Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #8

WIKI
This week, the introduction to Wiki has opened my eyes to the potential of collaborative work. I can see myself using wiki to conduct research with other students about any topic, and keep it available permanently online after we have finished the project for anyone to access. Unlike blogs, Wikis are more user friendly in term of linking information. Blogs also often provides limited access and not a collaborative environment. Google Docs is like Wiki in the way that collaboration is possible. However, collaboration is granted only to selected individuals. Moreover, the finished product is limited in their format and audience. Evernote is similar to Google Docs in this way, where the collaboration is limited. Wiki is the only tool that provides true collaboration of all digital citizens.

I can think of many ways that Wikis can be used to support learning. Like the idea I had last week with Google Docs, I believe Wikis can be used in classes as a medium for group work. At the same time, other students in different groups can look at the work being done by other groups. Smaller tasks can be provided instructing individuals to learn from other wikis or to link to other group wikis in a way that each group is learning from other groups.

Becoming a digital citizen is simple, so I thought. But I am beginning to learn that a great part of becoming a digital citizen is not only about having an online presence or trail. It is about participating in the content creation that generates ideas and values within the digital world. This is where I believe that rights and responsibilities come in. It is one thing to simply exist as a digital citizen. It is another thing to contribute constructively and collaboratively as a digital citizen.

Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Like being a member of a community, being a digital citizen may simply mean having an online presence. However, like we have learned in the first two weeks of the class, there are different levels of digital citizenship. Through my learning this past two weeks, I realize that these different levels corroborates to different responsibilities that the digital citizen can undertake, and implies the rights that must be upheld.

1.       The responsibility to protect children from danger as well as their own indiscretions. One that I think is very important is Cyberbullying.

2.       Netiquette, as we have learned in week 1-2, are more than just about learning the internet lingos, but also about how to conduct oneself on the internet.

3.       Digital Law, was something else we have learned over time. The importance of copyright procedures, how to prevent someone else from stealing your identity or taking credit for your own work, and how to prevent hackers from invading your computer.

FEEDLY
This week, CBC News had an article of a case related to cyber bullying. A man named Robert Campbell apologized for his cyber bullying campaign. It is important to realize that in the digital world, where Robert Campbell was a part of, bullying can extend much farther than the borders of a country. He has done what he did to dozens of people across Canada, the U.S. and U.K.

Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

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Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #7

Collaborative Experience

Using Google Docs, me and my group partner was not only able to create a presentation PowerPoint together, we were able to chat with each other at the same time doing it. Unlike the instant TodaysMeet chat website, the group chat is integrated within Google Docs. While working on the document, I can chat with any other person who is viewing the document. 

I noticed that many important features, such as applying selected transition to all slides, makes Google Docs an ideal tool that can be accessed any time and any where with a computer and internet. This tool seemly sets as an alternative tool for PowerPoint, which does not enable collaborative work, nor is it free to use. The interface is somewhat hidden but extremely intuitive, without stamping all the buttons across the top of the screen like the Desktop PowerPoint does in design.

Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

Google Docs can easily be used within a classroom to allow groups of students to have a digital medium in generating discussion and thoughts, before presenting to the class. Google Docs can also be a great tool for students within a class to work as a group together in creating a classroom project. Moreover, Google Docs allows different topics to be created, and instead of switching topic between groups to write on a pinup board, the students can simply switch shared topic links to add their discussion onto different topic files.

I would add this tool as a communication tool within my PLE beside the Twitter tool. This tool can be used collaboratively as well as for means to organize information. I feel that TodaysMeet is also a great tool. Althrough Google Docs embedded chat works in the same way that TodaysMeet does, Google Docs chat does not appear to have a easy way to create Transcripts of the chat that is done.

Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

The experience this week working collaboratively on both TodaysMeet as well as Google Docs gave me a first person experience in working virtually. It also gave me a sense of working as a team, at the same time. Things appear to be very fast paced. We would discuss what work needs to be done. We would then instantly switch over to do work, while able to instantly check on each other's progress, while also being able to see exactly what slide a person is working on, and what changes they are making. We are able to come back to the drawing board and discuss further steps, or modifying existing content, before continuing on working without any pausing. I feel collaborative tools like this not only promotes teamwork and a sense of cohesion, but they also improves group performance and work efficiency. Our collaborative presentation was completed today with a very polished product. I feel that this is a part of my experience in gaining digital literacy, by collaborating and producing a collaborative sharing of information in the form of a collaborative PowerPoint presentation. 

Feedly #

For the first time, I saw an article in my Feedly inhibiting a hashtag # for the article: 

#NotThere: International Women's Day marked with tributes online

http://news.yahoo.com/international-womens-day-tributes-dear-me-not-there-210857699.html

Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

I first learned about this hashtag from the Twitter's #ADED1P32 group shares. I realize now how this social media phenomenon can be something of a curative tool in itself. Curators around the world may use hashtags to tag not only images, but also news articles and events around the world so they reach other people who seek relevant information at the same time. I think whoever invented the idea and working of the hashtags has made a thunderous contribution to Digital Citizenship in the world. To this person, I have to say: Thank you!

Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #6

EverNote
This week, EverNote shined above any other mentioned tool in its amazing ability to collect and organize data. It can be used to record and store the articles I find. More importantly, the chrome add-on web clipper allows me to screenshot with simple ability to edit the screenshots as I am taking the screenshots, and before saving the screenshot. See picture below.

Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

Despite the usefulness, I was hesitant when I find that this web clipper tool is for Google Chrome only:

Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

While linking Twitter with EverNote help with collecting social media materials, the EverNote web clipper does the same and more in regards to all of the contents on the internet, including twitter. I find that using EverNote web clipper is more than enough to conduct collection of all information found online. I can also use it to screenshot twitter contents or select tweets while adding in custom text and notes along colorful arrows. Without a doubt, EverNote is now my number one information organizational tool! This will be added onto my Personal Learning Environment alongside Lightshot, the screenshot software that also does some similar edits in comparison to EverNote. However, EverNote creates a database that is accessible on all computer that has an internet connection. This makes it essentially a portable storage of data that you never have to carry around with you. On any public computer, you will be able to add into different notebooks within your EverNote. This tool is the best organizer ever!

Valid and reliable online bookmarks stored using EverNote allows me access to important online information and being able to share them with other audiences. Tools such as this allows me to participate as a content sharing digital citizen as I share my findings with other students in my research group.

Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

Feedly
Coincidentally this week, my Feedly reading list had an article about digital tools: Smartphones. Apparently now there are smartphones selling for as little as $25. Moreover, it is expected that about 2 billion units of Smartphones will be sold in 2015. This provides an important infrastructure for discovering digital literacy, and for many users, digital citizenship. It makes me think about this idea of digital literacy. Is Digital Literacy simply going to become the common sense of the future?

A century ago, what was once emerging after the spread of type writers and printing press are mass produced writing content. Reading literacy has since then become an important subject of academia. Back then, reading literacy is not close to what it is today at all. There is a wide concern and social classification of those who can read and write as educated and literate citizens. Many of the people living during those times are considered to be illiterate. However, with the growth of newer generation who grew up with an abundance of books and written material to read, reading literacy is no longer considered to be a critical skills that many lacks. It seem almost as if Digital Literacy has now taken over as the new literacy. With newer generation growing up enjoying an ever increasing availability of digital content, digital tools, and electronic tools such as smartphones to explore and discover the digital world, would it be likely that a few generations in the future, Digital Literacy will be as common as reading literacy is today? What do you think?

Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #5

Social Media

This week, one of the news from my Feedly was about the release of video showing beheading of Christians in Libya. In the day where Twitter and PLEs are used to foster Personal Learning Networks, not only do we learn about the things that help with our personal growth, media such as these beheading videos are also spread. While it is the agenda to discover information, there is some information that is damaging to society and promotes the agenda of those who seek to instill fear in others. In a situation such as this, would the New York Times be responsible for reaching the subscribers with this ill news, or is it the maker of such content? There are much bloody or inhumane content created by immoral individuals on the internet. I think the New York Times is one of the many central hub of information where decisions needs to be made on the appropriate kind of content they should share, and whether these contents are beneficial to society. I think that Personal Learning Networks are similar in a way that the network is only as smart as the people within it, and only as resourceful as the content that the members decides to share. Like the New York Times, the Twitter's 1p32 Personal Learning Network serves as a hub of information. The members of this network have the ability and responsibility to decide what kind of content they would share with others.

Twitter Learning

So far, I have discovered insight from other members of the 1P32 Personal Learning Network.@missbrittanyeva especially, shared a tool she used to make diagrams which I find to be very useful. I will try to use this tool to make the PLE diagrams in the future. 

   Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

Twitter also allows me to re-tweet the content with link to the original user. Adding a hash-tag with the name of the personal learning network group allows me to conveniently share this resource back with the group. I realize this is a duplication of an old resource. However, as mentioned in the lesson this week, good contents can and are repeated in Personal Learning Networks. More importantly, my twitter page becomes a collection similar to my Feedly reader. Unlike Feedly, which subscribes to sources of information, Twitter is a place I can collect and store specific content that I want to look at again later. This contributes to my ability to not only follow information, but to save and share any specific content of knowledge. I would categorize Twitter as a communication tool. I will be adding Twitter alongside the Blog tool. If I am to add this tool to my Week 2 PLE, I would add it on the left side between my information tools and my PowerPoint tool. 

Twitter further defines the internet as a place to not only seeks, but to share information. Twitter allows me the ability to listen in and receive information. it also allows me to share information and the source of the information. It promotes a collaborative group and enables the members of the group to learn from each other, collectively. I firmly believe that Twitter is a must-have tool for all who would like to gain digital literacy as well as participating as a digital citizen. 

$$ Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #4

Reader Article
This week, one of the articles from the Science section of my feedly reader stood out for me. The article is called: 

"To Get Parents To Vaccinate Their Kids, Don't Ask. Just Tell"

    Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  Click the screenshot above to visit the permalink.

It is very interesting to see that when doctors allow for discussion about vaccinating children, for the parents, the parents tend to not vaccinate their children if they were on the fence. Coming from a public health background, I feel that freedom of choice can be dangerous for population that does not have the knowledge or experience to make the best choice. Vaccination is not meant only to protect the person who gets it, but to act as a crowding effect that prevents disease transmitting within a population. The more people that vaccinates against a disease, then the less able that disease will be to travel to other vaccinated population. Therefore, the more people that are vaccinated, then the more protected the un-vaccinated population will be. I believe that like universal health insurance, vaccination need to be integrated at the system level for the entire population in order to protect the entire population, and lower the overall risk. This is the basic principle of the universal insurance coverage. This should also be the principle in using systematic vaccination in a population to reduce risk of disease in the entire population.

Reflection

In my exploration of bookmarking tools and the use of tagging, i realize that bookmarking only goes so far when using the browser. Having a cloud sync bookmarking tool allows me to retrieve and use bookmarks I add at home when I am away from home. This increase both convenience and access. From now on, I am able to add resources I find anywhere into my feedly reader, an online bookmarking service, or my snoop.it, if it is something that I feel I could use in one of my school projects. In the future, I can also revisit these bookmarks in looking back at the information that is used to inform my learning and projects. The curation tool is a great way to sum together different online information to share with others. However, I envision using the curation tools to sum together topics related to each one of the projects I have for class or work for myself to view and analyze. I can envision using these summary curated resources to locate, identify, and make sense of different social media information. I can also envision myself using the custom formatting tools to present this information to a group of people in a presentation. 

I would place these tools under the category of Organization or Curation tools. This is a new category I am making within my PLE diagram. My PLE is now changing dramatically! It seems that becoming a digital citizen and gaining digital literacy is a changing process. The tools we use to navigate the internet can change as much as the ways we perceive how we can interact with information online. It is no longer just about searching and using information. Now I have the tools to organize the information I find! I am so very happy! I do wonder how digital information could be best used as a tool to inform parents about vaccination during an implementation of a systematic vaccination program for the population. Instead of having paper cards for immunization records, perhaps the population needs a tool that organizes the vaccination information.

For example, each province has its own health insurance card. The health insurance card could be modified into a tool to collect and organize an individual's lifelong vaccination information that can be accessed with the card, or remotely like a cloud bookmarking service. Now wouldn't that be great! People will never have to spend time and money to "find" their vaccination information when they need it!

$$ Week 3 Thoughts & Reflections

I find that I could share the contents, as well as the direct link of feeds I receive with my readers through a Blog post. This informed my learning in a way I didn’t expect: it made me think. At first, I simply thought the general idea of the article is admirable and good, as it involves helping children. However, sharing it in writing, I am reminded of the first class in Health Economics I took with Dr. Ward as a part of my Public Health curriculum. In that lecture, we were asked to think about whether lives have different values. We were confronted with scenario of a hospital treating a baby not doing well in health, or an old man who is also sick. The cost of treating that baby may be a hundred thousand dollars, but at the same time, the money could be used for 50,000 vaccines that would save the lives of 50,000 children in Africa plagued by an easily treatable infection. So the question came to be asked of us is why are some lives seemingly more valuable than others, and if it is right. We learned that health care systems should be about allocating the resources available to do the greatest amount of good in a population. Sometimes this happens. Sometimes it does not. Human emotions play an important role in determining which path the decision making follows. With the looming mental health issues and illnesses shooting exponentially to the front page of every health care agenda, I feel this is something we are neglecting when we implement new initiatives. As we focus on one population group, another is forgotten. Often, such as in this case, the burden of responsibility in time and effort is expected of the parents. I think this is interesting as well, since many parents expect the system, such as teachers and schools, to be the ones responsible in educating their children.

     Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

The RSS Feed Readers have many real world news feeds about events and happenings that I would otherwise never know about if I were not to have this feed. It allows me to be a part of the conversation as a listener, and gives me an opportunity to share and contribute to digital citizenship by sharing the news, and my thoughts. Moreover, this may generate further discussion. I am interested in what others think about this issue as well.

The RSS Feed Readers is definitely a curation/organizational tool. It helped me put together information after gathering them for me. I can use it to sort through information among all of the sources that I find. This means that my PLE is now obsolete! I am changing the structure of the PLE to include different categories of tools. I realize that this may mean the PLE is going to change quite a few times. I will have to develop different category of tools, and arrange the existing tools into them. The categories have to be flexible, and based on type of usage. More than anything, I am simply fascinated by the Feedly Reader!

My Experience with RSS Feeds

After adding Rachel’s Blog into my RSS feed, I read through other feeds I’ve been getting. As of this week, there are about 71 total feeds I’ve received. 28 of those are news. One of the news articles I thought was especially interesting is the “Reach Out and Read program promoting childhoodliteracy” article by The Toronto Star. Reach Out and Read have a goal of having every child processing a home library of at least five books by the time they enter kindergarten. I think this is a really good idea, and can contribute to higher literacy for children. However, I think their idea of having parents read with children is unrealistic for many families in Canada.

                                  Fan, L. (CC) 2015.  

While children have school and can read after school, parents have to work when their children at in school, make grocery trips after work, pay bills after work; shovel snow, mow the lawn, clean the house and cook after work.  What would the parents then find time to relax, have romantic time and generally time for their own mental health and well being? At a time where mental health issues are exploding across the Canadian population, I think it is easy to grasp onto the interest of a specific group of people while forgetting others. Health care, health promotion, or capacity building is not about re-allocating resources to increase the health of only a segment of population that can afford to spend as much time with their children as they like. The ultimate goal should be to improve the overall population health of everyone.