The World is Flat ?

     This week I read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, it was very interesting because he had came to the conclusion that Globalization had changed key economic concepts. One of the assumptions is that the United States was either falling behind or close to even in technological advances. Mr. Friedman was making this assumtion while visiting India. He lists 10 distinct events that he says proves that the world is flatenning, and that America's role is diminishing including with business and economic superiority. What amazes me though is how many foreign exchange students I saw in my undergrad programs or how many Grants, Scholarships they received. I don't agree that the playing field is being lowered I just believe that here in the United States we pay more for our Technology. Yes everything is computerized,videoconferencing, Web 2.0, videochatting etc. Its all microwave, and information is travelling at a much faster pace. I would like to propose that some of the readers read the article, The World is Spiky, Globalization has changed the economic playing field, but has not leveled it and compare it with The World is Flat.

Facebook Applications for the Educational Setting

     It has been interesting, how Facebook and Google have been trying to one up each other. However as a consumer I welcome the competition. For example, Google recently introduced its Google Plus Social Website to compete with Facebook. But as you know Facebook is the king of the hill of all social networks. For example, Facebook has an excellent relationship with Microsoft. This is glaringly evident because Microsoft owns 1.6 shares of Facebook and they probably will be buying up more shares in the future. Microsoft just bought out Skype and entered into an alliance with Facebook. I am sure that Facebook is overjoyed because they know that Microsoft will treat them as a partner and not dig deep into thier pockets for the new Skype partnership they have. The Skype Application was rolled out in June on Facebook and has the potential of eliminating text dominated platforms on Facebook.  In other words the written word will no longer be the king of the jungle on Facebook. Not sure though how much current Skype users will feel about it though since costs of the service are sure to go up.  But for Facebook users its great, they will be able to Video Call, text, or conference call, (up to nine persons),any of thier friends who have Skype. For educators this is a very cheap way to establish group collaborations, consultations, and conferences around the world. They will be able to esatablish social and other experiments in a in time display. This will dramatically decrease costs and time to complete assignments and will definetly expand thier ability to establish relationships with students other educators, parents, and other stakehholders. Imagine the fundraising and grantwriting opportunities via E-mail and Video Chatting in time. Sychronizing both video chatting and e-mail at the same time while fundraising, grantwriting, or consulting, this is a win-win for educators. Facebook already has 20 million subscribers in the United States, I can see that with this new Skype Application they are about to get a lot more.  The Skype application is a privarte communication much like the chat line application that Facebook already has. Those who use the Skype application will have to have to be upgraded to at least Skype 5.0. Facebook users with the Skype application only have to click the video calling feature at top of thier chat window in order to start communicating over the video. However, even if you are a Mac user this is not so good because the Skype feature is only applicable to Windows.

Wiki Blogging Week #2

     Technology has always been an enigma to me, in part because I am a Baby Boomer and secondly because it is always changing.  Somehow after years of waiting for my children to go to college and returning myself I received "enlightenment" while attending Cleveland State University about the usefulness of various technologies in an educational setting. While studying Social Work and Non-Profit Administration in my undergrad, we had to make Power Point presentations, use animations, SIMS and Whiteboard. The Class had it's own Wiki education and encyclopedia site. I became a believer after attending web classes on Grant Writing at Cuyahoga Community College, The Grantmanship Center, and Cleveland State University.
      The usefulness of these technologies both in and out of the educational setting has become glaringly evident. The problem was I had a sort of built in immunbity or natural resistance to wanting to learn them. I wanted to refuse to give up my dinosaur typewriter and my pen and paper but the Universities were force feed these technology classes such as Introduction to Computers and thier Use. What was a Baby Boomer supposed to do? Afterwards I enrolled in Ashford Universities online Master's in Health Administration Program an began intensive Health Integrated Technology indoctrination, I graduated in April of this year. In May of this year, I  enrolled in the Teaching and Learning with Technologies graduate studies program at Ashford University.
      Which brings me up to date, this week we were learning about the use of Wikis as an educational tool. Because of my past experiences and current learning, I believe Wiki's have the power to transform not only how we learn but the speed of that learning.  THe word Wiki is derived from the Hawaiian word Wiki-Wiki, (Wiki for short), which is roughly translated "quick or fast". This is an apt name for the technology since it is so easy and quick to set them up. A perfect word word a web tool that moves with such speed. It is a web tool that anyone can add content, collaborate and group share. Wikis transcend time and space and you can limit Wikis for different functions. One caution though, Wikis are suceptible to Vandalism and intentional disruption the same way that Blogs are. However, with Wikis that Vandalism and intentional disruption can go a long time without being noticed. I learned that Wiki's can be expanded depending on whether or not you want to pay for upgraded suscription packages or use free packages. These packages offer features such as greater management capabilities, more storage capacity, or more security.