Learning Styles Lab

As my learning continues when my school days are far behind I often wonder how on earth I learned the way I did back in high school. I remember spending 40 minutes copying teacher's notes from an overhead projector in Biology class. All our hands were so sore after each class. I got a D in my high school leaving cert (I don't know what the US equivalent of that is), which is a pass but now I know why I didn't ace it!

I am definitely, 100%, a visual and kinesthetic learner (that's why online learning works for me!). Another course I am doing in Hong Kong University is mostly a listen-to-the-professor-once-a-week class. It is not inspirational and is certainly not an environment I relish or thrive in.
I can read articles just fine but give me videos and give me visuals to spark it up a bit. The lessons at MSU are suiting me just fine at the minute, thank you very much! Throwing in a podcast here and there is definitely workable for me!

I think every educator must always remember the different learning styles they will have in their classroom. Delivery must be varied, exciting and engaging. That's where technology can assist greatly in the teaching aspect. Interactive whiteboards to assist teaching of new concepts where the students can manipulate objects, educational videos to visually support a concept are approaches that can accommodate all learners while obviously listening to the teacher...teach!

If I'm being honest I feel sorry for students today. They spend their waking hours outside of school being stimulated by every technology available in every way imaginable. By sight, sound and touch by computers, HD televisions and iPads. They come into our classrooms and more often than not are met with paper, pencil and flipcharts.

photo © 2009 Cristiano Betta | more info (via: Wylio)

Creative Commons Lab

photo © 2007 Eddy Van 3000 | more info (via: Wylio)I recently found a great website which is a search engine for Creative Commons images; wylio.com. The great thing about it is that it automatically creates the embed code for easy inclusion in your blog.





The advantages of using images in the classroom is endless. You only need to look at websites like piclits.com to know that educators realize that images can be a great source of inspiration for budding writers and be the spur for great creative pieces of writing. Educators like Tim Rylands in the United Kingdom uses images (often from games) to get students' reactions and uses mysterious and atmospheric scenes to encourage a creative and inspiring use of the English language from the students. I think the use of images can create a forgettable lesson into a memorable one.

I must admit, I have uploaded quite a few photos to Flickr and never set the default license attribution to be other than fully copyrighted. I will do so in my default settings before my next uploads as there is really no reason why I shouldn't.

My Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/89271381@N00

My first CC attributed image! http://www.flickr.com/photos/89271381@N00/3255456048/in/set-72157613353293725/

PC Maintenance and Security Lab

I was thinking this might be a hard lab to get anything really new out of as I come from a technical background and have kept up my technical skills while venturing into the educational field. Having said that, I chose 3 tutorials that introduced me to a couple of newish concepts I found interesting.

Tutorial Title: Demonstrating Spybot's TeaTimer






I have used Spybot numerous times to rid peoples' computers of spyware/malware. My old routine used to be to run Spybot and Lavasoft's Adaware as I found that one would catch things the other wouldn't. To be perfectly honest I have neither installed on my computer now as I find that if you use Firefox and have a couple of add-ons with it you will be just fine.
I have never used the TeaTimer section of Spybot as programs like that get very annoying very fast as programs tend to change registries more often than not and you just end up disliking the constant messages that pop up. I can see that it could be useful for people who are unsure of what software or websites are genuine.

Tutorial Title: Using Sandboxie

I had never heard of Sandboxie before. It is a program you install and it can sit in between your computer and the internet trapping all of those temporary files that may contain malware or spyware. It's an interesting concept but one that I probably wouldn't undertake. It may be useful for people who really don't want to clog up their hard drives with all those spyware programs. It may be particularly useful for people who want peace of mind and take advantage of online internet banking with their bank and feel safe and secure doing so.


Tutorial 3: Using RoboForm

I knew of the existence of form and password filling programs but kind of glossed them over as unsafe. But looking through the RoboForm tutorial I began to think well, why not use it?! I have so many websites to log in to these days and I will, more often than not, forget what username and password configuration I have used. Not to mention those long annoying forms that you have to fill in on 99% of all websites. So I'm going to download and use it on my home computer and see how it goes. The only downside in my mind is the security issue, yes you can password protect your actual passwords for specific sites but there's still something in my mind that says it's a bit dodgy but I'm going to learn and shift my thinking as I go on this one.

Getting Things Done

As I failed to see this task or organize myself in time to see it I think I'm in dire need of fine tuning my GTD system! But I did actually start a process to manage my tasks a week ago and below are my notes on the experience.

How did you organize your process? (are you using paper and pencil, a phone, a piece of software)?
As I am tied to the hip with my iPhone I thought it would be best to get an app to organize my to-do list so I got Remember The Milk as I flirted with it a few years ago.


What was it like for you going through the process the first time?
It was actually quite cathartic to list out what I needed to do and when. I entered all my MSU activities that needed to be done in that week and I entered some time-critical work related tasks as well. The hardest part was to try and remember once the task was done to mark is as completed in the app.

Do you think that this process will help you? Why or why not?







It could help me but it will take a bit of time for my brain to get used to the whole process. If my mind has been dealing with task management in another way for so long then obviously it will need to adjust to any method. To get everything down that needs to be done in one central area makes sense but to stay on top of that...well isn't that just another task you need to remember?!

Do you think you will continue this process? If not, what will your process be?I am definitely going to stick with the iPhone app route but I think I will need to look for another app; one that gives me a reminder message at given times to further remind me to finish a certain task. It may be kept as an academic task manager for my studies as that will keep it simple. For work I have Outlook Exchange calendars to keep on top of work tasks.

Social Networking Lab

photo © 2010 Marc Smith | more info

I think I could probably rate in order of importance the number of social networking tools I use during the course of my professional work week. So let me just do that!

1. Twitter

This is undoubtedly my number one social networking tool. If I'm walking in between classrooms or meeting I'll go through a couple of tweets on Tweetdeck on my iPhone. It's not a conscious thing anymore I just do it as part of my day's work-flow. During the course of a work week you get to keep on top of what educators around your region of the world are up to in their schools and you get to become a part of their reflections and brainstorming.
A lot of newcomers to Twitter ask "Well what if you miss something, there is just so much tweets!". My response to that is " Well, miss it!". If something monumental goes by it will get re-tweeted enough for you to see later.

photo © 2009 Matt Hamm | more info(via: Wylio)

The main aspect of Twitter that students and other teachers need to overcome at the start of getting into it is that they must have a concrete focus. I, of course, chose a professional focus and that's the way I approach introducing Twitter to my colleagues; get a focus, get following and get followed, share thinking and ideas and then install a Twitter client to get a work-flow established.

2. Facebook

I keep Facebook for purely social purposes and it does play a large part in my socially networked life. I use it to keep up to date with friends and family only although through gaining friendships through Twitter this has crossed over a little bit in recent times. I have yet to hear or see any powerful uses of Facebook in the classroom. Within a primary school setting I know the students use Facebook as a glorified gaming platform so any attempt to use it in education would take a major shift in thinking from our students (and teachers!).
photo © 2007 AJ Cann | more info(via: Wylio)

Of course you can become fans of clubs and associations on Facebook but in my opinion this is of little value as the discussion forums and the actual valuable connections made are minimal. So the jury is out on any professional implications Facebook may have.

3. Nings

I'm a member of quite a few Nings but, to be honest, I rarely visit any of them! There are just too much and too many to avail of any real positive results from them with no real way of centrally collating any of the information on them. Checking some of the discussion forums just recently on a couple of Nings they are no doubt used but nowhere near the amount of traffic you will get on Twitter.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn has reared it's head rather recently for me and it's another interesting factor to the social networking scene. From my initial experience with it there is minimal discussion and is used rather for connecting people you work with now. I have no stories of jobs being offered or people being headhunted through it which is obviously one of main goals of the website. Again, I have not had any positive experiences through LinkedIn yet and is nowhere near Twitter in terms of collaborations and making meaningful connections.

So, in conclusion, I think Twitter has overwhelmed any other aspect of my professional social networks. It is just too efficient, effective and effortless in gaining and sharing information and connections for any other platforms to compete with it. Facebook will, for the time being, be my conduit for keeping up with friends and family. The other platforms we have mentioned are mere peripheries at this stage which may be dipped into from time to time but at the minute play minor roles in my professional and personal social networks.