2. LEARNING PREFERENCES
At the beginning of the class when I first took the learning preferences survey, I scored a
9 for reflective, a 5 for sensing, a 5 for visual, and a 3 for sequential. I’ve always liked to work
alone since it gives me time to brainstorm and think things through thoroughly before I
contribute my ideas. Because I’m so meticulous, I also get a better grasp at things when there
are detailed pictures involved, such as diagrams, and when there is a logical step-by-step
process. With these four combined learning preferences, I think that is why I find installation
manuals interesting. I like following the numerical directions and finely labeled diagrams that
will lead me in the right step towards completing the project. At the end of the class, I feel
that I haven’t strayed too far away from my original learning preferences however, I have
improved a bit as a verbal learner. Since we’re in college, most classes are lecture-based.
Professors use PowerPoints or just verbal words to teach so I’ve trained myself to listen
carefully and pick out the important facts. Annie Ng
3. LEARNING PATHWAY
At the beginning of class, I chose Learning Warrior as my pathway. I feel I
have successfully gained more knowledge in social technology on a deeper
level because before this class, I didn’t know what social bookmarking was.
I’ve recently heard of Pininterest and Delicious but I haven’t actually
explored it before this class. I haven’t changed my pathway because I’m still in
the process of understanding how social bookmarking works. I use a the
major social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, but not for
learning purposes. Before I can move on to become a learning sage or a
learning guide, I’d like to dive deeper into the social technologies.
Annie Ng
4. LEARNING ACTIVITIES
The “Lemonade Stand Game” activity in the Games and MMOGs Quest gave me a broader
understanding of how I could use social technologies to learn. Learning about economics and business
doesn’t have to always be from Professors or entrepreneurs. They’ll teach you what you have to know but
you don’t have the opportunity to apply them yet. With this lemonade game, you get to virtually see how
you’ll do. Virtually failing is much safer than real-life failing and this game provides trial and error at no
cost while real-life trial and errors have dire consequences. The “Poetry” activity in the Social Bookmark
Quest gave me a deeper understanding of how I could use social technologies to learn. This webpage
linked me to so many different sites about poetry from the format to the analytical structures. Some
pages were very detailed while others were simple. I preferred the very detailed explanations because they
were manual-like. The “Goodreads.com” activity in the Social Networking Sites Quest worked best for
learning with others because after reading a book, I didn’t really have anyone to discuss the symbols or
themes with. At Goodreads.com, it’s like a mass book club. I learned so much more about a book than
what was on the surface because I was able to talk it out and see various opinions.
Annie Ng
5. E X P L O R AT I O N O F
TECHNOLOGIES FOR LEARNING
I explored deeper into the Social Bookmark Quest because I wanted to see how I
could learn from other people. They say two brains are better than one and with social
bookmarking, there are a whole collection of brains! Everyone has different learning styles
so I get a variety of responses. I think social bookmarking is helpful for my preference for
visual and sensing because all the bookmarking sites contain pictures. Whether it’s learning
about the anatomy or different ethic cuisines, there are pictures to support the detailed
text. The ethnic cuisine bookmark had pictures of the cuisine (visual), step by step recipes
for me to follow (sequential) although I wish there were diagrams to accompany each step,
and a little bit of factual history (sensing).
Annie Ng
6. E X P L O R AT I O N O F T E C H N O L O G I E S
F O R L E A R N I N G ( C O N T. )
I also looked into the Massively Multiplayer Online Games Quest, specifically
the Cell Cycle Game. I like how it had continuous animation like a short movie
because I could see the cell mitosis in action throughout the cycle. At each segment,
there were facts to explain what was happening at each stage of the cycle and along
with it, the animations would support the text. For example, the text said the cell
dies and leaves an empty space, which is also visually represented. I really liked this
game because it included a lot of interaction, comprehension, and information in a
simple, fun game.
Annie Ng
7. E X P L O R AT I O N O F T E C H N O L O G I E S
F O R L E A R N I N G ( C O N T. )
The last Quest I looked deeper into was the Social Network Quest and the
“Facebook Bio Project” caught my attention. I thought this was a great idea and if I were
given this project, I would have been excited to start. Reading a biography about a person
in history can be tough if the student isn’t interested in history or good at retaining facts.
Using Facebook as a mode for dissecting the information, it helps the student pick out
the important bits. Facebook has a picture section (visual), about me section (sensing),
and the new timeline feature (sequential) to organize important dates in the person’s life.
Because social networking sites are popular with teens nowadays, this mode of learning is
a breath of fresh air from the typical textbook format.
Annie Ng
8. SYNTHESIZING YOUR
EXPERIENCE
I was most interested in social networking sites as learning tools because of I have
accounts for the major social networking sites. After this quest, I actually have an “education”
tab under my lists to file some educational twitter accounts I found. I wasn’t actually surprised
at any of the social technologies because I knew each were capable of being learning tools.
Maybe I just wasn’t sure how well it would work. MMOGs weren’t effective as a learning tool
because although there are a ton of visuals, I’m not so much into gaming so I lost interest if
the games weren’t interactive enough. If I had to wait for a certain outcome to happen, I
would grow restless and lose track of my goal. I would like to further explore social
bookmarking sites as a learning tool because it condenses a lot of information to one place. I
could keep track of what sites I find useful and I could browse other peoples’ pages as well.
It’s like a big knowledge bank that keeps growing yet is still organized with tags.
Annie Ng
9. SYNTHESIZING YOUR
EXPERIENCE (CONT.)
Ultimately, I don’t think any of the social technologies suited my learning preferences to the
fullest. MMOGs had graphics and interactive animations for my visual preference but it wasn’t
very helpful as I wasn’t into games very much. I’m don’t have a full understanding of Social
bookmarking yet so I find that it takes a bit of more work to sort through what I actually need
in the tags. Some of the sites were detailed and concrete enough for my sensing preference but
on the learning side, not so much. If I had to pick, I’d say Social Networking Sites were the only
one out of the three that worked somewhat for my learning preferences because I have a deeper
understanding of how Twitter and Facebook works. I’ve had them for a few years now and I’ve
explored each part of it to know how to utilize the different areas, however, since Facebook is
constantly changing its format, I think I’ll be continuously learning.
Annie Ng
10. WHAT YOU’LL DO NEXT
I will continue to use all learning strategies but mainly visual and verbal
because I think those two will come in handy after I’m done with the school
environment. Visual learning strategies will be useful outside of school
because we’ll have to put our thoughts into presentations. When we explain
things, we’ll have to have an organized way of presenting the information
because the majority of people are visual learners. Verbal learning strategies
will come in handy because we’ll have to train ourselves to listen carefully.
There won’t always be written directions and some employers want to see how
well we listen to instructions.
Annie Ng
11. WHAT YOU’LL DO NEXT
(CONT.)
I will continue to use Social Networking Sites for learning after this class because I think they’ll be used in
school and at work places. Social networking sites expand our social networks because we can find people with
similar interests through tags and categories. It can also lead us to jobs because we’ll know people who know
other people that can provide connections. Workplaces now use Facebook and Twitter for communication
because of its ability to mass-communicate effortlessly. If a company needed to make an announcement or
invite the whole company to a gathering, they could easily make a posting for everyone to see. Social
networking sites make communication more efficient, especially now that a majority of society have
smartphones with social networking applications. I’ll use all forms of social technologies for non-learning
purposes because social bookmarks aren’t limited to just educational sites. Furthermore, MMOGs and social
networking sites are definitely not just for educational purposes. I probably won’t be using MMOGs so much
as a learning tool because I don’t think it’s effective enough to help me. I might use MMOGs for learning about
science because I think the animations would be clear in explaining step by step scientific processes, but I won’t
rely on it. Annie Ng
