Week 13: TCC 2012 Online Conference

Aloha! This week was my first experience with the TCC Online Conference. Actually, it's my first time attending any conference.  This experience was a great one.  There were so many different presentation topics available to learn about. One in particular was Laureen's presentation on Electronic Resources.  Not only did I learn a lot from the presentation, I also got to see what it's like to be in a presentation & give a presentation since I'll be giving one next year. I got to comment on discussion forums and share my thoughts about the presentation topics.  It was interesting to see everyone else's discussion posts.

My group & I will be working together to complete a group reflection on the TCC 2012 online conference.  It'll be interesting to see what their thoughts are on the conference & how their experience went.  I created a "Storify" to share with others  about the TCC Conference.  It was also my first experience with Storify so that was fun also.  I also created Tweets about the conference labeled with the hastag #2012tcc. You can go ahead and check those out.  If you haven't experienced a TCC Conference I would highly recommend you check it out in the future.

Aloha & God Bless!
chelseaETEC

Week 12: Internet of Things

In class tonight, we talked about "Internet of Things".  We had group discussion breakout rooms where we could brainstorm some ideas and we shared 3 of those ideas with the class. The three ideas we shared were:

• Museum: Class excursion to a museum (BYOD environment) teacher allows students 1 hour to explore. GPS on phone to track students onto teacher's ipod and teacher can tell where students' are located within the museum and see who returns on time. Maybe museum has a app for it. Social learning atmosphere could be created with students interacting via class forum etc. (Could be for any location)
• Culinary: device that calculates temperature & time and utensils, pots, etc. that measure students' performance,
• PE/Nutrition: device that communicates calories intake, burned, etc  or PE teacher wants to chart student's progress, there can be a link to a class website where the info would upload directly to a gradebook, Using Edmoto to link student progress online

I also registered for the TCC Online Conference.  That should be exciting.  I've never been a part of an online conference and I'm looking forward to this one.

Spring Break

Just a quick update: It's officially spring break & my Augmented Reality group and I have come up with a very fun topic for our AR project.  We've got some excellent clues to lead participants to figure out our famous historical figure.  It'll be a lot of fun to see who can guess our historical figure.

I'll be trying out the free AR app, Aurasmic when doing the AR project.  Hopefully everything goes smoothly and it's not too hard to figure out.  Have a wonderful spring break everyone!

Week 11: Augmented Reality

I was extremely confused with the concept of Augmented Reality and trying to understand what exactly it is at first. We had a guest speaker Mr. Honeycutt who talked with our class and explained to us more about Augmented Reality. He discussed Aurasma, a free augmented reality application. In small groups, we discussed some simple questions regarding augmented reality and we also searched for our own free augmented reality apps.  There were a bunch of free ones and many people found some interesting ones to share with the class.

We will begin working on our AR group project where we are going to use the Aurasma application to share clues to our topic and link them to a common logo/symbol.  Other group members need to figure out our topic using the clues.  It sounds like a really fun project so I am looking forward to completing it and seeing the other groups' projects also.

Week 10: Internet Privacy & Digital Identity

Week 10 was about internet privacy & digital identity.  I learned a lot about how information is shared on the information & got to share my thoughts on internet privacy and digital identity through our discussion posts.  I also learned about how some people are having issues with Google's privacy policy changes.  It's actually quite scary what is shared over the information.  We need to be extra safe with what we share over the internet.  Definitely do not share any personal information over the internet.  This also makes me more skeptical of Cloud Computing and storing my files in a cloud. If you'd like to hear more about my thoughts, check out my discussion post.

Week 9: Gesture Based Computing

For this week, we are learning about gesture based computing.  We got to choose a scenario and explain it in the discussion post.  I chose a game using gestures to dissect animals.  I think it would be a good game because a lot of people might be against dissecting real animals or might get grossed out doing it.  The game I chose would involve science and fine motor skills.  I wrote about how I'd like my game to be as realistic as possible and allow learners to use realistic tools to complete the dissection.

My Tsunami Evacuation Group 4 worked together last night to put the finishing touches on our project.  We did our evacuation route based out of Kahului, Maui. I thought this project was really interesting especially with the Tsunami in Japan occurring recently.  It allowed me to see what areas are in or out of the evacuation zone and also how to map out my own evacuation route just in case Hawai'i has a tsunami warning. We shared our evacuation routes on 2 social media tools: Picassa and Flickr.

Have a great week everyone, God Bless!

Week 8: Intellectual Property and Copyright

We had a guest speaker, Mr. Masaki who spoke to us about intellectual property and copyright.  I didn't know much about the rules of what is on the web.  Most people aren't aware of the digital rights and what is considered "stealing" on the internet.  There are many rules that are supposed to be followed when using music from other artists or when cover bands sing other artists' song that I wasn't even aware of.

Week 7: Game Based Learning

We were learning about game based learning and for our discussion assignment, I chose to write about the game Treasure Mountain.  I chose this game because I remember playing it when I was a child and I found it engaging.  Although this game is very outdated and there isn't a recent version of it, the educational aspects of if seem to be very great.  The game integrates different subjects including reading, math, and logic.  I enjoyed reading everyone else's discussion posts and learned that there are many great educational games out there.

iTunes U seems to be an interesting resource.  I'm still trying to get the hang of it and figure out where everything is but overall it seems like a good resource to know of.  Have a great day!

Mobile Trends

I'm not a huge user of mobile applications but I know many people who are on their smart phones and applications A LOT.  I even see young children playing with their parents smart phones and using the applications.  I see it as a positive and negative. 

One night while I was out at dinner with my other half, we noticed an entire family sitting at the table across from us each on their cell phones looking down.  There was no conversation going on and I was actually curious as to what they were doing on their cell phones.  Were they playing games? Reading the news?  Facebooking? Texting?  I'm not sure but I notice that with all the mobile applications and enhancements with cell phones, society is spending a lot more time on their cell phones.  Will this negatively impact the social skills of our society as time progresses and more enhancements are made? 

One positive about mobile applications, especially relating to education is that learners in developing countries have the same access to these applications (if they are fortunate to have a smart phone with access to internet/applications)  as learners in non-developing countries have.  It seems the playing field of access to education is slowly being leveled out.  Of course, it will not be completely equal but with the use of mobile applications, at least a little more access to materials and resources are being provided to learners who may not have direct access to it in the first place.

Aloha & Have a wonderful, Blessed day everyone!

iTunes U

iTunes U?  It's not the usual iTunes that we use just to download our favorite songs and put them onto our iPod.  iTunes, like many other softwares are beginning to emerge and provide more services. I'm excited to begin this group project on iTunes U with my group.  We've met on Skype and decided that our topic will coincide with our next project... Tsunamis! I've got a great group to work with so I'm excited to get this started.

Some info about iTunes U:

• FREE application that makes it easy to create courses & access materials for courses
• Features include- Audio & video, presentations, PDFs, Documents, iBooks etc.
• Content sharing with ANYONE, ANYWHERE in the world

If you haven't heard of iTunes U, I'd definitely recommend that you check it out.  It's a great resource to be aware of.

Have a Blessed day everyone!

Week 5: Guest Speaker Dr. Kumiko Aoki on OER

Technology provides many opportunities and ways to communicate with others.  Our guest speaker was speaking to us all the way from Japan.  Dr. Kumiko Aoki explained Open Educational Resources to us.  I was not aware of OER prior to this class. Some things I've learned:

• OCW= (Open CourseWare)
• Some OCW classes from MIT were translated to Chinese for Chinese Universities
• There are OCW movements in China, Taiwan, India, Korea
• Open University in Japan is the ONLY open university in Japan

In my opinion, OCW seems to be a great way for people to learn especially if they are unable to pay for a college education or if they are restricted from traveling to a college (disabilities, no transportation, lack of funds etc.).

Cloud Computing

I'll admit, I am learning WAY more than I ever thought I would learn about emerging technologies from this ETEC 647 class.  When I think of emerging technologies, I think of technologies like smartboard, iPad, tablets and the other technologies I am already pretty familiar with but little did I know, there are a WHOLE LOT of emerging technologies that I have no idea about.

Cloud computing is the current topic we are learning.  Sound simple? Not quite.  We were provided with some resources to read through & some videos to watch that describe what cloud computing is and it's purpose but it is still quite a concept to grasp.  I mean, I am familiar with google docs and dropbox but I didn't know they were considered "cloud softwares".  I know after this assignment I'll be much more knowledgeable on this subject.  That is what I love about this class, I seriously learn something new every week! 

ByteMarks & Melissa808

In class, we got to listen to some very influential speakers in the technology world.  I was really taking in everything Melissa was saying regarding social networking and promoting a business/company because I do the same at work.  I was able to relate to some of the points she was making and I also got some very helpful advice.

I also wanted to say that I really enjoy the "twitter" project that we will be doing throughout the semester.  I've never used too much of twitter before besides for work purposes but now that I've been participating in this project, I've learned more about twitter and how I can use it as a technological tool in the workplace.

Thank you to our guest speakers Burt and Melissa.

God Bless you everyone!
ChelseaETEC

Discussion 1

Discussion 1 was meant to make me think about how educational technology will change within the next 3-5 years and what technologies will have the greatest impact during this period.  I've come to the conclusion that technology is emerging so vastly and becoming more and more integrated into everyday life. After reading the different readings, I realized that the technologies I believe will have the greatest impact during this period is most likely going to be the technologies that are easily accessible and collaborative.  I think social media is going to continue to impact the world and more so education in the coming years.

First Week

After completing my first week in the ETEC 647 Emerging Technologies class, I got to learn about what emerging technologies means after brainstorming with my classmates.  I got to meet my new professor, Dr. Burt Kimura and some new classmates. 

One of the assignments we were assigned is a brief introduction video using Web 2.0. I am to introduce one of my classmates Raymond.  I plan to do this by using some pictures and audio and put it together into a brief video.

I'm excited to dive into this class and learn about the emerging technologies that can be used!