What a discovery! Almost every important aspect of my life
is connected and interconnected using technology and the Internet/World Wide
Web! I keep in touch with friends,
family and acquaintances mainly via the online social network on Facebook. I read and post on walls; I contribute to and
read newsfeeds and discussions threads from the President and First Lady, to
Walden University’s Facebook page, MSNBC’s page, and so forth. Not only is social media a social interaction
mechanism, but it is an educational environment as well.
The way I learn has changed largely in part because my means
of networking has changed. The Internet
has allowed me to connect with people I would not otherwise meet or interact so
intimately with. I can watch news
interactively and engage in discussions and debates with others who comment on
the same news or article I read or watched.
These are all forms of learning, and being able to network
with people from around the world using the latest technology makes it all
possible at a heightened degree over how it was possible ten or twenty years
ago.
The digital tools that enhance my learning are applications
I can download onto my smartphone and carry with me. I can interact on many of the same websites I
utilize for educational and social purposes on my computer from my smart
phone. If anyone emails me, sends me a
chat message, or an inbox message on Facebook, I have apps on my phone that
notify me and make those emails and messages instantly available to me.
When I have questions there are numerous ways I can go about
finding the answer using technology. I
constantly type questions in the search field of search engines like Google and
even before I tap the enter key, a plethora of answers to my question begin to
populate the field. This has been my
most common way of learning new knowledge.
If I hear of something, or see something I only partly understand if at
all, I form it into a question and “ask Google.” Online search engines allow me to research,
compare and contrast a limitless knowledge base. I can compare the opinions of others, and
find solutions to almost any question or problem I may encounter. I believe I know much more in this present
age than I knew even ten years ago just because of the ever increasing
knowledge base that is available to me via technology that I can access and use
via the world wide web.
AJ, I find it interesting how word use changes because of technology (i.e. Google as a verb). There is so much more at our fingertips now than ever before and that amount of information will only grow. It can be intimidating. Think about how current Kindergarteners view of technology will be different from current high school students and very different from ours. It lends a whole new aspect to generation gap. :)
ReplyDeleteHello AJ,
ReplyDeleteDo you find being connected make the world appear smaller?
Connectivism is a "spooky theory" it kind of invades other peoples privacy.
David,
DeleteThe connectivism doesn't scare me; probably just because I've gotten used to the invasion of privacy since my introduction to the Internet in 1998. However, what this assignment showed me is how overwhelming connectivism can be. I feel lost if I don't have a way to connect to the Internet either from my PC at home, or some mobile device when I'm away from home. That sense of always needing to be "on" leaves us with very little "down time", and I think that is probably an unhealthy condition.
AJ
AJ,
ReplyDeleteLike the Internet, being connected to networks of people is now a constant in our evetyday lives. Isn't it amazing how much we (U & I), as conditioned adults, have changed our habits in the last 10 or 15 years? Though many think being connected this way is invasive to our privacy, I could not imagine life today how it was 15 or even 10 years ago. My smartphone seems to have become another appendage of my person that would be most difficult to live without.
I still have stubborn adult friends and family that still say "Technology is ruining everything". These techno-phobics are stuck in the mud and refuse to do commonalaties of today as they still use paper checks, snail mail, and refuse to use their cellphone for anything but talking. Sometimes I joke and call them primative-beings in a fancy world. They hate that. ;)
Keep the connections warm AJ and let the haters choke on our fumes as we pass them by. That's just my opinion. Nice work.
Tim