Blog Post 7: Professional Learning Network

Every morning I'm greeted by two new sources of information in my inbox: An edutopia Community News Alert and Digg's Digg Deeper Daily Wrap (say that ten times fast). I subscribe to the following feeds on edutopia: Technology Integration, Game-Based Learning, and Media Literacy. This site proved useful last month when I used it to learn more about James Paul Gee, a researcher in the area of linguistics and literacy. and an author whose book we are reading in this quarter's GED 580 - Game Design for Educators. Although I have not contributed to any discussions or posted to any forums, I do appreciate the resources that are afforded here. I know it's only a mater of time until I join in on the conversation and get acclimated to this still-new environment.

My areas of interest are a bit broader on Digg. I have been using it to help with research on the topic of social media and education for yet another class - GED 690. My subscriptions to Digg not only cover education and educational technology, but current events and consumer technology.  It proves a convenient way to catch up on today's news (you mean it's not all about Cal Poly Pomona?). With time and practice, I see myself fine-tuning my subscriptions as my areas of interest broaden and evolve. That's the beauty of Web 2.0: It is tailor-made, immediate, relevant, and quite responsive.

Question 1
Some theorists have posited that learning does not happen within - from the inside out, but rather through social connections - from the outside in. What implications are there for social media and education?

Answer 1 
Social media serves as an ideal delivery method for today's students; students who consume vast quantities of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Their literacy with these modalities brings like-minded students together. Blogs, tweets, messages: ideas are distributed and shared, reflected on, and acted upon. This sharing, connecting, and further expansion of ideas is at the heart of social learning and education. What's the point in knowing something if you can't share it with someone else?

Question 2
The short video below depicts the evolution of a typical workspace over several decades. Notice the authors' correlation between the physical items and their idea of its Web 2.0 counterparts.  Is today's tech merely a repackaging of proven processes or is it more? 

Answer 2 
I believe we are at a crossroads of technology and intellectual development (for the time being, at least!). We have reached a point where the processing power of our technology can give our personal processing power a run for its money. Additionally, information which took months or even years to reach us, can be measured in mere seconds. There's a point in the video where the rolodex (the item on the right, in front of the globe) morphs into a LinkedIn icon. Of course people connected, shared, negotiated, and brokered deals before the days of LinkedIn. LinkedIn, and the assortment of icons depitcted have the capacity to shorten the time for those connections, negotiations, and deals to occur. I like to think of these tools as not necessarily improvements, but as an amplification or augmentation -  for both the good and the not-so-good. We're able to do what we've done in the past, except quicker, custom-tailored, and perhaps too, a bit more impersonally.

Journal 6: Looking Back. Looking Ahead.

As we enter into the home stretch of GED 512, I look back at our accomplishments with appreciation. The progress has been steady; each class and assignment building upon the previous lesson. Jennifer Robbins' "Learning Web Design" parallels our sessions nicely. I appreciate its clear and methodical approach; the step-by-step exercises, summaries, and end-of-chapter quizzes helping to reinforce the material.

One of my more rewarding moments in this class was the revelation of the synergy between structure and design in web development. Specifically, how HTML and CSS work together. I'm learning the importance of semantically marking up a document, then breathing life into it with CSS. It's like building a house. As soon as the walls, roof, windows, doors, etc. are built - the construction equivalent of HTML – a decorator is brought in to personalize it. Windows are treated, paint is applied, and eventually the place is furnished. CSS as interior decorator?

The challenges for me still, though, are plenty: Being mindful of the plethora of declarations, classes, and tags and when to best utilize them; all browsers are not created equal; what you see is seldom what you get; and the challenges of responsive design.  

One of the exercises that I found gratifying was the “Pimp My Shoes” online form exercise. I think it was due in large part to the interactive aspects and the immediate feedback once the form is submitted. Oh yeah, and it's pretty cool - in a geeky sorta way - to be able to click on the "HTML" button (next to the "Compose" on the upper left of this Blogger Post editor) and understand what's going on!

With an ever-increasing diversity of platforms, technologies, media, and who-knows-what-else, it’s never a dull moment for the folks in web design and development!