Week 4 - Blog Posting #8 -Reflection on Blogging

I have few friends who set up their blogs. One works overseas but I can tell the heavy work load stop her to keep writing. Her last blog was post in 2006. Another friend sent us email once a while to let us know he had new blog posted. I read some of his blog and .... don't tell him, I didn't read his blog for a long time because they were long and not much about his family and his family is what I care. Most of the people use blog as a public journal so they don't need to email all of their friends and family every time. 

Most of the popular bloggers didn't know they would catch public attention in the beginning. Taiwan's Wan Wan Comic Blog has 1.6 billion visits. WanWan told her own story by laughing at herself with drawing. Everyone just loves this cute girl and the ability to see every little things in a funny way. This is one example that she laughed at her Broken English. This is the story line: Wanwan bought a book from a Japanese book story and she found she already had the same book. Mom told her to return one of the books with receipt. She was afraid because she couldn't speak Japanese so she used her very limited English. By her surprise, she got her refund. 

Another successful blog in Taiwan is Crazy Teacher. A guy couldn't pass Taiwan's national college exam (passing rate was 30% in my time). He got the chance to study in the States and got his master degree. His job? English teacher in American public school!!! With this kind of background, we (most of Chinese) are all full ear to hear his story. He opens a new window with humor to describe his life in America. This kind of fresh look gave Chinese a totally different perspective to see the other country in a fresh new angle. 

Even only 7% of the bloggers are doing it for money but when bloggers become popular, they have to try really hard to keep the same favor or they lose their supporters and the original motivation. When Weblogs funder Jason Calacanis announced his retirement from blogging, he said: “Blogging is simply too big, too impersonal, and lacks the intimacy that drew me to it,” I couldn't tell the two Taiwan's bloggers changed. I guess the money in the states has stronger force... 

By the way, the fairy tale type of story can happen in blogger too. Check out this article in The New York Time Sep. 2, 2009 "Exploitation? Elle Mag Hires Homeless Blogger for Pocket Change". I think Mr. Kirkpatrick was too hashed o Elle magazine. I couldn't think a better deal to have a world famous magazine did the advertisement free of charge and also offer one hour work per day. Without the help from Elle, Brianna Karp’s homeless life will be longer. Her blog wouldn't have little chance to catch so many people's attention either.  

Without strong motivation, I can't picture myself become a diligent blogger. I can tell for most people will just like me. We are just simple have no time and not "interesting" enough to write an article but micro-blogs like twitter, facebook will fill in the gape. I have no problem to write what I am doing in less than 140 characters. 

Let see if what The Economist wrote in Nov. 6, 2008 will become true that blog is going to become history:

Gone, in other words, is any sense that blogging as a technology is revolutionary, subversive or otherwise exalted, and this upsets some of its pioneers. Confirmed, however, is the idea that blogging is useful and versatile. In essence, it is a straightforward content-management system that posts updates in reverse-chronological order and allows comments and other social interactions. Viewed as such, blogging may “die” in much the same way that personal-digital assistants (PDAs) have died. A decade ago, PDAs were the preserve of digerati who liked using electronic address books and calendars. Now they are gone, but they are also ubiquitous, as features of almost every mobile phone.

Links: 

The Economist, (Nov. 6, 2008), Oh, grow up, 

http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12566826

Kirkpatrick, M., (Sep. 2, 2009), The New York Times, Exploitation? Elle mag hires homeless blogger for pocket change,  http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2009/09/02/02readwriteweb-exploitation-elle-mag-hires-homeless-blogge-24302.html

 

Week 4- Bolg Posting #7-Second Life

I heard of Second Life for years. I knew companies used it for marketing purposes and as a testing ground for new products. People use it as social network and can get involved too much to the point to where they actually confuse their second life with their real one. Here are some examples: a Woman Charged With Plotting to Kidnap Boyfriend She Met on 'Second Life'  and in the Japanese virtual world of Maplestory: Woman in jail over virtual murder.

First experience in second life

June 13, 2009 was my Second Life avatar's birthday. I spent hours to hunt for her clothes, hair, etc. I didn't like any of the wired looking stuff so she ended up still look like a plain neighbor girl. 

I was OK when I was with our first month course team. We talked, typed and moved together. We sent out one or two of our members to explore the unknown world. We kept on talking while the "pioneer" was finding the new lands. It felt like 2 or 3 of us stayed in Huston base and our astronauts were there on the moon. Whenever they found something interesting, they teleported us immediately so the rest of us could see their new discovery. I love adventures but short of sense of direction limited me to stay in the familiar places. With our team, I could ask them to rescue me whenever I got lost. 

I need a tourer guide in second life

I went to the Second Life again to visit the places our professor wanted us to go. I was thinking if I knew nothing about Multiple Intelligence, will I get the idea when I visited this SL Multiple Intelligence place http://slurl.com/secondlife/Koru/58/212/0 ? I didn't and still don't get it. By using the same amount of time, I could get ten times the information by searching on the net verses walking around in this place. I guess I don't have the right intelligence to live in Second Life. ...

By accident, I went to the University of Central Florida's accounting course. That place was buzzing busy. People were chatting in  group and some kind of strange creatures were flying around and dropping boxes labeled homework, into mailboxes. I received a card assignment when I was there.

This is a new way to give students assignments and promote discussion within a group for the assignments. Students are freed from the limitations of meeting in a location but are still limited time wise because they all need to meet at the same time. By telephone function, students need to meet in the same place in Second Life, it's not a big issue at all.

I also went to Princeton University Second Life. It was nice to fly around and observe the 3D campus but I was the only one there Friday 3 pm Second Life time. Where was everybody?

I tried to find groups but most of the groups have no activity. Most of the last posts were one or two years old. I need a tour guide to lead me and show me around. I need a tour guide as a friendly avatar to convince me why I should spend my very very limited time in SL. I already read several articles about using SL for education but after spending so much time there, I still think the other methods can reach points of productivity much faster and more affectively.

Second Life vs. Real Life

Zhongzi, a Chinese philosopher who was about one century younger than Confucius asked himself a very serious question after dreaming he became a butterfly. He said he dreamed of butterfly, but how could he be sure in reality that the butterfly in actuality was dreaming of him. He essentially asked the question, what was real? How do we know for sure that we were not somebody's dream? It sounds like the movie Matrix, doesn't it? Zhongzi was born about 2300 years ago. I wonder if the Matrix movie production came from Zhongzi's question.

Suggestion for Second Life

I guess I need to give Second Life more time in order to agree that it is a powerful tool for education. In the Full Sail quick paced online course format, I have very very very limited time. Can somebody send his or her avatar to be my tour guide? It would be great if Second Life had tour guide avatars available like some great museums do. In those museums, tourists could meet at the front desk at a certain time and the volunteer shows up and brings the tourists to explore from one place to another.

Links:

BBC News, (Oct. 24, 2008), Woman in jail over virtual murder, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7688091.stm

FoxNews.com US, (Aug. 28, 2008), Woman charged with plotting to kidnap boyfriend she met on "Second Life', http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,410781,00.html  

Week 3 - Blog Posting #6 -Communities of Practice

Case #1

My coleague just got his MBA. He told me the knowledge he gained was just part of the program. The greatest bonus was networking. For example, one of his classmates is a director in the company and he has 124 contacts. He has 23 classmates and they got to know each other so well throughout the two years of the masters program. Most of his classmates offered, "Hey, let me know when you need something." We are talking the possiblility 1000 to 3000 contacts. 

Are they a community of Practice? A community of interest? Or a geographical community, or merely a network? Wenger (1998) wrote that members of a community are informally bound by what they do together–Although this group from an intitial look apears to be centered around networking, from the classmeates engaging in lunchtime discussions to solve difficult problems–and by what they have learned through their mutual engagement in these activities, I think my colleague's MBA classmates have become a community of practice.

Case #2

Our close friends in Vacouver Canada sent their son and daught to two very very very expensive private schools. Their kids are doing so well. They are more than good enough to go to a public funded outstanding student program. But the kid's grandfather who is a successfully retired businessman said no. Reason? Networking. He said the network is not only between the students but also includes the parents. The net will play a very important roll in the kid's future. 

Are our friends kids (grade 5 and 8) in communities of Practice? Communites of interest? Or geographical communities? Wenger (1998) wrote communities of practice develop around things that matter to people. What kinds of things matter to those 2 smart kids? Based on the kid's motivation the school they are attending for future relationship are not communities of practice yet. Geographical communities? Yes, institutionalized communities. yes... 

Case #3

The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England. They met for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1940s. The Mythopoeic Society described this group:

The Inklings were a gathering of friends – all of them British, male, and Christian, most of them teachers at or otherwise affiliated with Oxford University, many of them creative writers and lovers of imaginative literature – who met usually on Thursday evenings in C.S. Lewis’s and J.R.R. Tolkien’s college rooms in Oxford during the 1930s and 1940s for readings and criticism of their own work, and for general conversation. “Properly speaking,” wrote W.H. Lewis, one of their number, the Inklings “was neither a club nor a literary society, though it partook of the nature of both. There were no rules, officers, agendas, or formal elections.” An overlapping group gathered on Tuesday (later Monday) mornings in various Oxford pubs, usually but not always the Eagle and Child, better known as the Bird and Baby, between the 1940s and 1963. These were not strictly Inklings meetings, and contrary to popular legend the Inklings did not read their manuscripts in the pub.

I think without a doubt the Inklings were a model of a community of Practice; a community and intelectually driven group. I even think Dr. Etienne Wenger had Inklings in his mind when he formed the phrase Communities of Practice.

What Does it Mean to Me?

The Inklings needed to meet somewhere at the same time in order to discuss the issues they cared about and were interested in. We have enjoyed the fruits from this group of people for more than fifty years and their literature is going to inspire generations to come. 

We are now in the midst of the convenience of the internet world so we can join or start one or several communities of practice without the limitation of time; via blog, Google docs, socical network websites and overcome the limitation of space to see each other and talk at the same time via iChat, Skype. We are just in the beginning stages of this new form of community of practice. Will we have some outstanding genius groups emerge like the Inklings in the future? Groups that flower without even seeing each other in real life! The fruit may well last for years and years... I hope I will live long enough to see it happen....

References:

Kilby, C., Mead, M, ( 1982), Brothers and friends: the diaries of major Warren Hamilton Lewis, p 230, Harper and Row

Mythopoeic Society, About the Inklings, from http://www.mythsoc.org/inklings/

Weger, E. (1998, June), Communities of practice: learning as a social system, System Thinker, retrieved from http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml

Week 3 - Blog Posting #5 -Social Media

From Faculty Meeting to Over Two Million Served

"This video clip said that China would soon become the number one English speaking country in the world." I announced the new finding to my husband Rick. He rolled his eyes and gave me a look.

I like this presentation "Did you know-Shift Happens". I think it is a great wake up call. It should be listed as one of the best "thrill" video clips to scare most Americans to work harder in order to keep the number one position in the world. The statement: "China is going to become the number one English speaking country in the world" started me thinking: who is the author? Where did he collect his information? And is it accurate? I thought it was time to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and start to find the clues.

Information Collecting
The first clue came from Vipeness who uploaded the film in YouTube on Feb. 8, 2007. He provided the author's name, Karl Fisch. I found Karl Fisch's blog, Fischbowl which is an award winner blog. With all the links in Fischbowl, I got the following information:

•  "Did You Know" was created for his high school staff meeting in Aug. 2006.
• Scott McLeod remixed the video which was the one I saw. 
• "Did You Know 4.0" is going to be shown in The Economist Media Convergence Forum in Oct 20th and 21st. 
• In his updated post "Did You Know", Fisch gave a quick link to "Did You Know Sources (Word, PDF)" 

Bingo! The word file was what I was looking for. How much time did I use to collect the information? Less than 3 minuets. How long would Sherlock Holmes take?! 

Snowball Effect
This video had more than 2.3 million viewers in Feb. 2007. Fisch described how this snowball started in his blog post "Over Two Million Served":

• Early August 2006 – ... showed the presentation in a faculty meeting
  
  
• August 15, 2006 – ...posted the presentation on The Fischbowl. ..some of my staff members wanted to show it to their families at home...at that time, The Fischbowl did not have a very large readership
  
  
• August 17, 2006 – David Warlick blogs about it. ... The comments and emails began.
  
  
• August 23, 2006 – Bud Hunt blogs about it.
  
  
• August 25, 2006 – Will Richardson links to it in a post.
  
  
• End of August and throughout the fall - It spreads fairly quickly and widely through education circles, ..and some non-education specific bloggers also link to it.. over 100,000 people have seen it at this point, but that’s a very rough guess.
  
  
• January 19, 2007 – Scott McLeod, who had been using it in some of his classes and presentations, posts a remixed version of the presentation,..and improves the look quite a bit. He also posts it in multiple formats.
  
  
• January 19, 2007 – Sacretis posts it to YouTube (he’s a student and knows Scott).
  
  
• February 8, 2007 – Vipeness posts it to YouTube (for some reason this is the one that takes off first).
  
  
• Late January/Early February 2007 – Somebody, somewhere, starts sending an email that goes semi-viral with a direct link to Scott’s WMV version.
  
  
• Late January through early March - Gets posted on a lot of other video sites, and lots and lots of links to it from blogs, mostly blogs outside of the education arena.
  
  
• March 13, 2007 – Gets posted on Break.com

This is a perfect example of what Social Media can do. In 7 months, a presentation was viewed from a faculty meeting to over two million people. In 3 years, this video has 4 versions and the influence is still going strong.

Should I Pop the ballon?
Let's go back to the very beginning of this post. The reason for me to start this research was because I had serious doubts regarding China being the number one English speaking country in the world. Let's see the source Fisch got: http://weblogg-ed.com/2006/more-musings-from-milken/ 

From the useless statistics dept: 67% of Americans can name the Three Stooges. Only 17% can name three Supreme Court justices. 87% of college educated Americans can’t locate Iraq on a map. 65% can’t find France. China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world. In China, kids with college degrees make nine times more than those without. In the US, they make less than twice as much.

Apparently the author of weblogg-ed, Will Richardson went to the Milken Conference and heard one of the speakers give the statement. The problem was I couldn't find any information from the original source website concerning who gave the statement and how he/she said it. Unless I am willing to order one section of the 2006 conference DVD for $29.95 or the complete set for $795.00. 

Our family lived in China around high educated Chinese in 4 different cities (include Beijing). Yes, Chinese tried very very very....hard to learn English. The problem was most mainland Chinese (and Taiwan too) learned using the wrong methods. Some English teachers in our university avoided speaking English with our British friend who was a English teacher in the same university. Because they were too embarrassed. When I attended English classes taught by the Chinese, I had trouble understanding their English and they were.....English teachers!! 


Believe it or not, for students to memorize the whole English dictionary is not some thing special in China and Taiwan. A lot of students tried to carry on conversation with my husband Rick and Rick had no clue what they were trying to say. They were so frustrated they ended up spelling out most of the words for him. Poor Rick had to type the words in his brain to figure out what they were trying to say. Rick said most of the words were rarely used vocabulary. Average Americans wouldn't use those words. The biggest entrainment for native English speakers in China is walking on the street and reading all the English signs. 

You can see more examples here.  


I may be wrong. China changes so quickly and we haven't lived there for ten years, but I need more evidence to convince me. 

Why should I even mention this problem? Because of the speed of the new Social Media, wrong or misleading messages can spread very quickly too.  

Week 2 - Blog Posting #4 -21st Century Skills & Lifelong Learning

Language Structure and Motivation of Lifelong Learning

I am forty six, as a wife, mother of 3 children, full time worker and persuading my master degree. I don't think this is anything special in the States. Most of my American friends and relatives said, "Wow! That's tough but you can do it. Good for you!!" The reactions from my Chinese friends (from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Canada) are quite different.

Most of them were surprised and didn't say a word. Some of them couldn't hold it any more and said: "Don't you think you are too old to go back to school? How about your kids? You are doing find. Why give yourself trouble?"

I can say among all the places I used to live. People in American has the best attitude of Lifelong Learning. Wait, I forgot youngsters live here are American too. This is my revised statement - Among all the places I used to live, mature American has the best attitude of Lifelong Learning and the best skill of critical thinking.

I grow up in Taiwan and lived in Hong Kong for 2 years, China 2 years, Canada 6 years. My wonderful big-nose husband could spend hours to share all the fun things he did when he was a child and all I can share with my childhood experience is one word, study.

Chinese has to memorize 3,000 to 5,000 characters in order to read. Our language is not a spelling system. We have to spend a lot of time to memorize characters by timeless writing so even the brain can't remember the picture of certain words, by writing on the paper, the words will come out naturally. Oh, take a look at my website welcome page where you can see my Chinese name. After looking at my Chinese name, I hope you will have sympathy to Chinese students now.

The most important 21st century skills is Critical Thinking which was not something Chinese encouraged. Critical thinking took too much time while we tryed our best to memorize the whole text books in order to pass the national exam for colleges. It also challenged authorities which could cause a lot of trouble. Our student years were too stressful, no wonder when we were out from schools, most of Chinese didn't want to learn. It called back too much painful memory.

I found Taiwan goverment set the Lifelong learning as a law on May 31, 2002（http://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/終身學習法）. One report mentioned:

A national white paper was published in 1998 with 14 action plans to be the blueprints for developing lifelong learning....this has paved a way towards establishing a learning society. The Lifelong Learning Law took effect on 26 June 2004 and has laid a foundation for improving lifelong learning. ..It is essential for academics and practitioners in Taiwan to search for more critical and influential arguments to pursue policy-makers to develop lifelong learning. Enhancing the interactive relationship between lifelong learning and social changes would be the key to achieve that. (Wang, C. 2008)

It's quite interesting that lifelong learning has to set as a law in order to push citizens to learn.

Reference:

Preece, J. (2006, May). Beyond the learning society: the learning world?. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 25(3), 307-320. Retrieved September 15, 2009, doi:10.1080/02601370600697227

Wang, C. (2008, September). Enhancing the interactive relationship between lifelong learning and social changes to carry out a learning society in Taiwan. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 27(5), 535-542. Retrieved September 15, 2009, doi:10.1080/02601370802051702

Week 2 - Blog Posting #3 - Media Literacy

The average American spends more than 4 hours per day watching TV, 2 and half hours online, is exposed to 300 to 3000 advertisements each day. How can we keep our head out above water when we swim in the information ocean? Teaching young and old to critically think will be a key.

New Mexico Media Literacy Project (http://www.nmmlp.org/) believes one of the most important media literacy skills is deconstruction – closely examining and “taking apart” media messages to understand how they work.

This website provides 3 layers of questions to deconstruct any media message.

Basic deconstruction questions

1. Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why?

2. Who is the “target audience”? What are the clues (words, images, sounds, etc.)?

3. What “tools of persuasion” are used?

4. What part of the story is not being told?

Intermediate deconstruction questions

1. Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why?

2. Who is the “target audience”? What is their age, ethnicity, class, profession, interests, etc.? What words, images or sounds suggest this?

3. What is the “text” of the message? (What we actually see and/or hear: written or spoken words, photos, drawings, logos, design, music, sounds, etc.)

4. What is the “subtext” of the message? (What do you think is the hidden or unstated meaning?)

5. What “tools of persuasion” are used?

6. What positive messages are presented? What negative messages are presented?

7. What part of the story is not being told?

Advanced deconstruction questions

1. Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why?

2. Who is the “target audience”? What is their age, ethnicity, class, profession, interests, etc.? What words, images or sounds suggest this?

3. What is the “text” of the message? (What we actually see and/or hear: written or spoken words, photos, drawings, logos, design, music, sounds, etc.)

4. What is the “subtext” of the message? (What do you think is the hidden or unstated meaning?)

5. What kind of lifestyle is presented? Is it glamorized? How?

6. What values are expressed?

7. What “tools of persuasion” are used?

8. What positive messages are presented? What negative messages are presented?

9. What groups of people does this message empower? What groups does it disempower? How does this serve the media maker's interests?

10. What part of the story is not being told? How and where could you get more information about the untold stories?

This website provides projects by using both the good and "Bad Ad contest winners" advertisements to ask the above questions. They also provide sample deconstruction to help students to have a better idea of what deconstruction should be. http://www.nmmlp.org/media_literacy/deconstruction_gallery.html

CML MediaLit Kit (http://www.medialit.org/default.html)

Their self introduction explains what they do very well: Like a map for a journey, the CML MediaLit Kit™ provides a vision and directions for successfully introducing media literacy in classrooms and community groups from pre-K to college.

Week 1-Blog Posting #2- Learning 2.0

Overcome the Fear of Learning 2.0

"I have a secret to tell you." My friend's husband told me with a serious but embarrassed expression 22 years ago.

"OK....What is your secret?" I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible.

"I don't know how to use computers!!! I think I am out of date and I will be left behind very soon....." He said it with a horrified tone of voice.

"You know what? You shouldn't be afraid of computers. Computers should mold themselves to fit your needs, not the other way around. Computers are going to get easier and easier. So...relax. You will be OK." I truly believe what I said 22 years ago still applies in today's world.

We were using MS-DOS at that time. (Never heard of it? OK, google MS-DOS and You will be able to guess my age...) We needed to remember lots and lots of command keys in order to tell computers to do what we want them to do. User friendly? It was a joke at that time.

Currently, we are walking in the Web 2.0 world. How many adults believe we are "Digital Immigrants" (Prensky, 2001)? I am Chinese and I speak English with an accent. Neuroscientists can explain the different brain functions between using mother language(s) and the foreign languages. But I don't believe that this is the case for digital learning. We can, if we want to, to use all the digital devices and programs as well as those youngsters. We can speak the digital language without an accent.

The following video I made reflects my opinions.

The research and my own observations, reflected what Gwen Solomon, Lynne Schrum (2007) wrote, "Young people are already using many of these tools for enjoyment. It's up to schools to help them apply the tools toward more serious endeavors."

I think the concern is not if the students should or shouldn't be using Web 2.0 anymore. It's not an option but necessary for the future. This digital wave is carrying and pushing us forward. We have no choice. The major concern and the key to leading to the success of students will be teachers and parents.

How can we help some teachers and parents overcome the fear of technology?

1. Show them that it is an easy process. Most of the operation systems and programs are very user friendly. If they tried several times and still have trouble handling the programs, blame the computers not yourself. Apparently, those programs were not "friendly" yet. In the spirit of collaboration using web 2.0, the complains will bring improvements.
2. Woo them to use it. Just like my "lazy" friend who I mentioned in last blog, he emailed everybody and wrote if we want to see more pictures, login his Facebook. In the beginning I was afraid Facebook would become a digital black hole and suck all my time away. After using it, I found it is a time saver to keep in touch with my friends without writing to everybody.

Do you have more ideas? Please leave your comments.

References:

Kennedy, G. E., Judd, T. S., Churchward, A., Gray, K. & Krause, K. L. (2008). First year students' experiences with technology: Are they really digital natives? Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24(1), 108-122. Available from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet24/kennedy.html

Prenksy, M. (2001a). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5). Available from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Solomon, G., Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Washington, DC: ISTE

Extended reading:

Palfrey, J., Gasser, U. (2008). Born digital: understanding the first generation of digital natives, New York: Basic Books, more information in http://www.borndigitalbook.com/index.php

Bayne, S., Ross, J. (2007, 12), The ‘digital native’ and ‘digital immigrant’: a dangerous opposition, University of Edinburgh, available from http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/staff/sian/natives_final.pdf