To Web 2.0 and Beyond

One of my "best of" from my learning during this course is the discovery of digital badges, challenges and easter eggs.  I had no idea digital badges and challenges existed, and reflecting on my favourite parts of the course, they have been one of the best!  Badges encouraged  me to try different tools, create new things, and get outside of my comfort zone.  One of my goals when we were introduced to Badgelist, was to find an easter egg (something I had thought was so cool ever since seeing the movie Ready Player One). I did not find one sadly, but it still motivated me to look. Maybe next time!  If I am teaching an online course, I plan to use badges to encourage participation and increase motivation among my students. I know that it won't motivate all students, but it creates a fun learning space and offers a way for informal learning to take place.  One aspect of badges that I particularly enjoyed was the peer badge nominations, where we c...

Wow, have I been introduced to a wealth of Web 2.0 tools during the summer semester.  First let's take a look at the master list of tools (I created my own list by noting the tools we explored each week and noting their categories): Blogging:  Blogger  Wordpress  Edublogs Social Networking:  Twitter  Instagram  YouTube  Reddit  LinkedIn Feed RSS Readers  Feedly Inoreader Feeder Badging Tools:  Badgelist  Badgr Knowledge Sharing Tools:  Quora Wikipedia  Social Bookmarking Tools:  Diigo  Pinterest  Peartrees  Intellectual Property: Creative Commons OER Commons  MERLOT  Wikimedia  Automated Content Curation:  Refind  Nuzzel   Pocket Specialized Communal Collection and Curation:  Cluster  Flickr Goodreads Writing and Publishing: Stories for School  TinyLetter Letter  Futureme Framapad Concept Mapping Tools: Bubbl.us MindMeister Canva Miro LMS/Discu...

It is hard to believe that this is the last week of EME6414. I have enjoyed our journey together and have loved being able to connect through blogs, Twitter, Instagram, Slack (and so many more) and explore new tools together. I have learned so much from each of you in the backchannels of our learning through your blogs and posts, it has been so nice and comforting to be able to learn in that informal online space with all of you.  I have all the final week feels, excited to finish off the course, sad to leave the little community we built over the last 12 weeks. I feel as if I am standing in the middle of a pathway, with an adventure to look back on and new perspectives, learning and tools for my journey ahead.  I remember my thoughts about social media during the first week of the course, I was unsure, timid and perhaps a bit pessimistic towards social media and using web 2.0 tools to learn, connect and discover. I've been doing a lot of reflecting this week and rea...

Since our upcoming produsage assignment is centered around using Web 2.0 tools for learning, I wanted to share a resource that I posted to our Pinterest group early on in the course. I have observed and participated in some great interactions and discussions on this week's Canvas discussion board about ideas for the produsage assignment and which tools will best support these ideas. From what I have noticed and from my own experience, we begin with a tool in mind and then as we talk through our idea for the online space, we wonder about the capabilities of the tool...  Can you comment on other's posts? Can the online space be open (for contribution) to the public either by invite or a URL? [view only or edit capabilities] Can you like, react or favourite posts? Does it have the ability to save posts and resources Is it compatible with images, videos, hyperlinks and attachments?  These are some questions I am pondering and you may be too. Certain tools are designed for particul...

This week, all 3 of my final assignments for both courses I am in have been released and of course, I have been battling those feelings of overwhelmed and stressed. I have been trying to reflect on PLNs, refresh myself on what they are, what they can look like and the PLNs I have built.  For those of you feeling similar sentiments, I hope this blog can help you refresh yourself on PLNs and help you begin to reflect on the PLNs you have built.  Defining and Understanding PLNs: First stop, a Wiki definition from the page: Personal learning network "A  personal learning network  is an  informal learning  network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a  personal learning environment . In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection"  We first encountered PLN during week 3 and watched this video on P...

Recently, my husband and I have been discussing in more seriousness, a dream of ours, to buy a used RV, remodel it and travel the country for a year. I know it sounds a little crazy (and it is a bit crazy), but if the pandemic and some of the challenges we faced this year have taught us anything, it is to live while you can.  When I was younger, my family had an RV and did trips throughout the year and they were some of the best memories I have.  So, what was the first thing I said when we started talking about it?  "I'll make a Pinterest board!"   To my husband, it seemed like I was making a vision board that 'looked cute' at first, but after I invited him to the board, he discovered that there was knowledge and ideas to be found on the board. Here is the board if you are interested in taking a look.  What I love most about Pinterest is that it only took me about 15 minutes to collect and begin: make the board, start collecting, saving, pinning, and then I spen...

Throughout my learning, I have been introduced to various users and participation practices within networks and communities. As I just just completed a knowledge sharing and tracking experience, I think it's important to be aware of the types of users that exist and also to reflect on the various user types to improve my awareness of my own engagement and participation practices and patterns.  Communities:  Lurker- reading posts regularly, but never posting or having an active presence in the community. Lurking is a passive role, where the user does not engage with members or like their posts or comments.  Active Contributor- a user that  posts, comments, asks questions regularly and actively contributes to the content and discussions with other community members.  Knowledge Practices:  Expertise locating- users "search for and retrieve codified knowledge without having to contact the person who originally developed it" Expertise locating involves knowledge...

This week, I explored Trello for the first time and I am excited!  It reminds me of Notion , an app that I intended to use, but lost interest because of how complicated I found it. In contrast, I grasped the basics of Trello in a few minutes and created my own board this morning, which I  am excited  to share with everyone.  I created a board, chose a template, changed the background to match the aesthetic I was aiming for and began changing and renaming the lists and cards. I added cover photos to both my lists and each card (which is like a post) and placed any links in the description along with a brief annotation. I added a description of the board, so first time visitors would know what they stumbled on. I then made the board "public." You can also change your board to a "workspace," which means that everyone in your workspace can edit and add (like a collaborate project). If you haven't checked out our EME6414 Summer 2021 board, it's awesome, check it...