Reflection (Final)- What I Have Learned In ETEC 642

After looking back on my time in ETEC 642, I have begun to think about all of the things I have learned in this class. There are many different lessons that I am taking away from this class so I have decided to create a mind map to organize my thoughts.

Reflection (Week 13)- Kansai University Video Project

For the last few weeks I have worked with people from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, Hawaii and Kansai University in Kansai, Japan to create a video about social media in Hawaii and Japan.  This is the second time I have completed this project as well as the second video I have produced with Dr. Bert.  I went into this project thinking that it would be the same thing as last time but there were new advantages and challenges that came up.

Language Barrier

When I began meeting with the students from Kansai University, I found that just like last time, they could speak English much better than I could speak Japanese.  This time I tried to speak Japanese a little more but it ended up slowing down our communication and I reverted back to English.  One of my partners, Sohei, is very proficient at English so he helped to translate what we were saying to the other Japanese students.

Attendance

When this project began, our group decided to meet once a week on Tuesdays in Hawaii/Wednesdays in Japan.  We decided to use this time to review what we had accomplished so far and plan our next steps as a group.  A problem that I didn't expect was that people were not attending these group meetings.  There were times when Sohei and I would be the only two people conversing over Google Hangout.  We both decided to find out what was going on with the rest of our group members and why they were not attending the meetings.  Sohei took care of things in Japan and I emailed my group members.  It turned out that Shilpa had a class that was going on at the same time as our agreed upon meetings so I told Sohei, Yuri, and Hitomi about that and we moved the meeting dates to every week on Mondays in Hawaii/Tuesdays in Japan.  Shilpa's absence was understandable and it appears there was a miscommunication when we originally agreed upon meeting every week on Tuesdays in Hawaii/Wednesday in Japan.  On the other hand, Christy did not have a reason for missing so many meetings so I had to email Dr. Bert and let him know that she was not doing her part in this group project.  Thankfully, Dr. Bert was able to solve the problem and get Christy to show up for the final meeting.  I was glad that we were able to accommodate Shilpa because I know she was very busy with her many classes.  Furthermore, Christy should have behaved more professionally and explained to us why she did not show up for our meetings.  Thankfully, Dr. Bert was able to work something out.  These events taught me that it is important to keep the lines of communication open between all group members and the instructor so that problems can be avoided or quickly solved.

Expectations

In order to successfully create our video, we went through a lot of planning.  We started off by brainstorming an subject and then I created a storyboard for our group.  Our group edited the storyboard and then divided up the scenes that needed to be filmed.  When I uploaded my first video, it was a strict how to video about texting in Hawaii.  However, when Sohei uploaded his first video, I found it much more entertaining and funny.  His video inspired me to redo my video and upload a new clip.  Eventually, everyone was able to upload their clips to our shared folder in Google Drive.  I volunteered to edit the entire video together.  When I got all of the clips, I found that most of them had a lot of personality.  Most of the clips were both educational and entertaining.  However, I was surprised to see that some of the clips were not video clips but picture shows and another clip was a video but it was confusing.  The video clip below sums up how I was feeling while I was editing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4rsAGjDZKY&feature=youtu.be

I edited all of the clips together to form a fairly coherent story line and submitted the video to the class.  If had a chance to do this project again, I would plan ahead and make time to ensure that everyone knew that all of the clips should be video clips.  Furthermore, I would make sure that all of the video clips featured an engaging and educational subject(s) without being confusing to the audience.

This project was quite an educational one and I learned a lot more than I thought I would.  As one of the group leaders I gained more experience about how to deal with language barriers, attendance issues, and clearly expressing our group's expectations.

Reflection (Week 12)- FACETS

Find content
Assess content
Choose content
Explain why it is useful
Taylor content to a collection
Share the collection

The FACETS process is a list of steps that are recommended for people to follow when they are collecting informational resources and content to share with others.  Sites like Pinterest allows its users to present information on a topic by taking text, pictures, and videos; compiling them into a single board; and sharing that board with others.  The FACETS process aims to help people organize their information in a logical manner, rather than having a mixed up area with random pieces of text, pictures, and videos floating around with each other.

The FACETS process is a logical idea that most people online apply on their own.  Most of the Pinterest and Storify sites that I've come across in the past few weeks have a logical theme.  However, it seems that whether or not someone uses the FACETS process depends on their reason for posting.  There are people who are simply collectors of data, they pin anything that meets their fancy on a board or two and soon their data dump looks like a giant mess.  There is no theme besides the fact that the poster found each pin interesting for a few seconds.  These people don't need or use the FACETS process.  On the other hand, people who pin for fun, enjoyment, work, or all three end up using some extend of the FACETS process, whether consciously or unconsciously.  I have coworkers at my school who find worksheets, activities, and lessons on Pinterest to use in their own classrooms.  These people find tons of content but they do not pin everything.  They look through their findings and only pin what they plan to try in the future.  Most of my coworkers have the FAC part down.  The way they organize their data depends on how much they use Pinterest.  The coworkers that don't use Pinterest often and have a few pins will have a single board for their lesson ideas but those who use Pinterest often will have different boards for different subjects or types of lessons.  The one thing that I don't see a lot of on my coworkers boards are explanations of why they chose a particular piece.  The funny thing is, most of my coworkers are using the FACETS process, or perhaps the FACTS process, without realizing it because the process helps them to be organized.

The FACETS process has benefits and downfalls.  Some of the benefits of the FACETS process are: multiple resources can be assembled for easy access, relevant resources can be organized and found efficiently, people can compile resources together, people are encouraged to work together, people can find common ground and develop better relationships, new developments can travel faster through pinning, and sharing has the potential to help everyone.  Some of the downfalls of the FACETS process are: the time it takes to go through the FACETS process, finding the right technological tool, sifting through so much information, personal bias when posting, and collecting quantity over quality.  After considering all of the benefits and downfalls, the benefits greatly outweigh the downfalls.  Many of the downfalls would occur while using any process to collect and organize information.  Either way, having information organized and accessible is much better than having a giant mess in a cavernous data dump.

Reflection (Week 11)- Social Capital

Then, reflect on how much value you have (or have not) gained by interacting with other learners online. How much social capital did you create, share or gain, and why? What is the evidence that supports your statement? Focus on 1-2 key points at most.

While reading the article The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites I found myself searching the Internet for more information about the term social capital, what it means, how it is measured, and how it benefits people. I have gathered that social capital is the extra benefits that you receive when you are given special treatment by other people due to something you have in common with them. I also began to think about how much social capital I have gained by interacting with other learners online.

Throughout my undergraduate experience I had gained a lot of social capital by interacting with other students online. When I was an undergraduate, Facebook was beginning to take off in popularity and I found myself making friends with classmates online and joining class groups with them. This proved especially true with my cohort in the College of Education. Throughout the time we were in the same classes, we would send each other reminders or post questions online that someone else in our group could answer. After graduation, we continued to stay in touch through Facebook and share ideas for teaching that we had come across. I also found that Facebook helped me to stay in touch with friends I had met in other clubs on campus and ask for their help at times. For example, once when I was teaching my fourth grade students about electricity and batteries, one of my students asked a question that I did not know the answer to. I searched the Internet for the answer but was unable to find what I was looking for so I contacted an old friend on Facebook who is now a doctor in chemistry and asked him if he could help me answer my student. My friend sent back a comprehensive and easy to understand explanation of what was going on and why it was happening. I took that answer back to my students and was able to extend my particular lesson. I realize that if it weren't for Facebook, I would not have enjoyed such benefits.

Throughout my graduate experience I have been gaining social capital as well. When I was in a cohort last year I found myself growing familiar to my classmates offline and online. Many of us became friends on Facebook and Google+ and were able to leave questions or have discussions about the different projects that we had to complete in our classes. When something was confusing people could talk about it online and it made everyone feel a little better to know that they weren't the only ones struggling. I feel I have not made as much social capital in graduate school as I did in undergraduate school but that is probably because in undergraduate school I dormed at the university everyday but in graduate school I commute to the university twice a week. That difference in time spent at school results in less time being spent meeting new people and then having a rapport to start with on social media. Despite the time challenge, I do have a small group of people online that I can communicate with if I need help and count of them to be willing and able to assist me. With that in mind, I have made enough social capital online in my graduate studies to be successful in my work.

Reflection (Week 10)- Using Social Media to Inspire Change

This week I did some research on how the Iranian people used social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to aid in their 2009 protests. The people in Iran were upset at the time because incumbent President Ahmadinejad won in an election that seemed to be rigged. Among the many complaints against the election results were the facts that there were more votes casted than people who were eligible to vote and Ahmadinejad had landslide wins in areas that were known to dislike him. The Iranian government tried to silence the protesters by making it illegal to protest in the streets so the protesters took their protests online and began attacking Ahmadinejad's website, sharing anti censorship software, and posting information, pictures, and videos that showed the brutality of the Iranian government. Eventually, the Iranian government shutdown Internet access to the outside world to prevent other countries from seeing their crimes but they forgot to shutdown Twitter and information continued to leak out of Iran for a time.

This story was important to me because it was the first time I had heard of protesters utilizing social media sites to protest their government. It was also the first time I had heard of Twitter and I found it amazing that news organizations were actually treating it like a reliable source of information. In the past, I had always assumed that information found on social media sites were either biased or false but in that time the only source for reporters was Twitter. I suppose a good reporter could read through a hundred Twitter posts about a specific event and put the pieces together to form a coherent story, the same way a detective would form a coherent story after interviewing a hundred witnesses. To its credit, Twitter played a big role in investigating the 2009 Iranian protests but I was so surprised that people didn't forget about Twitter when the crisis was over. In fact, Twitter is now one of the more popular social media sites on the Internet!

It is interesting that social media can be used, not only as a form of entertainment, but a way to have your voice heard. However, I still question how effective it is. Every election year, I see people posting politically charged messages on Facebook but I have never heard anyone say that he or she changed his mind about who he was going to vote for based on those comments or memes. When I see comments or memes that include facts to make a good point, I hit the "like" button. When I used to see comments or memes that include false or misleading information and make a flawed point, I used to try to correct the person who posted it but I have found that only leads to anger and arguments. Most people who post memes on Facebook have already chosen who they want to vote for and believe so strongly in their positions that they will refuse to change their minds, despite the facts they are presented with. Studies have shown that once people chose an ideology, they will hold tightly to it, no matter how wrong they are. An interesting video about that can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW74tkA28u4. Unfortunately, logic and facts don't change people's minds, emotions do. Nowadays, when I see false or misleading political information on social media, I just shake my head, unfollow the person, and go on with my day.

Reflection (Week 9)- Consolidating Social Media Sites

Do you find yourself jumping from one social media account to another just show the same picture to all of your followers?  Do you feel like you have too many social media accounts?  Do you find yourself scouring through all of your social media accounts for that one post you read a month ago?  There may actually be some help for you!  This week I learned about two different sites that help people consolidate their multiple social accounts.  These two sites are called Hootsuite and Storify and they can connect themselves to all of your social media accounts.

Hootsuite is a site that allows you to connect all of your social media accounts to a single site.  From this site you can post status updates, pictures, and videos without having to log in and log out of every single site.  Furthermore, you can also read all of the comments that you have received on each site while visiting just one place.  Furthermore, you can actually write something and schedule it to be posted in the future.  It sounds pretty convenient to have everything consolidated into one common site.  It can make a person feel like they are sitting in the cockpit of a gigantic ship!  However, the one thing downfall of this Hootsuite is that if someone were to hack into your account, they could do a lot of damage and have access to an incredible amount of information.  I have not taken a deep look into the security system of Hootsuite so I am still a bit insecure about using this service with so much at risk.  That being said, Chester (our Hootsuite host) seems to trust Hootsuite's security and uses it quite often.  Perhaps, in time I may soon find myself controlling all of my social media accounts from Hootsuite as well.

Storify is a site that allows you to connect all of your social media accounts to a single site, look for posts that interest you, and compile those posts into a presentation that tells a story.  It is amazing how simple this program is to use and how much information can be recovered from the newsfeeds of a single person's Facebook, Twitter, and other connecting sites.  I have never used Storify before but it can definitely be used as a fun tool to search for and compile information.  Wild Things, my project group, tweeted out our notes and reactions to some articles and videos that we read and were able to find similar tweets from people in other groups.  Combining and organizing those tweets allowed us to actually create a cohesive and informative story about the article and videos we learned from.  I am excited to use this tool again in the future, especially to record the reactions of people after poignant events.  Again though, I am worried about the fact that Storify has access to ever social media site because if my account ever gets hacked, the hacker would have a treasure chest of information on my contacts and I.

Hootsuite and Storify are definitely two interesting sites.  I am very interested in working more with them.  I would like to do some more research into their security system and find out how many times, if ever, they were hacked in the past.  However, I can foresee more and more people wanting to consolidate their social media sites which will eventually raise the demand for these sites but also enlarge the target on them for hackers.

Reflection (Week 8)- Collaboration Video And Spotify Project

On Tuesday, I was able to meet with my group members from Kansai to discuss our collaboration video.  We had a very productive meeting that included finishing our storyboard and coming up with a schedule to finish some filming.  It appears we are all getting more comfortable with each other because this meeting went much smoother with much less silent moments.

Unfortunately, two group members in Hawaii were missing in action during our meeting.  I must remember to contact them, find out where they were, and update them on the progress of this project.  Hopefully, we will all be able to attend the next online meeting.

Sohei had an idea for Shilpah to include information of how people in India use different technological tools to accomplish certain tasks.  This would be an interesting addition to our video and would go above and beyond what is required of us.  However, I question whether or not we will be able to accomplish this.  Unless Shilpa can help us plan this and we can find the correct location and props to simulate being in India, we may not be able to make this idea come true.

I was also surprised this week with another group project!  This group project requires us to use Spotify (a website I have never used before) to create a video that compiles Tweets about a certain article we had to read.  I was a feeling overwhelmed by the thought of having to do two projects for the same class at the same time as well as all of the other projects that I have going on in another class and at work.  I am hopeful that everything will work out but I am also saddened to realize that I will have a very work filled weekend ahead of me.