Posts

Final Blog

  • What have you learned about technology/online tools/online resources?

I have learned a significant amount about online tools and resources over the past half-semester. Different collaboration tools that I learned about have been very helpful. Google Docs has been the most impressive. The ability to have multiple users work on the same document at the same time is very helpful to those working in groups. In terms of organization, making use of the Google Calendar has been life changing. Prior to this class, I never made a schedule because it was too time consuming, but after the time assignment with the Calendar, I now see how useful it is. It integrates directly with my phone because I use Android. This significantly increases my ease of use. Also, the Mind Map tool was a surprisingly useful tool that I had never seen. I wish I had seen it earlier in my academic career. I believe that the biggest thing that I learned about technology from this class is that I have only scratched the surface on the number of available tools. There is so much out there that I have yet to see.

  • What have you learned about yourself?

After taking this class, I have learned that I have the potential to be very organized. If I were to embrace organization, it would only supplement my current skillset. By writing more things down and putting a little bit more time into organization, I will actually significantly increase the amount of usable time at my disposal. I have been a student that is always on the cusp of doing extremely well, but my disorganization is what has kept me from reaching that level. Through this class, I have found many of my weaknesses and I have also found many solutions to my problems. By utilizing the skills from this class, my career in future will benefit greatly.

  • What was your most meaningful experience in the course? Why?

The most meaningful experience for me in this class was the time assignment with the google calendar. By tracking my daily time usage, I was able to pinpoint where I could optimize my usage. I was wasting a good deal of time and I was always playing catch-up. I was able to see why I get so stressed with my classes sometimes, and this was a very eye-opening experience. Seeing my improvements over the course helped me see that making a few changes could yield large results.

  • How will you apply what you learned in this class in the future?

Because I am a graduating senior, I will have to find ways to implement my new skills into my everyday life. One of the biggest things, as I have already said, is continuing to use a schedule. By keeping a schedule of every thing that I do in a day, I will stay on-time, and I will be able to reflect back on how I’ve been using my time. Other things, such as note taking skills, will be very useful every where in my life, including my job.

Module 6 Post

Module 6 is all about searching techniques and finding quality information online. The module goes through various parts of the searching aspect (such as finding quality sources, using OSU provided tools, finding citations, etc.), but I am going to focus on the boolean logic section. This section interests me because last semester I took a class on online research and learned the whole new world of search boolean logic, but also I am a Computer Science and Engineering major at OSU, so this type of logic is within my normal academic realm. Boolean tools and operators include using AND, OR, (), “”, and things in this avenue to help limit your searches to what you want to find. Using these in research is useful, but it also becomes very helpful in your everyday “googling”. The most useful tool, in my opinion, is the “Site:” tool. By using this prefix on your search, you’ll be able use google to search individual pages for your key words. I use this often to find pages that I forgot to bookmark, but I can remember some of the keywords on the page. By making regular use of these tools, you’ll become a more efficient search expert, and your internet experience will benefit for it.

Module 5 Post

Module 5 is all about notetaking and effective listening and viewing.

Some note taking approaches that is suggests are printing out powerpoint presentations prior to class or taking notes directly inside of the powerpoint in the notes section at the bottom of each slide. If you do not do this, you can take notes on paper and divide it into slides. Taking notes from video or audio can be done by outlining main ideas. Using a template is another option that can be used to take better lecture notes. One technique is the Cornell Method. This includes dividing your paper into cues, examples, questions, and summaries, or similar categories. OneNote is a very powerful tool that I use. It is a microsoft product that essentially allows you to save your notes and access them on any device. If you have a device with a stylus then you can really reap the benefits of the product. Mind Maps can also be used to take notes if you are a more visual person. This method includes branching ideas from other overarching main ideas and eventually ending up with a graphical representation of the material. Podcasts are good for getting audio material of a specific topic (Depending on the podcast). It allows you to listen while doing other things. They were much more popular in the mid to late 2000’s. Using youtube and other video repositories can be helpful for finding new sources of information that can supplement lecture material.

 

 

The academic topic I picked is Physical Fitness.

 

In the video, a tutorial is given of how to increase the amount of pull-ups that a person can do. It is a summary of a method developed by Major Armstrong. The training program is broken into different workouts for a 5 day program. On day one, 5 sets of maximum reps are done. On the next day, the pyramid method is used. This includes increasing reps by one each set until failure. The 3rd day includes implementing training sets. 3 sets comprised of 3 different types of pullups are done with a set number of repetitions. On day four, the number of reps is the same but the number of sets is until failure. Day 5 is whatever previous workout was hardest. Advanced people can do the same method but with muscle ups.

This video enhanced my learning of the subject by giving me a proven method that I did not previously know. This training method was used by a military instructor while he was preparing to challenge the world record in pull ups. The video has a well defined method which makes learning the program easier. It is broken into 5 easy workouts to remember and it can be built upon in the future. The video provides me with good knowledge in an effective manner.

Module 4 Post

In Module 4, the focus is using the web in order to find tools that facilitate studying. The module goes into the strategies that could help studying. I believe that removing distractions before reading online is one of the most important strategies.  Module 4 continues on to discuss many different tools available online that help studying, and I found another tool that could also be useful called Freedom (http://macfreedom.com/).   I know from experience that once you get on the computer to do homework, the odds of getting distracted are very high. Facebook, ESPN.com, and Youtube are just a few of the things that get in the way.  Freedom is a service that is offered that can combat this by letting you lock down your computer for a set amount of time. This will allow you to only go to your study materials and distraction websites will only be available after a certain amount of time. I personally do not use this tool because I don’t mind the occasional distraction, but for those that distractions are an issue, this could be very useful. Staying focused during studying is very important, and if a person wants to excel, they need to use all of the tools at their disposal.

Module 3 Post

In Module 3, the focuses are as follows:

 

  • Describe best practices for communicating and collaborating online with classmates
  • Identify web-based tools to facilitate communicating and collaborating online
  • Define common purposes of blogs and blogging

 

For students,collaborating with students online is very important. There are always group projects and/or students in various classes that may need help with certain topics from other students. At OSU, Carmen provides discussion boards that can be helpful to students in this manner. However, it must be noted that most students do not check these discussion boards if it is not required for the class. Many posts may go unseen. When working in a group, the most popular tools available now are the Google suite of tools. Google Calendar can be used to coordinate meetings and Google Drive is an extremely powerful tool that can be used to allow multiple users to edit and work on the same documents/store documents. This is perfect for group work. Email is a tool that is still a mainstay in terms of communication, but it is slowly falling off for a few reasons. Many students do not check their emails often, and many times it can be dependent upon whether their professors make good use of email. Overall, emailing a student for communication purposes is still viable today. The section in the module about Netiquette is also very important. Maintaining good habits in emails, blogs, and discussion posts is important because it can carry over into the future. Students may be more lax in their speech and structure of emails sent to other students, and if they continue this trend, they may keep the same structure for professors and employers. If they do, they may come off as unprofessional and be ignored or misunderstood.  Blogs are important because, as a blogger, you can really reflect on work that you’ve done and add another personal layer to the actual work. This gives readers additional insight and may help them with their work and further promote collaboration.