Tuesday, September 29, 2015

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGE MY LIFE

Nowadays, people are using different technologies. Sometimes I heard some teachers saying that, they are facing a big problem about this generation of students addicted to smartphones and social media. High volume of ringtones interrupt during discussion, students focusing out in Facebook, and sometimes the risk of cheating, have led the teachers to discourage, and in some situation social media and gadgets are ban in the classroom. However any other technology, social media have its benefits and disadvantage, it already depends on how we use them.

Social media change my life as a college student, it helps me to develop important knowledge and skills , and be an active citizen who create and share content through Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and other sites. As social media continue to grow it is already our belief that that technology is one of the vital part of todays student's success. Sometimes my parents are worried that i'll be spending too much time on Facebook and other sites, and not enough time studying my lessons.But social media helps me to explore my interests or problem with other people it also strengthening online communication skills and knowledge. Social networking, can be very helpful in many cases, but if we misused it can have very serious effects on our relationships with friends and families.

Because of social media, I can easily get news and information about what's happening in our country or in a specific place. It is also help me to keep in touch with my friends, families and relatives and also I can easily hang-out with my friends. I can share and post pictures that are very memorable. Social media also helps me to reveal what I feel, example: I feel happy today because I'm with my friends, I post pictures that shows a happy feeling and smiley emoticons.Because of social media I stay connected with my friends and families.

Finally social media was spread all over the world. As the time goes by it become not only a part of modern life, but a useful and helpful business and marketing channel.We can use social media anytime,anywhere,but we need to think that too much use of this sites can bring a big effect to ourselves and for our future.

image source: http://malonemediagroup.com/how-social-media-has-changed-our-way-of-life/

LIFE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Everyday of my life ,I check on my phone.

When I check it out, there I see,

Some unknown people added me,

And well as a friendly one, I accept Everyone!

Sometimes I can't live without my phone,

Because of this gadget I feel alone.

And when I wake up in the morning,

I get my phone and start updating.

People write about the most interesting,

And sometimes post about their feelings.

In social media, you can find Everyone

And you sleep at already one.

Sometimes there are called basher,

And also others who have haters.

Searching, surfing, posting and sharing,

These are the purpose of social networking.

image source :https://socwork.wisc.edu/using-social-media-social-work-student

Thursday, September 10, 2015

"MY TEACHER, MY HERO"

Teachers are those the one who teach people, share their ideas, apply their knowledge to be a good influence and mold each student to be a good individual. They are the one who give their best and sacrifice everything in order to teach and educate everyone. We learn everything because of them.

In all professions, teaching is the most important profession. why? Because how can we become a successful doctor, nurse,or engineer if we don't have knowledge shared and taught by our teachers. That is why, teaching is the most important profession. We can't reach our goals in life without them.

In some places, for example in an island where there is no school, there are teachers who volunteered themselves in order to teach the students or children in that particular island. They just sacrifice their time, effort without any salary and without something in return just to teach to those people.

With this, teachers are our heroes. They are spending their time in school rather than spending time with their families. Without them, we can't learn,we can't find a decent job and most all we can't work with other people.Teachers are also the ones who teaches us to be a good citizen. They too serves as our second parents because they don't just teach us about a particular subject areas but they also teaches us of values.

Teachers are our heroes, are savior,our second parents. They mold us to become knowledgeable and responsible individual. They prioritize teaching rather than themselves. This month we celebrate Teachers Day, this is to appreciate the effort and sacrifices of all the teachers not only here in the Philippines, but all over the world. As a student of this college, I salute and congratulate all the teachers all over the world, for all the sacrifices and all the things they have shared to us to become a good individual.

"Happy Teachers Day to All Teachers all Over the World."

image source: https://www.google.com.ph/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Image+for+filipino+teachers

Thursday, September 3, 2015

A fantastic career with Explore

About Explore Learning

Explore Learning are a national network of learning centres providing Maths and English tuition to children aged 5-14, designed to enhance knowledge, confidence and enjoyment of learning. Children become members and attend regularly once or twice a week.

Since opening our first centre in 2001 over 150,000 children have joined Explore. We help them make fantastic academic progress and the vibrant atmosphere keeps them engaged and focussed, enabling them to have fun while they learn. Our ambition is to be the best possible compliment to a child's education.

Fantastic Staff

Explore staff are passionate and enthusiastic people who know how to get the best out of children. They are great communicators and role models. Each centre has 3 managers - 2 Assistant Directors and a Centre Director, who are responsible for recruiting high quality part time tutors to join their team.

Great Support

We provide an inspiring teaching environment. Explore centres are lively, energetic and inclusive. The mixture of children who attend our centres and the strong bonds they have with our tutors help to create a vibrant atmosphere. A culture of praise and reward helps to celebrate success though certificates, prizes and most importantly by staff saying "That is fantastic!"

Excellent Resources

We use the best available teaching methods. We adapt to each child and challenge them at exactly the right level. Our interactive and engaging computer based tools map to the School Curriculum, and we use a variety of resources to cover maths, reading, writing, spelling, as well as offering a variety of additional courses.

Strong Partnerships

Managers hold regular meetings with parents. These are to discuss childrens' progress and plan learning pathways. Detailed reports help us track the academic achievements of each child and set individual learning goals for them. We develop strong relationships with schools and Explore works in an entirely complementary way to the School Curriculum. We are registered with Ofsted in England and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland. This allows us to maintain high standards, and helps parents to qualify for a number of government initiatives to support membership costs.

source: http://careers.explorelearning.co.uk/

Effective Strategies on teaching Visual, Auditory and Tactile-learning students

Students acquire knowledge differently from one another. This process of learning is dependent on the formed pattern of reception, sensation, perception and retention which is unique to every individual. Some students may find it easier to understand processes when demonstrated, while others may already get it once verbally presented. While some students survive classes by listening to the professor alone, some may opt to just read their books at home. These patterns of behavior called learning styles are essential traits that students must possess to be able to work in school.

As mentioned earlier, students learn in different ways - some by seeing, some by listening, and others by reading. Some even learn more by doing it themselves. The first thing that a teacher must do is to determine the learning style of his or her students. To do this, the teacher must identify the sensory systems that work with a particular student. He or she must further determine the stimulus to which the sensory system responds. For instance, a child who learns faster by seeing a demonstration is a visual learner. A child can be classified visual too if he or she prefers reading. It is then necessary to classify between visual-seeing and visual-reading. On the other hand, a student who listens in class may be classified as auditory-verbal, while a student who tends to work well while listening to music may be classified auditory-musical. Lastly, a student who learns by doing a certain task may be classified as tactile-working, while one who deliberately takes notes and understands the lessons may be tactile-writing. With these six handy classifications, the teacher may now choose at least two to combine. Combining sensory classifications will be beneficial not only to one student but will target many in the class.

A visual-reading and tactile-writing student benefits from copying notes from the blackboard or the book. It may be helpful to give reading and research tasks to this student, as he or she already learns by himself or herself. A visual-seeing and tactile-working student on the other hand will benefit more with experiments and arts and crafts, rather than doing written seat works. If the child is visual-reading and tactile-working, he or she may also benefit from experiments, but will work more if given a self-instructional module. On the other hand, a visual-seeing and tactile-writing student may benefit most by direct observation and jotting down notes, so activities like watching and filling up a checklist or answering questions are applicable.

If a student is visual-seeing and auditory-verbal, he or she can be expected to just come to class and listen to the teacher. He or she may not write down notes anymore, because participation in didactic s may be enough. For a visual-reading and auditory-verbal student, it will be best to give him or her some reading assignments before going into class. In this sense, he or she will initially acquire information from the reading homework, and then reinforce it by listening to the teacher the next day. The case is different for auditory-musical students. When a child is visual-reading and auditory-musical, reading assignments will work provided that the student is also given music to listen to. For visual-seeing and auditory-musical students, sometimes playing music in class during discussion will help, as long as the music is not very distracting.

Auditory-verbal and tactile-writing students will greatly benefit from dictated lectures or didactics when they have to jot down notes. For auditory-verbal and tactile-working students, giving verbal commands as an activity proceeds will help. For auditory-musical tactile-working and tactile-writing students, again playing music in class during seat work or experiments may work. It must always be remembered that the classifications mentioned above are more or less the dominant traits that a student may possess. No single learning style works for all students, and so the teacher may try different methods and see which works best for a certain class.

source: http://www.teach-nology.com/currenttrends/learning_styles/

Constructivism Learning Theory

Constructivism learning theory is a philosophy which enhances students' logical and conceptual growth. The underlying concept within the constructivism learning theory is the role which experiences-or connections with the adjoining atmosphere-play in student education.

The constructivism learning theory argues that people produce knowledge and form meaning based upon their experiences. Two of the key concepts within the constructivism learning theory which create the construction of an individual's new knowledge are accommodation and assimilation. Assimilating causes an individual to incorporate new experiences into the old experiences. This causes the individual to develop new outlooks, rethink what were once misunderstandings, and evaluate what is important, ultimately altering their perceptions. Accommodation, on the other hand, is reframing the world and new experiences into the mental capacity already present. Individuals conceive a particular fashion in which the world operates. When things do not operate within that context, they must accommodate and reframing the expectations with the outcomes.

The role of teachers is very important within the constructivism learning theory. Instead of giving a lecture the teachers in this theory function as facilitators whose role is to aid the student when it comes to their own understanding. This takes away focus from the teacher and lecture and puts it upon the student and their learning. The resources and lesson plans that must be initiated for this learning theory take a very different approach toward traditional learning as well. Instead of telling, the teacher must begin asking. Instead of answering questions that only align with their curriculum, the facilitator in this case must make it so that the student comes to the conclusions on their own instead of being told. Also, teachers are continually in conversation with the students, creating the learning experience that is open to new directions depending upon the needs of the student as the learning progresses. Teachers following Piaget's theory of constructivism must challenge the student by making them effective critical thinkers and not being merely a "teacher" but also a mentor, a consultant, and a coach.

source: http://www.teach-nology.com/currenttrends/constructivism/

5 Top Trends in Education Technology 2015

Why the industry is primed for big things this year

BY AARON SKONNARD

Pressure continues to increase on education budgets around the globe. Yet despite this fact, the education sector is continuing to increase its investment in technology related to learning. Ed tech funding jumped 55 percent in 2014 with no signs of slowing down, according to CB Insights. A report from Global Industry Analysts (GIA) predicts that the global e-learning market will reach $107 billion in 2015, propelled by technological advancements and demand for additional skills.

With that in mind, here are five top trends in ed tech to keep on your radar screen in 2015 and beyond:

Online corporate learning. The Clayton Christensen Institute predicts growing momentum for online corporate learning initiatives. Just how big will it get? Keeping in mind GIA's $107B estimate for this year, the corporate e-learning market is expected to increase about 13 percent annually until 2017, according to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. This is because an increasing number of companies are realizing that there's great value in furthering their employees' knowledge in ways that are flexible, cost-effective, and tailored to each individual's needs.

In contrast to the academic Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that are still struggling to find the best path to a reliable revenue stream, businesses focused on corporate e-learning have found a business model that works--and works well. Online corporate learning allows employees in every industry and at any level to experience the power of customized training, 24/7, on any device. Unlike with classroom-based training, learners can train on their own time using customized formats. Everyone can move at their own pace, learning what they need to know and exploring their own interests. Though still a relatively young industry, corporate e-learning promises to deliver new models of teaching and a future of exciting breakthroughs.

Skills measurement. In conjunction with the building momentum in online corporate learning, expect to see intensified focus in 2015 on identifying better ways to assess skills and measure individual progress, competency-based learning, and ultimately ROI. The Clayton Christensen Institute notes that when we provide customizable education, it becomes important to ensure that modular learning experiences are blended together in a way that fosters cohesion. To do so requires efficient ways to measure and track student learning to guarantee smooth interchanges between each learning experience.

We've got this as a top priority at Pluralsight via our recent acquisition of Smarterer, which allows us to measure any skill set with as few as 10 questions in under two minutes based on an adaptive algorithm. This allows us to give learners an SAT-like score for any skill, which could provide the foundation for a new industry standard around skills measurement.Other online education companies have started experimenting in this area as well, including Udacity's Nanodegrees program and General Assembly's microcredentials. Any company that offers MOOCs needs to address better skills assessment if they want to survive.

Alternative learning styles. Gone are the days when students have to rely only on text-based--or even video-based--tutorials. While those are still effective, new types of learning styles will continue to emerge in 2015, offering online learners more interactive experiences like writing code directly in the browser, or completing online challenges as part of the learning process. Pluralsight had this trend in sight with our latest acquisition of Code School.

Code School offers a unique approach that relies on an alternative learning style that we believe is more fun, engaging, and effective than just plain videos. With Code School, users watch a short video, then stop and practice what they've learned through a series of interactive coding challenges and assessments--all in the browser--before continuing. As learners progress through the challenges, they earn points and badges, which guide each individual's progress and learning. There's also a mobile app so that users can watch and review videos on-the-go to complement the code challenges and online learning. This is the type of new, interactive learning style that you can expect to see much more of in the education segment.

Online competency-based training. While competency-based training approaches and online learning are nothing new, the blend of the two is creating a revolutionary approach to education. Michelle R. Weise and Clayton M. Christensen write that online competency-based education has "great disruptive potential" because it incorporates not only the right learning model, but the right technologies, customers, and business model. Weise and Christensen go on to explain that providers of online competency-based training "can cost-effectively combine modules of learning into pathways that are agile and adaptable to the changing labor market." They do so by breaking down learning not by courses or even subject matter, but by competencies, thus releasing learning from the constraints of traditional institutions and methods.

How can providers of these technologies create a diversity of stackable programs for a wide range of industries, scale them, and also keep costs down? By fusing modularization with assessments to effectively measure the competencies. Online competency-based learning opportunities--such as those offered by the online degree programs at Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University--help students through targeted learning outcomes, customized support, and portable skill sets that employers care about. Expect this trend to highlight the important role of employers to create a value network that helps students connect directly with potential job opportunities.

Flipped-learning tech. Information Week identifies technology for flipped learning as another key ed-tech trend in 2015. A flipped class is a form of blended learning where students watch video lectures outside of class to learn content online, and then do their homework in class with the guidance of teachers in person. This approach helps to engage students outside of the classroom as well as in it.

Harman Singh notes that designers of the online tools and video streaming that are central to this approach must prioritize optimizing them for interactivity. Look for next-generation cloud-based, mobile, and app solutions--with powerful analytics to measure student responses--to replace outdated learning management systems in 2015. Khan Academy is currently leading this type of disruption in the K-12 space.

As the education sector continues to embrace the power and promise of digital learning and the best that ed tech has to offer, I leave you with one caveat: no matter how exciting the new technology, the tool itself must always be secondary to the goal that the student, teacher, or administrator is trying to achieve or the problem they are trying to solve. As Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker point out in their bookBlended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools, the most successful designers of education technology will keep the end in mind, rather than pushing tech innovations for technology's own sake.

PUBLISHED ON: FEB 3, 2015