Joyce and Balance PLN

The presentation by Joyce Seitzinger was not the point for the time period of 2012 but will be the crux to everyday's issue we all faces and unless and until, detailed like Joyce, we will never get a chance to come over the impact of it.

It was a class conducted from EIT Napier, led by Joyce from Melbourne and participated even from Gisborn. It was for 2012 class, but, I felt she was sharing with us in 2013, and if repeated next year, someone will think of same. This is what the Digital Learning System is all about.

Her core thought was all about how to manage with the ‘Information Overflow or Bloat’, which demanding filtering and Joyce, raised a point of over filtering as ‘Filter Bubble’

http://alturl.com/w4k7p

I feel that today’s world has turnout to a constantly bursting volcano of information and this is because of our conscious or unconscious race toward technological advancement.

The result is the constant swapping and managing between bombardments of information we get on a daily basis and that feeling us totally muddled.

The referring of dividing PLN – Personal Learning Network in to four ‘Faces’ or categories- Staff Room, Cabinet, Portfolio, News Paper,  sounds quite logical and practical to me for the reason that they give you a systematic way to organizing the source of knowledge.



It is a serious question that how we will manage this and how should we lay a foundation to the method where the coming generation will not have to face this situation anymore and can well manage with the bloat.
 

It was assumed that with the emergence of the Internet things would become easier – saving trees by using or eliminating paper and more time to enjoy life.

No, it is never turn out as predicted, rather the cut down of paper flow has been replaced by shower of emails, inbox's bursting with unanswered mails, jobs incomplete for an absolute burden of having too much to perform and best of all it is has become part of today’s reality.



http://goo.gl/pkjRk

One of the reasons is the need to keep backup files of everything. After all, we think, when our hard drive crashes we have nothing left. So we create masses of duplicate copy to be sure “just in case”. Also the readiness of information is mind numbing at times.

We feel overwhelmed with where to look and what to do. So on we go on with the quest of finding success nirvana, only to turn in circles.

Monika Mundell stated that  'Modern life has also brought a never ending influx of choices ' Like private TV channel subscriptions, TV gaming, SMS, mobile phones, RSS subscriptions, a never-ending stream of offline and online publications, our favorite blogs and websites, and more.

Despite their intentions, these inventions have not just served to make life easier. The irony here is that they have actually made life harder — creating information overload and the added pressure of being reachable 24/7.

Gone are the days when one was waiting for a great book to be published or channel surfing the 5 or so TV channels we had in those days. Back then we weren't ruled by information at all. It was actually a lot harder to come by information which gave us plenty of breathing space.



Data control and how one can master it 



My PLN

To take control of the influx of constant data that enters our life, one can do several things. These are all easy to implement and will make a huge difference in how you deal with the information that enters your mind.

Much like a computer, we only have space for so much, until our own hard drive (mind) starts to act up.

If it is overloaded, then our system management will shut down one by one until…

Take these action steps to deal with information overload:

• Email: Since most of us are using the Internet, we will need to take measures to get back in control. To start with, we need to ruthlessly eliminate all the non-relevant stuff that sits in our inbox. Those “later” things are not important enough to keep clogging up space. Also be strict with the time you devote to your email inbox. One hour a day should be more than ample for most.
• TV: TV probably accounts for a huge deal of information overload. Despite the fact that we watch TV to relax, it is actually counter productive as we soak up a lot of information through our subconscious.
• Mobile Phones: I know, it’s pretty cool to be the proud owner of the latest gadget mobile phone. I also love gadgets but regardless of how cool they look and how sexy they feel, I turn my mobile off at night and sometimes even during the day. The reason I bought a mobile phone in the first place was to be able to call others in case I was stranded somewhere. Plus the annoyance of getting more and more call center calls to my mobile only makes me more determined to hit that off switch.
• Unwatched Recorded Shows: Uhh, yeah, I used to be a sucker for not missing my favorite show to the extent of recording them, only to end up with days’ worth of recording and not enough time to watch them all. Take a hint – throw them in the bin.
• RSS Feeds: With the invention of RSS feeds we were supposed to be saving time, reading our favorite blogs. The reality however looks a lot different. Because it is so easy to hit that subscribe button, we now do ourselves another dis-service by subscribing to a gazillion blogs we don’t even like anyway. I clean out my RSS feeds at least once a month. Those I haven’t read in that time will have to go.
• Backups: Are essential for anybody who uses a computer and stores data. To keep control of the backed up data, why not burn all the photos and videos onto a DVD? It will take up less storage than having to buy more and more external HDs to keep backing up. Also, one backup should normally be enough and for those of us who need two, maybe a written copy (passwords, login data) will be more useful.
• Meditate: I purposely left this for last, since meditation can help us immensely with information overload. Preferably you will want to meditate once a day just before bed. Even if it is just for 5 minutes, with meditation we can stop that ever constant chatter that goes on in our head and indulge into the restful sleep we so desperately need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q08UNoJW8-g

Finally it is all about having a perfect balance in day to day life (Which was aimed with all innovations so far ) and to have that ‘Perfect Balance’ we need to balance our inclination towards technology and reliance on it.

Web 2 - Birth of Interactive & Responsive Media - Week 4

The technical advancement in web technologies - use of asynchronous JavaScript (AJAX) techniques has offered many features to website to be more ‘responsive’ and ‘easy to interact’ with.

http://readwrite.com/files/files/files/images/web20map_sept11b.jpg

Whilst web 2.0 fundamentals are still applicable, the internet has really now moved on to a new era where the social web is the centre of most people's experience of the internet. Web 2.0 can be seen as a precursor to this era, which is a more fundamental change that what we saw during the mid-2000s.

In another way it was the birth of the social web. Social sites which allowed sharing of content with large number of users (e.g. Flickr, delicious, YouTube etc.) came to prominence. Yahoo! Answers can be viewed as a web 2.0 sites, as it allowed people to easily create content and interact in a way that didn't exist before.

Pro networking sites, ‘LinkedIn.com’, have come up as a respected domicile to meet new employees, employers or clients, reconnect and fortify relationships with friends and former colleagues, and prime most for career building to the beginner into professional world or to get carrier-related advice.

http://socialmedia.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/linkedin.png

As a standardised norms emphasis that the value of any particular site hinges on the number of people using it -- and the quality of those people. It is estimated that roughly more than 20 million people have profiles on LinkedIn. There are some other sites like Spoke.com, are available, but they cater to more specific purposes, even if they have fewer members compare to LinkedIn.

The concern about time commitment, is valid, and shouldn't be overblown, says Barry Parr, a media analyst with Jupiter Research in San Francisco. The more you give quality time in building the profile, more quality result it will generate. It also depends on how much time you're willing to spend making key connections or communicating through the site and building and updating your profile. For an instance, a profile with two connections won't get you very far. Once the profile is developed, with regular time dedicated to the follow-up will fetch great results.

As the time progress the network do progress with additional features and feathers to add on to its’ members cap. These features must first evolve and then adopted assuring its suitability to individual profile.

LinkedIn, for instance, offers service providers a referral feature where they can solicit reviews and referrals from other users. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hyqUAb6LRI

One of the present features called LinkedIn Answers, is a good way to gather feedback from the personnel network about many points pertaining to one’s professional and personal ambiance.

Once you're set up, maintaining your profile often takes just a few minutes each day, but the rewards, will be far going.

Skills - Teachers are Demanded For - Week 3

The hi-tech expansion of recent time has upsurge an utter novel form of teaching in entire world. To be ‘Techno Savvy’ is the orderly characteristic today’s generation possess compare to the tutors they are under the guidance.  

The second to kin status is slowly shifting from close relatives to their mobile devices. Emphatically, the change technological advancement bringing in is inevitable and do carry, as a nature of law, its’ positives’ and negatives’.

The core changes were seen and reflected as shortage of concentration power, the level of distraction, visual stimulus overload,  are growing very high as the technology is changing with the blink of an eye demanding for a sprint rather a walk to coup up with it. .

• Lack of real socialising,
• Nearly lack of attentiveness for the whole class time,
• Identity theft,
• Depression and many more are the direct and negative result of modern bombardment of changing technology and its’ incorporation to the world of education.

If this side sounds too heavy to deal with, once again as a nature of law, the other side, a positive one’ has the same heavy offerings to balance.

There is much more to extract from the development of the technology and its invariable involvement in the field of education.

The list of pros and cons can go on and on as the developmental process of technology is also a continued process, but to sum up, the few of the core skills the teachers required are  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ECK3Lcuek

• Balancing of the integration of technology in traditional education system – the trade-off is crucial.
• Participating in the professional virtual network to keep updated.
• A case to case base assisting to student for developing their real and virtual social network.
• Offering enough study opportunity for individual requirement of student, so they can strongly develop and implement the digital learning confidently in their life span.
• An inspirational identity to their digitally qualified student.

These are the few of vital skills a teacher required to offer digitalised knowledge to the student. Ford, M D. (2010). 25 wrote at ‘The 21st Century skills teachers should have. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning’ pointing some of them as 

http://point.richmond.edu/atc/blogs/octopus_media2.png

• Developing and editing Digital Audio and Video
• Using social media to share knowledge with the learner.
• Creating on line educational platform through ‘Blog’ and ‘Wiki”
• Exploiting Digital image for educational purpose with the help of various image editing tools.
• Using video to further the engagement level of student
• Extensive use of info graphics to further the stimulation of student .
• Use of ‘Slide Presentation’ with the tools like Ahead, HelloSlide, Knovio and many more.
• Understanding the crucial aspect of Online Security.
• Word processing skills (MS Word 2007 tutorial, WP tutorial for PC and Mac)
• Spread sheet/database skills (Excel tutorial , Spreadsheet tutorial for PC and Mac,Database tutorial)
• Electronic presentation skills (PowerPoint, KeyNote, Notebook)
• Web navigation/search skills (Internet basics)
• Basic hardware setup/connectivity knowledge and skills (Hardware tutorial)
• Website design skills (Blogger, WordPress, Google Sites, Advanced web design)
• E-mail management skills (Gmail tutorial & tips)
• Digital cameras (still & video) (Basic digital photography)
• Basic multimedia design skills (Movie Maker tutorial, iMovie)
• Computer network knowledge applicable to your school system (Network basics)
• File management (basic concepts & tutorial)
• Downloading software from the Internet (Step-by-step instructions)
• Installing computer software onto a computer system (Here come da bootstrapper)
• Knowledge of virtual/e-learning environments (Overview of VLEs)
• Videoconferencing skills (Overview, Skype)
• Computer-related storage devices (CD/DVDs, USB drives, server storage, online storage, etc.)
• Knowledge of scanners (Tips from scanning guru Wayne Fulton)
• Knowledge of PDAs, smartphones, etc. (PDA vs. smartphone, smartphone history & overview)
• Custom Internet search knowledge (Google custom search)
• Educational copyright knowledge (Video, slideshow, or crib sheet)
• Computer security knowledge and safe practices (Best practices from IU)
• Basic troubleshooting skills (Is it plugged in?  Did you reboot? Yes? Then try this.)
• Interest in technology (Delete technophobia)
• Flexibility
• Patience

And many more such skills are demanded with the day to day explosion's of technology.

But the vital skill, a teacher needs to cultivate over a period of time, is to know the new technology or feature and co – relate the use at right point of education process and the limitation of reliability and reliance of that technology in the growth process of Digital Learning.

The Use of Digital Learning Technologies - Week 3

The use of digital learning technologies in the field of education at every single level has set of benefits for both, teachers and student. The latest severe progression in the arena of technology has sprouted numerous gears and skills to incorporate in knowledge environment.

The requisite to be technical savvy for teacher and student is not the core criteria with the recent development of user friendly technologies. The best example is the vast features extended by Smart TV and popularity of tablets taking share of desktop and laptop.

At school level, the use of interactive smart board has given extensive freedom to teacher and student to explore without the time consuming process of writing everything on board every time. The same material once used can be used much time by various teachers and could be updated to the requirement, without the process of re-writing it.

The student can re-use the material as and when they wish to and can practice to perfection. The vast availability of software’s to expand further the impact of true digital learning has become a matter of necessity. 

For instance ‘Zoho Projects”’ is a project management tool that defines the task, milestones, status report (including Gantt Chart) time tracking and file sharing. Tasks and subtasks can be structured in nested form, with duration, start date, due date, and task owner easily defined. Task owners can even be notified by e-mail of a task assignment (by the project manager). Amongst other features, team meetings can also be scheduled.

For students, may be a bit extreme for the average student, but seniors or grad students working on large, multi-stage projects with or without other students can use Zoho Projects to manage the workload.

Similarly, teachers can manage large research projects involving colleagues and/or students.

The use of tablets at different platform is gradually taking place of much of paper work submitted for evaluation by student, so to the drastic reduction in time for teacher to access, as most of the answer are assessed immediately on submission.

A Visualization of Modern Class  Room - Raj Jadeja

Another great advantage of technology is ‘Live Rerecording” of audio and video in class is to offer many additional features to people involved directly or indirectly.

To teacher, the repetitive video watching facilitate further to understand each student requirement much in detail, without relying heavily on self-memory. Even the repetitive video watching gives a platform to raise self-standard further.

The student can explore weak area where they require more concentration and the management involve in development and exploration of education standards, can virtually work out which area needs further training and additional working for teachers and the best performer do not have to wait for growth.

Adoption of Technology & Its Impect - Week 3

The change never happens overnight in the field of education, it took its own pace to evolve.

The current sources of knowledge are schools, polytechnics, universities and Private Organisations. They are part of a structured system, established and evolved since the existence of civilised human race.

The current stage is also a modernised version of study system to ancient one, where the change were through different phases happening over period of time. But, yes, had their impact during and after the happening of the change, so will this change.

"Technology provides us an opportunity to tackle chronic education challenges in new ways thanks to increasing use and access, constant innovation, and falling costs.  Technology can be a tool to drive equity and to help transform how education is delivered, making learning more student-centred and recognizing teachers as education designers,"

As yet the technology is carving in to the old system of education, the need and impact for the established sources of knowledge, will to keep it running and offering

A perfect blend of personal as well as technology’s use at school level, as at school level the teachers a quite a role model  for many aspects a technology can not cover.

In the future, schools that keep pace with learners will:

• Lead the process of articulating what learners will need to know and be able to do in a dynamic world where employability is key
• Help prepare and train teachers to effectively facilitate instruction in the ever-evolving landscape of education
• Help develop interoperability across programs, services, data-scapes, and learning platforms
• Support the development of public-private partnerships and harness social innovations that can expand the array of resources, organizational formats for “school,” and opportunities available to all students
• Ensure that everyone in the learning ecosystem has access to, and the capacity to use, the data needed to make effective decisions about learners
• Collaborate with stakeholders across the learning ecosystem to identify ways of evaluating the quality of diverse learning agents and learning providers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oPi3BV9ogY

At polytechnic and university level, the much focused approach and assuring stability, like 24 x 7 availability of Moodle. The design and instruction part of knowledge does demand for a research, based on how the student perceives the progression of knowledge evolving process and offering a very student friendly system. This will reduce chances of confusion at student end.

For the private organisation, offering knowledge with the help of technology, will be well organised, time and money saving, but surly very result oriented one. As the requirement for the knowledge is well define and the level of the recipient is well known, the delivery of knowledge with the help of technology will be much effective.  

The Progressiveness Impect

The change never happens overnight in the field of education, it took its own pace to evolve.

The current sources of knowledge are schools, polytechnics, universities and Private Organisations. They are part of a structured system, established and evolved since the existence of civilised human race.

The current stage is also a modernised version of study system to ancient one, where the change were through different phases happening over period of time. But, yes, had their impact during and after the happening of the change, so will this change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_u33adCvqs

"Technology provides us an opportunity to tackle chronic education challenges in new ways thanks to increasing use and access, constant innovation, and falling costs.  Technology can be a tool to drive equity and to help transform how education is delivered, making learning more student-centred and recognizing teachers as education designers,"

As yet the technology is carving in to the old system of education, the need and impact for the established sources of knowledge, will to keep it running and offering

A perfect blend of personal as well as technology’s use at school level, as at school level the teachers a quite a role model  for many aspects a technology can not cover.

In the future, schools that keep pace with learners will:

• Lead the process of articulating what learners will need to know and be able to do in a dynamic world where employability is key
• Help prepare and train teachers to effectively facilitate instruction in the ever-evolving landscape of education
• Help develop interoperability across programs, services, data-scapes, and learning platforms
• Support the development of public-private partnerships and harness social innovations that can expand the array of resources, organizational formats for “school,” and opportunities available to all students
• Ensure that everyone in the learning ecosystem has access to, and the capacity to use, the data needed to make effective decisions about learners
• Collaborate with stakeholders across the learning ecosystem to identify ways of evaluating the quality of diverse learning agents and learning providers

At polytechnic and university level, the much focused approach and assuring stability, like 24 x 7 availability of Moodle. The design and instruction part of knowledge does demand for a research, based on how the student perceives the progression of knowledge evolving process and offering a very student friendly system. This will reduce chances of confusion at student end.

For the private organisation, offering knowledge with the help of technology, will be well organised, time and money saving, but surly very result oriented one. As the requirement for the knowledge is well define and the level of the recipient is well known, the delivery of knowledge with the help of technology will be much effective.