A10NickAberle

A10NickAberle

To-Do

The paper makes this claim: “Web 2.0 is creating a new kind of participatory medium that is ideal for supporting multiple modes of learning.” For purposes of this assignment, pick a mode of learning which you consider the most important and most exciting for YOU!

Which idea/claim discussed in the article did you find most interesting?

The idea of lifelong learning presented in the article interested me the most. It is clear that we are in a world that is constantly changing at an exponential rate. What we learn in 4 or so years in college will surely not last our entire careers. This is where I think online learning and collaboration have a lot of potential. It is neither convenient nor practical to have to return to a traditional university setting to learn about new topics every time the need arises.

With which idea/claim do you disagree the most?

I disagree most with the claim that students significantly expand their learning with social networks. The article says that students extend "the discussions, debates, bull sessions, and study groups that naturally arise on campus" to people in their social networks not attending the university. I have personally not witnessed this occur beyond people asking each other what they study in school.

What learning style did you choose for purposes of this assignment?

Learning to be

What percentage of your overall educational experience is "Learning About"?

Approximately 60%

What are the strengths of "learning about" from your experience?

Most "learning about" topics involve basic or underlying concepts that have to be applied later in more specified domains. This is absolutely necessary to proceed in most fields. It is not practical to learn to be a professional in a field without first obtaining a firm grasp of its foundations.

What are the weaknesses of "learning about" from your experience?

Often times, "learning about" involves a one-way exchange in which a professor simply tells students how things are and then later asks them about it. This lacks the interactivity that really cements ideas and key concepts for me.

What percentage of your overall educational experience is "Learning to be"?

Approximately 40% (and more at work)

What are the strengts of "learning to be" from your experience?

For me, "learning to be" has always seemed like the more practical approach to education. Concepts can be taught in any context, but it is the application of these concepts that really counts beyond academics, especially for engineering. Learning to be produces results, as the focus is often how an end product can be created.

What are the weaknesses of "learning to be" from your experience?

In contrast to the focus of "learning about" where underling concepts and foundations are key, "learning to be" may gloss over these details in order to achieve the end result for the sake of productivity. This is often the case when a "productive inquiry" is being made. In this case, completing the task is the main goal, which may inadvertently place some foundation-level concepts on shaky ground.

Do you agree or disagree with the following claim: “everyone is interested in something and feels passionate about it.”

I agree, although people may not recognize their passions or find them relevant

Name something that YOU are personally interested in and feel passionate about.

Programming

Is the following statement true for YOUR passion: “for any topic that a student is passionate about, there is likely to be an online niche community of practice of others who share that passion.”

This statement is true for my passion. There are countless sites and user groups dedicated to Computer Science and programming.

If not: could it become a reality in the future?

I feel like this is the case more and more often for many other areas of interest besides Computer Science.The Internet is a vast, vast entity.It is almost unheard of for a topic in some area to not exist in any form on the Internet. If an online community does not exist yet for a particular topic, it is extremely easy to create one given the available tools. The challenge, I believe, lies in attracting and maintaining regular that participate.