theSkimm

 

http://www.theskimm.com/'

 

The other day, while attending pub trivia, a friend mentioned she knew an answer to the question because she read her daily “theSkimm” which is a free service. They send you a condensed version of the top news stories from the day before. My email today contained:

 

"A quote of the day" from Tom Brady about why he changed his cell phone.

A story about the Cincinnati police officer incident.

theSkimm exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton

A brief list of trendy topics

The debris from a missing airline

How well Facebook is doing financially

The popular word for the day “Groufit”

It only took me a few minutes to read  the email to see what is going on in the world. Now I wouldn’t say someone should only use theSkimm as their only news source, but it is a nice recap! Do you use a similar service to condense all the information coming your way?

Throwback to myspace

I was thinking of my first experience with social media- myspace. I obsessed over my myspace page and what song I should play, background I should use, and the pictures I should post. I treated it like a piece of my artwork that would never be complete because there would always be something I could improve. Now myspace is more of a music venue, a place for artists to share their music.

Social Media tools have grown and expanded since the rise of myspace. Facebook took over and now a flood of information streams across my device when I check Facebook. Different ads for different things, news articles, friend updates, and so on. I no longer worry about making my page “fancy” with the best backgrounds and worrying about what music should play when someone goes to my page. The setup of Facebook is simple, but the information is expansive and almost never ending.

How have you seen social media change and how have you changed the way you interact with social media?

eLearning

http://elearningindustry.com/build-active-collaborative-elearning-space#

This is an interesting article about blended learning and what passive vs. active learning looks like in the eLearning environment. The basic point of collaborative and individual eLearning students are asked to participate in are reviewed. How does an instructor cater to their students many different ways of learning while keeping their interest? Get your students involved and allow them to be active learners rather than passive learners! This article does a nice brief overview of the difference between having students do passive or active activities in the eLearning class structure. What are your thoughts? Would you be confident in implementing eLearning techniques in a class?


More eLearning articles can be found here

I Have an Account to What?

I am really enjoying all the new accounts I have created so I can utilize all of the new tools we are learning about. However, I am starting to realize I have more accounts than I can keep up with. This social media stuff can become rather time consuming. As the class moves on there are a few tools that are being left behind. Twitter was going to be my voice and now I hardly remember to even check it. I have it linked to my Scoop.it account so at least it is seeing some action. I was active in my woodworking community for our last project but haven’t been back since I turned the project in. I really enjoyed being part of the community, but there is just not enough time in a day to keep up with it all. How are you all keeping up with your new and old online accounts?

 

I started thinking of all the old accounts I have forgotten about, mostly various email accounts from my youth. I must have a dozen accounts I no longer utilize and I will never remember all of them from different online communities.

p.s. Check out my curated articles on Scoop.it- http://www.scoop.it/t/elearning-by-samantha-kolan

Oh, The Tools You'll Know

Since EME6414 started a few short weeks ago I have been introduced to many new online tools. Some of them I have found great value and some I struggle using. After attempting to do my Knowledge Sharing/Tracking with (a) Pinterest and (b) Evernote, I was feeling like I was missing out on the full experience. Perhaps I have used the above tools mentioned in other formats and am “stuck” in that type of mindset while using them. I started a Scoop.it account and have found unbelievable amounts of information people have shared. I am a Scoop.it machine- collecting all the information I can on eLearning along with the flipped classroom model. I created a Diigo account, but have not found a passion for it yet. I think once I have a topic I want to search for, I will find it to be more valuable to me. I will continue exploring the tools mentioned in the classroom because a whole new world is opening up to me.
Check out my Scoop.it- http://www.scoop.it/t/elearning-by-samantha-kolan

Pinterest is Expanding

I’ve been part of the Pinterest bandwagon for a few years now. When Pinterest first came to light I didn’t see a reason for me to use it. At first it seemed it had one purpose and that was for women to plan their wedding. I’ll admit, I eventually used pinterest to gather ideas for my wedding as well. However, I started using pinterest because I wanted to find creative ideas for my woodworking/ craft projects. I decided I needed to create a new account for professional purposes which I posted the link to off to the right of this blog. It was a different scenario signing up for my new Pinterest account- first I had technical issues: the password box wouldn’t allow me to type. The second interesting difference was this time I didn’t have to be “approved/ invited” to access my Pinterest account. When I created my first account they said they would send me an email within a few days inviting me to complete my account. It made it seem like I was entering an exclusive club. Now they just let anyone get an account :)

While exploring I came across the new feature of Pinterest- Buyable Pins, which I think is currently for iOS users only. Now you can look at everything Pinterest has to offer and if there is a blue pin associated with the item then you will be given the option to purchase. Look out world- a new way to shop is coming to a device near you.

How We Participate

When EME6414 started I felt a little lost regarding the participation section. We were given the expectation of participation and an example. It was hard for me at first to wrap my head around the freedom behind how I participated. In most online courses the teacher tells you how you will participate. Usually this is a discussion post requirement, first making an initial discussion post regarding a topic and then following up by making a required number of comments on other classmates. Most of the time I follow the checklist and never return to see what my classmates have said.

 

In EME6414 the freedom to create discussion threads regarding topics I am interested in (pertaining to the class of course) and commenting on classmates discussions and blogs requires me to be present in this online class in a more meaningful way. I feel it is a more organic process. I come across all sorts of ideas, personalities, topics, and so forth. In a nutshell I feel like I am part of this class, not just another name making the basic required comments.

Why do you think this model of participation works so well for EME6414 and do you think it can be applied to other courses? If so, how would you apply it to an English, math, or science course?