Technology and Online Tools and Resources

As the years go on, the world as a whole is becoming more and more technology based. As college students we are able to use online tools and resources to further advance our learning.

Communicating through technology

When communicating through technology it is important to remember that even though the person isn’t talking to you face to face that you still make a good impression. In order to make a good impression while communicating: make sure to check your grammar and spelling, communicate through a professional style, and be sure to be specific.

Collaborating Online

Throughout college, we are expected to not only communicate with other through technology but also be able to collaborate efficiently with others via online. Collaborating online is becoming more common now-a-days because many people have different schedules or obligations that leave for little to no room for an entire group to meet up and work on a project. So it is important to remember to participate, stay organized, and to provide feedback whenever you are faced with collaborating online.

Online Tools and Reasources

New tools and resources are added to the web on a daily basis; Which provides a wide variety of apps and websites that can further advance one’s learning. When you are struggling with a subject, just go on to the internet and see if you can find an educational video that can help! Most likely the hardest part of this, is narrowing your search down and actually finding a video that helps. It might take some trail and error, but in the long run it is totally worth it! If you aren’t a huge fan of videos there is always websites that can help you out a great deal! If you are struggling with homework, there’s a good chance chegg.com can help you out! There are a huge diversity of websites that can be beneficial to a student.

Another thing, as students, we normally face is staying organized. If  you are always writing things down like a to-do  list but forgetting it at home or something. Make a to-do list or calendar of events through Google. The great thing about putting your to-do list or calendar online is the fact that you are able to look at the list whenever you are on your phone or computer and there is a good chance you will always have one or the other!

About myself

This class has brought to my attention how if I stopped procrastinating as much, a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders. At the beginning of this course, I would always just save any type of work/studying that needed to be done to the very last possible minute. Being enrolled in 18 credit hours made procrastinating a hard thing to do because I always had something that I should be doing. But even though, I always had something to do I would still manage to procrastinate. So in order to manage my procrastination, I started to do homework during my breaks between classes. Most of my breaks are only about an hour, but it is amazing what you can accomplish during that hour when you are not wasting it on Facebook! I also started to make to-do lists on a daily basis, so that I can stay organized and stay on top of things!

Meaningful Experience for this Course

Once we started this course, and did the time management assignment, I realized that I actually do spend a lot of time studying/doing homework but I also had a lot free time that I wouldn’t really do anything but lay around and watch TV.The time management assignment allowed me to reflect on how I am spending my time and made me realize that some of my ways need to change. The biggest thing that I believed needed to change is how I spent my free time. So I started to do little assignments or big assignments separated into tasks during my down time, so it seemed as though I didn’t do much but I really have. In the long run, it allowed for my procrastination level to decrease.

Future Applications

For future classes, I will apply the time management skills I learned. I learned that it is important to get ahead in all of your classes and stay on top of things. Throughout college, there’s a good chance that something is going to take a lot longer than expected to do or that something comes up that interferes with what you had planned to do that day. So if I stay on top of all my classes, if I have to face that situation, it would not be a problem because there is a good chance I could be ahead of the course. Also that online resources are your best friends!

For almost every class you encounter in college you will most likely will have to do some type of research whether it be for a paper, project, or article evaluation. Since searching for resources and researching is a such a common thing, it’s important to remember the following:

1. Outline your goals. Before you get started, outline the topics you need to research and determine what type of resources and information will be most valuable to your research for each topic. For example, I had to write a memo for one of my engineering classes about new technology that benefited our environment on a broad basis. So before researching, I outline what topics I wanted to cover then determined that empirical research through academic research journals would be the most valuable to me.

2. Make sure your sources are reliable. When you find a article or book online, make sure the author has some credentials. Look for their contact information, so that you can look at their background information and determine if they are qualified to talk about the topic being discussed. Also, look at the publication’s reputation. A publication will have a good reputation if they have many articles/magazines/books within a certain field.

3. Avoid Blogs and Wiki pages. A lot of blogs and wiki pages are unreliable due to they are mostly based solely on opinion and nothing on research.

4.  Make sure your sources have high information quality. Make sure all references and statics are up to date and still relate to today, all facts are backed up with some type of research/statistic, and the article is not bias to the author’s opinion.

Throughout your college experience, there is a good chance that you will have to listen to a lecture or podcast online. For me I find online lectures more helpful because:

1. Can be accessed at any point and time. If for some reason you feel like your notes aren’t good enough to study with or if you didn’t understand a topic fully, you can go back to the source of the lecture and re-watch the material that you wish to hear again.

2. There are many features that can enhance effective listening. All podcasts and videos include pause, play, stop, fast forward, and rewind buttons. These features can enhance not only your effective listening but also your notes. If you didn’t fully understand a point or you weren’t able to write down the information quickly enough you can rewind and then replay the same information. These features are great because you do not have a chance for replays of information in a lecture hall setting.

but there can also be some problems that you can encounter with online lectures and podcasts. Those being:

1. Technology problems. These problems can range anywhere from your computer not working properly or the internet itself not working properly. These problems can, of course, occur at any point and time. So make sure all your technology is working right and that you watch/listen to the information a few days before required!

2. No visual cues. In lecture halls you are able to pick up on the lecturers body language, which can help you notice the big picture and what key points are the most important. You are still able to do this with an online video of a lecture, but you can not do this with a podcast. Since there are no visual cues in a podcast it is important to listen for verbal cues. Those being a change in the speaker’s tone or in volume.

also since you cannot see the lecturer/speaker in a podcast it is important to listen for the structure of the information presented. Listening to the structure of the information will allow you to understand the information more clearly and be able to take notes on the podcast more effectively. The structure that you should be looking for is:

1. Introduction – The overview of what the material will be about.

2. Transitions – New sections of the material (the main ideas).

3. Digression – Deportation from the main point

4. Restatement – Returning back to the main point

5. Conclusion – Summary of the material

The great thing about our generation is all the resources we have available to us through the internet. An great example of resources available to us our educational videos that can be found through video-based websites; like YouTube or Vimeo. All you have to do is search for the topic and pick and choose between all the results until you find a page/user that works best for you!

Personally, I have always struggled with Chemistry in some shape and form. So when I was enrolled in my Chemistry courses, I found it very helpful to find videos on things I struggled with the most and watch as many as possible, until I understood the topic completely.  A great YouTube user that I personally found very helpful was CrashCourse. The following video is an interesting, engaging video about the types of bonds in Chemistry by CrashCourse:

The overall of this video was:

— Each type of atomic relationship requires a different kind of energy but do their best with the least amount of stress, just like our relationship as humans.

— Electrostatic Force (like charges repel and opposite charges attract) is what determines the bond length (the distance between two nuclei at the point of minimum energy).

–The types of bonds are:

1. Polar Covalent Bonds – bonds formed by atoms sharing electrons that have different electronegativities causing a separation of charges.
2. Non-Polar Covalent Bonds – bonds formed by atoms sharing electrons that have identical or very similar electronegativities, so that the charges are distributed evenly.
3. Ionic Bonds – bonds formed by the transfer of electrons from one atom to another.

To me I found this video very helpful because CrashCourse not only gives definitions of each term but also gives examples related to real life and “Chemistry Life.”  CrashCourse does go pretty fast paced, so if that is not your learning style, it might not be the YouTube user for you. I personally find fast pace things to be more helpful because it gives you the simplest form of the information in less than 10 minutes. Like in  “Atomic Hook-Ups” video, things that were taught to me in extreme detail over a week, is simplified into the basics of the topic in 9 minutes.

Web- Enhanced Reading

Online reading tends to differ from traditional reading in several different ways. With traditional reading, readings usually takes place within a group or classroom, while online reading can be whenever the student is near a computer. Also, with traditional reading, the readings are focused on one page at a time while online readings are interactive and one can decided what to read.  Since there is huge differences between web-enhanced reading and traditional reading, one needs to acquire some new strategies when first starting to read online. Some of these strategies that are important to increase your comprehension when reading online are:

Before Reading:

1. Review. Review the syllabus and make a list of all the readings you need to accomplish.

2. Create a good environment. Reading involves your full attention, so get rid of any distractions that you may face. Turn off the TV, silence your phone, go on a website that will block all social networks that usually distract you while you are studying. Since online reading, obviously involves reading on a tablet or computer, make sure to select a spot to read where you have good lighting.

3. Make sure you have all the required software. With traditional reading all that matters is that you have the book, but with online reading you need to make sure you have the right software to view the readings. So make sure all the required software is downloaded before you commit yourself to reading.

While Reading:

1. Scan the reading. Scan throughout the reading, to let yourself know what exactly you will be reading and to determine what your goals are for the provided reading.  Your goals might  include things that you need to understand and comprehend the most or the practical application that can be used.

2. Become an active learner. Ask yourself questions about the key points of the reading, so that you comprehend the material better. Also take notes of the material as you read through the material. I find it very helpful to summarize each section after reading, so that you can identify the key points of each section.

3. Use the features available. A bonus to reading online is that you can pretty much do everything you do in traditional reading plus more in a faster amount of time. You can highlight and take notes right onto the reading, making it easier to go back through the reading and find important information. Also, with many online readings you can search a specific section that you may feel that you need to learn about a little bit more.

4. Take breaks. If you read everything straight through, you might not comprehend everything as much as you should. By reading straight through you just worry about getting the reading done rather than comprehending the material. Also, since you are reading off a monitor your eyes can start to bother you, so make sure you give your mind and eyes a break every 30-45 minutes.

After Reading:

1. Review Your Notes and Questions. Make sure your notes and questions are helpful enough, that you don’t have to go back to the reading to study.

Study Strategies

The great thing about modern technology is that there are an endless amount of websites and apps you can use to help you improve your studying. If you have a problem with staying organized and staying on track with your tasks, create a Google calendar that has all your due dates and meetings scheduled into it. If you like studying with note cards but hate making them, there are several different websites that may have the note cards you need already or make it easier on you to make, a great an example of this is Study blue. There are an endless amount of websites that can improve your studying skills, all you have to do is Google whatever issue you may have, and there’s probably a 99% that you will find something that can help you! All you have to do is be creative and find studying skills that are the most helpful to you!

Technology is the basis of everything we do in the world now-a-days –whether it be to check e-mails, contact family or friends, or doing school work– we are always using some type of technology to accomplish our tasks for the day. Since technology is used so much it is important to know how to properly communicate to fellow students, teachers, or future employers.

Communicating Online

When communicating online with your classmates it is important to remember:

1. First impressions still matter. Making a good impression with your classmates online is just as important as making a good impression with people in a classroom. The more friends you make throughout the course, the more advantage you will have. Making friends in a course is so helpful because you now have someone you can contact to study with, ask questions, and so on. In order to make a good impression make sure you take the time to personalize any e-mails you send. Adding personalization allows you to show them that you actually care for what they say and how they are doing, instead of them thinking you are just “using” them to get things for that class.

2. Make sure to check your spelling and grammar. Make sure to not include any abbreviations or slang terms in any of your communication. Some abbreviations can cause miscommunications due to having several different meanings. Slang terms can cause you to look unprofessional or seem as though you do not care enough to give your full attention to the classwork. So remember when writing e-mails to your fellow students to write everything out and re-read it a few times!

3. Be sure to be specific. If you are asking a classmate for lecture notes for a class you missed, make sure to give as much detail as possible. For example, include the date of the lecture you missed and what it was about, so that they do not have to go out of their way to help you out.

When communicating online with your professor make sure to:

1. Don’t wait till the end of the semester. As soon as the semester starts, make sure to go out of your way and e-mail your professor about how you are looking forward to their class and ask any questions you may have. Throughout the semester, e-mail your professor with any questions you may have about the lectures or the assignments. Professors are there to help us, after all!

2. Always communicate through a professional style. Always make sure to refer to your instructor by their titles, never by their first name. Make sure to write everything out in full sentences and paragraphs, and thank them for their time.

Collaborating Online

There’s a good chance sometime throughout your academic career you are going to have to do some type of group assignment. With everyone having different schedules and obligations, it is likely that must of the collaborating for the assignment will be done online. Or you may be involved in some type of study group designed by the instructor.  So when you face this type situation make sure to:

1. Provide feedback for your peers. Always give kind feedback and never just completely shoot down a peer’s idea. Just because you think they are wrong, doesn’t mean everyone else does too. Make sure to actually think about their idea, and then possibly come up with another suggestion that works off of their idea.

2. Participate! Don’t let everyone else do the work for you, always make sure to add your input to the assignment and always put just as much effort into the group as everyone else.
3. Stay organized. Make sure each member of the group is completing their tasks on time, schedule meetings for the group, schedule due dates for each task. An easy way to stay on top of all these things is creating a calendar on Google that is shared between each group member.