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I can’t believe that this is already our last week of class! This class has been very beneficial to me and I have learned a lot about technology and online resources. Learning about the numerous study websites that are out there was very helpful because there are so many different kinds, all which could be helpful depending on the study material. I think the most important thing that I will take away from this class and the most meaningful experience was learning about how important scheduling your day can be. Learning about google calendar/tasks was very beneficial to me and I think that by keeping track of how I am spending my day really helps me to realize when I am wasting time so that I can hopefully change those habits. I have also learned how it is important to analyze potential online sources based on reliability, quality, and usefulness. There are a lot of online tools out there that could be very useful but there are also some that may seem useful but are actually not reliable, for example. It is important to know exactly what research you are looking for because some sources may be reliable and have good quality but they don’t relate and are not useful for your research. I have learned a lot about myself by taking this class. For example, the self test that we took this week helped me to realize what kind of a learner I am in ways that I have not thought about before. I have also learned that I am a bigger procrastinator than I thought but I think I have improved some of my habits by learning how to better manage my time as well as by setting short term and long term goals. This class has also made me realize that I already knew a good amount of online etiquette. Whenever I am writing an email I always include a subject, I address the reader(s) of the email in the beginning, and I include a signature. Many things that I have learned in this class I will continue to apply for the rest of my college career, as well as after. Goal setting and creating a calendar of my schedule is something that could be useful for the rest of my life. It is important that I continue these strategies so that I don’t go back to my old ways of procrastinating a lot and forgetting things that I was supposed to do. I have also learned the correct way to use citations and this will be very useful to me in the future, especially when I  am in grad school and have to write a lot of papers. Before using the correct formats of citations, I will use what I learned about the reliability, quality, and usefulness in order to find the right sources to incorporate in my writing as well as cite. Although this was a summer class and it is sometimes hard to find motivation in the summer, I am very glad I took this class and have definitely learned a lot about technology as well as myself!

This chapter in our textbook gave a lot of useful information to consider when taking an online course and using online resources. I have taken quite a few online courses but I learned things from reading this chapter that I have not yet considered while taking an online course and I think they could be very beneficial. First of all, usually there a many online resources given to you when taking an online course and this chapter states how it is important to make sure you are able to access these resources right when they are made available to you. I usually don’t access the online resources that are given to me until I have an assignment that involves using them but that could turn into me being unable to complete the assignment on time if I realize too late that for some reason I am not able to access the resource. Also, when considering an online resource’s reliability, I did not realize that blind peer review was an indication that the publication is reliable. Until reading this chapter, I had no idea that sources such as scholarly journals undergo a blind peer review process but now when I am looking for online sources I am going to make sure that ones that should be blind peer reviewed are so that I know the sources I am using are reliable. It is easy to just use websites such as wikipedia when using sources but it is more important to take the time to find a source that ensures good quality, reliability, and usefulness.

In my opinion, web-enhanced listening and viewing strategies can be very beneficial when learning material. Some people learn better visually, while other people learn better through listening. The web has the ability to accommodate both types of learners, as well as students who like to learn through listening as well as visually. Whether you are listening to an audio or watching a video, it is important to take notes. In this module, we learned a lot of good note-taking strategies and it is important to use these strategies when learning through the web in order to capture all of the important points without either forgetting something or having to listen to the audio/watch the video numerous times just to make sure you have retained everything important. Web-enhanced listening and viewing strategies also makes things such as online classes (like the one we are in) possible/easier. A lot of the work we have done in this class has included video tutorials to show us how to do something. There is also a lesson for each module that contains a video. Without these videos, it would be a lot harder to learn the things that these videos easily teach us. The transition signals table we looked at this week also has some good tips when listening to a lecture or podcast. These cues allow the listener to understand the flow of the audio and know how different parts of the audio are related. Listening for these different transitions can make listening to a lecture/podcast a lot easier and a lot less confusing. I personally prefer watching a video on the web over listening to an  audio because it is easier for me to retain material when i am visually looking at it while listening to it instead of just listening.

This video is a remake to Justin Timberlake’s “Bringing Sexy Back” song. This song is called ConjugationsBack and it explains how to conjugate Spanish -ar verbs. This video contains a familiar song to most people which could help them remember the new lyrics that explain the conjugations. Along with lyrics that explain how to conjugate the verbs, there is also acting where flashcards are shown for the different endings. Also, there is a student writing on the board who doesn’t conjugate the verbs correctly and the main guy in the video changes the words so that they are conjugated correctly. Some of the lyrics of the song include “Those verbs babe, they ain’t worth much unless you conjugate”; this explains the importance of conjugation before explaining how to do it.

I think listening to a song to learn new information is a great way to enhance learning but remaking a popular song could be even more beneficial, in my opinion. Since I am familiar with the original version of this song, it was easy for me to pick up on the new lyrics since the background music/beat is still the same. Also, a music video is a lot more entertaining than a regular video with someone just explaining the information so I was a lot more engaged in this kind of video. It also helps that since it is a song, there is a lot of rhyming which definitely made it easier to remember the words and therefore the steps taken to conjugate -ar verbs. This is also a type of song that gets stuck in my head easily so maybe I will be singing about spanish conjugations all day and then I will definitely remember how to do it!

In my opinion, one of the biggest messages that students should take away  from this module is that it is up to you (as a student) to take control of your learning. Teachers are there to help you as students but if you don’t put in any of the effort, you probably won’t learn as much as you would have otherwise. Some ways that you can take control of your learning is by becoming an active learner, realize what success means to you and stay focused, and discover/access new types of information. The textbook for your class is obviously useful but if you spend some time searching the web for other websites, e-books, etc. you might be very surprised at all of the helpful information you find. This week I spent some time searching the web for new websites that could be useful with studying, time management, etc. and I found a few that I think could also benefit you, as students, when coming to college. One of the websites that I discovered is called Rescue Time. On this website you are able to track the time you spent on your computer/phone which could be helpful for those of you who tend to procrastinate. Another useful website that I found is called Study Guides and Strategies. A lot of students are shocked when they come to college and realize how much easier high school was than they really thought. It is important to develop study strategies that work for you and this website has a lot of helpful tips when studying/learning and even specifies strategies based on the subject you are learning. College can be a stressful time for anyone but if you stay motivated and take control of your learning, it can be easier than you think!

One of the most important ides that i took away from this module is that online relationships with classmates/professors are very similar to relationships in the classroom. Just because you may not be having a physical conversation/interaction, online communication can still  create bad and good relationships. One way to ensure a good online relationship is to make sure you have a good first impression; such as correctly spelling all words in your emails, personalizing your emails, etc. Organization also helps build good online relationships because you will have a lesser chance of sending the email to the wrong person, sending someone the wrong information, etc. On page 127 of the online book, there is a very useful list of how to make sure you are being professional online. Professionalism is not only important in the real world, but also in the online world. When working on an academic project, you want to make sure that your classmates as well as your professors view you as someone who is reliable and serious about what they do. If you post inappropriate pictures online, send rude emails, reject feedback, etc., then chances are that your peers will not take you seriously and will not look forward to working with you. Technology can be a great tool to help you effectively work on online academic projects as long as you are aware of online etiquette and understand that your peers can learn a lot about you even if they are only communicating with you online.

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