An interesting this happened this week. As I was reading through the article "How People are Using Twitter during Conferences," (http://lamp.tu-graz.ac.at/%7Ei203/ebner/publication/09_edumedia.pdf) I realized that the article was based our of the University of Graz where I will be living next year. I had actually heard about Twitter use during school days from my boyfriend who attends this University presently. It was hard for me to take this seriously because I often get annoyed that people are on their phones or on the computer when an important discussion is taking place. However, as I was reading about the study I learned more about Twitter. Since I do not have one and have never been really interested in the social media site, I realized its possible use during a conference. People can have separate conversations about the topic at hand and can answer questions that may be posed. Even though most of the people during the study used Twitter for making their online presence or conversing with others, I can see the options Twitter can provide.
Since I had my eyes opened to Twitter I decided that I would delve into the article "Living in Cyworld" by Jaz Hee-jeong Choi. It seems that while I have been only been getting used to all the changes on my Facebook, there is a whole other world in South Korea where each citizen has their own private web space, that can be a large or small as they want and have this vast expansive world online. The idea behind the "hompy" or homepage is that each person should be culturally aware of their fellow man and through this online community South Koreans can do that. When I was reading about Cyworld, I was truly amazing at how complicated and complex the network it. There is no anonymous blogging in Cyworld, people must provide their real names and even their citizen numbers! Groups you belong to or your chon to other people can help you stay connected with family, friends and even coworkers. People will use avatars and other online icons to decorate their pages. It seems to me that Cyworld is Facebooks, older, more intelligent and organized brother. As much as I was fascinated by the article, it seems a bit too intense for this slow moving tech gal!
After last weeks conference about Open Course Ware, I was ready to dive right into the article "College 2.0: More professors Could Share Lectures Online. But, Should They?"by Jeffery R. Young. this article was about everything that I had in my head during the MIT Open Course Ware conference. Many teachers are afraid to record their lectures because of numerous reasons like the material being stolen or even the teacher being made fun of. These are fears that I have myself and it was nice to hear that even veteran teachers feel as well. Technology is quickly consuming the "traditional" classroom. We use Web 2.0 tools and have our students exclusively work on the computer to create projects and assignments but what about what the teacher has to show? If a teacher decides to show their lectures online, should they keep it a closed private session, or should they join the Open Course Ware revolution? These are things that I have been thinking about myself. When the time comes for me to put myself and my craft online, will I be comfortable with it? I think over time and with more experience will help my make a decision about this.
When I saw "oral histories" on this weeks forums I have to be honest, I really didn't have an idea what that meant. But after going on the Storycorps website I was both intrigued and excited about the prospect of using this tool. the basis of the site is that people can record their life stories for the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for free and receive a CD of their story. It is a part of a massive online human project that helps to spread people's stories and cultures. What is really great about Storycorps is that teachers can use the stories within the project as lesson supplements. There is even a section on "College Readiness" which would have been great to have when I was a freshman!
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