MEDIA 710: Learning Technologies
3D Virtual Environment:
The Second Life Assignment that I completed as part of my Learning Technologies class gave me a lot of insight into a virtual world. I was not familiar with Second Life or any virtual world before this class. Throughout my exploration of Second Life, I learned a lot about how it is used in e-commerce, e-business and e-learning. The assignment details out my thoughts on the application and provides a detailed report of the strengths, weaknesses, issues and opportunities within Second Life. This assignment really allowed me to think critically about the application that I had been studying and using throughout the semester. Second Life provides a host of opportunities for e-learning as I detailed out in my research paper that I wrote for the class. I think the opportunities within Second Life are endless and it will be interesting to monitor the site to see where it goes in the future.
Wiki:
The content in this artifact was originally placed on a wiki site that my professor created in my Learning Technologies class. Our class collaborated to put together an on-going wiki, complete with links to research materials and the ability to leave comments and contribute to a discussion. The information I presented in my artifact was abstracts from articles that I used in my research paper. I posted the information under a fitting topic within the wiki. This assignment gave me insight into how a wiki works, how useful it can be in education and how to create and put information into a wiki. I was familiar with wikis before the class, but had never contributed to one. I believe wikis are a valuable too, especially in education and I learned a lot by adding information to one and seeing how my classmates contributed.
Research Paper:
This research paper allowed me to do real-time research on a topic and a technology that I had been using all semester. By researching Second Life (SL), I learned so much more about the virtual world. The review of literature allowed me to delve into the topic to find out what past research had been done on Second Life and I found out how people all over the world are using it. The research was very interesting as I learned things that I never would have known by just using it. Because I was already a member of Second Life, I had the advantage of knowing the lingo of SL and that proved to be a definite advantage when doing my research. I concluded that Second Life would be an excellent tool for use in education. The final part of my paper detailed how a professor or teacher could implement Second Life in the classroom.
Computer Based Training Module:
The Computer Based Training Module assignment allowed me to create a training system that could be used in a variety of contexts. We were allowed to pick any topic on which to create our CBT and I chose creating a Public Relations Press Kit since I have a background in PR. This was an interesting assignment because I had to focus on presenting the material in a way that would be easy to understand to someone who has never even heard of PR. The use of mini “quizzes” in the CBT was an interesting concept but once I got the hang of it, seemed to be quite logical. That function could be a very useful tool if you were planning to create some CBT where you need to have proof that someone completed the training. Printing off or storing answers to questions would be a great way to do that. I learned a lot in this assignment and I am glad I was able to put together a functional CBT that can be useful to me in my professional career.
The Second Life Assignment that I completed as part of my Learning Technologies class gave me a lot of insight into a virtual world. I was not familiar with Second Life or any virtual world before this class. Throughout my exploration of Second Life, I learned a lot about how it is used in e-commerce, e-business and e-learning. The assignment details out my thoughts on the application and provides a detailed report of the strengths, weaknesses, issues and opportunities within Second Life. This assignment really allowed me to think critically about the application that I had been studying and using throughout the semester. Second Life provides a host of opportunities for e-learning as I detailed out in my research paper that I wrote for the class. I think the opportunities within Second Life are endless and it will be interesting to monitor the site to see where it goes in the future.
Wiki:
The content in this artifact was originally placed on a wiki site that my professor created in my Learning Technologies class. Our class collaborated to put together an on-going wiki, complete with links to research materials and the ability to leave comments and contribute to a discussion. The information I presented in my artifact was abstracts from articles that I used in my research paper. I posted the information under a fitting topic within the wiki. This assignment gave me insight into how a wiki works, how useful it can be in education and how to create and put information into a wiki. I was familiar with wikis before the class, but had never contributed to one. I believe wikis are a valuable too, especially in education and I learned a lot by adding information to one and seeing how my classmates contributed.
Research Paper:
This research paper allowed me to do real-time research on a topic and a technology that I had been using all semester. By researching Second Life (SL), I learned so much more about the virtual world. The review of literature allowed me to delve into the topic to find out what past research had been done on Second Life and I found out how people all over the world are using it. The research was very interesting as I learned things that I never would have known by just using it. Because I was already a member of Second Life, I had the advantage of knowing the lingo of SL and that proved to be a definite advantage when doing my research. I concluded that Second Life would be an excellent tool for use in education. The final part of my paper detailed how a professor or teacher could implement Second Life in the classroom.
Computer Based Training Module:
The Computer Based Training Module assignment allowed me to create a training system that could be used in a variety of contexts. We were allowed to pick any topic on which to create our CBT and I chose creating a Public Relations Press Kit since I have a background in PR. This was an interesting assignment because I had to focus on presenting the material in a way that would be easy to understand to someone who has never even heard of PR. The use of mini “quizzes” in the CBT was an interesting concept but once I got the hang of it, seemed to be quite logical. That function could be a very useful tool if you were planning to create some CBT where you need to have proof that someone completed the training. Printing off or storing answers to questions would be a great way to do that. I learned a lot in this assignment and I am glad I was able to put together a functional CBT that can be useful to me in my professional career.