MindMeister Update #5

When technology is introduced in educational settings students not only learn the class subjects, but technology as well.  Through e-learning in the classroom setting the roles of teachers and students are changing and there is always an ever-present worry that students will be cheating.  In a traditional classroom setting void of technology the teacher is the one who is in charge of controlling the discussion.  When CMC comes into play now everyone is at an equal level with the students now actually controlling the discussion based upon what they have to say.  This paradigm shift in the classroom leaves teachers as more of a facilitator than a driving force.  This shift is not one in which has negative effects, because the students are taking control of the discussion they need to know enough about the material to make a coherent argument.  Since this is happening students are actually learning the material better on their own instead of relying on their teachers to supply them with knowledge.

The internet offers so many benefits to learning such as MindMeister and Wikipedia.  However, there is a very large downside.  Many students who do not wish to put forth the effort to write their own papers often look to the internet to try and steal a paper and turn it in as their own.  This side of E-learning is very unfortunate seeing as how no actual learning is taking place in this criminal act of copying and pasting the work of another.  Although with technology anything is possible.  More and more teachers and universities are subscribing to online services which take the papers of students and cross-reference their work against that on the internet to see if there is a match.  With the contant battle of teachers trying to outsmart students in the field of plagiarism no learning is taking place.

MindMeister offers a prime solution to the paradigm shift amongst teachers and students.  This allows the teachers to assign homework involving class participation on a certain subject requiring students to make meaningful contributions to a mind-map on a particular topic.  This mind-map is online and readily available to all students to collaborate and see the contributions of their fellow classmates in real time.  The students are the driving force of the work simply following the order of their teacher.  MindMeister offers a unique feature where the different contributions of students are color-coded to represent which student added what.  This helps with plagiarism, because it would be very difficult to deny that a student added a comment when it is says so online on MindMeister.

MindMeister Update #4

Teachers and many other educators recognize the significance of electronic learning and wish to use it in all ways possible.  A problem arises that not every student will be fluent enough with computers and technology to be able to use it efficiently.  So now teachers must begin to teach their students about technology before introducing learning via technology.  A great example that has become synonymous with daily life is email.  Teachers often use emails to connect with their students and use as a channel for students to ask questions.  Some teachers such as professor Madsen at St. Ambrose uses emails to not only enforce technology but also to help students in China better improve their English skills by communicating with SAU students.

When thinking of MindMeister the teaching of technology may seem a waste of time given the simplicity of the tool  However, for someone who has never used a computer it is more likely than not that they would not even be able to find where to go for the internet without instruction.  A very nice feature about MindMeister is that after sign up the first map available is a walk-through map.  Even for someone who is computer illiterate this map will begin to help teach them the basics and computers as well as how to begin building their first mind map.

MindMeister

1. The topic discussed this week was E-learning and it was reinforced by the social media tool MindMeister.  E-learning is the use of all forms of electronic teaching and learning to present information in a new and customized way in order to address the various learning styles of students.  One way of thinking of E-learning is by examining the Cognitive theory of multimedia learning.  This theory operates on the basic assumption that audio and visual information are processed separately and that both of these channels have a finite amount of space in them.  Meaning E-learning tries to combine audio and visuals in order to fully stimulate the mind, but not giving too much information to avoid overloading the channels and creating an overflow of information. MindMeister allows users to create mind-maps where they can succinctly lay out their thoughts in order to get a better understand of a topic.
2. The main benefit that MindMeister serves is collaboration and note-taking.  Here MindMeister allows many users to work on the same project at the same time and to see their changes happening in real time.  This feature gives the benefit of being in the same room with a group collaborating on a project, but instead of traveling to an agreed upon location users simply have to log-in and begin typing.  Beyond the collaboration benefits provided by MindMeister, this tool allows you the ability to lay out your thoughts and ideas.  I can not tell you have beneficial this process has been for me when it comes to planning essays.  If I had known of this tool a year ago, I would have saved myself the trouble of trying to make a good essay skeleton by hand.
3. In my opinion the most interesting feature of MindMeister is the live update capability.  During my in-class presentation of E-learning I found it very intriguing just how fast the map was able to update when other students in the class made changes.  Additionally I liked how organized that feature was with the color coding.  This feature now eliminates the need to email versions of a document back and forth between two parties in order to get the changes complete.  Past the live updates I also thought that it was really cool that there was a feature which allowed you to watch what you had done in the past in order to see your thought processes and also to revert in need be.  No longer will you have you rely on the inefficient ctrl-z.
4. To be completely honest I did not find much of anything very challenging when it comes to interfacing with MindMeister.  The only aspect of this tool that took a little bit of figuring out was how to add new branches to the map. Once I learned that you could use tab+enter, or insert, or clicking the plus at the top left I no longer had trouble with that.  Although when it comes to large-scale outline on MindMeister it is difficult to try and condense the map into a smaller print-screen.  Although MindMeister is made to be used strictly online, it makes sense that when trying to translate it to paper it is inefficient.
5. This tool allows users to share the map with their friends via email or via Facebook.  Additionally when sharing the map the creator can decide whether or not to allow the invitee to simply view or edit the map.  I believe that these features allow communication to go very smoothly between users.  However, on the paid version of MindMeister there is a chat function which will only serve to make the process of collaboration and communication even easier.
6. On a whole MindMeister is by far my most favorite social media tool that we have discussed in class. I am not just saying this because I presented on it, but because I do not see a downside to this tool.  I see only educational benefits, and improvements to communication.  This tool has even been seen worthy enough to be used to create outlines for an entire classes's final papers.  This tool is something that I have been doing throughout my career as a student and now I have an online interface for it.  Being as passionate for technology as I am I do not have to tell you how excited I am to find this tool, and I will continue to use this tool for my foreseeable future.

MindMeister Update #3

Today in most classes teachers are beginning to incorporate many differing forms of computer mediated communication (CMC).  In order for students to be successful using these new forms of technology they must use the technology and familiarize themselves with the different interfaces.  The next step is for the students to become good communicators online.  A trait among young students that is falling by the wayside in current society is to be able to effectively send messages with a clear and understandable message.  When communicating online many users turn to shorthand or slang.  However, when a teacher brings students into the online context these bad habits can become quite detrimental to the use of technology and the grades of the students.

When thinking of MindMeister this tool can be used to bring students together on the online context and also try to improve their skills of rhetoric in order to improve their online communication experience.  When online brainstorming among fellow students can often motivate discussions which will generate a real interest in the subject thereby producing good end results.  Online even on MindMeister students will need to be aware of lurkers.  Lurkers are those who simply sit on the sidelines and watch what is being done to benefit in their own way.  A great way to eliminate lurkers on MindMeister is to set the particular mind map that the students are using to private allowing only those in the class and the teacher access to the mind map.

Flickr

1. The topic discussed in class this week was the idea of Organization Online.  In other words, networking.  Flickr is a tool that allows their users to upload photos and videos online which allow them to share their interests as well as their business with others.  The users on Flickr that I came across in my experience consisted mainly of small businesses and organizations who seemed to be trying to get the word out about their business in order to promote growth.  The fact that these users are building an online profile brings to mind a similar feeling that blogs brought up.  In following with the Uncertainty Reduction theory Flickr allows users to tell a certain self-image of themselves in the online context.  This may or may not lead into face-to-face interpersonal communication but the end result is a diminished uncertainty about the user.
2. Flickr allows small businesses to be able to network in the online sphere very easily.  Even those who are not tech-savvy will be able to easily navigate and use Flickr to their advantage.  As a result of this user-friendly aspect many business are really benefiting from using this website as a way to grow their business.  Especially because in today's society people are much more likely to surf the web in search of a place to go out to eat, or get their hair cut, than they would be to open up a phone-book to locate a place.
3. I thought it was interesting how these different users best felt their profile would help their business.  Many of the pages I looked at had different but similar approaches achieve the same goal of expanding business.  Some pages had a very organized layout of photos and descriptions that really told you a lot about their business, but even so these pages did not leave much to figure out.  As a result you almost never needed to research more to make a decision whether or not this business was something that you needed.  On the other hand, I thought that the pages where not every detail about the business was expressed gave the viewer something to wonder and often sparked more interest that way.  
4. In-class when building a profile for Harry's hair salon I thought that it was easy to find pictures that would best represent this small business.  However, just because you have built an acceptable online presence does not mean that you will generate a lot of interest on Flickr.  I found myself rather stymied when trying to figure out how to generate traffic to the actual page on Flickr.
5. No longer will you have to go out to functions hosted my similar business in order to network your business.  Flickr allows you an online platform for you to do all of this leg-work from the comfort of your own home.  Networking is an integral part of business, it always has been and will only continue to grow as technology does.  By offering a service that is seen as so crucial to businesses this tool definitely improves communication and in a mature, adult, and efficient way.
6. While I myself have no need for Flickr in my life I found that by pretending to be a small business I enjoyed my usage of Flickr.  With that being said, later in life if I ever find the need to grow my own small business or if I have a friend who needs help with such I will be certain to remember Flickr.  The website is not among the garbage sites out on the internet.  Instead this site is a tool which all businesses would do well to utilize.

MindMeister Update #2

In the technology age we have currently in society there are now more and more attributes being added to what is considered general knowledge.  Before the internet being thought of as literate happened if a person could talk and write efficiently   In a nutshell being literate happens if a person can effectively communicate with others.  Today that ideal is the same but it incorporates more aspects than before.  Now to be considered literate one must be able talk and write, and well as do the same while working with computers.  With the internet and all of its information being at the fingertips of everyone who can use it, those who cannot use it are falling behind in terms of literacy.

E-learning or the use of electronics to learn or have material taught did not always exists, but now that it does students must learn how best benefit from it.  In school teachers are able to use tools like MindMeister in order to teach students concepts of the class.  Then after teaching use this tool teachers are able to make this map available on the internet so that their students can study the information at home on their own time.  MindMeister has an interesting feature where the maps made can be set to public, shared, or private.  When the map is set as public everyone can see it, when set to private only the creator of the map can see it.  If the map is set to the shared option only those the creator wishes to share the map with by invitations can see it.  As far as learning goes MindMeister allows a very user-friendly set-up to teach with success.