It is undeniable that social medias have unlimited value on many facets such as personal, business and entertainment but there are also many downsides such as time wasting, distracting and sometimes even personally dangerous. I wholeheartedly agree with the point a view brought up yesterday that students need to be taught, or more appropriately mentored on how to use these platforms responsibly. It makes sense, if that’s the goal, to learn as much as we can about them. Let’s not forget that people have lost their jobs in part because of Facebook addictions.

That being said, the thought of Twitter really stresses me out but I will give it my best shot. I’m really looking forward to the presentations of next week and finding out what other new technologies I’m going to learn about. Thank you very much Dave for all your hard work preparing for this class. See you on Twitter…

Although I enjoyed reading the “syllabus”, I feel there were a few basic points missing from traditional syllabuses I have read and written in the past. i.e.,
- Instructor office hours or best communication practices
- Clearly defined goals and outcomes
- Course calendar or schedule
- Resources (other than ourselves)
- Course policies regarding attendance and late work

Having said all that, I am excited about breaking free from the traditional course mold. On July 12th, Sandy posted that “The strong element of uncertainty inherent in this course contradicts much of what is accepted with respect to adult learning”. I would somewhat agree with this statement. However, the fact that the learner’s prior knowledge is valued, that they are the center of the learning experience, and the learning is hands on and interactive all jive nicely with andragogy principles.

I am anxiously awaiting more details regarding the assessments and their expectations. Will rubrics be provided?

I too am skeptical about the 10 minutes per evening time commitment. But, I’m okay with that. I wouldn’t call it homework, just an extended reflection period.

It seems to me that the challenge here is not to keep abreast of all new technologies, a feat which is monumental, if not impossible. However, a teacher should at least be open to the idea of new and emerging technologies and recognize both their limitations and strengths for use in an educational setting.

Realistically, though, I’d suggest that we “reflective” learners will likely require more than 10 minutes per day outside class time to fully absorb the material

Cheers.

It also really comes down to content as well, I usually only change my status on facebook about once every few weeks, I really am not concerned with statues such as “STEFFEN HOOD is combing his hair and eating a bag of chips”.

Right, bye then.

The main idea of having each student help each other in collaborative learning is key to learning and really follows the activity based learning that I use in the class today which leaves to discovery which is real learning.

This is all different but as long as I have an idea where we are going that will be fine.

I am sure I will have lots of questions and that is how I learn.

Patrick