Case Study 2

Part 1- Blogging

What are the benefits of using blogs for educational purposes?

Blogs are "online personal diaries or account of experiences or thoughts that can be private or, at the other extreme, broadcast for others to read and comment on." (Bonk & Zhang, 2008). Benefits include:

• No pressure from peers who are more assertive/aggressive (Bonk & Zhang, 2008)
  
• More time for reflection before posting and after posting (Bonk & Zhang, 2006)
  
• More time to gather data and information (Bonk & Zhang, 2008)
  
• Fosters student reflection, critical thinking, and knowledge exchange (Bonk & Zhang, 2008)
  
• Students can learn large amounts of important information while observing others behaviors first. (Students learn from observing others praised or reprimanded for their opinions (Bonk, 2009)
  
• Reflection on observations is central to learning (Albert Bandura (1986, 1997) Social Learning Theory (from Bonk & Zhang, 2008)
  

Blogging is a form of journaling. Journaling encourages reflection and articulating of thoughts and problem solving. Journaling is generally completed by an individual for an individual's personal learning and edification through instructor comments. Blogging facilitates not only the individual's learning but also collaborative learning because it is shared with a wider audience (Fogarty & McTighe, 1993 as found in Dunlap, 2006).

What is the role of a blog in building a virtual learning community?

Blogs provide an environment that attracts individuals with common interests. Virtual learning communities can use blogs to allow members access to an array of diverse knowledge from individual and group blogs across the internet. There are virtual learning communities that exist to connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers. These include BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. Blogging platforms that are interest-specific are also available. For example, there is a large community of political bloggers that are members of Blogster. (Retrieved March 12, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog.)

Describe what you have observed in the class blogs and the interactive process of blogging.

I, personally, have learned not only from the blogs during this semester, but from the blogs that were posted from previous semesters. I've learned to spend a great deal more time in critical thinking and reflection before I post my thoughts.

Our learning community consists of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Consequentially, we share an array of diverse perspectives derived from the readings. The blogs and the D2L2 discussions allow us to reflect and share our thoughts. We are then given the opportunity to add depth, correct, or refine our perceptions by reading and reflecting on our peer's blogs.

I didn't really understand how often I gave opinions that were not based on fact until I began to blog. The comments of my peers have awakened me to thinking more critically and reflecting more honestly. I have an increased appreciation of the learning opportunities that games provide not only through my readings, but through peer comments within the blogs. This appreciation began with a response to a comment . The comment allowed me to reflect, seek out readings, and develop a better understanding.

There are so many 'aha' moments that I can't list them all. But, here are a few examples:

One of Wendy's blogs discussed simulation and the role it plays within the healthcare area. Her comments added to my knowledge about nursing and simulation.

Ipek's description of a Flash-based multimedia material illustrated new ideas for nursing education.

I appreciated the extra time that Shelly spent to give us links to Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains and Benner's From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice. Not to mention her getting up at 3 a.m. to address questions and make informative comments for our Discussion #2.

Sharon's questions in her March 5^th blog "stopped me in my tracks." (I thought I would be asking the questions and she would be giving the answers.) Her questions allowed me to look deeper into the nature and capabilities of simulation in the healthcare learning environment.

Tracey's answers and responses in Discussion 2 helped me understand the questions and her early post of Case Study 2 helped me understand the Case Study requirements.

I want to be a member of Julia's Ideal Virtual Learning Community (WGCA) and she hasn't even created it yet. Julia's WGCA allows members to know about the educational environment; an environment that I hope to be a member of when I graduate. I want to learn from experts who have "been there, done that".

I struggle to understand some o f the complex entries Jerry shares with us and then he makes statements or creates processes that allow me to visualize the meanings behind his comments. A few examples include: "musical chairs in a virtual environment", "The God's Must Be Crazy", "A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing".

With a specific instructional or training context in mind, how can blogging be used to promote knowledge construction, collaborative learning or building virtual learning community?

Individuals can learn large amounts of important information from observing others model their own strategies or learned behaviors first. Reinforcement is created through observation of others in an online course being praised or reprimanded for their opinions and ideas. The learner can also provide self-reinforcement (Albert Bandura as found in Bonk & ZeZhang, 2008).

Social interaction plays a fundamental role in development of cognition. The social level of development comes first and then the individual level follows. The Zone of Proximal Development depends upon full social interaction. (Vygotsky, ,Social Development Theory, 1978).

Constructivist approaches involve situated learning. Learning is a function of activity, context and culture. It is "situated" (Lave, 1988, as found in Gee, 2010 PowerPoint).

Situated learning involves social interaction. For example, nurses interact on Facebook. Through these brief encounters the nurses discover a common problem relating to education and the field of nursing. The nurses decide to form a group to discuss this particular problem. Some of the nurses have read blogs that were created by nurses involved in similar problems. They invite these nurses to join them. The Facebook nursing friends decide to create a virtual learning community based on their common interests.

Part 2 – Technologies

First Impression/Experience

My first impression of Audacity was positive. The screen appeared to be user friendly with a familiar set of buttons to record and/or stop recording at the top of the screen. I immediately wondered if Audacity could be used for video or if it was strictly audio. I jumped in and recorded a few words. I couldn't save the recording. I wasn't sure why Audacity wouldn't save the recording. So, I searched through Wikipedia and the instructions that we received in class and I found the "How to Create a Podcast Instructions". I accessed the Lame MP3 Encoder from the web. I was able to save my podcast after I loaded Lame.

What does it do?

Audacity is an audio editor and recording application that is free.

What are the major features?

• Importing and exporting WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, libsndfile library file formats, Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), WMA, AAC, AMR, and AC3 via FFmpeg library.
  
• Records and plays sounds
  
• Editing via Cut, Copy, Paste
  
• Multitrack mixing
  
• Digital effects and plug-ins
  
• Amplitude envelope editing
  
• Noise removal
  
• Audio spectrum analysis using the Fourier transformation algorithm
  
• Supports multi-channel modes with sampling rates up to 96 kHz with 32 bits per sample
  
• The ability to make precise adjustments to the audio's speed while maintaining pitch (Audacity calls it changing tempo), in order to synchronize it with video, run for the right length of time, etc.
  
• The ability to change the audio's pitch without changing the speed.
  
• Contains major features of modern multi-track audio software including navigation controls, zoom and single track edit, project pane and XY project navigation, non-destructive and destructive effect processing, audio file manipulation (cut, copy, paste)
  
• Converting cassette tapes or record into digital tracks by automatically splitting one track into multiple tracks based on silences in the track and the export multiple option
  
• Multi-platform: works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix-like systems (including GNU/Linux and BSD). among others
  
• Uses the wxWidgets software library to provide a similar graphical user interface on several different operating systems
  
• Can also be used for post-processing of all types of audio, including podcasts. It can be used for finishing podcasts by adding effects such as normalization, trimming, and fading in and out.

What are the intended purposes of the developers?

Audacity was created to be free, open source software for recording and editing sounds.

What are some of the possibilities for enhancing learning, knowledge construction and virtual learning communities?

Podcasts are used by educators and students for audio recordings to supplement, enhance, and explain class content.

Your Search or Creation Activities

I created a podcast on Audacity. The process was simplified by the instructions that were provided in EIPT. I completed a test recording first by clicking on the red button at the top of the screen. I then "normalized" the recording so the sound would not be too soft or loud and I saved it to the desktop on my home compute. I had laryngitis. The sound quality of my voice was rough and it definitely had an "Okie twang".

What are the educational advantages for designing and building a virtual learning community?

Podcasts can be used in virtual learning communities as an audible file only or pictures and/or videos may be used in conjunction with the podcast to facilitate learning. Audacity is another opportunity to address different learning styles.

How can the tool be integrated in your online instruction? What educational objective do you intend to achieve through its use?

Audacity can be used as an introduction to the Nurses' VLC or it can be used as a training tool to teach specific processes, such as Spanish for nurses, or acid-base balance, etc. It can also be used to review and highlight important aspects for presentations.

Are there issues that instructors or instructional designers need to address when integrating this tool for instructional or training purposes? You may contextualize the discussion in your specific instructional setting (e.g., professional teacher development).

Students will need to understand how to use Audacity either through an online presentation or paper based instructions. Podcasts need to be coherent and clear for the listener to comprehend the information.

Additional Tools Reviewed

I searched YouTube and downloaded a video/podcast for arterial blood draws. I searched Merlot for applicable tools. I purchased a game to teach ABG's from Wisc. I tried to upload a document to Google.doc, but I could only create a document within the program. I also looked at Moodle and downloaded the instruction manual. I downloaded and used Dropbox to retrieve Bonk's article. And I searched through PBWorks and Skype.

References

Audacity. Retrieved March 12, 2010 from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Bonk, C.J. (2009). The world is open: How web technology is revolutioning education.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Bonk, C.J. & Zhang, K. (2008). Empowering online learning: 100+ Activities for reading reflecting, displaying, & doing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Bonk, C.J., and Zhang, K. (2006). Introducing the R2D2 model: online learning for the diverse learners of this world. 27(2) pp.249-264, Retrieved March 10, 2010 from D2L2: EIPT: Content

Dunlap, J.D. (2006) Using guided reflective journaling activities to capture students' changing perceptions. 50(6), pp. 20-26. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from D2L2: EIPT: Content

Ge, X, (2010). Situated learning and constructivist perspective. PowerPoint

Vygotsky, L.S. (1962, 1978, 1985) Social development theory. Retrieved February 10, 2010 from D2L2: EIPT: Content

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 12, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 12, 2010 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/Blog