Reflection on Professional Learning Environments

When I consider what I have learned from Professional Learning Environments, it all seems to amount to little bits of ankle-biter information that are nice to know. One such bit of information was learning what progress the NASA Orion program is making. I suppose if I had invested more time into these environments then perhaps I could have gained a more comprehensive picture of things I'm interested in and the larger world. However neither I nor the rest of the world live in a vacuum with unlimited time to do research. So we each must decide how much time we will spend in various endeavors. I personally feel I do my best at managing my time between my various responsibilities. Therefore I am glad to have been exposed to Professional Learning Environments so that I can research through them in the future when I need to.

To me Professional Learning Environments appear to be a modern manifestation of the libraries of yesteryear. In some respects they way you get at the information has changed as well as the speed you receive the information, but the value of the information you glean appears to be the same. Overall, in the future, I do plan on using these resources to help educate. Will that be for just my children or for others? That is for the Army, myself and God to decide.

Reflections of the first five weeks of class

I have enjoyed learning about HTML and cascading style sheets. It has giving me a better perspective on how websites work and the programming that goes into presenting things online. It is amazing to me how being given a brief history of how it all developed helps you understand the concept of web design in its various incarnations. Most of the assignment were easy enough to grasp. I found the hardest assignment so far was thinking up a rough draft for what my end of class website will be. Overall this has been a very neat block of instruction to go through and learn. If you would like to see some of the things I've worked on please follow the below links.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~jmwilliamson/ged512/labs/cssindex.html

http://www.csupomona.edu/~jmwilliamson/ged512/worktable.html

My experience with Twitter and Considering its Educational applications

I got a Twitter account some time last year or so. Just to see what all the buzz was about. I actually learned a few tricks about it from my mother. Since then I've tweeted 86 times (mainly retweets if memory serves me correctly) and then checked it sparingly to see what stuff people are posting. I have learned things from reading Twitter posts and following links there in. That being said I've done the same on other social media sites as well.

Could Twitter be useful for education? I think it could but it would need to be closely monitored.

Is Twitter the type of social media students would gravitate towards? I'm not sure.

Is Twitter an "old person" social media or a "teen" social media site? Again I'm not sure.

On one hand if Twitter is an "old person" social media site then teachers might be able to use it in the class room and keep the students Twitter accounts strictly academic.

On the other hand if Twitter is a "teen" social media due to the amount of celebrities you can follow it might prove to difficult to manage to maintain an academic environment for learning.

Well that is what I think. 

GED 512 website project wire frame and site map

Information about my GED 512 website project,.

Site title - Home Bible Study Website.

Developer - James M Williamson

Rational or focus - I plan to build a website that can be used for a simple home Bible study. I will use a simple two column design for all my pages with a picture header that I will choose at a later time. I personally prefer a simple design as it will allow the user to focus in on the information. 

Main features outline - The page will have a header, a navigation bar and the page content. 

• Content - Approximately five individual Web pages. Functionally  the site will simple with a home page that feed to the current lesson page, discussion forum page, and the contacts page.  Then the Current Lesson Page will have subpages that will the the old archived previous Bible study lesson.

Target audience - Individuals who will attend the Bible study.

Design considerations. My goal for this project is for it to be a user friendly way to get Bible study material to  the individuals attending.

Limiting factors - Interest of those attending.

My thoughts on "Education and the Social Web: Connective learning and the commercial imperative

I just read the article at http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3149/2718 and these are my thoughts.

Dr. Norm Friesen makes a good case that Facebook and other social media on the internet are engineered to make money. He shows how they do so by selling special advertising space that can specifically target an audience based on information know by the social network. The author also points out that these networks are engineered to discourage dissent, negativity, disagreement and expression of disdain as negativity does not sell as well as positivity. Dr Friesen argues that the commercially driven nature of social networks should be reason enough to exclude them from any future educational models.

That being said, I disagree with Dr. Friesen.  Social networks making a profit is not bad. It is good for our economy and the people that work for those companies, who by the way also have families that will benefit from education. Companies making a profit by having better advertising is also not bad. This too is good for our economy, those companies, the people employed by those companies and their families.  Social networks discouraging dissent or limiting dissent to comments that can be left is just a good idea. I personally have never cared for rude persons or businesses and do not know a person who does.

As for social media not having a place in education, I also disagree with Dr. Friesen. Just because my shirt has a logo on it does not mean I can not use it to teach my child about letters and reading.  Just because the History Channel uses advertising to make a profit that pays for the programming does not mean that I can not learn from it.  Just because Facebook does not have a dislike button does not mean I can not think, type and "post" a "comment" letting others know that I disagree with an issue. Education is about applying oneself to learn and can be done anywhere... even on social media. So when we are crafting instruction plans I do not think it wise to simply write off social media as a source of information.

My experience using Digg Reader for the first time.

I'm not sure I've got the hang of Digg yet, however it does empower you to learn some pretty cool things with just a few clicks.
First thing that caught my eye was news from NASA about the upcoming first launch of the Orion space capsule (unmanned and part way to the moon and back).
Second thing catching my fancy was learning that the Nintendo Corporation in Japan is now 125 years and originally started out as a playing card manufacturer.
I also skimmed through a few more articles talking about past female warriors who had an impact on history and learned a few things about New Jersey, Virginia and Tennessee.
Here is to learning some more things from the Digg Reader!

About Me

I'm a Christian, husband, father, son, Texan, US Army Chemical Officer.
I believe the Bible is true, my wife is beautiful and my boys are a blessing from my Heavenly Father. Born and raised in Arlington, Texas.  Earned a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing in Biology and Chemistry at the University of Texas at Arlington.
I've worked at Fort Knox KY, Fort Sill OK, Fort Leonard Wood MO, and Fort Polk LA.
Currently residing in beautiful Fontana California. I enjoy stories, coffee, beef, and my family.

Chapters 1-3 written response

Learning Web Design, 4th Edition by Jennifer Niederst Robbins chapters one through three are a very informative read. Ms Robbins follows a logical order to her presentation of the information. She begins chapter one explaining who web designers are. She then describes the languages a web designer needs to know and what equipment they use. In chapter two she explores the nuanced differences between the world wide web and the internet. She then proceeds to explains how the information is served on the internet through internet browsers accessing websites through assigned web addresses (called URLs). She then concludes chapter two explaining the anatomy of a website. Chapter three is an exploration of meeting the needs of the modern internet where not all access is done through a traditional desktop monitor.
Overall I appreciated that she laid a good framework to understanding web site design. I also appreciate that she explained some of the history and theory behind it and how much has changed recently. I look forward to seeing how these principles will be applied in our classroom to focus the engine of the internet to facilitate education. I also am interested to see how this class will dovetail with other courses that I am taking. Cheers to our next classroom lecture!

Course Description GED 512

Course examines how the Internet, and its tools and resources be integrated in educational settings for delivering course content, providing access to resources, expanding the classroom, and supporting learning styles. Students learn how to plan, design, develop and evaluate Internet - based learning activities/course websites.

Course Objectives:

• Students will be introduced to how the Internet, and its tools can be integrated into an educational setting.
• Student will develop an understanding of web design principles.
• Students will demonstrate basic proficiency in HTML, CSS and web authoring.
• Students will apply technology as an instructional development tool.
• Students will evaluate web pages for appropriate strategies and models for educational design  

http://www.johnmcgarvey.com/online/course/view.php?id=20