Couchsurfing

Ok, I will confess that I was super nervous filling out the information for my profile on couchsurfing. My username is amybedot if you are looking for me there. It does take a while to fill out all of the information for our profile, but it does make sense why in the end.

This is a very different kind of social networking site. Your goal is to meet face-to-face for some reason - coffee, beverage, over-night visit, sight seeing, etc. Most social networking sites do not aim for face-to-face meetings. They go the other direction. On Facebook, you meet someone in person, connect with them on Facebook and stay in touch that way. On CouchSurfing, you join, connect with complete strangers and arrange a face-to-face meeting.

Not sure why I was nervous to tell you the truth. I have met many strangers on my travels and slept on their couch or floor for the night. I have gone over to people's house just to meet them for coffee or a beverage. At least this method gives you a face-saving way to say no if you get strange vibes from them.

What I found interesting is the use of references. It's like you are writing reviews for someone like they are a product on Amazon.com. The ratings system works a lot like the ratings on ebay. Former visitors or people trying to get in touch with you can alter your overall rating to warn people about you. (Though it does seem difficult to post negative comments just looking at the path you have to take.)

I did join a group, in fact a rather large one called NC Triad. There are 131 members of this club in my county. The group page had lots of requests and events posted. It looks very active. They were organizing camping trips to share a campsite in the mountains, going to music festivals looking for rides and hosting events in their houses. It's like the virtual version of the ride-share board like they had in college!

What does it do that other social networking and Web 2.0 tools do not? It encourages face-to-face interaction among its members. It wants to know how much you know about someone and your level of trust. It wants people with high ratings, that people trust, who answer their emails and give suggestions. It's much more aggressive in asking for donations than other sites. They go an extra step to verify your information by mailing you a postcard to verify your address. That's impressive. Facebook has never mailed me anything.

Will I keep this account open once class is over? Not sure. I might wait until I have an interaction or two first and then judge.

Private Universe

Watched the video today called A Private Universe. It's about how people learn and hold on to false information. Sometimes instruction can reverse someone's thinking. Sometimes someone holds on so tightly to their own personal theories that instruction cannot change their perception.

One of the examples in the video was asking both ninth graders and recent college graduates to explain the concepts of the four seasons. The majority of them gave the explanation that it's based the Earth's distance from the sun as opposed to the changing tilt of our axis. One ninth grader was interviewed before and after instruction about this concept. She was able to incorporate what she learned from the lesson, but she still held on to a degree what she believed before.

How can new media make an impact on education when things like this are happening? A few things come to mind:

1. Most schools have an online classroom for their students. I know this is true for most college courses, but this is becoming more and more true for middle and high school students. Instead of assuming that students are just a "void" (quoting teacher from the video) about the subject, assume from the first day that your students have some misinformation about the topic. Use a combination of pre-tests, discussions, etc to find out what the student knows now. That instructor could have asked each of those students to write an explanation for those concepts. Ask them to teach the concepts to others either through a blog and brief youtube video.

2. I love the concept of students creating learning objects. It's one thing to learn a concept, it's another to be able to teach it to someone else since you have to know your concept from a variety of perspectives. Using an array of Web 2.0 tools, you can ask your students to create a learning object to demonstrate their understanding. THEN, post it so that others (global or local) can provide feedback and ask questions. Creation makes the students more active. Like the teacher in the video stated, she needs the objects in her hands to describe it. She needed to be active to communicate about those concepts. So, sit in front of a webcam, describe it and let others ask question or make suggestions.

3. Wikis would be really powerful here. Ask students to rewrite their textbooks in their own words. This includes images and diagrams. Require students to contribute to every section and correct the mistakes of others. Thanks to the history function of most wikis, a teacher can see easily who added the wrong information and who corrected it.

Too often, students can get lost in a face-to-face classroom. We know how to make others believe that we are listening and understanding the material. We nod our heads at the right time. We point our eyes forward, but in many ways, no one is really home.

This concept taps in my frustration with face-to-face instruction and the faculty members who become angry when I suggest that developing some online tools might help their students learn. A math instructor once told me, "Students do not learn without me present." It broke my heart. Now I need to find a way to get that instructor to watch this video. Yes, they need you, but in face-to-face classrooms, we lack the time and resources to make students as active as they need to be. Active learning is the key to addressing misinformation and misconceptions of our students.

Using some online tools that require students to demonstrate their learning can help you identify some areas where students are lacking understanding. (Of course, grading this type of assignment is not as easy as a self-graded, multiple choice test. Ah, there lies the difficult journey!)

Learning in Second Life

I attended a scripting class in Second Life today. I did not register beforehand, but the instructor let me observe the class as a student to get the full effect. Handouts existed of images that you had to touch in the front of the classroom to download to your profile. He did not allow me to download them, but I asked one of the students privately what they were. Since he was going over basic scripting, he gave the class a copy of the images that he was using for the course.

To give you an idea of what this course looked like, I am pasting a snapshot that I took while sitting in the class. (That's me in the blue dress in the center.)The instructor communicated with the class by text, not microphone which I found surprising.

What I learned from this Second Life Event:

1. That participants needed to know at least the basics about how to navigate Second Life including how to teleport, use PK pads to beam from various locations in their school, sit, touch images and accept handouts.

2. Images used in Second Life instruction need to be larger than normal with relatively minimal text. Luckily, the instructor gave the students a handout of what was on the board. The text on the board was too small for me to see - and yes, I did move up closer to try to see it.

3. A new educator in this medium can easily get overwhelmed. I was IMing him privately to ask if I could observe, other students were talking to him and he was trying to distribute his materials. There were about 12 people in the course. In person, the other students could have formed a queue of sorts to ask questions. Online, it all comes to you at one time.

I would like to try my hand at teaching one class online in Second Life about something simple to experience this medium as an instructor. Any suggestions? Anyone want to join me?

Image from my class:

Embedding Woices

One of my classmates has turned me on to Woices. I recorded three simple audio files to it about assorted topics, but it's meant to be a place where people can come and record audio tours. Anyone can visit the site and download an echo (name of the audio file in Woices).

Here is my Echo about the limitations of YouTube.

FYI...I make my name amybedot on all things. I rarely use Amy Brown on outside tools. My family calls me Amy Bedot (that's Be-dot). I renamed myself when I was four. Amy Brown is my name but really only people at work call me that. (Just in case you were wondering.)

YouTube

Ok, I am not in love with my YouTube video. It's blurry, but it gets the message across. I am teaching you how to use one of the newest apps on iPod/iPhone called sleep cycle. You download this app, place your iPod/iPhone face down in your bed and it just works.

See my demonstration here.

This app does two things:

1. 30 minutes before your alarm goes off, your iPod/iPhone makes noises to pull you out of a dream state to a light sleep state. When your alarm goes off, you wake easier. I promise you, this works. My alarm goes off at 5:20am every morning so that I can workout. Typically I cannot wake up easily in the morning. The mornings I used this app, I woke up very easily.

2. It gathers data on you about when you are dreaming, in deep sleep and light sleep. That I found fascinating.

Embedded Images

This is my photostream from Flickr. I love Flickr. I use it a lot to share photos with others outside of Facebook.