The wiki!

April 15, 2002

This was the first time I used the wiki.  This was the first time that I used any wiki.  We were working on the project proposal for initial submission and approval.  After a series of emails and discussions we already knew what we were going to add to the wiki, however formatting the proposal on wikispaces was proving to be difficult.  I changed the format of the outline so that we were able to use the bullet buttons provided by wikispaces to produce the “look” that we wanted prior to submitting the proposal.  While I can see where this is an invaluable aid in cooperative learning I, as well as my group members, was frustrated by the formatting limitations of wikispaces.  Getting the website to do what we needed was more of a focus than the material at times.  Being that this was my first experience I do see value in using wikis and will, when appropriate, use them with co-workers and in my teaching.  Through using the wiki I have come to know classmates better (all but the one that I am married to) and feel that I am getting a more rounded view of the material that our research covers.

April 28, 2012

Today I used Prezi for the first time.  I have known about Prezi for a while and have been intending to check it out, but because of time limitations mostly due to teaching, commuting, family obligations, and writing papers about technology instead of learning to use new technology I just have not had the time to do so.  I see this as an awesome tool for presenting material and something that students will enjoy using as well.  I logged on to imbed the Prezi into the introduction section of our wiki.  I can see this as nothing but beneficial for future use.  As far as my group goes (I could be wrong) I believe that they were relieved that I volunteered to do the multimedia piece of the wiki project.  This was something I actually enjoyed doing so it was not stressful to me in any way.  The group functions well in that the things that I consider to be my weaknesses are other group members’ strengths.  This is the foundation of cooperative learning and is why cooperative learning is such an invaluable teaching tool.  The Prezi submission was simple and effective.

April 29, 2012

This was my final time logging into the wiki for the augmented reality project.  After having another classmate review our project there were some changes that we decided needed to be made before submission of our paper and so there were changes that needed to be made in the wiki itself.  As a final reflection on the process I still say that overall the wiki is a tool worth using as a student and will use in my classroom as a teacher.  For the purpose of SOL review I am having my students create review movies in groups.  After assigning the project I opened up the wiki portion of blackboard and created a wiki for each group to use.  For the initial outline I am requiring my students to work and submit the project using the wiki that I created for the group.  It is not often that I have the opportunity to use something like this in chemistry because the nature of the SOL test is being able to read and work problems.  This presented itself so I am trying it.  I learned more about augmented reality than I thought that I wanted to know, and find it to be very cool!  The experience with the wiki was positive as well and is worth doing again.  I can see how personality problems could become a problem if the members of a given group do not function well together.   Fortunately for our group we worked well together throughout the project.

Muddiest Point

The only point that I would consider muddy in either video was the metadata section.  I was familiar with all of the concepts in the first video and being a certified teacher have heard everything in the second video each of the ten years that I have taught.  “Metadata is often called data about data or information about information.” (Understanding, 2004)  In the video the presenter was speaking of tracing someone through the metadata in an email or document.  The problem is that “information could be exploited by third party for illegal purposes. Computer users are unaware of the problem and, even though the Internet offers several tools to clean hidden data from documents, they are not widespread.” (Castiglione, 2007)  One of those tools can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=8446.  This information is used in computer forensics and there are counter forensic programs that will include misinformation to disrupt and confuse the forensics software programs.

                                                                                            

Castiglione, A., De Santis, A., & Soriente, C. (2007, May). Taking advantages of a disadvantage: Digital forensics and steganography using document metadata. Journal of Systems and Software, 80(5), 750–764.

(2004). Understanding metadata. Bethesda, MD: NISO Press.

The Most Important Theory

I view social constructivism and the most important theory in online learning.  “Online learning environments have been identified as excellent venues for teaching and learning approaches derived from a constructivist epistemology” (Kehrwald, 2008)  This makes sense to me being a science  (chemistry) teacher in that teaching chemistry virtually  requires teachers to use the social constructivist methods.  Paris states “since learning is an active and creative process, classrooms should include challenging problems, projects and issues that require engagement, such as discussion, researching and presenting.” (Paris, 20011)  The nature of chemistry itself is challenging and like no other class students have encountered when starting the class.  There are mathematical concepts combined with spatial concepts while learning a new language (the language of chemistry) combined with built in projects (labs) in itself would make a chemistry teacher partial to this method of teaching.  I am interested in exploring the current technology application and best practices used in online science classes in general with particular interest in chemistry and physics to see which theories are most effective.

Kerwald, B. (2008). Understanding social presence in text-based online learning environments.  Distance Education, 29(1), 89-106

Paris, C.  (2011). Social constructivism and tourism education. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sports and Tourism Education, 10(2), 103-108.