Creative Commons is very valuable information that I had not paid attention to before.  It makes it much easier to decipher how to use internet content.  The chapter states that students need guidance to understand the fair use doctrine.  That is true, but not just students, everyone using the information needs to understand it.  Reviewing this information in business and/or career tech classes would be valuable and a good thing to do at the beginning of the year or semester of new students.  Normally I see the internet policy come home with my high school son for him and a parent to sign.  It would be important to incorporate this information along with the signing of that document so that students know not only safety in cyberspace but also how copyright information applies.

Online Learning Presentation

I reviewed a presentation about social media in businesses today and the role that it plays.  It was very good and shows the way advertizing, promotion, customer relations, and other areas of business are being reformed.  The number of different social media sites is growing like crazy with each one just a little different.  The volume of people connecting is staggering.  It’s the little moves each day that makes the major shift.

Journal of Interactive Online Learning – I chose the article by Feng Liu, Erik Black, James Algina, Cathy Cavanaugh, and Kara Dawson titled The Validation of One Parental Involvement Measurement inVirtual Schooling since I have a high school student and thought the information might be interesting. 

The Parental Involvement Mechanisms Model was the chosen research tool.  The  paper discussed the original Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model of the parental involvement process.  The model looked at mechanisms of influence such as parental encouragement, modeling, reinforcement, and instruction.  The study was completed with surveys from students in an online setting in high school courses.  The study showed the need for more research to be done, but the model was a good tool for measurement.  This paper looked more at data testing and validity than ways to encourage parental influence in a virtual classroom.

It appears that there is much research ongoing regarding distance learning.  After taking an online class, I can see first hand the pros and cons of on line learning.  There is information to be gained with the on line approach, however I think a lot will be lost without having in-person interaction within the classroom

Chapter 6 – Web 2.0 Tools

The chapter had a great introduction saying that students have new expectations and approaches to learning.  They expect to be engaged.  That statement pretty much says it all, if you’re not engaged, you’re not learning and won’t remember what you’ve been told.  Listening to my son who is in high school reveals a great amount of information about how he sees teachers and how he learns.

21^st century skills demand change and it takes administrators to head up the changes that need to be made.  Making sure they are savvy in technology is part of creating that change.