VIRTUAL

There are many different kinds of virtual worlds which meet with different people. Such as in the field of business conference, education, shopping online etc. I may focus on my education area. There are worlds for very young children, pre-teens, and teenagers. Educational virtual worlds are playful and have a strong emphasis on fun  but there is a very real message behind this. They require kids to carry out a range of tasks, enter contests and undertake other activities which help them to learn.

The article “The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Virtual Classroom and the Role of the Teacher” it says that the Internet is a very unique and powerful tool that has a huge effect on all the teaching and learning activities that are done in the classroom. Not only that the Internet is enabling international teaching and learning, it gives the teaching and learning a new dimension by adding the opportunities to the various types of communication with partners to the teaching and the learning from far away on the Globe. The communication that can be done by Internet tools such as e-mail, IRC, and WWW pages writing (HTML) and searching for information.  Many educational virtual worlds are designed for children, for example Miamiopia which is part of a learning network. This site uses games as a method of teaching curriculum subjects such as math, biology, geography, history and science. As another article “Situated Learning in Virtual Worlds and Immersive Simulations” by Lisa Dawley. Its mentions that over the past several years, an increasing number of immersive virtual environment experiences have become available for both educational and entertainment purposes.

 Actually, I still wonder what is in the future for virtual worlds and they will impact on real life. We have anything at our hand, and also be it in the internet and virtual reality worlds. Some time it is conflict.  

We need have our own jobs in real life and keep us in touch with reality. But nowadays, most of us have private space such like living on their own for the time being and really enjoy the fan fantasy of social media which doing all those things, stimulating our mind as if it is real, They are sitting behind a screen, laughing, smiling, being creative, sharing with others. And sometimes it doesn't go right for us either. We also have lots of things go wrong with real life.

Blog About Twitter

How does a Twitter discussion compare to a BlackBoard Discussion? To an in-class discussion?

     Twitter discussion is an easy way to interact with your friends to better understand and grow your community quickly, as well as promote your opinions. Twitter is a public Twitter conversation around one unique hashtag. This hashtag allows you to follow the discussion and participate in it. Twitter chats are usually recurring and on specific topics to regularly connect people with these interests.

      Blackboard’s discussion allows participants to carry on discussions online at any time. The discussion is recorded on the course site for all to review and respond at their convenience. A course discussion board can contain different topics each topic may contain multiple threads; and each thread may contain multiple postings.

      In class discussion allow students and teachers face to face. And enable students to invent, create, imagine. It should take place in a climate in which students feel safe to offer their ideas. Teachers can create such a climate by being mindful of the essential conditions of interactive teaching.

Social Networking Sites

The most popular social networking sites certainly have changed year to year, and they'll undoubtedly continue to change as time moves forward. So, what's everyone using right now? Social networks are now so well established, the below networks we can see which are currently impressing. They are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and WeChat.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a social website that is all about discovery.  There are Largest opportunities are in designing, Art crafts/DIY, cooking, health, and fashion. I am major in early childhood education, this wed site can help t get more idea in my lesson plan and art creating.

Twitter

You can share your information and get protection, Twitter is an easy way to connect with your friends. With over 310 million registered users (and growing), Twitter is a platform of limits posts to 140 character or less content waiting to be read, clicked, followed, and re-tweeted.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the most popular platforms. There are 1.6 billion monthly users. Facebook not only for personal use but business as well. It is a place to share photos, updates, and general news with those who follow or “like” you. Your fans can come to your Facebook page to find out what’s going on with you or your business

WeChat

I have used WeChat over 3 years. It is very similar to WhatsApp, allowing users to transfer pictures, videos or speech, and enabling group chat. WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, and location sharing. It help me to keep in touch with my family and friends wherever they are in.

Social Networking

  

Social networking is making connections with friends, family and communities. It is the practice of expanding the number of one's business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals, often through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Social networking is also a significant target area for marketers seeking to engage users.

In “Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum” Stephen J. Dubner gathered a group of wise people who spend their days thinking about social networking. Nicole Ellison believed the benefits the benefits people receive as a society provided by social network sites far outweigh the risks, such as Facebook have made us better off as a society and as individuals, and that, as they continue to be adopted by more diverse populations, we will see an increase in their utility. He think that the effects of social network sites is clear that there are many challenges to work through – the increasing commercialization of this space, the need to construct strong privacy protections for users, and safety issues .

On the other hand. I really concern about the child’s friendship. To date, much of the concern over all this use of technology has been focused on the implications for kids’ intellectual development. Worry about the social repercussions has centered on the darker side of online interactions, like cyber-bullying or texting sexually explicit messages. In “Antisocial Networking?” Hilary Sout, he suggest A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing our children’s friendships.  We believes that technology allows them to be connected to their friends around the clock.  it’s possible to say that the electronic media is helping kids to be in touch much more and for longer.

Educational networking has the potential to improve student learning. Social networking platforms allow teachers and student establish classroom community. Teacher may provide direct and immediate instructional guidance in and outside of the classroom. As a result, students can confirm their understanding of concepts and assignments with ease. Because social networking sites encourage continual submissions, teachers have an abundance of material on which to better assess student learning. 

Blog v Wiki

Wiki and blogs are similar in that they are both ways of communicating to other people. Blogs are more opinionated than wikis. Wikis are the way to share the information with other people, while blogs are more of another way of to express your own opinion on topics that they want to talk about.

In an article “How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere?” by Kathy E. Gill, she says the Web promised active communities and social networks in early 1900, sharing ideas and shaping new realities. Everyone who wished to be would be a publisher; democratization of information (and, consequently, power) would follow. Indeed, the growth of the Web was nothing short of phenomenal. Blogs have played a role in raising those expectations; thus, blogs have demonstrated influence: the power to affect events. Blogging as Journalism. blogging software opened this form of journalism to nontechnical writers, blogs have exploded on the Web’s landscape. In the process, bloggers are influencing the world outside of the blogosphere, as measured by audience reach, media adoption and political necessity.

on the other hand, an article “How to Build Your Own Wikipedia” by Margaret Locher, she dedicate schoosing a  wiki—a software application that allows groups of users to create, edit and comment on online documents—so that each team member could contribute and access up-to-date information on the project. There are more positives than negatives to using wikis. They don't require a lot of personnel to support them and many of the tools are free. At some companies, end users run their own wikis, without help from IT (and sometimes without IT's knowledge—more on that shortly).  Wikis work best when they're focused narrowly on a specific project or collection of information, as well as on a specific group of users. The software used by Wikipedia is the open-source Media Wiki. Wikis are great tools for helping people to come to consensus quickly, whether about what to put on a meeting agenda or how best to meet customers’ needs.

How have the new media affected early childhood education in the near future?

New Media Education may be applicable to early childhood education. Young Children Explore their world through manipulative. They are learning playing with "technology" that may or may not be digital. How young children spend time across the world: work, play, and development opportunities. For the purposes of this term paper, I focus on studying and exploring New Media's viability for early childhood education, and how they might each be reflected in the interplay between digital and non-digital media within teaching and learning.