The last two weeks

Up to now we haven’t stopped learning interesting things. Topics like “Search Engines”, “Cyber Bulling” “Copyright” or even “Word and PowerPoint” have been very enriching. However, all about “Web 2.0” makes us reflect on why we decide to participate in an Online course like this.

We surf in the net everyday so we have contact with sophisticated websites, we also see people working together creating content, playing games and sharing a lot of information, music and videos through the web. Furthermore, Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter are part of our lives and if we just want to go beyond we can try out uncountable new things like creating a blog like this or having our own website.

The Web has changed our lives and we are willing to discover new marvellous things. It is just a matter of time...

From heaven to earth

I have to confess that I have had different reactions during this week. First, I really enjoyed the section dedicated to search engines. I have always used just Google but now I think that it can be very helpful to use more than one engine depending on what you want to get from the net and the time you have to do that, for example if the search is more academic “ERIC” is a good choice or if you look for something really different “Search Cube” is the one. I took a look at other engines suggested by Miguel such as “Web Crawler”, “Mamma” or “Jawoco “ which are good but not better that Google in my opinion. Learning about all this has been very enriching.

On the other hand, the section about “Copyright” has been very challenging and contradictory. I thought I knew more about it. 

Our work demands the use of a lot of videos, images, audio CD’s, CD ROM’s, websites and so on. Can we say that it is legal the way we have been using them? Not at all! I‘m very confused; why can we make a back-up copy of a cassette but we can’t do the same with a CD or a CD ROM if they are what we really use nowadays? Cassettes are old fashioned!... Moreover, I didn’t understand why we need permission to use music in class if lyrics can be legally printed or why it is permitted to make copies of just a little part of a book (5-10%) but we can cut up and re-assemble a whole book. All this has made me reflect on what we are doing in class to help our students, regarding teaching needs we are legally allowed to do some things but, are they enough??

The best is about to come

It is amazing!, we visit so many websites everyday and we just don´t know anything about domains, the differences between “com” and “org” or any other things that are really important when we surf on the net . We only care about what we need to know and, in many cases, don’t realize all the problems we can have or the time wasted in front of our computers because we don’t evaluate websites. Do all of us have the time to do so? Probably not but we definitely have to get used to it.

I have to admit that I haven’t taken into consideration the importance of evaluating websites since I started to search for technological resources at work. In my case having to check accuracy, acceptance, authority, coverage, relevance, etc, every time I evaluate a website is very time consuming especially when I need to attend to other important work issues, however,  it is necessary in order to avoid comments from our trainers like “I couldn’t access the website you gave me because a password was needed” or “It is a good site but it has too many ads” or even  “the site is so complicated that I couldn’t manage to do what I wanted”.

We must begin to do things right if we want to get better results, one of those things is "evaluate websites", what I have just become aware of, after all it is the purpose of taking this course.  

From the very beginning

As this is the first time I attend an online course, of course, the first day I was very excited and eager to start the wiziQ session. By October 1^st I was not in Caracas and I depended on a Wifi connection which is not very reliable, however everything was under control until the session started.

Only a few minutes had passed when I realized that I was having audio problems. "Oh my God, I can't hear anything, can somebody help me?”, when I finally could hear the simple command of changing my name I didn't know what to do, in a few words, IT WAS A MESS!! In the end, I managed to do what Miguel was asking.

"It's over, thank God", at least that was what I thought, and the session formally started. The connection was not good so all of us were going through some problems, nothing to worry about. But suddenly everything changed, I was the only one who couldn’t hear anything, all my mates were following the tutor except me and it seemed that no one could see my comments either. I spent 30 minutes finding the way to catch up, finally someone suggested that I logout and then login again, I did it and problem was solved (now I know what to do next time).

NO MORE STRESS

After my tour through modules 1 and 2 I can say that I identified when I read the article about “Netiquette” . I send so many e-mails or pins everyday so, according to my experience, definitely we have to be very careful when we write because we can be misunderstood, I really believe that sometimes “words can express the opposite of what we feel”.
On the other hand, reading about learning technologies, its advantages and disadvantages and integration as well as writing about our experiences is essential for the future of this course that's why, after going through these two modules, I have become more aware of what I expect from this online course. Technologies are part of our lives and we have to take advantage of them in order to be open to the 21st Century. I know this is a very enriching and complete course and, even though I visit a lot of sites everyday because of my job, I am prepared to go on and learn as much as I can.