Reflection on Blogging

I've always thought blogs were a great way to get out your ideas to the world and share your ideas. I think one of the big benefits of this class was connecting with my classmates, being able to read their thoughts and "network" a bit with them. Hopefully they will continue after this class and it will continue on. I think personally a blog will be great for me to push out my thoughts to the public on various conferences I goto (I had planned on doing this awhile back but got lazy). Blogging will be a great way to hopefully connect with other peers in my field (online learning technology) and somehow get some conversation going.

I like to thing of blogs as a micro publishing tool. :)

Google Hangouts

Have you tried google hangouts? It's a great tool allowing 10 people to video conference. Currently at work instructors have inquired about how to create some good old group interaction between students and this might do the trick. With the new tool with google plus hangouts on air, the ability to record the sessions is now possible to share with the instructor.

What I found was the hangouts application wasn't just restricted to the computer. You are also able to use the ipad and iphone or any other iOS device to contribute as well.

There are also additional tools like screen-sharing where you are able to share parts of your screen to the group. There is also a sketchpad application where you can draw and make diagrams to show to the rest of the group.

Overall this seems like a pretty powerful tool for both instructors and students to use for collaboration or office hours.

The Technology of the Flooding of 2012 vs 1996

So like many Oregonians during the past week we observed the hit of a small snowstorm then a melt, then huge torrential rains.  This caused widespread messes around us and flooding around the state, so sever the evacuation of a city!

But on the positive side, lets see how updates and news of the flood was handled in 1996.  It was mostly done through radio broadcast, tv news, and word of mouth.

Now enter 2012, where the Internet is mostly our real-time news information.  Both the Gazette Times and Democratic Herald setup a "live-blog" were anyone could contribute on their front page.  I routinely observed during the flood.  It was amazing how anyone could post and I would get information on where in the city of Albany/Corvallis roads were getting washed out or was closed.  I learned quickly how travel to South-town of Corvallis was shut off when the waters reached the roads.  Later on Friday night I learned highway 34 into and out of Corvallis was reduced to one lane due to the rising waters.

This quick and real-time information is great for us.  There is no delay and we can adjust our actions accordingly.

Here's a video of the mess:

Gadgets for your blog

Adding gadgets to your blog is a great way to add customization.  Sure you have the great ones that blogspot offers right on the menu that is user friendly, but if you look out of the box so to say there are many other ones on the web you can add.  For example I just added one that lets you tell the location of your recent visitors.

Jeff Utecht on using Blogs in Classrooms

http://www.techlearning.com/article/blogs-are-not-the-enemy/44263

So why do we blog?  Jeff Utecht answers this by stating that educators first need to learn how to use blogs effectively in a classroom first.  Educators need to understand how to use this tool so students can benefit fully from the experience and engage in their learning process.  A blog is basically a journal.  Someone writes and someone reads its.  The blog allows collaboration between multiple people and conversations can be extended.  Jeff argues that blogs are not about the writing, it's all about the conversation that evolves from an entry.  Jeff also argues that after students use blogs to converse with each other, those conversations need to be brought back into the classroom for further discussion.  Don't just create and assignment and ignore it.

Jeff also argues that comments are the most important part of blogs.  I agree, when we blog we put out our thoughts.  We are looking for feedback, if we weren't we would have just created a webpage instead.  With the comments we can understand our audience a bit better, sometimes they might even get us to think secondly on our entry and topic.

Who am I?

Hello.  I'm a true Oregonian, born in Salem and only lived in 3 cities in my lifetime (Salem, Corvallis, and Albany). I've been interested in "technology" since I was introduced to the Nintendo Entertainment System aka NES when I was a kid.  From that point on, I tried to learn everything I could about Video Games.  During my senior year of high school, I was introduced to the world wide web, or we call it now, the Internet.  I learned how to create webpages and establish a presence.  After high school and into college, I began to steer my interest into mobile technology, mainly cellphones.  As Web 2.0 became into existence and the past couple of years of Social Networks, I became intrigued how all this great evolution of technology can be used not only as an entertainment medium, but one to use to teach and educate.

I'm currently an online course developer down at Oregon State University, where I work with Faculty in getting their class content into an online medium and researching new methods of producing an outstanding online course.  Originally I had planned on using a blog to post and share ideas that I would come across during my research, but I would always neglect the blog and it would never get started.  Hopefully this class will give me more of a drive to get it going!