BP8_OMM Media Literacy & PLE's

Media Literacy & PLE's

A great Web2.0 Tool to help you get & stay organized!

BP7_Comment to Rachel Peyton

graphic from myoats.com-Wired for Heat by Dippid 

See my comments to Rachel.  
I always look forward to Rachel's great ideas! This looks like a very interesting and fun site for art students.  It has some amazing pieces.  I can see myself using it with my high school students very easily.  Love the geometric design concepts surrounding it, and the fact that it sounds like it is very user friendly.  Your demonstration video was great.  Thanks for discovering it and sharing it with us.  You can see more from Rachel at her blog listed on the left sidebar as Peyton's Painted Posts. :-)

BP6_Comment to Patricia Ort

graphic from Storybird.com ~tour

Link to my comments to Patricia.
What a fun site you have shared with us.  I will have fun with this one using it with my grandchildren. Additionally when we discuss "book arts" I can see myself designing a collaborative project around this site with my high school digital arts students too.  Loved it! Above graphic retrieved from the Storybird website October 8, 2010.

BP5_Web 2.0 Tool Review

The tool this week I choose to learn more about was the Freemind concept mapping tool that Camaal Moten shared with us in this week’s Wimba session.  I thought it would be a good tool to learn when I begin my Ai-Illustrator instruction.  I also want to explore it for use with organizing my AR literature review.  The download he provided for us worked great and I opened easily.  However, I had difficulty getting started and setting up the layout.  I wanted it blocked left with the weeks in order top to bottom (I could not figure it out-argh!) I will need to explore more, but I was getting frustrated with understanding the parent-->child-->sibling relationship, as well as how to get the spacing right.  I also was not able to import the images, as you may or maynot be able to see a broken .jpg symbol appeared (next to the center houses), so I merged the files with PhotoShop, which I could easily do, when creating assignments for my students as well.  All in all the tool was not as easy to work with as I thought, so I will explore some other mapping tools.  Another class-mate shared another tool in the same Wimba session, a product called Mindmeister, and I may experiment with it and compare the two.  I can see where concept/mind mapping tools are great for organize my course content and listing of projects and assignments.  The sample Camaal provided, showing all our ETC assignments for the month was a great model and gave me another way to communicate important dates and assignments with my students.   

BP4_Web2.0 Tool-iGoogle Site

Graphics pg1 created by Laurie Kish using iComic; Sandy Lopez using Wordle and Ai

(Waiting for permission from my team—Newbie Techs-TNT) before I activate the link)

For this post I chose the iGoogle Site tool we were introduced to in our Multiple Learning Theories course.  It was brand new to me and I thought it was amazing that our TeamNewbieTech (TNT) created a web site together, I was proud of our work and the collaboration of the team; after all we live in 5 different states-coast to coast!  We met in iChat, held meetings and each contributed to different pages, it was a real team effort, in spite of our time zone differences.  I created a few graphics for the project as well as the Summative page with a CA. teachers perspective along with the reference page at the end.  We created this site around the question; How are evaluations being used in education and corporate settings today?  

We all created gmail accounts, and similar to collaborative work that can be done using Google Docs, one member set it up and invited the rest of the team to participate until we were ready to publish it for our instructor.  In January when I introduce the web page design unit, I want the students to use this platform to create one of their websites. After learning the basics I usually have the students work on a collaborative project for one of their web page designs.  In the past I have had to get a group folder setup on our classroom server, allowing access to all students and hope that someone doesn’t delete student work by accident.  This method of collaboration with the Google Site gives control to the person who set up the account, setting permissions so only the team has access for creating, until you are ready to publish.  I will need to contact our IT dept. and investigate; to be sure we have access. I may have to present a rational to gain temporary access. I know other team members, have used it with their students, and had great success. I am looking forward to trying it out with my kids.    

W1 Reading

Reflection of Relevant Literature

graphic created with Wordle and CS5-Ai

This week we started reviewing our relevant literature related to our action research. Here is a summary  of the four articles I have selected:  

1—Understanding E-mentoring in Organizations.

This article, written by Carol B. Muller, president of Blue Sky consulting, provided a rich background to the benefits of online or e-mentoring opportunities.  She is the founder of MentorNet, an e-mentoring network for diversity in Engineering and sciences (www.MentorNet.net) Her work pulls from a lot of earlier research documenting the benefits of e-mentoring.  E-mentoring, sometimes referred to as iMentoring, virtual-mentoring or online mentoring is described as building a relationship with usually an adult in a specialized career area, matched up with a young adult for the purpose of guidance and assistance.  Electronic tools are used as the primary mode of communication.  She points out that there are two distinct aspects of “e-mentoring” programs; the use of electronic or email tools used to connect mentors and mentees and the technology platforms developed for such purposes.  A great quote I found interesting was related to the skill set students learn from engaging in online mentoring;

“Through the act of writing an email message a mentor, protégés learn more than they would from an oral conversation, partly because they must clarify first for themselves in words, the dilemmas, questions, opportunities, or other topics of discussion for which they seek input from a mentor.”

Email responses allow the mentors responding to be thoughtful and deliberate in how they respond, rather than impulsive and in the moment.

Muller, C. (2009). Understanding e-mentoring in organizations. Adult Learning, 20. Winter-Spring.n1-2, 25-30. Retrieved September 20, 2010 from     http://content.ebscohost.com/pdf23_24/pdf/2009/ADL/01Jan09/50255972.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=50255972&S=R&D=aph&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeqK440dvuOLCmr0iep7NSrq%2B4TK%2BWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGvr0izqbdJuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA

2—E-Mentoring for e-learning development.

This article by Lynn Thompson, Mike Jeffries and Keith Topping all university professors, focused again on the benefits to both mentor organizations and lesser skills students.  The demand for mentors has made it difficult to match qualified skilled individuals with lesser skilled students, for example because of time and logistic constraints it is not always possible to have face to face meetings.   With e-mentoring many of these constraints are eliminated because the mentoring can be done in a flexible manner, when time permits. They recommend blended mentoring when possible, so you also have the fact to face interaction, to help build relationships.  According to McLuckie and Topping in 2004, effective e-mentoring requires skills; in e-learning development through a virtual learning environment (VLE), communication skills in an online environment as well as mentoring skills.  Their project involved training the mentors in two phases as well as implementing with the mentees, who were university students.  The setting was in a university evolving around the humanities and was action research that in the end held many flaws. Engagement and persistence on both the mentors and mentees parts at times, became an issue as well as expert opinion about subjects, because in many cases the students were adults with life experiences who had differing opinions than the mentors.  The researchers also felt additional training was required in order to help support the mentors more effectively. 

Thompson, L., Jeffries, M., and Topping, K. (2010, August).  E-mentoring for e-learning development.  Innovations      in Education & Teaching International 47(3), 305-315, 11p. Retrieved September 20, 2010 from      http://content.ebscohost.com/pdf23_24/pdf/2010/HZJ/01Aug10/52889463.pdf?     T=P&P=AN&K=52889463&S=R&D=ehh&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeqK440dvuOLCmr0iep7NSs624S7GWxW  XS

  

3—E-mentoring in three voices.

This article took a different approach in report their findings.  It was a project completed between two colleagues, one a tenured professor another a junior professor who participated in an e-mentoring program along with the best practice literature on the topic.  They shared their comments alongside voices of the best practice literature related to e-mentoring.  It shared a personal touch about the participants experiences.  Benefits again included flexibility of time and meeting constraints, and drawbacks were lack of structure, support and no apparent long-range planning.  According to best practice literature on e-mentoring there are several areas that should be in place for successful e-mentoring programs.  These areas include; structure, objectives, administrative support, technical support, communication tools, training and support, and finally assessment.  Their research referred to The Free Management Library  who offers 5 foundation assumptions about mentoring situations: 1) Deliberate learning is the cornerstone; 2) Both failure and success are powerful teachers; 3) Leaders need to tell their stories because they offer valuable insight 4) Mentoring develops over time—it is a synthesis of ongoing events, experiences, observations, and thoughtful analysis and 5) Mentoring is a joint venture (Free Management Library 1997).  Since this research is more than 10 years old now, further investigation of this source is needed to find out this information has been undated.  But the initial assumptions listed here certainly sound like they still apply today.

Akin, L., Hilbun, J. (2007). E-mentoring in three voices. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administrations 10(1),  Spring. 1.  Retrieved September 21, 2010 from citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.110.6647

4—A Moderated Mediation Model of E-Mentoring—
findings based on research data from “icouldbe.org”, (ICB) as one of the successful online mentor programs currently in operation.  Press release March 29, 2010 in e-School news. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/03/29/e-mentoring-study-touts-the-benefits-of-online-mentoring/

Jake Kersey of icouldbe.org, the online mentoring program my students will be participating with this year, sent this article to me.  As a result of using an online service that will match up the students with mentors based on career and skill interests, the structure piece will already be in place for the students.  The article was published this year and was the basis of the research for this study.  Their study addressed the gap in the current literature in how mentee differences may affect mentoring relationships.  Students are offered four topics from which to select guidance about; personal finance, college, career and school related and meet weekly online to respond to a variety of activities to help prepare them in these areas.  The findings in this study showed a positive relationship between the mentee’s Internet experience, and their self task efficacy.  The frequency of their meetings was critical to the success of the experience, and students who started with lower levels of self-efficacy in the end displayed stronger gains.  It goes without saying that the stronger the communication and computer skills the better the online experience will be, but that is why we want our students to have these experiences, so they will develop these skills to a higher level. 

DiRenzon, M., Linnehan, F., Shao, P. (2010). A moderated mediation model of e-mentoring. Journal of Vocational Behavior 76. 292-305 Retrieved from Youthmentoring.org  September 22, 2010 from http://www.youthmentoring.org.au/assets/pages/pdf/RQ%20Winter%202010.pdf

BP3_Diigo Groups

Introduction to Diigo Groups

and Research Organization

What an amazing tool Diigo is! And once I’m able to learn all the technical operations, I’ll be able to incorporate its use in my action research and any other research I conduct in the future.  After taking the tour of the site I’m learning that different selections of a document can be tagged and highlighted, for later annotation and retrieval.  Sections of a document, graphics and charts can be marked, or tagged for later access, saved and shared with others. Tabbed sections are organized for My Library, My Network and My Group. You invite others to share as well as you have the ability to “follow” along with other groups and quickly view articles they have garnered that may be of interest. My Group is called Action Research Motivation and E-mentoring. I plan to watch the video a few more times to get the hang of marking and saving other documents, making or using electronic “sticky notes” to highlight or capture images to view later or share.  I have yet to discover if it works on only live links or if the same tools apply to pdf files already on ones computer.  I have many articles already saved that I want to share with my critical friends electronically, and being able to highlight the specific sections of an lengthy paper will be a great way to work collaboratively with them.  I already found a group outside of our FSO community from Australia called E-learning innovations, to follow.  I can easily see how useful this new tool will be.  Now to practice and learn how to maneuver within it’s structure will be my next step.  I have 2 groups because I didn’t quite understand the naming conventions, but have since corrected it.  I left the first group for now because I had already invited others to my group.  This I can correct down the road. The 2 groups are; Action Research-Motivation and E-mentoring and my first site SCLopez_AR_emdt_etc_ementoring. 


Here is a link to the Diigo home page to learn more.