Virtual worlds

Truong-White & McLean's article on the use of digital storytelling to support a sense of modern citizenship is a feel-good story about the use new technologies to promote a worthy cause.  While reading this article, I couldn’t help but realize that new technologies that have a primary purpose other than promoting modern citizenship can effectively be utilized for that manner.  The use of virtual reality came readily to mind.

Virtual worlds have the power to eliminate borders while providing a sense of global citizenship.  The environments created in virtual worlds are often of a unique nature and can provide a sense of community.  The following are aspects of virtual worlds that I believe can those individuals wishing to live more engaged, and more effectively in today's democracies:

Anonymity:  The ability to remain anonymous can protect citizens of virtual worlds from judgments and stereotypes.

Unique Spaces:  The interaction of individuals from around the globe can take place in a neutral, unique setting.  This can allow for the promotion of multicultural and multinational appreciation and appreciation without the need for a .

Virtual Global Travel:  For individuals who do not wish to meet in a neutral virtual environment, the ability to travel to a virtual representation of an actual nation state is readily available.  Individuals can become familiar with the history, culture, landscape and architecture of an area without leaving their place of residence.

Virtual reality has to the potential to play a vital role in the development of global citizenship and digital democracies.  However, it must be promoted and utilized to take effect, especially within learning environments.  Doing so will provide society with a valuable learning tool.

Open Access, Copyrights, and Agendas

The issue of intellectual property/copyright and providing free/open access to cultural/intellectual resources in today's digitally rich environment seems to be following me around for the past month or so.  From work settings to casual lunch conversations, everyone seems to have an opinion on this subject.  Most of the individuals I have discussed this topic with have formed well-constructed and insightful opinions, but few have done so objectively.

Educators tend to lean towards open access for the sake of their students and academia, but can easily change their stance when they become owners of intellectual property.  Creators of content tend to favor copyright enforcement, but I assume they would momentarily drop this stance for the time needed to access that bit of information that isn’t coming their way gratis.  My point is that everyone has their own agenda, and that agenda needs to be guided by laws or freedoms that best suit those agendas, but what about the agenda of the other half?  This may sound a lot like politics, but at least in politics we believe that our views are beneficial for the greater good.  Intellectual property and open access are very different.  No one believes that intellectual property will benefit everyone any more than anyone believes open access will benefit everyone.

I probably shouldn’t categorize all educators and content creators into one pool.  There are some individuals who have their footing in both areas and have made choices that have adverse effects.  One such individual is Thomas Krichel, a former professor of mine from my time at LIU.  Professor Krichel is best known for creating the RePEc digital library for economics in the 1990s “which as of today holds over 362,000 items of interest, 261,000 of which are available online (Morrison, 2006).”  As a content creator, Professor Krichel has written and co-written many working papers which are open-accessible.  Krichel has decided to forgo any monetary and/or professional benefits of being published for the betterment of open information sharing.

I am by no means attempting to glorify Professor Krichel.  I simply mean to indicate an over-lapping area in this debate, of which there are quite a few.  The readings from this module have made me more aware of this.  It is these very overlapping areas in which we should attempt to work collectively.

Morrison, Heather. (2006, February 13). Thomas Krichel: a man with ideas, and drive! Retrieved from http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/thomas-krichel-man-with-ideas-and.html

Accessibility

The most important thing that I have learned from the various readings and viewings about the challenges and opportunities of making learning accessible is the need for prudence and vigilance.  Moving forward with haste can easily create a learning environment that is lacking the proper accessibilities. 

The video Make Technology Work for Everyone: introducing digital accessibility provided a simplistic understanding of the need for digital accessibility, and opened my eye’s to possible implementations of such accessibilities.  I was surprised, and grateful, to learn that accessibility will be “important to at least 60 percent of my audience (Fix the Web, 2015).”  60 percent is a far greater percentage than I could have possibly imagined.  Such a high percentage will require a constant focus on accessibility in an ever-changing learning environment.

Aside from the aforementioned challenge of being constantly mindful of accessibility, doing so can provide great opportunities.  According to the various findings of a Pew Report titled Digital Differences, internet use and the manner in which it is accessed has greatly increased and diversified (Zickuhr & Smith, 2012).  While we must address the issue of accessibility for all internet users, we should also be excited for the opportunities that await us in teaching a generation that is more digital than ever.  Providing equal access to this digital group will allow for a diverse flow of ideas and a learning environment that can meet the needs of a greater community.

Laws geared at increasing accessibility and enabling the opportunities associated with such equity has become a global endeavor.  The Bologna Declaration in June 1999 brought together 46 European countries with the single goal of accessibility and equity for all underrepresented groups who wish to obtain an education (Lane, 2012).  These laws and initiatives in Europe hope to achieve a goal similar to that of many law makers and educators in many other parts of the world: diversity in educations through the implementations of equal opportunities for all.

[Fix the Web]. (2015, May 21). Make Technology Work for Everyone: introducing digital accessibility. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ik_LHmZx8Y&feature=youtu.be

Lane, A. (2012). A review of the role of national policy and institutional mission in European 

distance teaching universities with respect to widening participation in higher education 

study through open educational resources. Distance Education, 33(2), 135-150. doi:

10.1080/01587919.2012.692067

Zickuhr , K., & Smith, A. (2012). Digital Differences. Retrieved fromhttp://www.pewinternet.org/2012/04/13/digital-differences/

Module 4.5 - Facebook

Module 4.5

Fabio Montella

March, 2016

How do you see a Facebook page as adding value to the learning environment that you are creating? 

Accessibility.  Facebook will allow me to reach students and potential future students en mass and often.  The familiarity and popularity of this social media platform speaks for itself.

Given that you would use private pages for internal postings, are there ways that you would try to encourage an ongoing community or commitment through the Facebook venue?

I would encourage classmates to use this platform as a means to communicate with one another on instruction-related issues, while also connect on a more personal level.  Apprenticeships require some degree of camaraderie, which I would encourage the class or group to achieve collectively.

How would you plan on maintaining such an outward-facing social presence?

I would arrange a set schedule that would be dedicated to social media. Bi-weekly would suffice, but daily would be ideal.  I need to be understanding of the fact that not everyone in class will be as dedicated to viewing or using social media as others, and some simply will not have as much free time as others.

Would you maintain this yourself or share the responsibilities with the learners in your environment?

It would be a combined effort.  I would provide information while expecting some level of feedback and/or assessment and self-assessment from students.

Are there other comments and notes that you want to make about your personal learning and/or the challenges that will lie ahead as you start thinking about the expectations that others may have as outcomes from your learners?

I think many students will be a little apprehensive about using social media for something as traditional as custom tailoring classes.  In that regard, I will need to find an appropriate level of usage for social media which will keep students engaged and not alienate them.

 I also expect that some students may wish to have more lessons or information posted on Facebook.  Though some tutorials and instructions will be made available through social media, this must be kept at an appropriate level in order to serve the needs of all students and address all modes of learning.   A majority of the instructions will remain in a classroom.

Thoughts on Facebook

Facebook

I find Facebook to be one of the most useful tools for education and/or business.  The manner in which it allows you to communicate with an intended audience is unparalleled.  Its constant evolution allows users to remain ahead of many curves while maintaining a level of user-friendliness that benefits a variety of different users.

I've used Facebook for several years on a personal level, but this was my first endeavor on a professional level.  In using Facebook to remain in contact with family and friends, I become aware of the "event notification" feature but never utilized it.  Often I would see this feature being put to use by family and friends promoting a party, fundraiser. etc.  It has always appeared as a very useful tool, but even more so when it is utilized on a professional level.  It tends to be a bit more informal than sending bulk emails, which would have been my initial choice for mass communication.  The informality of this tool, together with its clarity and creativity options, have made me an advocate and a user.

I can envision Facebook being at the forefront of any promotional/informative efforts that I will make within my custom tailoring instruction goals.  Promoting my professional link to members of my personal Facebook account will hopefully create a chain-letter of sorts that will in turn promote interested parties to contact us.

Learning with technologies

I've learned something very important this past week: I have very little patience when learning new technologies.  I expect the process of absorbing information to be quick and the proceeding process of mastering it to be even quicker.

With that mindset, will I be able to succesfully incorporate emerging technologies into my learning environment, and if so, will I be able to utilize them in an expected manner?  The answer I am hoping for is yes.  In  reflect on the past, I began to realize that all technologies are bound to give some level of frustration, but the end results are always beneficial in accomplishing a task.  An example of this can be seen with my use of PowerPoint, a program that frustrated me to no end and now makes my teachings all the more effective.  Duplicating such success would be ideal.

Aside from my personal interactions with emerging technologies, I also began to look more thoroughly at my learning environment and my projected goals within that environment.  A quick look at the work of others gave me both inspiration and direction for my own work.  I plan on viewing these same works throughout the semester and treat them as a guide for my progression.

My own personal work is still an uphill battle.  I have yet to form any concrete idea of how I will use an emerging technology to create an effective learning environment.  I am hoping that small steps will lead me to succeed.