Week 15 Posting

Compromise-that's my word for this week. I'm finished reflecting on my work-I would like to reflect on my instructor now. I have enjoyed having Dr. Ellis as my instructor in at least three different classes. She has a unique way of teaching unlike any other teacher I have had in my years of college. I would like to thank her for all the valuable lessons she has taught me in so many different ways. Thanks again.

Week 14 Posting

Well-the collaboration continues with our group. Unfortunately, things are not going as smoothly as I had hoped for. I think I realize why I don't enjoy being a manager of groups of people. I am a much better follower. For the most part, virtual collaboration is an interesting subject that I am learning a great deal about. I have one more posting to come in the next few days and then I am out of here. Have a good weekend!

Week 13 Post

So we are really getting into our virtual teamwork this week. Our group has met virtually twice. I am very pleased with our accomplishments. We seem to have a good group to work with. Everyone is doing their share and things seem to be falling into place. I have found myself counting down the days until the end of this semester. Yahoo---Have a wonderful week...

Week 12 Posting

So what a week it has been-getting started on our group project-how fun right here this close to the end of semester. I guess Dr. Ellis was trying to teach us a real-world lesson. Anyway, I must say that my group has been excellent to work with so far. We have completed our Team Agreement and it should be uploaded sometime today. So, now on the the actual project-the paper. I look forward to an interesting next few weeks to come---here we go. Have a great week all.

Week 11 posting

So I cannot get my podcast to post up here, but I figured a link to it would be better than nothing at all. Please feel free to take a look at it: http://cowardly.podbean.com/

Week 10 posting

So somewhere I missed a week--I think it was during Spring Break--

This module we learned about podcasting-what an interesting subject. I find it awfully hard to be inside working on projects when the spring is calling my name. I enjoyed learning about podcasts and creating and changing the files into MP3 files so that they can easily be listened to by most people. As this semester quickly comes to an end I find myself pushing to get everything done. I hope everyone has a safe week--

Week 9 Posting

Well this has been a pretty quiet week. Unfortunately, my time is being divided between three classes this semester. Two of those classes work on two-week schedules, and this is what I consider my "off-week" for this class. I have reviewed my assignment and I must admit I am not looking forward to this project. I have made videos or podcasts in the past and I do not really enjoy making them. I guess we will just see how it turns out, right? I hope you have a wonderful week. I am looking forward to more warm weather and a few days off.

Week 8 Posting

So---our group project-what an adventure. Only three of the five members showed up for our adventure on Skype. You know there's always one who can't get the stuff working, it's not normally me, but yes, this time it was. Marquerite kept joking about how fast I was typing to stay up with their talking. I must admit I was a little disappointed to not be able to "voice" communicate with them. We were able to use Skype to accomplish the task at hand-working towards finishing our project. We seem to have a "pretty good handle on it" so I will be glad to see it completed. Skype enabled us to carry on conversations and to virtually collaborate on our project which was the whole reason for the assignment in the first place, right? Okay, so hopefully, my life will get back to normal in the next few weeks and I can wrap up yet another semester here at ECU-thankfully, this will be my last one for quite a while. I have other important projects that await me---I can hardly wait. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week. Take care.

Week 7 (a week late-sorry)

Well last week was not a very good week for me-my 18 year old daughter was in the hospital for 7 long days with pseudotumor cerebri-I will spare all the details, but if you are interested in reading more about this condition, this is an excellent website: http://www.ihrfoundation.org/ This condition is also known as intracranial hypertension. So last week I have learned about how important the internet including blogs, facebook pages, and even the hundreds and hundreds of websites that have helped me understand more about this horrible thing that has happened to my daughter. It's so easy just to pull up things on the internet and find all kinds of information. There's just something that everyone should remember when reading on the internet-MAKE SURE that the sources you read behind reputable sources. The internet is full of unreliable sources, just be educated enough to know the difference

Week 6 Reflection

I cannot believe how quickly each week is flying by. Each time I post a blog, I realize that I am one week closer to finishing and graduating. This week I work on setting up my delicious account and my flickr account. I reviewed the article about Twitter and I really enjoyed learning about microblogging. Everywhere you turn, someone is tweeting-which I thought sounded totally stupid when I first heard it, but now it makes a little more sense. It is a neat way to quickly communicate with people that have common interests. There are so many uses for it now.

Okay---after posting pictures in flickr, copying all my favorites in delicious, tweeting a little, it's time to move on to next week's assignments. Have a great week. Well---I've heard there might be some snow coming in this week. I guess we will have to wait and see. I'm about ready for some warm weather myself.

Week 5 Reflection

Okay, so this week I would like to talk about how my workplace uses collaborative software in many of the procedures we do daily. I work with the medical student admissions committee at the Brody School of Medicine. I set up and maintain a SharePoint website where I post things that are necessary for the committee to have. I really feel like it has updated how the committee does things. I send out committee reports, class statistics and pictures, as well as important announcements. SharePoint is a neat program that allows me to communicate with my committee instead of e-mailing everyone each time I need something. They have been very receptive about using our website--I was so excited about using this and since it goes along with our class, I figured I would share how it works with my classmates. It looks like it's going be a wonderful and warm week, at least for a while.

Week 4 Reflection

So this week I continued to read and learn about wikis. I worked on my section of our class wiki which was very interesting. Wikis are very powerful tools that are becoming more and more popular in both education and businesses. For my article review, I chose the one that was related to wikis in education which was titled "Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the classroom." It was a very interesting article which described how the teacher-student relationship is constantly changing, going from a classroom in which the teacher "owned" all the material, to one in which the students become collaborators.

I really enjoy learning about how the whole classroom setting has changed in the last few years, but more importantly how much potential wikis, as well as other virtual software, has enabled the classroom to become a much more interactive society for students. It is exciting to think about the limitless possibilities that exist, as well as others that will come about in the future for classrooms.

Businesses are also getting in on the action. After researching the internet, I found many case studies of how businesses are already taking advantage of wikis. These companies are using wikis for meetings, projects, and just about any type of collaborative work they have to do. Again, I am enjoying learning all about the many possibilities that now exist in this area as well.

Well---until next week....it's all about learning about the possibilities of virtual teamwork!

Week 3 Posting

Well our class is building our very own Wiki--this should be an interesting experience. Wikis are interesting creatures (so to speak). They can be very useful tools with lots of good information. However, one must be careful when relying on some Wikis. From what little I know about them (going into this project), I understand that some of them can be edited by anyone and the information is not always verified, which can lead to often reporting incorrect data. I think our Wiki will be an adventure for all of us. I'm excited about working together on this project. It is amazing how much collaboration goes on now everywhere from places of business to classes, even church programs.

Week 2 Posting

As I sit here this cold Saturday morning, I have been watching the news on TV. I find it very interesting that our weather forecasters now use Facebook and even live chats to communicate with viewers all around eastern North Carolina. Isn't it amazing that all around us, technology continues to improve and allows everyone to use all these applications? Web 2.0 has made things, especially the social networks, more user-friendly. It is opening up more opportunities that will only continue in the future.

My FIRST blog of my last SEMESTER!

Well, let me see...

Here's what I've learned this week-So what exactly is Web 2.0 and why should I care, right? After reading our assigned reading this week, I have learned that I really never thought about it before, but basically been taking it for granted. This whole idea is based on a way of designing websites and web pages that make them easier to look at and easier to design. The features that exist include things like large fonts, bright colors, wide open spaces, and even things like large buttons. Web 2.0 also focuses on social networks and sharing. After reviewing the video on YouTube, it is easy to see that Web 2.0 is definitely a step forward in the right direction for technology. I am anxious to learn more about virtual teams and how all this is going to come together. I'm just going to hang on for the ride! You want to join me?