Future+Online+Learning

= Thoughts on Future Learning: =


 * In Will Richardson’s [|“Big Shifts”], he describes the ten “big shifts” which online learning has had an impact on. In particular, one of the most significant “big shifts” Richardson explores is number five, which he titles “Know ‘Where’ Learning”. This big shift focuses on how students should be taught where to go to find the answers to questions. Students should be made aware of what resources are available and the most applicable and appropriate for the issue at hand. Students should be able to recognize search sites and web resources. The issue the students are facing in online learning is not about knowing the answer but rat****her how they go ab**[[image:searching-man.jpg width="144" height="216" align="left"]]**out finding that answer and what resou****r****ces they utilize along the way. With search engines like google.com, yahoo.com, and bing.com,** **researching broad topics and narrowing them down has never been easier. However, students must also be taught to not always take the content they see online as factual information. The students should also learn how to properly cite where they receive their** **information. In addition to finding outwhere they received their information from, the students should be able to explore Web 2.0 tools which will eventually organize their ideas in an organized** **manner. It is in this way that students will learn not only the answers to the questions they are asking but also the resources they used to get there.**

the topic they wish to explore and it attempts to n****arrow the search in** **terms of what is most relevant. The term “google” has even become a verb for individuals. For example, when an individual asks another a question about “which animal is the fastest in the world?”, the other may answer “just google it”. This phrase refers to discovering the answer via the search engine google.com. Google enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. The features of Google include PageRank which helps to filter out the pages which are most related to the topic and ranks them from most relevant to least relevant. Another feature of Google includes caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. Caching is when the terms you used in the search are highlighted within the web pages. This is very helpful when you need to weed out any irrelevant information in the document and only focus on the issue at hand.**
 * When it comes to class projects which require research, whether it be books or online resources, it is** **essential that students utilize the resources which best answer the issue at hand. It is essential that the** **teachers inform the students of the vast array of Web 2.0 tools which help make this possible. The most well known of search sites include google.com, yahoo.com, and now the recent bing.com. All of th****ese websites provide a way for individuals to simply type in




 * The websites Yahoo.com and Bing.com are competing search engines that, like google.com, attempt to organize certain topics and narrow them down as best as possible. With so much information on the World Wide Web, narrowing information down in even the slightest bit is very helpful, especially when it comes to doing research projects. There are even commercials that Bing.com has recently come out with that attempts to poke fun at just how fast technology is moving and it shows how by using the Bing.com website, certain information is filtered out leaving just the relevant information. Bing recently came out with [|this] holiday commercial. These search engines all provide a way to narrow down broad topics into a more simple and organized fashion. For example, [|this] is what a search page of "acid rain effects" would look like on a google search engine (after selecting cached).

It is essential that teachers aide students in finding the answer to questions and not simply providing the answers for them. It allows the student to think independently and creatively to discover a solution. It is more than likely that there are multiple ways of finding out the answer. However, not all web content can be taken as fact. For example, in certain courses in college, wikipedia, which is an online encyclopedia, is not always a recommended cite by professors. This is because[| wikipedia] is a free online encyclopedia which anyone can edit online. Thus, if the research topic is "type 2 diabetes and its causes", the online encyclopedia may not be as accurate a source as a medical website like [|webmd]. Not everything that is found online can be taken as fact, and thus teachers should make this clear to students when they guide them in using the internet to find out the answers to their questions.

Aside from teaching students where to get information from, it is essential to also teach them how to go about analyzing the information that is being presented to them. For example, if a student is researching something like "Acid Rain", the websites which have information on acid rain could be pages and pages of information. The student may just be looking for what the causes of acid rain are or where it occurs. In this case, the Web 2.0 tool that can be helpful to use is [|Awesome Highlighter]. This tool allows for the student to take the actual website page and highlight and make notes throughout the document so as to filter out only necessary information. This helps the student organize vast amounts of information and also allows them to put the information in their own words.

Personally, I believe Will Richardson's "Big Shift" number five entitled "Know 'Where Learning" is an extremely important idea that should be taught to students learning online. The point of learning is not necessarily feeding a mind with as many facts as possible; instead learning is about how the information is found. If a student was simply fed the facts from the teacher, then somewhere along the road, the student may not have the teacher to rely for information. Thus, it is essential that teachers guide students in the direction of discovering where all the information comes from. Students should be made aware of the plethora of resources available online. I, myself, am an avid user of google.com. Whenever I need to know something, I simple "google" it. I even have the google text application on my phone where I simply text my question to "GOOGL" (46645), and I receive an answer within minutes.

Although there is plenty of information online for students to use for researching and learning, there are also websites which contain false information. My professors at UCSD refuse to accept a citation from wikipedia online simply because anyone can make edits to this online encyclopedia. One has to be wary of where they receive information on the web. There are also several websites which may be one-sided and thus present information through one lens. Especially in a research paper, it is essential to utilize accurate information so as to not spread falsities about the subject at hand. This takes some thinking in terms of realizing if information from a guy named Ted's blog is more accurate than an article from Science Journal Magazine.

Will Richardson's "Big Shifts" are all essential ideas that need to be understood when it comes to online learning. With technology advancing by the day, the internet is becoming filled with more and more information. This information is being used on the daily by students across the world and thus it is up to the teachers to guide them in the right direction to help them discover the numerous resources that are available.**