Mod 5 (2) Description of Social Networking Group

I joined The Educator's PLN and find many useful information about education. From this website, I saw many articles and videos uploaded by other members. Also, some people posted some questions and others answered them. What's more, I can also see the latest activities of others. It is a communicating platform which provides a lot of chances for people to communicate topics we are all interested in and share what we thought or some new information. I think from this social networking group, more people can help me answer my questions and I also can assist others when they have problems. It is helpful for our own teaching and learning.

Mod 5 (1) A learner is like a social mediator

Learning is endless and we need to learn continuously since the knowledge is changing and we should update to catch up the world. As learning per se, learning style is changing with the development of society. As I remember, when I was in elementary school, we seldom used computer and all we need is the textbook and notebook. Students wrote all information and knowledge on the paper and every subject needed to rely on the book. At that time, learning is about each student per se, which means we acquire knowledge by ourselves without any relationship to other classmates. Like what the author wrote in the article A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, We can no longer personally experience and acquire learning that we need to act. We derive our competence from forming connections. 

However, things have great now. Today's learning is no longer just about the individual. Learning is becoming more and more social and we learners are like social mediators. Technology plays a vital role in learning. Instead rely on only textbooks, we have Internet, which is a very important and popular tool for us to learn. Knowledge changes fast and we can get the latest information from the Internet. As we know from the video The Network is Learning, if what I know today is going to change because knowledge changes rapidly, if I am not continue the learning, I am becoming obsolete in my particular field. We need to update what we knowledge frequently. Also through technology, we can share our knowledge with our friends, classmate, or people we even don't know. It is a process of exchanging. From the key words and labels, we can find the things in our own particular field. By doing so, our database is expanded and people can help each other in their learning. Therefore, learners become social and can mediate our own and others' learning.

Mod 4 Compare Diigo and Scoop it.

Diigo and Scoop it. are new to me and I learned a lot from these two learning tools of this week's homework. Both of these two are about keep articles that are useful for us. we can categorize different topics based on the key words we add. We can also edit multiple tags, which help us to do the classification. Through follow and being followed by others, we can see each others' article and give comments. It enables us to learn from each other and improves communication. We can copy and paste from the original articles to give comments.


After we enter key words in Scoop it., there will be many suggestions based on what we would like to read and we can choose from that database. I think it provides us chances to find materials and save a lot of time. In Diigo, we can highlight and add stickers or comments when we are reading. It entails us to focus on what we think is important and help us grasp the knowledge better.

These two learning tools are very helpful and I will use it in my future teaching and exchange information with others.

Mod 3 Does teaching only means teacher and students?

Classroom of Tomorrow
A Vision of 21st Century Teachers

We begin our education about 6 years old. For me, what impresses me most about teaching is teacher stands in front of the classroom; talks to students everything on the one hand. On the other hand, the students listen to what teacher teaches and take notes. Books and notebooks are the two most common things we use in our study. Teachers will tell us what to write down and what should we review for the exams. In some classes, computer will be used to show us something. That's all I can remember what we have used in my class.

However,  is it enough for today's teaching and learning. Are teacher and students are the only two main kinds of characters in the class? What should be included to assist our study? From the above two videos, I see that books and notebooks are not so important as past and we can learn through so many different methods. It is the technology, the advanced and convenient ones we can use to learn. As we know from the videos, students tend to study through paperless tools such as cell phones, computer. It is very common for teacher and students communicate through Internet. Blog is a good way for assignments, comments and so on. Through technologies, students can be creative and study will become interesting. It can also save students' a lot of energy and time. Gradually, technology becomes indispensable and every student will be good at using Internet tools. What's more, today's teachers are no longer teachers in the past. They are more like professional people in IT field. Many teaching methods are created to assist teaching.

Nowadays, besides teacher and students, many various kinds of technologies can be seen in a classroom. Communication becomes easier and the distance between teacher and students is smaller than before. Teaching and learning is more and more interesting.

Mod 2 Reasons and Standards for using blogs

Ways to use blogs with my own students

Using blogs, I could communicate with my students about the homework or the content in the class. Before the class, I could upload some reading materials or website links which are going to be taught in the class. It allows students to have a preview before the class. Also, I can design some discussing questions and let them think about by themselves and have a discussion during the official class.

Ways to use blogs with my own professional development

Through blogs, students can upload their assignments to me, which can save a lot of time and being paperless. In addition, they can also give me some feedbacks about the course, the homework or recommendations and ideas about how to improve the learning outcomes. Also, students can ask questions on the blogs and when can have a discussion together.

	Communication and Collaboration
	Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
	a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures. d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

ISTE | NETS Student Standards 2007