Professional Learning Network

Journal #7

Before when I wanted to learn about something I googled it and I went through the results.  Now all I need to do is have a hashtag and I can start following a topic that sounds interesting to me.  For me the two that I used the most in this class were twitter and digg.  From this experience I learned how to use twitter.  I had never had an account before so I started to follow topics that I found interesting.  It was an easy way to keep up with the election.  I also used digg which allowed me to put all of my favorites to one page.  I do not need to go to several different websites anymore to read my news.  I am able to use digg and compare news stories from different sources.  I believe that it is important for educators to use tools such as these ones to stay informed and to help keep others informed with current developments. It saves me time everyday when I want to read the news.  It also sends me notifications to my phone when their is an important information is released.

Q1: Will you continue using twitter and digg?

A1: I will continue using both of them but I think I will probably use twitter more.

Q2: Which did you use more during this class twitter or digg?

A2: I used twitter a lot more than I used digg.

Journal 6: Self Reflection

Journal #6

I have learned a lot over the first five weeks I have been in GED 512.  I knew a little about HTML and how to type it out in notepad but it was my first time dealing with CSS.  I find it useful now that I learned that I could make a CSS document to style all of my pages.  It saves me from putting it into each page.  The most difficult assignment that I have had during the first five weeks was the chapter 9 book exercise.  When I was going through the code of how they wanted it mine always showed up differently when it was launched. It took me a while but I read through the HTML document to see if I had spelling mistakes and other trouble shooting methods.  I eventually found out that the final example that I had to download had a flaw they did not end the fieldset correctly so the layout was different. The most rewarding assignment was when I linked all of the HTML pages for the chapter 6. That assignment showed me that the more organized you are the easier it is to make sure that the links work on your pages. It took a little while but I fully understand how to link pages and that it is easier when they are together.

most difficult assignment chapter 9 book exercise

http://www.cpp.edu/~jakeagy/GED512/book/chapter9/contest_entry.html

rewarding assignment chapter 6 book exercise

http://www.cpp.edu/~jakeagy/GED512/book/chapter6/jenskitchen/index.html

Q1:What advice would you give other students who are taking this class?

A1:I would recommend not using notepad or text editor to work on these assignments.  You need a program that can keep your information organized. I like using dreamweaver because it is easy to keep all of my files organized and I can see live updates of the changes I make in My HTML documents.

Q2:What do you want to learn more about for the rest of the quarter?

A2:I would like to learn more about CSS. I want my final website to look professional and I need a good design.  I would also like to learn about other features that I can embed in my HTML files.

Journal 5: Try Twitter

Journal #5

I am new to the world of twitter.  If I were to use twitter in a classroom I would use it to remind students of the homework problems that they were assigned.  I read through the 35 interesting ways to use twitter in the classroom.  It had the same one that I would do by making an account for homework.  This is also a great way for parents to follow me so that they can see what homework that I am assigning.  I think it would be a great way to get parents more involved in the class.  Their are some great ways that I can use twitter for my classroom.  I do no think that I would use the location one that they suggested.  I really did like the useful hashtags.  I already am following #TED because I enjoy watching the stories that they offer.  I feel like the useful hashtags are more for personal development.  I do not come across many TED talks that I could use in the classroom.  I am discovering new things everyday and I am personalizing twitter for myself.  I am not the type of person who publishes very often to social media.  I enjoy looking at the interesting things that National Geographic and NASA are posting.  I will continue to use twitter but I will have to see how I will use it in the classroom when I become a teacher.

Q1: How will students use twitter to help them in the classroom?

A1: If the teacher has a twitter account for the classroom the students are able to follow it and keep up to date with the assignments.  They will also be able to ask their classmates questions that they might have on the homework.  This will help students collaborate outside of the classroom.

Q2: How to use social media to help students succeed?

A1: If I am going to use twitter to and want students to collaborate using it. I am going to have them answer their classmates questions about the homework problems.  I would rather have another student teach the concept to their classmate.  If I need to step in and clarify things then I will.

Journal Post 4: Project Plan

Journal #4

Site title - Joshua Keagy website.

Developer - Joshua Keagy

Rational or focus - This will be a website that I will be able to use to show employers my skills to help me get a job.  I have seen several teachers take in physical folders showing the work they have done.  I want a simple website that I could pull up on an ipad and they could look at the material that I have created.  I want to create a website that I will be able to add or replace things easily.

Main features outline - The main features of this site will be my education, skills that I have learned over the years and things that I have worked on.  I want this website to show that I am an individual with a wide range of skills.

Content - This website will have around eight web pages. Some pages may end up going together. I want to also include some pdfs such as my resume so employers are able to open it quickly. I will also add links and pictures of my work.

Main page

• Education
• Skills
• About me
• Contact Me
• Photo album
• Projects
• Survey

Target audience - It will be for employers.  I also want to include some student work or lesson plans that I have created that other teachers can look at.

Design considerations. I want the website to be easy to navigate.  If I want a pdf to show up I want it to open in a new page or some way to easily view it.  All links will be clearly marked.

Limiting factors - I would like to put up a survey page so that I could use it in my future classrooms and share it with other instructors.  It is easier to look at data when it is organized.  I will probably have to learn some java for the survey.  Even though I am not a full time teacher and I do not have a lot of lesson plans to share.  It will have to grow after I become a teacher.

Site Map

Wire Frame Image

Add caption

Journal 3 Blog Post: Social Media

Journal #3

Coffin, T., & Fournier, J. (2015, June). Social Media in the Learning Setting: Opportunities and Challenges. Retrieved October 16, 2016, from https://itconnect.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Social-Media-in-the-Learning-Setting.pdf.

Friesen, N. (2010). Education and the social Web: Connective learning and the commercial imperative. First Monday, 15(12). doi:10.5210/fm.v15i12.3149

http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3149/2718

Summary:

In the article “Social Media in the Learning Setting” I read about the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for learning.  A survey was taken to find the advantages and disadvantages.  Some of the opportunities were communicating with peers and instructors.  Students are able to stay in touch and share relative information regarding the class that they are taking. Instructors are also able to hold virtual office hours.  This allows for flexible hours and quick responses. There are also disadvantages of using social media in learning.  It could be hard to separate a student's academic and personal life.  Most students want to keep their personal social media accounts separate from their professional accounts.  Faculty and students find social media distracting. It talked about how instructors should be more strict and enforce rules about using social media in the classroom.  An instructor talked about how technology comes with its own problems.  If students are able to use computers to take notes they will usually end up looking at their social media.  Faculty feel they are not prepared to integrate social media into the classroom.  Faculty want to learn best practices for integrating social media into the classroom.  Faculty also said it would help to take introduction course on how to use social media.  Even with the survey there is still a lot of unanswered questions concerning the use of social media for educational purposes.  What they did find was that their should be guidelines in which the campus follows and that their should be training for faculty.

The other article Education and the social web was about connecting users with the right advertisements.  Using social networks is a way to connect multiple users but it is also a way to analyze your search patterns and focus advertisements at you.  In the first quarter of 2010 google earned over 2 billion just from advertisements.  Google uses a complex algorithm to target the consumers with the right adds.  Unlike TV the ads are not as specific and are targeted for a larger audience.  Other social media companies are doing the same thing by using algorithms to target the user and give them other information that they might be interested in.

Q1. Was their any classes at Cal Poly where the professor said you could not use your phone?

A1. Their was only one class where the use of a phone was prohibited and that was TH 208. It was a class where you watched movie clips.  The professor strictly said that if your phone ringed during class you would fail.  During that class not a single phone was used in class.  As for my other classes most students would keep their phone on their desk and usually not text unless it was an emergency. Most rules about using technology in the classroom are rarely went over.

Q2. How does social media target you with ads?

A2. Using special algorithms. Social medial sites can figure out things that you are interested in just by using past data of things that you clicked, liked and searched.  The more information you feed it the more precise it can target you with the information that you are interested in.

Journal 2: Join an Affinity Group and Share your Digg Stream

Journal #2

Reflection:

I joined a few affinity groups on Twitter.  I joined National Geographic, TED Talks and quite a few more.  I am looking forward to see how these groups will keep me up to date.  I have never used Twitter before so I do not know what I should expect.

https://twitter.com/NatGeo

https://twitter.com/TEDTalks

So I was not sure about if Digg would be a website I would even use.  I first set it up to have all my news.  I am the type of person who goes to multiple sources such as yahoo, CNN and more.  For once it was nice to be able to scroll down a list with all of the articles that I wanted to read.  I was so used to going to multiple websites.  It was also nice that I could put the different topics that I was interested in into separate groups.  Digg was a great resource but I wish that I did not have to open new tabs for some of the articles that I wanted to read.  It was like creating my own personal newspaper.  I was able to add the parts I liked and take out the ones that did not interest me.  So I tried out the mobile app for Digg and I liked it a lot more than the regular interface that was on the computer.

Q1:  Was it easy to join an affinity group?

A1:So at first I did not think it was that difficult to join an affinity group.  I went to try and add a few but it seems you have to be accepted in by an administrator.  It was taking too long so I just ended up creating a twitter account.

Q2:How easy is Digg to use?

A2: Digg was simple to use.  I was able to set up my account instantly.  It was easy to search for topics to add to my Digg feed.  I was able to switch between the different topics that I wanted to read.

Journal 1 Blog Post: Chapter 1 -3

Journal #1

Robbins, J. N. (2012). Learning web design: A beginner's guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and web graphics. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.

Summary:

Chapter one focuses on where someone would start when they get into web design.  Some people do it for a career while others make it into a hobby.  There's a lot that web designer has to learn. They need to be able to design based off of the idea or instructions that they have.  It has to be able to run smooth and that means that the web designer has to understand several programing languages.  A web designer is not expected to learn everything at once but they will eventually learn everything that they are going to need to know.  New software is always coming out which sometimes replaces the old.

Chapter two focuses on how the web works.  It is interesting that a simple change in the HTML can make a huge difference in the way the page looks like for users.  The style of a page can drastically change bass on what you tell it to do.  For me it is amazing that their are so many different commands you can give to the text that is displayed.

Chapter three focuses on concepts web designers need to know.  The amount of different devices that people are using to access the internet is increasing.  With the use of so many different devices there is a standard that are followed so that content is compatible.even if the screen is too small to read the text the user can zoom in on what they are looking at.  The web is accessible for people with disabilities.

Q1. Why should we learn HTML?

A1. It is possible to make simple websites with HTML documents and images.  You are not programing when you use HTML it is just organizing the way information is looks at on a page. It is a good idea to learn how HTML works before you start working with CSS or JavaScript.

Q2. Why do you need to run the same webpage on different devices?

A2. No two devices are the same.  A computer screen is going to be larger than a cellphone screen. The way a user views and interacts with information is going to be different.  Also all web browsers work differently.  Some browsers do not support additional plugins that can be added.  In some cases data will not be accessible to users using certain devices or browsers.  That is why it is important to test what you make on a wide variety of devices to make sure it is accessible to as many users as possible.