Designing for Learners

In group 8, I found that we agreed on many different points as to how Ms. Chapman handled herself with regards to the new teacher. Often times it is too easy to try and dominate another person who is still new to something. Instead hear idea of listening to the concerns of her fellow teacher and getting permission to see the other side was well thought out. It showed Ms. Chapman valued the thoughts of the new teacher and that she was open to working on the problem. I think we could both agree that Ms. Chapman's recommendation to rule the class with more authority and stand behind the podium was a bit over the top. She was the instructor and the class should respect that. However, an instructor should also respect their class in being prepared, willing to help, and being reasonable in what is expected of them.

Audience members just like in the reading like to be engaged and not just read to. The text and also in my personal experience I have found that presenters/lecturers often lose their connection with the audience when they become monotone, remain stationary, or lack any sense of interest in what they are speaking about. I think some key points that should be taken into account are to be energetic and interested in what you are talking about. It conveys interest in the subject matter and keeps the audience from wandering. Audience involvement is also a good thing to have in moderation. Lastly, the speaker should move around a bit and not remain stationary. In all three of these points the constant is change. It's human nature to be drawn to new things and bored by those that are always the same. Things in a learning environment should be no different.

Bloom's taxonomy

Blooms taxonomy in relation to social media such as blogging and tweeting are related in these social mediums cause individuals to think. We are curious about what our friends are doing in their lives and about getting to know more about their opinions and thoughts on things. On a friend's blog he often posts about things going on in the economy and his ideas about those things. He is doing many of the things in Bloom's taxonomy. He is spreading knowledge, I am comprehending what he is writing and applying it to my life and formulating my opinion of what I have just read. We often don't realize that we are utilizing Bloom's different levels of thinking, and not always do we use them all. I know it's interesting watching my 2 year old son as he grows and see the correlation in the different levels of his own thinking. I think with Bloom's skills we have to just like a pyramid continually widen the lower foundation of skills before we can fully grasp the next. And once we reach the pinnacle, we spend the rest of our lives continually broadening this higher thinking pyramid.

Week 3 Blog: Myths and Online Learning

Online learning myths in my mind are just that. I generally try not too no put much faith in myths unless the source is a close friend. In the reading and while thinking about the myths that were covered I do think that online coursework is not easier than in the classroom. The reason is there are a lot more opportunities to allow yourself to get behind. You have to keep yourself accountable to getting assignments completed on time. On the opposite side, I do believe there to be a little truth to the myth that online courses are easier. In my search for a university to attend online I looked into the University of Phoenix. The courses they offer generally have no tests associated with them and most assignments were simply reading a lecture and responding with the student's opinion. Judging by the fact that their degrees are also not always held in high regard also could be a possibility from employers that I have talked to. Whether this remains the case now I am not certain of. But I am sure that it is situations like this that help foster these types of myths.

The other myth that you have to be computer geek in order to take online courses is in my eyes completely false. I have attended online coursework at two universities and both had very similar setups. In both situations, students were offered 24 hour technical support and their sites were very easy to understand and use. Instructors placed emphasis on students interacting with one another and fostering a learning environment. As I have seen stated many times before, if you can check your bank account online or shop online, then you are knowledgable enough to take a online course.

Beyond the myths, I think the greatest asset to this style of learning is that you are more open in what type of learning students are able to receive. It teaches one to improve upon their computer skills and become more comfortable with our reliance on technology. In my case, I have found myself more open to communicating online with others. I frequent sites like facebook and twitter with ease and find myself comfortable while doing it. Because of that familiarity, my interaction with my classmates feels more natural.

Week 2 Blog. Fair Use and Copyrighted Material

Fair use is simply defined as allowing “limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders” (Fair Use,” 2010, “Definition,” para.1). Issues of copyright infringement pertaining to fair use have been longstanding until they were ratified into the Copyright Act of 1976.

The problem with fair use is that it is generally never a cut and dry issue, but rather its issues are seemingly always more complex. Creators of different pieces of work are rightfully due credit for their works and with more and more content now days being posted online, it becomes increasingly so more difficult to police those violations. For example, an acquaintance of mine was working on her masters degree with the University of Texas at Dallas a couple years ago. She explained one time that she had been accused of plagiarism on some of her work by a professor. Come to find out there were a couple of charges brought on different classes. We hear about citing our sources and giving credit where it is due, however this hit close to home for me as I knew this person. I never fully found out the rest of the story except that she moved away and did not attend school here anymore. But the point is that you never know if and when something like this could happen. It’s easy to simply take another’s ideas and make them our own today.

Ten years ago a new type of violation of the fair use policy came to light. As we were ending 1999, the popularity of file sharing gained momentum among PC users. People, who were generally younger, had discovered a new means of getting music. File sharing applications had become popular as the Internet grew and people found that they could share items stored on their computers. One such service that was free called Napster enabled users to share copyrighted music online with other users. Then as MP3 players and shortly after the Apple iPod gained traction, what was originally a small problem had grown exponentially. A governmental agency called the Recording Industry Association of America got involved and eventually shut Napster down in 2005 while pursuing legal recourse against those who had shared content. The fair use of music was originally intended to allow end users the right to use the music on their devices, but was manipulated so that people were not paying for it. The result was the R.I.A.A. adapted itself, as did the recording industry. The government went after individuals in court cases seeking damages that were unreasonable and often unable to verify it was the named party. Meanwhile, music labels changed the fair use policies on music so that something called Digital Rights Media was placed on music to prohibit music from being illegally distributed.

Most recently, the R.I.A.A. got involved with another company like Napster. Just as before, the R.I.A.A. is trying to close a software maker LimeWire, a file-sharing client, on the violation of sharing copyrighted material that violates the fair use policies of the recording labels. Even though the software maker is not the party that owns the copyrighted material nor are they the source of it in this case, they have little control over the content. However, they are the medium through which the files are transferred. Cases like this and Napster have proven difficult to decide because these cases are all virgin territory and are setting the precedents for later cases. These file-sharing sites are also used to help undiscovered artists gain popularity and reach an audience they otherwise couldn’t. The underlying problem is that it has become increasingly difficult to go after the offending party who are masked by services, Internet providers, wireless Internet technologies, and a degree of anonymity behind an Internet Protocol address. So the solution is to get rid of the medium used to transfer the content.

Under fair use, people should be allowed to use purchased works on their different devices without limitation as specified by the labels. The question becomes, how to do this without limiting the purchasing owner’s fair use rights.

Reference:

Fair Use. (2010, June 7). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved

June 14, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

Hoffman, I. (2001). Fair Use: Further Issues. Retrieved June 14, 2010,

From http://www.ivanhoffman.com/fair2.html

Vijayan, J. (2010, June 9). On verge of closing, P2P vendor LimeWire hope for a

Settlement. Message posted to http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177871/On_verge_of_closing_P2P_vendor_LimeWire_hopes_for_a_settlement?taxonomyId=126&pageNumber=2

Week 1 Class/Session

My attendance with my class being online differs in many ways from when I have taken courses in a classroom. I typically log on as my schedule dictates which is a good change of pace as opposed to following a schedule of being at a certain time and place at two to three times a week. I generally will go to my office where I can get away from the distractions that keep my work from being done efficiently. I tend to look ahead and try and plan out when I am going to have my assignments completed by and then work ahead. I enjoy being able to communicate with my class members online as it seems like thoughts are shared more readily. During the week, I will typically work on an assignment for a class per day.

The areas I have found differ are in the room for error in online coursework. Because you do not have the face to face interaction, there has been a great deal of confusion for me. Areas where more clarification is needed can create a little more stress as well as being reliant upon online variables. In a class room you simply have to be at the location specified at the correct date and times. There is a lot more self-governing involved when you take your courses online.

Overall, I enjoy the online nature of the courses more so than a class room despite the few issues that tend to arise.

First Blog for LTEC 3440 What I hope to learn this semester

Over the semester I am looking to learn more about how our educational systems are integrating technology into the classroom and how this flows into our dealings outside of the classroom. With my wife already being a teacher it is amazing how different the teaching environment is to when I was in elementary. Kids now days are doing in kindergarten what I was doing in the 9th grade. Furthermore, as technology continues to accelerate and we become more connected as a society what this will mean in different areas of learning. Such as the methods of instruction, how we interact with lessons and one another, and how to combat plagiarism as our works increasingly shift to the digital age. The most important thing I hope to learn is about how our different learning styles mesh with this new digital age. With E-readers and our cellular phones performing more and more tasks, we are becoming a much more portable society