Kirsten’s E-Learning Blog

This topic comes at an appropriate time, as I have been getting quite distracted from writing these blogs by Facebook, and I was also signed into MySpace earlier today.

Lee Lefever’s Common Craft Show has yet another simple and informative video – “Social Networking in Plain English” This video gives an overview of the social networking concept, which is useful for people who have never seen it or don’t understand it.

I have had experience with multiple social networking websites. The first was MySpace, which I joined because my friends kept telling me to. It was interesting to find quite a number of former classmates and work colleagues, and I have reignited some friendships with people that I feel will continue over my life.

Next was LiveJournal. I used this mainly as a blog. There’s a lot of ranty blogs there around the time of the 2006 World Cup, mainly me whining about how terrible the referees were, and how much the other teams cheated. I only joined this one because my friend practically joined me up for me. She stood there and watched me join up,telling me what to do.

Then there was Bebo. It has a similar idea to MySpace, being more about your profile and what you write on it than blogging. You can also edit your backgrounds to make it something personal. Mine for example is of a beach scene. I don’t use it very much, mainly because I don’t have many friends on it. I think its mainly targeted at the younger age group who can’t join MySpace because of the age limiting (although there are ways around it).

And finally, most recently I joined Facebook. This site is becoming progressively more addictive for me. I have found so many people from school that I have lost touch with over time, and have found so many interlinkages between my different groups of friends.

For example, Jess Piper and I used to see each other at netball all the time. We didn’t know each other’s names, but we knew each other’s faces. We then turn up at uni on our first day and discover we’re doing the same uni course. After I joined Facebook and added some of my work friends, I discovered that Jess is friends with some of them as well, including Emma, who now works with Kate Sanders! Such as small world we live in…

University of Maryland University College defines asynchronous communication as “communication taking place at different times or over a certain period of time. The has acquired wide currency in online learning, where exchanges between teachers and students are frequently enacted asynchronously rather than in simultaneous or face-to-face conversations.”

Asynchronous communication could include email, wikis, chat rooms and many social networking sites.

Asynchronous communication is useful when ideas need to develop over time, with people being given time to reflect on and research their ideas .

University of Toronto’s NIDE program defines synchronous communication (SC) as “real-time communication that occurs between two or more people through a virtual or electronically mediated system. SC systems have become more prevalent as network bandwidth has increased and become both more readily available and affordable.”

Synchronous communication could include video conferencing, instant messenger applications such as ICQ (I Seek You) or MSN Messenger, or live streaming of football matches.

Synchronous communication is useful for when instant responses are needed, such as an important meeting being held between management in different locations.

Okay so my post on self-publishing has just appeared here

First of all, its attributed to something called The Lit List, but second of all, it links to my site.

I’m a little:

a) freaked out

b) confused

c) unsure as to whether I should be worried about my intellectual copyright? (lol maybe thats taking it too far…)