The first week of the course has been somewhat overwhelming and thoroughly eye-opening. Knowing that we are all pioneering a new course design utilizing open tools rather than a desktop tool such as blackboard helps assuage some of my fear and create excitement. The pioneer spirit prevails! I realized right away that I am really a novice. Somehow, I had escaped any previous knowledge of web 2.0. The Go2Web20.net site displaying tiles of so many various 2.0 tools was mind boggling. The readings this week helped me to realize there is a whole new (for me) world of tech available for use in education (Cobb, 2008; Grush, 2008).
Okay, so I had heard about Facebook and MySpace, but had not been exposed to the term social networking in regard to these sites. According to Cobb (2008), “learning should be accessible and manageable through a personal learning environment,” that can be made available through social networking. I am intrigued by the personal learning environment (PLE) and look forward to learning more in the weeks ahead. In the article The Future of Web 2.0 (Grush, 2008), Gary Brown from WSU discusses PLEs as a possible alternative to the e-portfolio. Brown recognizes that e-portfolios are generally institution specific and are often used primarily as an assessment tool to monitor assignments. Brown believes the process needs to be truly student centered/driven. Utilizing web 2.0 tools allows students to “mash up a variety of applications, the results of which they own themselves and can make available to anyone” (pg. 2).
I was not aware social bookmarking was available with tools such as delicious. I had not even heard of social bookmarking! What a great tool allowing access to bookmarks from any computer and making it possible to form a network of users to expand bookmarking sites for specific educational purposes. I am interested in high fidelity simulation (SIM) experiences to help nursing students with technical skills acquisition. This is a fairly new field and instructors are struggling to get teams on board and find the time to develop SIM modules. Social bookmarking could provide a network of resources that can be readily shared by nurse educators striving to utilize the new SIM technology. When I figure out how to upload and imbed some links, videos, and such, I will provide some SIM information in my blog. Having never blogged before, just creating the blog site with categories, pages, and tags has been a huge step forward in the quest for technology in my educational endeavors.
References
Cobb, Jeff. (2008). Learning 2.0 for associations. Retrieved October 1, 2009 from http://www.tagoras.com/docs/Learning_20_for_Associations_v1.pdf
Grush, M. (2008). The future of web 2.0: An interview with WSU’s Gary Brown. Campus Technology. Retrieved October 2, 2009, from http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2008/02/The-Future-of-Web-20.aspx?Page=2&p=1
