Reflection Post 5

A very interesting thing we did in class today was take a Carmen Quiz about learning styles. I was interested in learning about how I learn, because I have actually put a lot of thought into it, but I never knew what style of learning was best for me. I found the parts of the outcome of the quiz very surprising. I would have bet good money that I was a verbal learner and not a visual learner, but the quiz results said that I was a very solid visual learner. Using this information I have just learned about myself, I can now make my learning much more efficient, because I will truly know what kind of learning works best for me.

In class today we also learned about interesting things like how to learn from podcasts and online videos. I have consistently listened to a couple podcasts for a while now, and I never really considered that I could use podcasts to learn. I will keep that in mind, and perhaps I will now find a good educational podcast to help me learn more about a topic that I am interested in.

Educational Videos Quiz

In this video a revolutionary teacher explains his method of teaching math to right-brain learners. I found this very interesting, as I have always thought of myself as a very far right-brain learner. I think he provides a good alternate for kids who may be excelling in areas like English and social studies, but not math. Although I don't ever see this method replacing the traditional method of teaching math, it is a very interesting and different way to teach math.

This video actually did help me understand basic math in a different way. It won't change the way I add two simple numbers, but I had definately given me another way to do math, and provides me with an intresting alternate. I feel that if I had been taught math this way since I was young, maybe I would use this method of learning math instead of the traditional one.

Reflection Post 4

Throughout the last couple of weeks I have been using Google's tools much more. I use Google calender a lot at my job, I now exclusively use Google e-mail, and I am now starting to use Google Docs. Today in class we watched a shot video explaining how Google Docs are much more efficient than sending work through e-mail attachments. I thought it was amazing how much better the Google way of doing things is. It really does save a lot of time and effort, and best of all, it is free. I have always been told if something is too good to be true, it is, so I'm watching you Google! I am waiting for the catch, the $19.99 a year subscription, but from what I've been told, it's not coming. I hope that all these Google tools will be free for the public to use for a long time.

Another useful tool we learned about today in class was doodle.com. It can be tough for a group of people to work around their busy schedules, and doodle.com offers an easy to read interface that allows people to collaborate together. I will make sure to use this tool the next time I am working on a group project.

Reflection Post 3

Today in class we learned about the difference between "search" and "research". I had never really considered the two words to be very different. I had always simply thought that research was just a fancy way of searching, and nothing more. However, I learned that research is a formulated process of looking for a source, while searching is simply looking for something that you want, finding it, and citing it as a source. I realize that I have been "searching" for most of my academic life, and I need to do a lot more "research" instead.

Another important topic we talked about today in class was source credibility. I have always been aware of the basic questions that should be asked about a source's credibility, like possible bias, but today I was introduced to more important questions like, "is the source's contact information available?", or "what is the reputation of the publisher?". I will always keep these questions in mind when researching an article for an assignment.

Reflection Post 2

During this session of class, we had an assignment to find 5-7 helpful websites to help with web learning and time management. I did not know of too many helpful websites, so I had to go looking for some. I am very grateful that we were assigned this task, because I found some really helpful websites. The best one I found was www.easybib.com. This website allows you to plug in the information to your source, and it creates the bibliography for you. I think that this is an unbelievably helpful if it is used correctly.

I feel like a got a lot of out of the reading for today. It was a couple pages of a very simple and easy guidelines for what to do before you create a portfolio, what to do while you have a portfolio, and what to do after you have created a portfolio. The best part about this reading was that it told me exactly want I wanted and needed to know. I feel that if Internet sources were this straightforward and easy to read, people would be a lot less skeptical about relying on the Internet to learn.

Reflection Post 1

I have known what blogs are for a long time, and I have even read a few blogs, but I never expected to have a blog of my own. I hope that I enjoy having a blog, but more importantly I hope that people enjoy reading my blog.

I thought that our first reading, "The 7 things you should know about...Blogs", was very helpful. Although I have been aware of what blogs are, my understanding of them is still very basic. This reading helped my understand what blogs really are, and why they are significant. I also loved how the article was obviously written for people who do not have a lot of experience with blogs, because I am definitely one of those people.

I found the second reading, "Content Delivery in the 'Blogosphere'" very interesting. Although it was pretty long, every one of the points make a lot of sense to me. After reading this article, I felt like I understood the value of blogs more, and I now feel that they can be a very valuable instrument in the classroom.