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?