This is a short five minute video on networking. It tells of a student learning American Psychology (you can use this with any subject.) where he has a mixed class of personal meetings and online. The main topic of this video is building your network. In one way it is to build on your PLN (Personal Learning Network). This student uses Google Scholar. He posts URLs and searches for others that have done the same. He looks for blogs that others have written on the same subject. He then takes all of his information that he has gathered and in turn makes his own blog. This student also love his MP3 player. He doesn't just listen to music on it. He downloads podcasts and videos from itunesU. ItunesU has lectures from actual professors. His teacher is there to help him build his network and guide him when he gets stuck. All of this work creates what is known as his network.
In all honesty this video makes very little sense to me. I understand it as a whole but to help me with building my own PLN it gives me nothing. I really feel like this blog out of all of the ones we have done is a waste. The only thing I feel like I got from it was learning about the itunesU which seems like a really cool idea. It is definitely something I will look into and even tell my grandfather about. He is really big on taking online courses he wishes he was able to take. I was highly disappointed in this assignment.
The idea of networking is in itself a good idea but it does seem like extra work. I don't feel like it is easy to find other blogs for instance. It may just be because I am not a master at Google or in all honesty if it isn't on the first ten pages of Google I usually give up looking. It all seems like a good idea, being able to find all this information on a topic and then writing a blog about what all you found and then in turn having someone else find it all. It seems rather helpful. I just really need to see the end product and then figure out the steps to get there. Networking is rather tricky topic.
7th Grader's PLN
This video gave me a lot of ideas. I realize I really need to look more into what a PLN can look like. I was more envisioning a list and to see all these colorful little blocks it really inspired me. I think judging from the video that she used a site that helped her create a PLN. I really need to discover more about what I need to include into my PLN. It was helpful to see how she used her PLN. It appeared to me that she uses this site that she created as a starting point to when she goes online. It seems that she goes here every day and uses this to stem off what she is going to do the rest of the time she is online. It is all in one spot so she doesn't have to search or type in an URL. I really liked her format and how she uses it. It gave me a lot of ideas.
Ash,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that you were disappointed by the Networked Student assignment. He also wanted you to see the role that the teacher has in connecting the student to their network, assisting, filtering, and guiding. In the last minute or so of the video, the teacher is given names like "learning architect" and "modeler". The reason this video was assigned was to show you, as a student, how to organize the information that you find on the internet (try some sites like delicious, reddit, or my favorite- StumbleUpon) and also, as a teacher, how you will guide the student in their use of the internet. It is a good video because it deals with both sides.
Also, the site the student used in "A 7th Grader's PLN" was Symbaloo. It is a good way to manage all of the sites that you use, like one big bookmark control room. I like StumbleUpon also because you can go there to find interesting blogs, videos, etc by topic and then share them to Twitter or Facebook OR store them to your favorites.
Just thought I would step in and shed some light since you seemed a little discouraged. Hope you had an enjoyable break :)
Carly
Carly has provided excellent advice. You missed the point of The Networked Student. It is a look at an entirely different way of teaching and learning than you have been exposed to (except, to a certain extent, in this class). It appears to me that it is quite different from the way you think you want to learn and to teach. My contention is that this approach will be what we should be doing in classes in the future. I hope that you will become a Networked Teacher. Even if you don't, you must understand this approach and why it can be a very powerful teaching and learning method. It does not appear to me that you understand it.
ReplyDeleteI want you to read jessica Bonner's post on this assignment. It is excellent and should help you understand what you missed in the video. Leave her a comment after you read her post and think about what she had to say about it. I will automatically get a copy of your comment and will be looking forward to reading it.
ReplyDeleteHey Ash,
ReplyDeleteEven though you didn't really understand the video (which is okay) I think you wrote a very nice blog. The only thing I would have to say, is just read over your post before you submit because I saw some little grammatical errors. I thought it was very well written and extremely honest; which sometimes in blogs people just write what they think others want to hear. Goodluck and hopefully we can both become networking teachers :)
Anna Shartzer!