Assessed Activity 8.2 Winding up the reflective blog

 Reflecting on the Blog

WHAT I LEARNED

During my digital learning technologies course I've learnt that education is more than memorising some form of information, its a structured absorption of experience through all sensory perceptions that is applied through successful methods within a progressive framework, many of us have different ways of learning, some find activity based learning better while others find they learn just as effectively through just reading, but effective learning and teaching needs to be managed and structured, increasing incrementally in performance expectations, where every channel  of education is explored and taken advantage of.  

I have learned how far digital technology has come over the years, the limits and constraints of digital technology, the advantages and disadvantages of the technology, but more importantly I have learned the value digital technology has in our lives and how important it is to keep up with and take advantage of, digital technology has connected this generation to each other and the world, giving us the opportunity to access, share and create information like none other before us beyond comprehension. 

          I liked

              I really enjoyed all the lectures and activities, looking at all the different                   tools we were able to  access, the blogs  and other sites I found exciting                     actually, editing and adding, was really fun.

Improve on

If anything I would of liked more camera options when attending class virtually, maybe multiple cameras, that will definitely help me see around the room more effectively and an addition of virtual education within the virtual world would of been exciting to attend.

Virtual Chemistry 

This is a class I came across on You Tube that uses Secondlife as an educational resource, I would think the experience would be something similar.

The Drax Files: World Makers [ Episode 19: Virtual Chemistry], 2016
found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAi73JCXOM

Assessed Activity 8.1 Online Courseware

 ON-LINE Course-ware

This is a free online course that teaches you the basics of web design, the main site is called Coursera, the site houses many online courses form educational institutes around the world, I found the 5 course web designing program, the course program in order are:

1. Responsive Website Basics: Code with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
2. Responsive Web Design.
3. Introduction to Meteor.js Development.
4. Web Application Development with JavaScript and MongoDB.
5. Responsive Website Tutorial and Examples.

Ending with a project

• Responsive Website Development and Design Capstone.
• 
  

Target audience

This course is suited for anyone interested in learning about website creation but would be most useful for students in the field.

Approach

Something interesting in the approach taken by this course in that it is a free comprehensive university recognised course, it covers the same format that you would expect from a genuine educational institution.

DLT examples module

Here is the link to the DLT Examples module as shown above in which I added Coursera Web Design as my DLT example.

Assessed Activity 7.1 Reflection Learning Tech 7.2 DLT Tools

           Issues of DLT  

I was not able to attend the Digital Learning Technology class field trip, however I was able to follow the trip online through the WiFi network connection and live video conference streams. 

I found the experience very interesting  using this technology, it had incredible potential but due to insufficient bandwidth and  poor routing problems I began to question its feasibility.
Initially as the class began their walk away from campus my connection became laggy and upon querying my tutor about my latency problem, I noticed another reason why my connection was so laggy, I was surrounded by digital devices, there was the TV in the lounge streaming YouTube, my two sons using their I Pads, my partner on our laptop, and my daughter playing games on the phone, all of which where siphoning the bandwidth, then just in case I was still unsure that this posed a real problem, in walks four visitors all with their own mobile devices, at that moment my connection froze.
Below are some of the advantages and disadvantages I found in my experience using video conferencing.

Advantages:

• Attend in real time

• Able to attend over distance

• Convenience

• Cheap

• Allowed me to interact

• Without video conference, missing out on such important aspect could be problematic

Disadvantages:

• Bandwidth limitations

• Routing limitations

• Multiple end-user connection interference

Streaming a live video conference in the class room was a better experience, not as laggy and a clearer audio, but as the class progressed through the field trip, and with my surprise visitors showing up, my video conference became a disaster. So for this technology to be successful you need to control your home network ensuring you have a strong enough connection. 

I have a video of my  experienced in this link here but as I have learnt, to ensure a good connection you must definitely limit the amount of devices connected on your end, but all in all I enjoyed the stream, it felt like I was there.

Attending class in the field via DLT

Assessed Activity 6.1 E-Portfolio

       

                    E-Portfolio

Creating a Linked

Creating a Linked in account is easy enough, just the usual registration and email verification then setting up your personal profile.

LinkedIn allows you to join work related groups  and offer your work details for those who may be searching for help in your field.

Here is my LinkedIn page.

Joining a group

A positive thing on LinkedIn is the ability to join groups to enhance your prospects of finding suitable work but to also keep contact with other like minded people.

This is the group EIT Information Technology I have asked to join and am awaiting confirmation by the group admin Michael Verhaart.

Google Sites

Creating a Google Site page is helpful as a notebook or dairy, you can keep files and tasks and update it as you like, I using this tool for a resume link, it also has a small profile about myself and my studies in the Eastern Institute of Technology. Google Sites is not as simple as Blogger, WordPress or other personal use tools online but not too difficult to get the hang of with a little exploration. I thought it would have its uses as another tool for holding data on but must always keeps in mind personal security so I wont put too much information about myself on it, such as phone numbers, address and stuff.

Here is my Google Site page.

Assessed Activity 5.2 Cloud

                      Cloud Tools

The tool I chose was Photoshop from the Desktop Apps home page.

This is my addition to the Cloud Tools page

Photoshop is a digital imaging tool that edits graphics, although a little outdated one useful thing it can be used for is web page designs.

It can be used tool create logos.

Photoshop is a useful tool when required to enhance digital imagery from pictures to logos and titles. Most commonly used by graphic designers and artists as well as photographers, Photoshop can also be used by students for designing tables, charts and document layouts and formats.

                 

Assessed Activity 5.1 PLN

        
                           PLN 
               
                                                                    (Personal Learning Network)

                                                   Picture found at http://academictribe.co/


5.1.1 I participated in a live streaming PLN presentation in which the quest lecturer was Joyce Seitzinger from  Melbourne, Australia, Joyce is an Education Technologist, she worked at EIT a while ago as an E - learning advisor, alot of her work was around learning to use Moodle.

Joyce created her own company called Acedemic Tribe, this is an E - learning company. 
Joyce also works as a digital coach, educating people on identifying and defining their own digital presence online then using their personal PLN to monitor and manage their professional and social network.

Joyce showed me how influential networking has been on my education and how we all have our own unique learning network that we have created over time, for me it started with chat rooms and MySpace, but as my learning network evolved over time, it became a more modifiable and user friendly PLN, today I use Twitter and Blogs for social information and LinkedIn, EIT Online and my Bookmarks for work related connections. 


5.1.2  ConM's PLN

Click picture to enlarge

5.1.3 This is my PLN as seen on my wiki page

And can be found on the wiki here

5.1.4 What I learned most from Joyce s presentation was the ability to actually view my own PLN and see how it evolved over time, the PLN was able to categorise my networks into a way I could understand through seeing my habits, goals, preferences and my chosen communities.

My PLN puts my social network into a simple but informative perspective, it shows me my goals and why I have chosen certain networks and how I am being seen online by other people, it also shows me how I'm connecting with information and which networks I'm using to make those connections.

Using my PLN I can control the amount of information Im connecting with, I can see which networks are important and which are not, and modify my PLN for improvement.

Assessed Activity 4.4 RSS Feed

Assessed Activity 4.4 (2016) Connecting the Wiki to your blog through an RSS feed

You can also allow others to display a summary of your blog using an RSS Feed.

On your user page in the wiki use the RSS xml tag to display your WordPress Blog additions (mine is shown in the next line)

<rss max=4 item-max-length="250">https://virtualmv.wordpress.com/feed/</rss>

A working version is on the course home page (You can copy the code if you want an image and border)

Note: The RSS feed will only display things you have Blogged about, not changes you make to pages.. You may need to add some blog posts to demonstrate that the RSS feed is working.

If you are using Blogger use the following

<rss max=4 item-max-length="250" filterout ="id" >http://virtualmvblogger.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss</rss>

Source Extending WordPress

Assessed Activity 4.3 Connecting WordPress

 Adding widgets to your WORD PRESS blog

Adding a widget to a wordpress blog can make the blog look more appealing and can also improve the blogs interface with multiple tools and actions such as informatory widgets like time or calculator as well as feeds and links to other sites and online tools like rss feeds and posts.

To add a widget navigate to -appearance -widgets and choose a widget, in this example I am adding a calendar.

 

Calendar can be viewed here

Assessed Activity 4.2 Media Wiki

        Add components to wiki page

Adding media to my WikiEducator page

APA reference for a page about digital learning technologies from Wikipedia can be found here .

Assessed Activity 4.1 Social Tech & Connected Media

Social technology & Connected media

Improving content on the Wiki page 

I chose to add information about education in the virtual world Second Life, this addition is mainly focused on Second Lifes improved social media technology and how those improvements are being used as a digital education resource.

Examples of social media in Second Life:

• Live video conference
• Skype
• In-world interaction
• Group conference messaging
• Out-world mobile device connection

Wiki page addition can be viewed here

Assessed Blog 3.3 Skills for teachers

Skills for teachers 

Today's skills expected of a tutor are:

• Proficiency in computing literacy, these are various and usually cover Microsoft Office programs such as Word, Excel, Desktop Publisher and Power Point to name a few, this allows the tutor to prepare and offer students tools to develop multiple skills.

• Proficiency in internet literacy which would include social networking such as Blogger, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Video conferencing programs such as Vidyo, this allows the tutor to prepare, communicate and share information over a network.

• Comprehensive understanding of Video, Image and Audio literacy allows the tutor to prepare presentations and training for the students.

• Use of software to keep information and documents secure, this could be to insure the security of students personal information or to insure that the documents the students hand in is their own work such as Turn it in or One Note.

These are the skills normally associated with teaching skills divided into three categories:

Basic - Level 1-4 beginners course in understanding the basics of skills for example teaching the basics of Microsoft Office, a first look at understanding generic digital technology tools like websites, networking, computers and software.

• Basics in word literacy
• Create a simple web page
• Simple understanding of computers
• Beginners understanding of networks
• Beginners understanding of computing tools

Intermediate - Level 5 - 7 expecting that the students would have a basic understanding of digital technology, the intermediary level the tutor would teach would consist of a slightly higher expectancy of skills than the more basic levels such as a moderate understanding of Microsoft Office, a good understanding of website structures, networking, computers and programming.

• Good use of generic Microsoft Office tools
• Understanding of websites and website creating software and tools
• Understanding of networks and networking tools
• Intermediate knowledge of computers
• Understanding of computing tools 

Advanced - Level 8  Teaching is the advanced level skillset which would consist of an advanced understanding of Microsoft Office, digital technology tools, computing tools, networking, websites and programming.

• Create advanced website 
• High level of understanding of network management
• Use of Microsoft Office tools to deliver high level of information
• Advanced understanding of computers
• Advanced use of computing tools 

. Edtech, (2015) 33 Digital Skills. Retrieved from: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html

. Palmer, T, (2015) 15 Characteristics. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/15-characteristics-21st-century-teacher

Assessed Blog 3.2 Implications of DLT

           Implications of DLT in                              an organization

Technologies Relationship Diagram

Implications of DLT in a polytechnic institution:

• Digital communication
• IT structure
• Networking system
• Mobile device access
• Online internet access
• Administration security
• Information security

More information delivery between tutor and student via networking, Office 365 to student mobile device, more sharing of information through video conferencing, YouTube and Twitter, a more feasible learning structure that is self sustainable and improving to a successful forward moving motion and a more safe way of conserving secure information exchange.

Assessed Blog 3.1 Implications of DLT

             DLT in an organization

A polytechnic institution offers multiple and various degrees to students from post high school levels to pre university levels, three digital learning technologies a polytechnic use are,

- its education structure and requirements needed to provide the best and safest ways of teaching and learning such as security like copyright infringement protection systems or IT systems in place to provide administration.

- access management systems that ensure information is provided safely for both teacher and student.

- a system that will keep the technology updated and managed with the latest versions, tools and hardware, secure and accessible to both student and teacher.

An example of these learning technologies can be found at the Otago Polytechnic and Open Polytechnic.

Assessed Activity WS2.2 Wikieducator

                    WikiEducator

Create account, this will allow me to edit the page

Edited the page adding the below text and code.

Once added successfully the text and code looked like this.