Research Blogging

 Research Blogging is a new idea for me. They say it is a serious peer-reviewed platform that has editors board and divided into scientific topics such as Chemistry, Biology, Computer science..etc. I will keep an eye on this site and may be I will publish something there just to test it. Do you think we are ready for this?

Learnist vs. Pinterest

This small table is based on a comparison between the two platforms Learnist and Pinterest by Tracy Terry .

Pinterest	Learnist
A pinboard-style photo-sharing website	A social learning site that categorize the content by boards, and share it with followers
The design encourages users to focus on pictures and people	The design encourages users to focus on boards
Allow to add pins to a board	Allow to add boards to boards
	Better chance to be an educational tool. It helps to track the progress
	Embed PDFs, slides, and flash games in addition to other media

Who is the winner?

For me, Learnist.

What does Twitter mean to me

To me, Twitter is a revolution itself that is stronger and more lasting than Arab Spring. No kidding. Yes, Twitter helped in the Arab Spring, but that in not all. Twitter changed they way we interacted with others in terms of the length of the message, reliability of the resource, urgency, and spread. 

Educational institutes should feel the threat of social media the same way governments feel it. It is not about the tool itslef it is about the philosophy that our education is based on that does not fit the new generations. 

How did this class add to me

Although I have been using Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and Twitter for about three years, this class helped me to learn a lot about this technology and the difference between the tools and its philosophy. I was not really active in creating new content to share with others before specially in blogging. But now, I have a good feeling of how much I can do for others using these fun tools. Readings about community of practice, prousage, and other concepts connected my prior knowledge to theories and practicing the production connoted my theoretical prior knowledge to the real practice.  I enjoyed this class very much! 

Expertise between Face-to-Face and the Web

How do I judge the value of expertise on the Web? Does it differ from my notion of expertise in face-to-face settings? Why or why not?

If the article I read on the web has valuable information that indicates that the person is an expert, I would value expertise on the web more than in face-to-face because the article would be open to critique and revision. However, some times I cannot tell from the appearance of the source whether it is trustworthy or not. For example, some readings we have in this course are personal blogs that I would not have trusted if I found them by myself just because they are not published in a journal. If I know that the person I read his/her work on the web is an expertise, I would definitely value his/her work even if it is a personal blog. But if I do not know the author, I would trust articles that have more interaction. 

Crowdsourcing and Making Money

After last week post about planets hunting, I was motivated to learn more about crowdsourcing and fortunately we just read an article about it this week written by Jeff Howe. I learned that the term "crowdsourcing" was first introduced to public from the article we just read in the Wired magazine (June, 2006). The article captured many examples of the development of crowdsourcing with great details, but I wanted to highlight its definition and provide a simpler example. 
The definition of crowdsourcing which was not clear in the article is, according to Merriam Webster, " the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers". Similar to what we read, It is all about gathering opinions, solutions, or suggestions from individuals who volunteer or work like contractors from outside the organization. Facebook or other social media sites could be used to gather feedback or opinions from crowds. 

On Howe article we read about Amazon Mechanical Turk as an example of crowdsourcing marketplace. So, I checked it out and found that this kind of contracting with businesses could bring good opportunities to individuals, but yet the low payment that may not exceed one dollar per hour won't allow one to make money of it. Do you want to give it a try?

schoology

When I visited the showroom during FETC in Orlando in 2013, I found a quite elegant stand at the center of the showroom for a company called Schoology which I have not heard of before. I set to listen to their presentation and teachers' questions and comments.  I found most teachers were interested in Google, Edmodo and schoology so I planned to give it a try. I signed up into two accounts, one as a teacher and one as a student to see how both ends see the same class. For me, it is a great tool to be free but it is not different  than Edmodo or many other LMSs and their communities have not been developed as much as the communities in Edmodo. Therefore, it will stay in mind for a couple of years before I decide to use it or not.

I found

My Best Finds: Edcanvas More than Just a Presentation

When I was looking for a platform to host one of my produsages, I found Edcanvas to be a competitive platform. It has a very easy interface that teachers may want to use to engage students in producing content by accumulating media and texts from different resources. Also, teachers are able to add quizzes and track each student within the teachers free access. Edcanvas charges schools for optional features like making voice comments and adding collaborative documents which could be a worthwhile for teachers who need a learning management system that is easy and bring many features on one platform. I personally recommend it for school teachers. Do you?