1. Alex Leo
Summative Reflection:
Comment on each of the technologies we implemented, making sure to touch upon ease of use,
quality of information gathered, and potential for further use.
PLE: I used Symbaloo as my PLE, and as easy as it was to use, it wasn’t as efficient in gathering
information as I had hoped. What it seemed like to me was just putting url addresses into boxes
and having those all in one place, but with all sorts of social networking websites and Google
Docs, I didn’t find the need to add another source of networking to my life. I put all my links on
a Google Docs account, and copied and pasted information crucial to my topic underneath. I
could not due any such thing on Symbaloo.
RSS feed: I like the idea of the RSS feed, but it didn’t work for me. The two I had only gave me
recent articles, whereas some of the heavy information pertaining to my topic could be found in
studies done years and years ago. The one RSS feed didn’t really even give me related articles;
the matches were only due to one key word in some cases. I’m sure the RSS feed is very useful
for some research, and I’d consider using it again, it just didn’t work with my topic this time.
Scoop It: I never figured out how to work the Scoop It bookmarklet. I followed some blogs or
sources, and found some useful articles, but no sort of feed ever occurred. This website was just
sort of confusing. I’m sure with time I could have figured it out, but with the time allotted, I had
other things to worry about. I don’t see myself using it in the future, unless I conduct another
research project.
Videos/Interviews/Documentaries: On History.com I found documentaries on the writing of
the Declaration of Independence and the life of Albert Einstein. Both men turned to the violin
for inspiration in their fields of occupations. Really only little tidbits in each had to do with my
topic, but I still found them useful. In the back of the book I read, Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks,
there was an interview with the author. This book wasn’t detrimental to my research, but didn’t
give me anything substantial to work with, and the interview was included in that. It was
interesting to hear his comments on strange phenomenon with music and the brain though.
Audios: I didn’t find any useful audio files to use in my final product.
Wikispace: I really like the Wikispace, because it has the whole project on one page, but it’s just
as much work as if it were on paper or all separately. It made life a whole lot easier with this
project, and this way, nothing can go missing! If I wanted to see how far other students were in
the project, or the format and size of some of the components, I could, and that set the standard
for everyone.
Wordpress: The wordpress also made the metacognition of the project a whole lot easier.
Posting a blog post on a website instead of writing out each reflection saved time and paper.
Again, none of them could go missing, and the disorganization disappears. It didn’t seem like
any extra work or time had to go into blogging, it was almost natural and relieving.
Prezi: N/A

2. Voice Thread: N/A
To what extent did this type of learning (completely student-centered with teacher as
facilitator rather than focus; self-guided; choice-based) result in a meaningful learning
experience for you? Please explain.
What I liked best is that it was all online. With our ever growing advancement in technology, it’s
important for students to know the ropes on the internet, and have experience in more networking than
just Facebook and Twitter. I loved the Wikispace because it felt like we, as students, are all in the same
boat. It was reassuring to know that everyone had the same expectations, and also that we could help
out each other in meeting those standards. I think in the future, there should not be as many source
requirements. All these tools and websites are nice, but as mentioned above, some of them do not work
for certain people and topics. The students should be allowed to pick which sources they want to use. I
think that doing this by myself, self-guided, without weekly deadlines set by the teacher was a learning
and growing experience. It was nice to have you guys there when we had questions, but also nice that
this process was totally under our control and responsibility. That means you trust us and that’s
important in any learning experience.