iTec-299 Synthesis for Social Learning

Mark Arakaki

•Describe your personal learning preferences (1 paragraph, 100-150 words) - Answer EACH of the following questions:When I first took the test, I was 4 ACT, 1 SEN, 9 VIS, 4 GLO. I took it again and got different results for SEQ and GLO. The problem is that it is difficult for me to really choose a side especially on a survey, because I do pay attention to details, but it is easier for me to look at the overall picture. I am very visual, but I do value verbal information very much. It is tough to say that my learning preferences have changed because I am a person who is a big believer in balance, so I do not think my views have changed very much ultimately. Learning preferences give me an idea of how I learn, but not a concrete definition in terms of success.

• Describe the learning pathway you chose at the beginning of the class (1 paragraph, 100-200 words):I chose to be a Learning Sage because I wanted to expand my knowledge of technology, which I thought I knew a lot about, but learned that there was a lot more out there offered to me than I thought. My learning pathway remained the same because even after this class, I want to even further broaden my knowledge of mobile technology because I feel that mobile devices are advancing everyday, which means our knowledge should be advancing and expanding as well. I kept my Learning pathway although I did feel as though I was becoming more of all three than feeling as just one.

• Describe how the activities you completed contributed or did not contribute to your learning pathway (1 paragraph, 100-200 words):One of the activities that I really found interesting was the lemonade stand game, that gave you an intuitive approach to business and marketing. At first glance I did not think much of the game because it seemed so simple, but as I kept playing I learned a little more about the strategies implied in the game. The deeper understanding to it is that the game does not directly tell you that you are learning about business and marketing it just seems like a game where you have to use good sense, and that good sense relates to the business. Playing all the games helped learn about the social technologies with others because I am much of a gamer.

Paragraph 1• Using one paragraph each, describe the top 3

mobiletechnologies you explored for learning (3 paragraphs, 100-150 words each)The social networking quest was effective in teaching me ways to use social networking sites such as facebook to learn subjects in school and specific topics instead of only using it for social networking, which many people do believe that its only purpose to social network for social reasons and purposes. I know that I thought that too until I had gone through the quest. Social networking touches on the more active level because you have to actively search to get the information you need while it is also very visual although it can be verbal finding even screencasts and mp3s to help learn.

Paragraph 2• The games and MMO quests were fun to me because I had

previous knowledge of the subject. However I did not have a huge understanding of games and learning. When playing games such as the lemonade stand or the LinCity game I feel as if I am trying to learn more because I want to prove right that learning can be effective through gaming, which I believe is true. People tend to not see the concepts of a game because they do not play it, which makes them feel as though games don’t help learn, but games are very active, visual even verbal, they can implement sequential parts of the game, which are all learning preferences. They are active because judgements have to be made fairly quickly to keep the game flowing, where we have to listen and observe in order to strive in the game.

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• The last was social bookmarking and this one was the one I struggled with. I did not fully grasp the concept when I did the quest, but I did not realize that it was required in our grades, which is why I failed to do any of it. I thought that social bookmarking was very active because we had to find links to post up for others to see and see what others had posted from their findings. It is also very intuitive in which we all just share information with each other.

Paragraph 1• Synthesize your experience investigating your use of different

multimedia technologies for learning (2 paragraphs, 100-150 words each)I believe that the games interested me most as a learning tool because I play games a lot and think they are an effective tool in learning for a certain subject. Because of my love for games I tended to be more interested in the mini lecture and the screencast that was provided on iLearn. I was very surprised at the social networking quest with facebook being used to learn because I had only known it to be used for networking purposes. Last of all I felt the social bookmarking was a little rough for me because I had not really looked into it with any detail.

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• The social technology that helped me learn the most was the game aspect. Because it touched on a lot of learning preferences for me personally because I am a little biased towards my liking of games. I had to be active during each of the game (Lemonade stand), but at the same time reflect on how I could make more profit with each passing day. It was a very visual game as people would have speech bubbles telling me whether something was good, too much, or too little. These are factors of why I am a better learner with games.

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• Describe how you will use what you learned in this class after this semester (2 paragraphs, 100-150 words)I will continue to use facebook as a social networking site, but I also will use it sometimes for learning purposes, which I have learned through this class. I have not really looked into other social networking sites, besides tumblr, but I plan on trying to take a look at some of them and see if they can benefit me in learning. Facebook can obviously be used for outside purposes such as getting a job, people can relay resumes or even chat it up to work an agreement on a job. They help advertise anything you post on your status to get word out of an event or a product (PRing).

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• I will also take from this class some games that were on the forum and try to use them to help me learn more about subjects. Because I am not exactly sure what I want to use them to learn for I might just explore different games and continue playing the ones that I feel were most beneficial to me. For non learning purposes I will keep playing games, using facebook, and tumblr because I had before the class and plan to even after. I probably will avoid social bookmarking because I never picked up on it although I would like to give it a second try.

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