Topic 4

Exercise 4.1

1. I use Blogger for this subject. It was easy to set up, up date and personalise. I chose to base my blog page on a template available that had a structured design for the ease of use for myself and visitors. I can see this would be a good tool in the classroom for incorporating IT but also as a continuous log book of class work, like a computerised exercise book. Students can refer back to notes and adjust them and teachers can monitor their progress through the content.

2. Design for growth and change

Once you have created your blog page, log on and you can easily make any changed to it by clicking customise. You can adjust the page layout and postings.

Create and maintain community feedback.

Blogs can be created using mobile phones to maintain continuous discussion. Blogger is available in many languages for world wide community feedback. You can also restrict the view of your blog to only allow certain uses access.

Allow your members to gradually take more control.

Blogger has a Share tool to let readers "Share" the blog's URL to Twitter, Facebook, or Google Reader. The Reactions Tool lets readers say what they think of the blog and the Followers tool lets readers leave their profile on your blog.

Exercise 4.2a

1. Patience- people involved in online discussion should wait until one conversation has ended before making a comment for uninterrupted conversation. In a classroom ‘hands up’ means to ask a question which is difficult to do online lol.

2. AWOL- let people know when you wish to leave the conversation

3. Host- the host has the responsibility to guide the conversation by suggesting a discussion topic.

Exercise 4.2b

Having an interesting group of people definitely makes the conversation fun and interesting like the Gmail chat discussion on food and TV shows a few weeks ago.

I am a new at online communities so being welcomed at any online gathering makes it comfortable and acknowledged.

Online communities allow people to follow discussions and have the opportunity to join in at any time.

Exercise 4.2c

It is important to set “rules of engagement” with online verbal exchange because it appears to be easy to be anonymous online which may entice some users to abuse the trust of fellow users. The moo policy is a document that clearly defines appropriate behaviour online if users are prepared to read it. A more authoritative approach for sites like digg, would have better results at discouraging inappropriate behaviour because users can report rude users.

Exercise 4.3

List C

Yahoo

Delicious

Teacher tube

Ning

Digg

Socialgo

Bubbl.us

I made the above list for a platform for learning and professional development because these sites have the option to control who is involved in the social network, good rules of engagement and users can share a variety of material such as text, photos and videos.

Topic 3

Topic 3

Exercise 3.1 The Battle of Wesnoth

I grew up with ATARI computer games and on occasions with friends we would play for hours trying to get to the next level or beat the highest score until mum would shoo us outside. I haven’t played computer games for years but I have been exposed to them recently through the Wii and iPhone that my friends have bought for their children. Generally the adults take over the games especially the trivia and sport games.

I had a brief look at The Battle of Wesnoth and the graphics of the game was impressive but a bit too much for my computer to handle which slowed down my navigation around the site. Sitting for long periods playing a game is not really my thing, I’d rather be outside enjoying the day and interacting with people. I can see how people can get hooked on playing on stop because it can be accessed online at anytime. I worry about some of my tired students in my classroom who comment on staying up playing online games or texting.

Exercise 3.2

5 Mobile gaming and recent statistics
http://www.halflifesource.com/nintendo/article2533.html
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=17973
http://edugamesblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/educational-uses-for-the-nintendo-ds/
http://www.dogs.com.au/articles/420/nintendodsgames.shtml

A school in Japan encouraged the use of Nintendo DS for improved learning of English. Teachers claimed the teaching environment was more relaxed as route learning was reduced. The type of educational software is up to the school but the most popular English tutorial used characters such as Pingu, Doraemon and Pokemon.
The response from teachers using Nintendo DS has been positive. The economical, portable device is seen as a valuable teaching tool because it engages students, has a variety of features such as microphone and stylus ideal for language learning and reducing paper consumption and it can be quickly set up for use. Whereas computer rooms, if available, need to be booked in advance and classes need to be moved to the room.
The educational value of using the Nintendo DS was positive. There was an increase from 18% to 80% of students who mastered Junior high level English vocabulary if they used the Nintendo DS every day. The success of Nintendo DS so far has prompted Japanese schools to trial software for Mathematics and Japanese.
Nintendo DS can be connected through WiFi so students can play against each other on school grounds. In Australia WiFi for Nintendo DS is available at fast food chains where it matches players of similar ability.According to Interactive Australia 2007, an industry report by the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, 77% of parents in gaming households play computer games with their children. Sales of educational games averaged 50,000 units per month, in particular Mindscape's new games, which offers a variety of challenges and puzzles, technology and improves their motor and spatial skills.

Topic 2

Topic 2
Exercise 2.1
I have been a member of Facebook for a while and I found it most useful whilst travelling to keep friends informed of my adventures with posts and pictures. But now that I’m working, theres not much to inform people about so I don’t really use it much. I’d rather telephone people if I have to speak to them. Facebook can be annoying when people you don’t want to speak to, find you!
I have joined the ITC510 group on Facebook.
B Social Cognition
http://philpapers.org/rec/STEFAT
Visual Cognition
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=5176925
Social Cognition is the thought processes during the interaction of people whereas Visual Cognition is the study of the perception of images. I think Facebook involves both these types of cognition, you can interact directly with people by leaving messages on the wall or asking them to join groups or indirectly by looking at the latest photos.
Exercise 2.2/2.3
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20070319/default_standard.htm
I watched the 4 corners episode on Second Life and it was really informative. I didn’t realise how popular and how lucrative the site was. You could create a second life, design your looks, house, partner, live a new identity. Second Life could get addictive as you make friends and increase wealth and you can actually forget that it is all a virtual world. It was fun pretending to be someone in the virtual world but I am happy with my “First Life” and prefer to be honest for sites like Facebook.
Being a citizen in Second Life could be tough, just as it is in the real world there were some unhappy characters in the site so my stay was short.

characters in the site so my stay was short.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/students-learning-to-be-virtually-anyone-20090904-fbgq.html

This is an informative article where Second life was trialled at a school with year 9 students to improve social barriers for migrants.

Exercise 2.4
Dick Hardt talk was entertaining. He developed a program Identity 20 that allows users to use their identity simply and securely for use on line. This would be convenient for the user when setting up new online accounts because it would avoid having to repeat typing in personal data when it could be accessed from one place.
Phishing
http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/RequestsForYourAccountInformation
are emails that look like they are genuinely from a financial institution that requests bank account and password details.


Pharming
http://www.symantec.com/norton/cybercrime/pharming.jsp
is similar to phishing but instead of the having to click on an email, the user is redirected to a bogus website where private information can be stolen.
Identity Theft
http://webopedia.internet.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2006/identity_theft.asp
The illegal access to personal information such as credit cards, addresses and drivers licence to commit fraud for financial gain.
Privacy Invasion
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm
The illegal acquisition of private information from people using the internet through viruses and malicious software. Marketers and web bugs monitor sites that the user frequents to promote products. Spyware can track passwords and financial numbers.

POD

online chat was fun on Wednesday 12/08 lots of good conversation happening, food and drinks and tv shows! Bit hard at first responding to all conversations until we became a group. Need to be a fast typer to keep up so lengthy conversations were limited. I hope there was spell checker too!

Topic1

Exercise 1

Social Networking http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

Online Community http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitymanual.htm

A social network is a community of people communicating off or online. They usually have something in common with each other for example members of a social group, friends, hobbies, school or profession.

An online social network also called as an Online Community, allows users to contact people in cyber space all over the world using a variety of sites including MySpace, Cyworld, Bebo, FriendWise, FriendFinder and Facebook. Generally these sites have free membership and users can create their own social network within the sites.

By studying about Social Networks and online communities, I hope to gain skills in creating online communities for the subjects that I teach. Students in all schools in NSW will be receiving government issue laptops soon and I have been assigned the position of creating an online community using MOODLE. It is an Open Source Course Management System that is free online and provides platforms for online courses, student forums and access to assignments.

Exercise 2

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&defl=en&q=define:folksonomy&ei=rMN0SvyIA9iGkAX-1rCoDA&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-of-folksonomy.htm

Folksonomy is the tagging of web information such as web sites and photos of interest so that they can be easily retrieved without having to do an internet search for them again. I have tagged photos on Facebook and bookmarked sites of interest with Del.icio.us.

FOAF

http://www.foaf-project.org/

http://www.ldodds.com/foaf/foaf-a-matic

FOAF (friend of a friend) is a program that tags information about yourself to allow automated searches to find you and the communities you’re linked to.

Exercise 3

Facebook

I used the Nielsen’s Heuristic evaluation form for Facebook. Facebook is easy to uses simple natural dialogue amongst its uses but also within the site itself. To start up your own website in Facebook is self explanatory. You need a Username and password to login and to log out you need to click on the logout button.

Introduction

Hi Im Denise. I am a Secondary Science Teacher on the Central Coast and I am studying a Grad Cert in ICT Education to improve my computer skills before the government issue laptops come to NSW schools. So far i have created Webquests and now leaning to blog and I am enjoying the skills i am gaining. In my spare time i enjoy the coastal life, i am involved in the local surf club and play many sports. I am originally from the country and moved to the coast for employment opportunities.