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This course, ESEPSY 1159, has taught me a lot about becoming a better student in the 21st century.  Most students have had the privilege of growing up with technology but I find that few are using technology to its fullest when it comes to learning.  We as students don’t hesitate to make a facebook post, skype with friends across the world, or tweet about what we had for dinner; yet, if you go to a campus library you will often see students hidden behind piles of books and notes studying the same way it was done ten years ago.

There are far too many tools available to students today to name them all but some of my favorite from this class were Google Drive, Google Calendar, Bubbl.us, and database search engines.  Prior to this course I had used Google Drive for group projects but this course helped me to see how I could use it, along with other free google services to improve my personal learning.  In fact, I am using Google Drive’s built n word processor to write this.  Having a “one stop shop” for a majority of my online resources has definitely helped me stay organized as I switch between my laptop, campus lab computers, and my personal computer at home.  Bubbl.us is the tool I have used the most since learning about it. I have found it useful both for group projects and for my professional work.  Lastly, in conjunction with another online class I am taking, I have learned a lot about database search engines such as EBSCO host provided by the OSU library.  The use of this search engine has helped me to find better and more credible resources when writing papers this semester.

I was also able to learn about myself thanks to some helpful evaluation throughout the class.  I did not always agree with some of the results, perhaps due to self ignorance or due to question interpretation, but overall they reinforced my previous self assessments. I found that I am a very bad procrastinator but despite that I am very goal oriented.  I have trouble getting motivated to do task I find boring but when I start on a task I finish it.  One thing that was not reflected in my results was my difference in approach from work and school.  When learning I prefer to learn the “why” rather than the “how” and use the knowledge to then approach the problem rather than memorizing a step by step formula.  In all, the most meaningful thing I took from this course, is that like many college students I am not making the most of the resources available to me.

I saw some minor improvements in my end of course evaluations but I feel that seven weeks is not enough time to break lifelong bad habits.  With the course coming to an end I will make sure to continue to use resources like Google Drive to stay organized.  I will also continue to improve upon my bad habit of procrastination by better planning my time using Google Calendar and Task.  The fact that I am writing this blog post Monday afternoon rather than Tuesday at 11 PM shows improvement already.  I hope that in the future more students have access to a course like this (before their senior year like me) so they can learn about all the ways technology can enhance their learning; not just from tools, but also from resources like podcast and lecture videos.  As we progress into the twenty first century students are expected to use technology for learning more and more.  Courses like this are vital for students to learn how to apply technology to learning.

This week’s module was about searching and researching.  I found the information in this week’s lesson a great supplement to another class I am currently taking, ARTSSCI 2120 –Information Search Evaluation.  The module covered many of the same topics as my other class but one case it brought up a new topic: The difference between search and research.

Breaking down sources credibility into reliably, quality, and utility was an interesting spin on how my other class went about evaluating a source.  My other class used many of the same criteria for evaluating a source but did not divide them into these three categories.  From my experience in both classes I think the most important criteria when evaluating a source for a college course are author credentials/credibility, citations, and how up to date the source is.  When doing research for a class you want to make sure the information you are using is as correct as possible and these three criteria help to ensure that.

The most interesting topic of this module to me was the difference between search and research.  I feel that most students are great at searching but often try the same exact approach when doing research.  Most students who have grown up around technology have no problem typing up a quick google search to find the latest viral video or movie show times.  However these search methods are not effective when trying to write a research paper for a class. When researching it is much more important to look into the sources credibility and quality of content than it is to look for the fastest result possible as we often do when doing plain searching.  Proper research requires use of database search engines, advanced search filters, and proper search statements.

If I only had one piece of advice to give to fellow students it would be this: Google is designed to provide us with fast results for the masses, it is not designed to do research on by default.  Make use of its advanced search features or use one of the library’s resources such as EBSCOhost to get reliable and quality results.

This week’s module was about web-enhanced learning.  The module covered note taking, pod cast, online lectures, and supplementary videos.

As students in the 21^st century there are more and more expectations each year for us to understand how to use web technology in our education.  Even when the expectation is not there the supplementary material the web has to offer should not be ignored.

While note taking is not new to this age, how we take notes has changed quite a bit.  Text editors like Microsoft Word makes notes easier to edit and, in most cases, neater and more legible thanks to spell check and auto-correct.  The downside to using a text editor is that people not familiar with the technology may fall behind when taking notes and it is harder to include free hand drawings of graphs or mind maps.  Other tools such as bubbl.us (covered last week) can help to enhance notes written in text editors by providing an easy way to do mind maps online. You can even copy these maps into your notes later so everything can be saved in one space.  Many teachers are also providing online copies of their power points prior to lectures, you can print these off to use as a reference or to take notes on or bellow each slide.

Pod cast are an audio only recording that cover a vast range of topics.  These can be used by teachers to provide extra material or students can search for them on their own if they feel they need more information on a given topic.  As they are audio only they can sometimes be harder to follow than a video or in-person lecture that can use body language and visual aids such as graphs or power point slides.  Both students listening to these pod cast and the person recording the pod cast need to be aware of these limitations.  On the other hand, as they are audio only you can listen to them on the way to class, or while on a long drive much like you would music or the radio.  You may not be able to take notes while doing this but it can still supplement your learning.

Lectures and supplementary material can also be presented online in video form.  These videos have the added benefit of being able to use visual aids to improve the viewer’s experience. Unlike live lectures students can also pause and rewind these videos if they miss something or need to catch up in their notes, this also applies to the pod cast mentioned above.  Internet videos differ from pod cast in that they often use visuals heavily so you cannot watch them in the same ways you can pod cast.

As learning is moving more and more to the web it is important that students keep up.  Some of the best help I received with my harder calculus and physics courses at OSU were online videos from Khan Academy.  These videos are available for free on YouTube and cover everything from economics to computer science.  Succeeding as a student takes more than just going to the lectures; it requires you to engage in the lectures, take good notes, and to find the material you need outside of the class to succeed.

This video is a short lecture on polyalphabetic ciphers.  A polyalphabetic cipher is a form of cryptography using a shift word to perform a Caesar cipher.  This type of encryption has the added security of flattening out the message’s fingerprint and therefore making it harder to crack without the keyword.  However, as it uses a fixed repeating keyword if the person wanting to crack the message can find the length of the keyword the message can be decrypted as a set a Caesar ciphers.  For this reason longer keywords are better.

This video was very good as an introduction to polyalphabetic ciphers.  I found the visuals it used particularly helpful as cryptography can often be hard to understand.  The lecturer’s pacing and emphasis on important aspects was also helpful in understanding the complex topic.   I found the graph showing shift frequency particularly helpful and seeing the shift in real time, as opposed to looking at two graphs side by side in a text book, helped to illustrate the “flattening” of the fingerprint.

This week’s module was about reading and studying using online resources.  As I was going over the course notes I was pleased to find that I already do many of the suggested practices.  The bullet point “Preview/scan through text before begin” was quit fitting as I was doing a quick first pass through the notes to see what this week would cover.

In a world full of smart phones and tablets one would think that students would use the ever evolving technology to help with the burden of school work. In my experience this is not the case. I see far more students buried in piles of textbooks and hand written notes then not.  I know personally I was not fully aware of all of the study resources available to students online before taking this class.  Using technology to study is not a generic skill taught to all students when they start college as it should be. Tools like study stack, memorize, chegg, quizlet, and many more can be huge helps to students for exam preparation and studying.

These technologies are however accompanied by their own set of hurdles that students will need to take into consideration when using them.   Unless they are using a tool designed for e-reading, such as Amazon’s kindle reader, students will often need to copy and paste text into a text editor in order to highlighting or bookmarking. The upside to this is that it is often much neater, harder to lose, and takes up no physical space.  If a student prefers hard copies then they can also print out important sections or summaries of the material and highlight it or manipulate it how they see fit.   It also may take longer to prepare material and type it into an online study resource such as study stack than it would be to hand write flash cards quickly, however, in the end the extra time spent in preparation will most likely be made up for.  Lastly, learning how to use internet based tech like hyperlinks, web apps, and video can be can be hard for people who may have not grown up using technology.  With that said, I would still suggest students who want to succeed the most should learn how to use the internet to its maximum potential in order to become better learners.

The 21^st century has changed the way we as students communicate on a day to day basis.  We can text each other rather than picking up the phone; have face to face meetings over Skype with people across the world; and stay connected to thousands of people in real time using Facebook and Twitter. These new means of communication are not without new and unique challenges though.

The way we communicate online in known as netiquette (etiquette for the internet).  Depending on the medium there are many challenges one has to consider that you do not have to when talking to someone face to face.  A lack of body, facial, and tonal skills in texted based communication can make it hard to get your message across clearly. For example “I JUST GOT HERE!”, am I upset here and yelling, or perhaps I am excited that I just arrived.  Without body and tonal queues it is impossible to tell by that one singular message. I have found the use of emoticons the most useful here to help convey your intentions. However, there is a time and a place for emoticons. If you are having a professional conversation with a boss or professor you would want to avoid these and speak as you would to a professional in person.

Before sending a message it is also imperative to re-read it and make sure that you are conveying the message you intend and that it is clear and not full of typos.  Use spell checkers and text editors when appropriate to make sure your message is well formatted. I am using MS Word right now to type this :). The ease of sending a quick text, tweet, or email can often being enticing but it is better to use these for short and sweet conversations. In person meetings, phone calls, and Skype are much better ways to have long in-depth conversations.

It is also important to choose the correct medium when communicating online.  Email is great for a back and forth conversation between a small set of people when time is not a concern.  If time is a concern chat systems like Skype’s text chat or g-chat are good tools to use.  If you want to make a statement but do not have the need for a large back and forth between you and your audience then Twitter is a great tool. Lastly if you want to convey a long message to many people at once Blogs or Forums are good tools as they allow many people to participate in a conversation over a long period of time.

With any form of online communication it is important to always keep in mind who your audience is and to format your message appropriately for both them and the medium you are using.