Social learning synthesis

Social Learning SynthesisAlexander Stevenson

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Learning Preference:

In the beginning of this class I found out my personal learning preferences. I am mainly moderate in the aspects of active(1), intuitive(3) and global(1) learning, but lean all the way to one side when it comes to visual(11) learning. I am and for as long as I can remember, a very visually influenced person. Now that It is the end of the semester, Iʼve gotten some time to see these findings in action and for the most part I can say that I agree. I have the most ease learning with Visual cues, but I have found myself to be more of a sequential learner as time goes on. It might be that understanding the parts of a situation really helps me to get the big global picture. I had never really given much thought to learning preferences before this class, but I believe that finding mine out was worthwhile because it let me play to my strengths and really contributed to my personal success.

Alexander Stevenson


Learning Pathway:

Because I like to get the most out of every bit of technology that I purchase, I decided to be a learning warrior. I find it difficult to use many pieces of technology for different tasks so trying to use each piece for many tasks is right up my alley. Though I joined the mobile learning guild, I was still able to find some social technologies that catered to my learning preference. I found that my warrior tendencies led to me try to learn a lot about just a couple of technologies with a high degree of detail, and this approach proved to be successful overall. Through gaining deep understanding of the technologies that we covered in class I was able to get a bevy of useful information and tips utilize in my educational and future professional career.

Alexander Stevenson


Activity Contribution:

From taking this course I learned a lot about the educational benefits of some of the social technologies that I have been using for years. The activities about social networking, games, and online student presentations were successful in opening my eyes to these benefits to gain a broader understanding of how to use social technology to make learning easier. These activities acted to show me that these technologies arenʼt just for entertainment and can be a big help with academics. In accordance with my learning pathway, I decided to also take time to learn these technologies to gain a deeper understanding of how they could be useful to me. For example, the activity that introduced screencasts was able to teach me the basics of how to use screencasts to share as well as learn, giving me the tools and know-how to make presentations of my own. This activity was the most effective in teaching me how to learn with others, since the purpose of screencasts is to share with others.

Alexander Stevenson


Social Technologies Exploration: Social Networking

The first social technology that I explored in my own learning was social networking. Web services such as twitter just seemed like a huge distractions before this course but it has found a place in my education after exploring it in this quest. This technology was most effective in accommodating my preference for sequential/ global and visual learning. Twitter is a great tool for limiting and focusing searches for trending topics using hash-tags and links. I find the visual layout of twitter to make finding what I need a lot easier, and the fact that I am able to look at tweets over a period of time allows me to know the information that I am getting is the most recent. Twitter also allowed me to gain a broad understanding of a concept based on many peopleʼs posts, this contributed to my sequential/ global learning preference since I was able to accumulate a bunch of pieces of information to help me understand the big picture.

Alexander Stevenson


Social Technologies Exploration:Screencasts

In the quest for screencasts I was able to learn almost everything I needed to know to use this technology to learn nearly anything. After my introduction to this technology I explored it to learn how to use computer programs more effectively. Since I am a designer this became extremely helpful. Screencasts are an on-screen tutorial essentially so I would say that they applied to my visual learning preference. In the past I was forced to just look at still images to help me learn new techniques in computer programs, but the video interface allowed for a lot more ease with visual learning. Being able to be walked through a specific process step-by step helped my sequential learning. I like to be able to get into a topic to learn its parts, screencasts let the user get deep into the process to learn a concept from the inside-out. The visuals on the screen and the audio from the host gave me the feeling of a private tutorial which made learning with this quest very effective.

Alexander Stevenson


Social Technologies Exploration: Games

Games are something that I thought would never be taught about in a formal university setting, but with what I learned I am pleasantly surprised. Though games are fun and entertaining, they can also be used to demonstrate and review for virtually any educational topic. Games can be complex or simple, but I believe the spirit behind every game is to introduce a concept and then test the player on it later. Being on the border between active and reflective learning preferences allowed me to learn on my own and use games to consolidate what I had learned and help commit it to memory. I used games in this course to test out what I have learned through conventional quiz games which applied to my reflective learning preference. Games are perfect for reflective learners because they help users review what they have already been exposed to to help make it stick.

Alexander Stevenson


Synthesis: Since the beginning I was interested in trying to repurpose my favorite social technologies for the classroom. I began with social networking sites like facebook and twitter. These two peaked my interest for their mass appeal and use. I knew that there had to be something to help my learning with millions of users and contributions made every day. I was most surprised by how well MMOʼs and games could help out students. I had mainly regarded these technologies as sources of entertainment, or a time waster to help me procrastinate. Yet through this course I have learned the opposite, even playing games can aid in studentsʼ learning and studying strategies. At the same time, virtual worlds such as secondlife are, for now, less effective in the classroom setting. This virtual world is so expansive and open ended that it can overwhelming and hard to navigate. Yet, with that being said, I am interested in the future possibility of technologies like this and I would like to explore it further to improve my learning. If worlds like this are regulated and streamlined for education specifically, there could be potential for virtual classrooms or study halls which could be to many studentsʼ benefit, including mine.

Alexander Stevenson


Synthesis: (contʼd)

After giving social technologies a try in my own learning I have discovered some tools that play to my strengths in my learning preferences. Screencasts have become an obvious choice for me when I need to learn how to do something on Photoshop or Sketchup because the interface works so well with how I learn. Visually I am given everything that I need to learn a specific concept to complete my goal. The host puts all relevant information on screen which means less work for the viewer. This is good for my visual learning because having everything before my eyes without having to fuss around with windows or pages makes the learning process more efficient. Though I am not an auditory learner, the audio commentary on screencasts is really helpful in guiding the on-screen action, and some videos wouldnʼt be as helpful without audio cues and information. What is probably most important about Screencasts is their application to sequential learning. Watching a screencast allowed me to see each process step-by-step to learn how to do what I wanted to do which is what sequential learning is really all about.

Alexander Stevenson


Looking Ahead:

This course has introduced me to many valuable social educational tools, but none have been a better match to my learning preferences and personal learning style than screencasts and games. These technologies have taught me new strategies to make learning easier. Games offer a wide assortment of ways to help consolidate and reinforce concepts in learning. I plan to use games after this class is over to help review coursework and study for exams. With screencasts I will be able to quickly and effectively learn exactly what I aim to learn. Screencasts have introduced me to a new strategy in social learning. I can get online and learn from others instead of having to rely on myself or in-person tutorial sessions. After this class I plan to use these strategies over the summer to help brush up on my photoshop and illustrator skills. In my future career as an industrial designer I will be able to use this screencast strategy to help me discover new concepts to incorporate into my designs.

Alexander Stevenson


Looking Ahead: (contʼd)

I will continue to use screencasts, games and twitter to enhance my learning. I will use the technologies because they interest me and play to my strengths in my personal learning preferences. These technologies have made themselves useful in my academic life and they will also come in handy when I get a job in industrial design. I will be able to use screencasts to improve my skills in an ever changing industry. I can use twitter to stay up to date on the latest design news, and I can potentially use virtual world games such as second life to create a virtual portfolio of my designs. Before this course I used these technologies for entertainment, to keep in contact with friends, and to spend leisure time and will continue to do so for as long as they interest me. I donʼt plan on continuing to use social bookmarking, though I realize how useful of a tool I can be, I feel that I can accomplish what I need to get done using twitter instead.

Alexander Stevenson


Social learning synthesis

Education

Transcript of Social learning synthesis