The information, research, and opinions that I came across while completing this assignment gave me some significant insight into how the educator's view of technology and learning personality combine with the learner's view of technology and learning personality to create either a cohesive or detrimental learning community. Perhaps the most profound idea that I have come up with through this exercise is that all of these factors surrounding education technology are interwoven with the priority and effort each party utilizing the resources designates for them. Without significant effort and communication on behalf of the educators, educational technology cannot reach the learners. Without significant effort and interaction on behalf of the learners, educational technology cannot be utilized to its full potential and both the educator and learner experience a disconnect in learning through that particular lesson.
As for searching for information on the internet, I have always been very skeptical of any information that I find, and it has been my default practice in electronic research to rely solely on scholarly articles found in periodicals. However, it is undoubtedly apparent that our first inclination as scholars is to turn to the internet... primarily Google... for answers and research. The research that I use from the internet will always be well-documented, peer-reviewed, and legitimate published work because every piece of scholarship that I turn has my academic reputation attached to it. Therefore, I will be very judicious in screening and selecting the information that I search for and implement on the internet. Because of the intensive research background that my undergraduate background provided for me, I feel very confident in both my research habits and the information I have used. As I stated previously, I have always relied on peer-reviewed, published scholarly articles for research materials, and I feel that these are the most legitimate forms of electronic data.
First and foremost, if we fail to teach students how to properly conduct research online and utilize educational technology to its full extent, then we are certainly setting them up for disappointing failure in post-secondary school and the workplace. Research skills and technology mastery are above and beyond the most essential skills for students to have in today's world outside of secondary school. Even if a student never has to conduct research for an assignment, they still need to grasp the concept that, in order to solve the problem in front of them, they must locate, analyze, and implement the proper technique or procedure for solving their problem. Also, if we do not teach students how to discern what is credible or moral or legitimate content on the internet now, they will fall into a pattern of trusting every bit of information that they find online. This can lead to financial debt, moral bankruptcy, identity theft, plagerism, and misguidance among other things.
I do see several advantages to organizing information on social bookmarking tools. I chose to use the first website, www.bubbl.us, simply because I wanted to try a new site that I had never used before. The most significant advantage that I see to these sites are the user-friendly interfaces that make sharing ideas and information associated with our profession so easy and quick. Within minutes, I can share a concept map with a learning community that spans the entire nation or world, so, in the realm of communication, I see vast and numerous advantages to social bookmarking sites. I believe I will use this site within the coming weeks in my English I classes to give my students an interactive method of mapping plot diagrams for narrative essays. I encourage my students to map out all of their ideas before they begin any essay, and sites such as bubbl.us provide a stimulating alternative to writing on paper that students can play around with, upload to social media, and share with other students.
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