article or through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine.  The idea about it is that you are able to experience things from a different perspective. When you go on the application you can chose a scope (what they call a look through video) by going to a list or by map.  On the list version it gives you the top scopes by watchers.  As I was exploring there was a real large mixture of scopes, from a mid-afternoon bible study, to a girl discussing the unfair dress codes in school for girls versus boys, to stars on the movie sets and just people doing normal things like eating or putting on make up while scoping.  

So here is the question, is this a community.  They claim that it is a community application and in the idea of it I can see how it could create something like an idea of a community.  There is no way to create a ongoing dialogue that stays on the board unless you subscribe to the person and then you are notified anytime they come on the application. When the person is scoping, people are able to ask questions or make comments.  There is not a restriction for people to watch or discuss things with you unless you block them.  So there is not many restrictions, as there was young kids scoping to people just talking while they sit there naked.  I was surprised by this and wondered how dangerous this application could be.  Many of the serious scopers have an ongoing dialogue, one lady does it every lunch break based on a theme to discuss, they can be connected through many other social and community tools to include blogs.  I can see how this could be one aspect of a PLN and also a way to promote your blogs and other connections to get other people to join your network.  I think that one day I will sit here and do my school work while scoping to see what happens.  Stay tuned and I will let you all know when I scope.  

Technology in the Modern Military

So the last few weeks I had mentioned augment reality (AR) technology and its use and I had mentioned technology in the classroom with examples of the game minecraft with Google glasses.  While exploring some articles I came across this really fascinating but disturbing video of future of technology, specifically AR.  In this video the idea of AR taken to a higher level with it being interactive in our everyday life through inserting the ability for the AR in the eye itself.  At first I thought it was contacts but the idea is that it is implanted into your eye (Sorry not for me). 


AR to me is an interesting concept and I can really see it being useful in the classroom. In the article

The Future of Augmented Reality: Limitations, Possibilities and Hopes by Weronika Lass the discussion on how AR can be used is very interesting.  I can see how the technology can be really advanced for functional learning in the medical field and in areas like engineering. 

This made me think about the courses I am in charge of at the Special Missions Training Center located at Camp Lejeune, NC.  Can AR be used for military training and has it been used.  One of the things we teach is close quarter combat (CQB).  CQC is a tactical concept that involves physical confrontation between several combatants. In warfare it usually consists of small units or teams engage the enemy with personal weapons at very short range, up to 30 meters, from proximity hand-to-hand combat to close quarter target negotiation with short range firearms.

"The Army is using the Future Holistic Training Environment Live Synthetic works by taking the four main areas of simulation training and turning them into one system. The US Army refers to the first of these as Live simulation (LS), which is defined as real people operating real systems in the field. The second form of simulation is virtual simulation (VS). This is real people operating simulated systems. Then there’s constructive simulation (CS), which is simulated people and equipment operating in a simulated environment. The newest area and one of the fastest advancing is gaming simulation (GS), which is similar to CS, but where the simulated world looks real to the participant, like in a game of Halo or Call of Duty." The issues that the Army is facing is bringing all of these systems together as they all act independently.  They have a pretty impressive system located at Fort Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne and Special Forces.  Of course, like anything technology isn't able to to replace everything.  The need for real life training for the military still and will always exist.  Something that this system is not able to add (yet) is the fatigue factor, stress factor from environmental factors like weather.  Either way, it is amazing to watch as the technology advances and we see how it can be used not only in the normal education setting but in advancing and building a modern military force. 

Wrapping up the Week

This week I looked at various networking in our reading from electronic to general networking and communities.  I was interesting to discuss the differences between networking and communities and what distinguished the difference between them.  I spent this week on my classmate’s blogs a little more to see what they found interesting and blogged about.  I like the class interaction through the blogs and still having the option to also discuss things on the blackboard discussion boards.  As learners in the course we always have the option to create a discussion board on the blackboard but this is the first class that I have actually seen people do it and create a great discussion.  I have also been observing two forums (communities) for my next class project.  One I am more of a lurker and the other I have been trying to participate.  Even though both communities are based on fishing it seems to go beyond more than the subject and you actually see people expressing themselves on other subjects and trials in their personal lives.  I have had mixed reviews if I am part of the community yet.  Even though I have had people make some general comments and welcome me when I post questions I have not received a large support of help compared to other questions posted from long time members.  I have even looked at the idea of PLNs and didn’t even realize that I had one already started.  Like relationships, PLNs take time to nurture but I see it as important to have one, the question is it better to have a large PLN and have as many resources available when needed or to have a small PLN and focus on it.  I think that a large one is the way to go with PLN.  Especially, when you understand that your PLN is a combination of different aspects in your life to include work, family, personal, hobbies, etc.