I did not realize how much I relied on many of these tools to get my degree. I had to really stop and think about how much easier my life was made using all these different tools to get my degree. Blackboard, Google Docs, Dropbox, and many more allowed me to get through school without owning a printer. I could save things on these different tools and go to the school library to print out my papers and projects. All these tools became second nature to me and did not realize how much money they saved me over my 5 years in school. It does surprise me that Twitter is the number one tool for education. I thought Blackboard or Moodle would be up near the top along with Google Docs or Power Point.
Web 2.0 has revolutionized the internet. Whenever I am looking for a restaurant to go to when on the road I always look for the reviews at the bottom from other people. Even for entertainment purposes I read some of the comments on YouTube videos that are pretty funny. When buying anything I look at reviews it gets online first. Also when trying to fix something in my house or on my computer I Google how to and what usually is the most helpful is other people's comments on how they fixed similar problems. The comments from other people now are almost more useful then anything else.
Out of the technology we have learned about so far, Facebook and Twitter will be the two that I really try to incorporate and use more as a basketball coach. When I am a head coach and have my own team I will create a Facebook fan page and a twitter account for my team. I will use this to promote games, posts stats and scores, post the schedule, and put up pictures of my team and games. These can be very useful tools to release information on my basketball team and can help with fundraising, getting bigger crowds at games, and making the players feel special. It can also help to promote my program for future recruits.
In today's society I think we all use some sort of these online tools. They are very helpful and useful in a lot of ways but I can also see how it scares people to use these tools because all of the information is stored in one place usually. I use Google for a lot of things including the calender and sometimes the Google Docs for my school assignments. The sites that are available to track money and bank accounts, like MINT, make me nervous to have all my financial information in one place ready for an identity thief to steal my money. They would be very disappointed in robbing me because they would not find much money! I use most of the apps on my IPhone to accomplish the other tools, such as setting reminders and alarms on my phone for events.
I think this article is proof that it is all about balance. In this new age of all the technological advances and students being all ages with all types of backgrounds, education has to appeal to everyone. There has to be a normal classroom setting with notes and lectures but then also the use of podcasts and recorded lectures for the athletes, single moms, or someone who got called into work late who had to miss class for a variety of reasons. As a student athlete I needed all the help I could get. In season I would miss at least two days of class a week and without professors posting their power point presentations online and articles I do not think I would have been able to make it through school. Now as a coach, I am all for professors posting lectures online as well to help students learn. The goal is for students to learn and graduate. However this gets accomplished is not the point, in my opinion, it is just finding out what works for the student and then reach the goal of graduation.
This article seems like a class I want to be in. As a student, my favorite classes are the classes where I gave a presentation in front of the class rather than having to write a final paper. I would much rather talk my way through a final instead of having to write it out. I would love to use the IPods with the ITalk mics to speak notes, thoughts, and research instead of handwriting or typing out notes. However I am also one of the students they talk about who has no idea how to use the IPod to create a podcast or use it for audio other then music I have downloaded. This would be a draw back for this learning strategy because the professor would have to take time from teaching subject matter to teach how to use the technology necessary. Especially with students today forking out large amounts of money or digging huge debts with student loans, students do not want to waste time learning about things not in the subject matter. Again, like all the technology discussed in this class, I am sure there is an appropriate balance in using this technology to get the best case scenario for all students learning objectives.
This article was a little to technical for me and a lot of it went right over my head. I have never taken a class that used podcasts as a text book or used them instead of reading material. A few classes used podcasts in class once or twice to set up an in class debate which I found to be very interesting. I think that podcasts would be a great thing for me because I would much rather listen to something then read it. However I can see how I could struggle also because I would not be able to mark up and highlight a sheet of paper that I normally do with a printed article. Using podcasts in education can really make learning more entertaining and perhaps a little more flashy then simply reading an article but now listening to a performance of sorts with music and beats mixed in to information.
I have seen these affects of the always on generation not being able to think deeply or follow directions given to them in person with my basketball team. We practice almost everyday for roughly two hours. Everyday without fail around the one hour mark into practice the coaches see a large drop off in mental focus. I think part of this is that they are never focusing on just one thing for more then about five minutes when they are on social media. So in real life when they are required to mentally lock into practice for two hours their brains cannot do this. We have started to structure our practices around this making sure we do the mentally challenging or real focus of the practices first when they are locked in and then try to do conditioning and skill work towards the second half of practice. Some days we do challenge them to stay focused for the entire two hours but if we want to win we need them to understand certain things so we are forced to do the mentally tougher parts of practice first.
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