EDUC 628-Spring-08

I’ve got a lot to catch up on today since I have avoided my studies for a week.  My own fault.  Sometimes I try not to spend endless hours on the computer all week, but that just puts me in front of the computer all day long today.  But you know what…that’s okay because I am finding that I can learn more in twenty minutes from being on the Internet than I have learned from lots of the other things I have done this week, so maybe I’ll be a genius by midnight.

First of all, I really thought I knew quite a bit about technology until taking this class, since I will ask teachers if they do podcasts or webquests….or you name it….they look at me like I have two heads.  I can’t wait to do this stuff, so I am glad I’m here, blogging away.

In response to Dr. Lowell’s post Compare and Contrast (I’m still working on linking…I know I am hanging on to the back of the bus) from http://durandus.com/phaedrus/ about comparing the conversation streaming of his Four Barriers? Really? post on his blog Phaedrus to the conversation stream of the same post on Connie Weber’s Fireside Learning site, I do think there are definitely subculture niches.  The are forum users. There are bloggers, virtual chatters, and some do all.  But I am new, and it is all new to me…blogging….ning, etc. 

I will say that for me the difference that impacted me the most relates simply to the logistics and the differences between blogs and forums.  When I read the blogs of people and then the comments, it seems to me to take a while –which it should– because I am going from one blog to another and then back again, and then I feel like I will never have an intelligent answer to the beginning question that I have to go back over again because I have trouble following everything.   Again, I am knew at this.  But when I went to the Fireside learning forum, it reminded me of the MSU Blackboard—if you could see everyone’s posts.  I liked the forum conversation stream and found it easier for someone like myself to follow and after going to his page, I ran across Dr. Lowell’s post like Introduction and Apology Where he begins with Greetings, Earthlings. I come in peace….  on his page http://firesidelearning.ning.com/profile/NathanLowell, so my point is that I would rather scroll than click.

..and while I was scrolling I read on from Dr. Lowell’s post and one of the bests parts that I like was this:

So after learning this “fact” — distance education isolates students — I went home and logged on. I asked my friends in Singapore, London, Fargo, Boston, Sydney, and Osaka if they felt isolated by being online.
None of them did. I took polls of my group-mates, between slaying dragons and leveling up — usually while we were healing and regaining expended mana, if they felt isolated by being online. None of them did.

I loved the whole article.

So, today I figure I won’t feel bad about how long I can sit in front of my computer any longer.  I sit here today, with my dog in my lap, and my husband is building my home office….my oldest daughter is downstairs on MySpace and my youngest watches Aquamarine—again….and I don’t feel bad about it.Also, I realized why my daughter likes MySpace so much because I may become a ninger—-not the right lingo I know.  I did have to look up ning to get a definition, and there was many, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning kicked back that it is an .. online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks.