Synthesis Project About

Social / Collaborative Learning

Angelina M. ITEC299

Learning Preferences At the beginning of the class my scores for the learning preferences survey

were as follows: reflective - 5, sensing - 5, visual - 7, global - 1. I really connected with the descriptions in the summary titled “Leaning Styles & Strategies” and I felt it described me quite accurately in terms of being reflective, sensing and visual. At the end of the class I realize I still work reflectively meaning independently, but I also see and have experienced the value of working in groups. Following forums and asking questions in forums for a few of my classes has allowed me to reach out for help. It has also helped me realize that input from others challenges and develops my way of thinking. At the end of the class my thinking has changed about learning preferences overall in that I am aware that we all have different learning styles that can be creatively accommodated and incorporated into all of our classes. And that if our teachers don’t incorporate different learning tools that suit everyone’s learning styles that we can make those accommodations for ourselves once we know our learning preferences. Yes knowing about learning preferences makes a difference in my personal learning success. It has helped me clearly identify the most effective ways for me to learn so that I can seek those learning methods and use those tools to increase my academic success. It has also helped me identify the ways I am lacking which has enabled me to find ways to expand those areas such as working on being a little more active in my learning instead of being too reflective and struggling to get assignments done.

Angelina Molina

Learning Pathway The learning pathway I chose at the beginning of the class

was the Learning Sage because I am behind on the technology aspect of learning and I wanted to find new updated ways of learning. For example, watching the lectures posted on Screenr was very helpful and showed me a way that I could be creative and incorporates another tool into my learning and teaching. Screenr helped accommodate my visual learning style. I also wanted to test out the waters because I don’t allow my son to use any technology and I wanted to learn more about how I could incorporate age appropriate educational technology. (My son is in kindergarten) No I did not change my pathway because I was learning about different technologies that I had no previous knowledge of and I’m glad I chose this pathway because I learned a lot about new technologies that I can share with others.

Angelina Moina

Learning Activities The activities that helped me get a broader understanding of how to use

a social technology to learn was the social networking quest, specifically for learning. It introduced me to online study groups like openstudy.com and VoxSwap for learning languages, which I’m very excited about. The specific activity that worked best for learning with others to use social technologies were the forums on iLearn.

Angelina Molina

Exploration of Technologies for Learning

1. Social Networking Quest

Being able to get peer feedback on the iLearn forums has been very helpful, especially in my criminal justice class this semester. The forums have been a place where being required to respond to other peoples posts has served as a positive experience for learning and has expanded my viewpoint as a sensing learner. I’m also able to be reflective and work at my own pace through forums. Forums haven’t helped me visually since we only post text, but posted links to visuals have helped me as a visual learner. Some classmates responded to posts by linking a youTube video.

2. Social Bookmarking Quest

I explored social bookmarking as a Learning Sage with delicious. I’ve never bookmarked sites this way, so it was a new and very helpful tool to incorporate into my learning. Bookmarking sights through delicious will help me as a visual learner by compiling information into specific categories that I can see and access from any location at any time. Bookmarking for research papers will help me as a reflective learner by organizing all my fact based information into an accessible way. I’m not sure how it would help me as a reflective learner.

3. Microblogging

I found microblogging to be helpful for learning in that it can be straight to the point in terms of being limited to a max of 140 characters on Twitter. I previously thought twitter and microblogging was for Hollywood gossip, but now I see the extensive capabilities and learning opportunity. I think it accommodates my reflective learning style in that I can take the time I need to think about and process a concept from biology class before I try out being active and seeking out additional help from a larger study group. It also provides me with real-time messaging, so I can get an answer after I’ve eliminated every option on my own. It also provides me with the option to work with others at my own pace. It doesn’t really accommodate my visual learning style.

Angelina Molina

Synthesizing your Experience

The social technology that interested me the most as a learning tool was social bookmarking with delicious. I am a health education major and I have a lot of papers to write so delicious will be very helpful for researching and writing papers. I like that I can compile a list of sources and access them from any mobile device or computer, not just the computer I primarily use. This makes it very convenient to retrieve information and work on papers from anywhere. The social technology that surprised me the most as a learning tool was FaceBook. I didn’t realize that people actually used FaceBook for creating study groups & forums. This insight was helpful and now I can look on FaceBook for study support. For me games & MMOGs don’t work as learning tools. I would like to further explore using social networking for learning another language using VoxSwap. I’ve been interested in expanding my Spanish speaking skills and I think it will be extremely helpful to chat with others from all over the world.

The social technology that worked best for my learning preference was iLearn forums. As a reflective learner I am able to work at my own pace and look over other classmates ideas.

Angelina Molina

What You'll Do Next I will continue to use my reflective, sensing, and visual learning strategies. I

feel they have been very effective for me thus far. However, I would also like to work on being an active learner as well because I do sometimes take too long and overthink things rather than just take a chance and shoot an answer out. I also would like to improve my skills at working in groups and being more hands on to figure things out like active learners. Adding this active component can only make me more successful. I can engage in forums on Twitter, FaceBook, or iLearn. I currently use FaceBook to create events for the clinic I volunteer at, so I’m not learning actual information but I am able to be informed and inform other of the work that we do at our clinic on our page.

I will continue to use social bookmarking with delicious for research and writing papers as well as for personal use. Bookmarking is very effective for compiling and finding relevant information that can be accessed anywhere from any device. I have already bookmarked a few for use after this class. I can use social networking for personal use through pinterest to show my interests and organize special events in my life such as a wedding. The social technology I will avoid after this class is gaming. I don’t like gaming. Maybe my son will get me into it as he gets older. I do know that it is effective for some people such as my younger brother. He enjoys it.

Angelina Molina