Dennis+Lui+-+Profile

** Introduction ** Computers have been a part of my life as a hobby and interest ever since I was introduced in the third grade to the Commodore PET computer. On these now ancient machines, which we were instructed to program ourselves, tiny bits of information had to be loaded and saved through cassette recorders in a process that took minutes at a time. The world has definitely come a long way since then, but I have continued to be involved on some level with computers and people either with working as an educational assistant at El Monte Elementary School in the San Francisco bay area, working in IT with Bank of the West or simply as a pastime.

As part of my studies majoring in sociocultural anthropology with a minor in education studies, my interest in taking this course is to find out more about the direction education is heading with respect to the use of technology and its impact on our culture. This starts with understanding the history of technology use in education, and specifically for this course about online learning, including methods shown to be more effective and those that are less so and why. I feel that participation with San Diego's High Tech High program presents a great opportunity to see first hand this new idea of combining online learning with a project oriented curriculum, along with collaborative work and community involvement. This seems like an innovative way to educate, and as we discover how this will work as we go along, I look forward to assist with any knowledge, experience and feedback I can share as a mentor to the students. In addition, with the numerous applications that will be introduced in this course, getting to work with them in both individual and collaborative environments should provide a practical view of the potential uses for both classroom and distance learning. My hope is that these experiences will broaden my scope of what form education can take. I look forward to this as an overview of current trends in education as we consider the implications for the future of the learning process in our increasingly technologically oriented society.
 *  Goals **

**"Big Shift" Essay**
 * Thoughts[[image:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3358/3248980592_f5d66c11a2.jpg align="right" caption="Photo: phrenologist (February 2, 2009) - Retrieved December 11, 2009, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/phrenologist/3248980592/in/set-72157613318379520/"]] **
 *  Web 2.0 Personal Plan **
 *  Journal Reflections Summary **

 **In-Class Assignments:**
 * Shared Writing - **Reflection on Class Wiki Assignment**
 * **Pageflake **
 * Awesome Highlighter and Online Safety ** - Original Page** - **Highlighted Page**