Weekly Report & Relfection #7

Photo copied from:
http://emrefirat.edublogs.org/2012/08/18/todaysmeet/

I really enjoyed working with my group members and discussing the collaborative project using TodaysMeet. The interesting aspect of this project was that neither of the group members physically met in person yet everyone was able to collaborate and create a presentation online. Thinking back to years ago, it is quite evident that successfully working on this project would have been quite difficult. With the help of cloud technology, people around the world can work together without having to meet each other in a face-to-face setting. One of the challenges of working on a project in a digital environment is having the ability to share work in an effective and organized manner as communication takes place using countless emails. To overcome this problem, Google has created a tool known as Google Docs. The tool can be found in a person’s Google Drive and is used to allow group members to work on a single document, whether it be a PowerPoint or a Word document to name a few, at the same time.

Photo copied from: http://www.youngupstarts.com/2012/04/12/52-great-google-docs-secrets-for-students/

Working with Google Docs was a great experience. I have used Google Docs in the past and I find that after taking a few minutes to set up the Google Docs PowerPoint presentation and adding the group members who can view and edit the presentation, I feel great ease. I no longer have to worry about my respective group members waiting for me to send them my portion of the project because they can work on the presentation at the same time and they see any updates made within seconds. After the responsibilities of the project are divided, everyone can independently finish their parts while viewing what everyone is doing and they can discuss where improvements can be made by adding comments to the specific slides. By having access to this tool, people can save time that tends to be spent on figuring out when group members are free and setting up a meeting time. Google Docs can be used in a company to share and work on files between co-workers who are possibly dispersed around the world as long as the person has access to the internet. Most importantly, I no longer have to worry about carrying a USB or having to send emails back and forth.

Photo copied from:
http://blog.arvixe.com/what-is-a-personal-learning-environment/

With regards to the PLE I created in Week 2, I do not feel the need to remove any of the tools I initially I added because I have used those tools in the past, have found them to be useful and will continue to utilize them in the future. Some of the new tools I have discovered can be more useful to the work I wish to complete and therefore I will be adding them to my PLE diagram. Feedly, Google Docs, Evernotes, and Diigo are all new applications that I will be adding to my PLE because they are tools I can benefit from. My PLE is evidently increasing in size simply due to the fact that I am being exposed to new tools that I did now know about before. I feel that I have been able to take advantage of the new tools and feel they will prove to be beneficial when I use them for school, work, and/or my personal purposes. After completing half of this course, I have found that I have been able to learn about new features on the sites and tools I used before taking this course which is great.

Through my Feedly Reader, I found an article about 5 questions teachers can ask students to help boost their learning experience. The questions suggested are quite simple but "powerful" as suggested by the article. I think questions like "Why do you think that" or " How do you know this" will let teachers really reach their students as they try to help them understand and further develop their train of thought on various topics. Although teachers may have already thought about these questions, I believe keeping track of how often and when these questions are asked is very important as it ensures that these questions are consistently being asked. These questions can be beneficial as they can potentially allow students to become more comfortable and confident when asking questions and/or sharing their opinions.