community service progress 2009.04.29

We are off to a slow start but things are picking up. So much is new for all of us, but we are quick learners...

It is always challenging when launching a new program with lots of new elements, especially when the process is complex. Collaborating online is new for pretty much everyone. Now we have made it even more interesting - adding two new community partners - The Tech Virtual and Santa Clara University.

We are also using additional web functionality that is new to us. The Tech Virtual site management http://thetechvirtual.org/ is similar to Catalyst, but different in many respects.

Oh yes, and the projects are unlike anything that anyone has worked on in the past. Lots of new learning experience for students and the community partners and the instructor. But this is very real in life.

In the end, this will be so worth it. We are getting close to having the structure and communications in place to really get rolling on the project work. There is plent to do and time to do it. However, everyone really needs to get involved and get busy.

This has been somewhat frustrating for all, but it will be worth it. The projects will deliver considerable information and benefits to others around the world. This is how computers and the internet can contribute to society in a very big and positive way. And, you will have been part of it from the very beginning. That's exciting community service learning.

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4. Intellectual Property

This week, we are looking at intellectual property rights - what they are, who has them, and what can be protected.

With computers and particularly with web technology, there has been a significant increase in attention to intellectual property. Because of the ease of access to information and the ability to duplicate and store vast amounts of data, more people have concerns about their rights to it.

All the information and online workspaces have been set up for the Community Service Learning projects. Everyone should create an account at The Tech Virtual, select a project, post to the Check-In discussion forum for the project partner and get busy making contact and starting project work.

Just for fun - read the article. How many of these terms were new to you?
Gadget jargon still confuses many - WAP, dongle, and cookie are some of the least understood words by the British public, according to a survey.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8017178.stm

Community Service MidTerm project

The Community Service Learning project has replaced the course Midterm project. In the past students spent at least 12 hours on their Midterm project. By replacing that with community service learning, all the effort and learning benefits the community as well as the student.

Many transfer colleges are now requiring or requesting the Community Service Learning credit which will be added to your transcript when you successfully complete your project. See the DeAnza Course Catalog for details - CIS2 is listed as one of the courses participating in the Civic Engagement program.

All the projects are online. Once the initial contact and coordination are established, you can do the project work on your own schedule - just like the rest of the course work for CIS.
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where are you?

Q: i really need help on the online volunteering im a lil confused about it and would really appreciate it if u can help me because i don't want to fall behind

I know that there is a lot to this online community service learning assignment. All the information is provided. And this is part of the problem - there is a lot of information, so that the requirements and resources and process are clear.

However, you really have to read the information and take some action. Just telling me that you are confused doesn't help either of us.

What don't you understand?

Did you read the instructions?
http://www.wikieducator.org/DeAnza_College/CIS2/Community_service_learning_student_guidelines

Have you looked at the list of partner projects? Which one do you want to work on. There are lots to chose from.
http://www.wikieducator.org/DeAnza_College/CIS2/Community_service_learning_student_guidelines/SPRING_2009

Have you accessed The Tech Virtual Museum?
http://thetechvirtual.org

Have you accessed the Global Fellows area within The Tech Virtual?
http://thetechvirtual.org/global-fellows

Have you signed up for The Tech Virtual?
http://thetechvirtual.org/createMember


Global Fellows projects

Your SCU Global Fellows (SCU.GF) partners are coming online there. There are discussion forums setup so you can ask specific project related questions for the SCU.GF to respond and collaborate.
http://thetechvirtual.org/global-fellows


The Tech Museum projects

You need to sign up as a Tech volunteer (online form) as well as creating a Tech Virtual account.
http://www.thetech.org/about/volunteer/
Bob Ketner, Virtual Community Manager, The Tech Virtual rketner@thetech.org is waiting to hear from you.

Now, do you have questions?
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about us...

Each semester I ask students to provide a bit of information about themselves by selecting one of several choices that best describes some personal characteristic.

VARK Learning styles - W09, S09, F09

• Visual - 3, 7, 3
  
• Aural - 0, 6, 3
  
• Read/write - 2, 3, 9
  
• Kinesthetic - 0, 6, 2
  
• Multimodal - 10, 9, 11
  

Brain Color - W09, S09, F09

• Blue - 6, 15, 8
  
• Gold - 5, 6, 9
  
• Green - 3, 6, 9
  
• Orange - 1, 4, 0
  

Online Learning - W09, S09, F09

• This is my first online class - 6, 7, 17
  
• Catalyst / Moodle - 3, 4, 3
  
• Other - 0, 3, 0
  
• More than one - 8, 18, 7
  

Handed-ness - S09, F09

• very left-handed - 3, 1
  
• somewhat left-handed - 1, 1
  
• truly ambidextrous - 0, 0
  
• somewhat right-handed - 11, 6
  
• very right-handed - 19, 18
  

Birth order - S09, F09

• First born - oldest child - 7, 7
  
• Middle child - not oldest or youngest child - 6, 6
  
• Last born - youngest child - 7, 10
  
• Only child - no other children - 5, 4

MidTerm Student Evaluation Survey - S09, F09

• Good - Interesting and I'm learning a lot - 6, 4
  
• OK - I understand the directions and I can complete the work - 10, 2
  
• Could Be Better - Assignments are not clear - 5, 2
  
• Problems - I need help to be successful - 2, 0
  

Ideal Breakfast - S09, F09, M10

• something light like fruit, toast, cereal, milk and/or yogurt - 9, 13, 22
  
• eggs, bacon or sausage, hash browns, toast - 9, 7, 6
  
• sticky bun or donut - sweet - 1, 2, 1
  
• no breakfast - 5, 5, 0
  

Snacks - S09, F09

• salty - potato chips, pretzels - 8, 10
  
• sweet - cookie, dessert, chocolate - 5, 8
  
• crunchy - fruit, raw vegetables - 4, 2
  
• coffee drink (latte) or tea drink (pearl tea) - 4, 2
  

Free Time - S09, F09

• Watch TV, movie - 2, 4
  
• Active - sports, walking - 4, 4
  
• Use your computer/ surf the internet - 10, 7
  
• Play a computer/ video game - 3, 2
  
• Read a book - 3, 2
  

Brains are weird - S09, F09

• Clockwise only - 4, 7
  
• Counter-clockwise only - 4, 3
  
• Both direction sometimes - 16, 9
  

Video length

• 3 minutes or less
• 4-7 minutes
• 8-25 minutes
• more than 25 minutes

blog of interest

Some of the suggestions from the Blogs of interest assignment

• Tech Crunch and associated Mobile Crunch
• consumerist.com
• spywarebizblog
• Good Morning Silicon Valley
• Cake Wrecks
• CSU Chico Teaching and Learning
• San Jose History
• Pitchfork - music
• onemansblog.com
• ourbestbites.com
• Slashdot
• lifehacker.com
• blog.hubspot.com
• The Internet, Computers and Society
• PerezHilton.com
• rfidblog.org - RFID : Radio Frequency Indentification
• bloggapedia.com
  

privacy and signup profiles

Students are joining The Tech Visual Museum as volunteers to collaborate on community service learning projects. There is a form for creating a user profile. Interesting that we are also working on the topic of Privacy this week.

My advice when completing a signup form like this - provide as little information as is necessary. It is always a good idea to provide less, rather than more personal information. Honest and ethical organizations should respect your privacy and not require anything beyond some basic identification information.

In your profile, you filled in more information than is necessary. I suggest that you go back and take out any extra information.

A few items in the profile are required - they have an orange dot next to them. These are just enough to uniquely identify you without causing a serious privacy risk.

As a rule, I never fill out anything beyond the absolute minimum. I can always provide more information later, if there is a good reason to do so. This actually happened to me - I wasn't able to join one of the groups in Linked In because I hadn't provided enough information about my qualifications to be eligible to join the group. I had to make a choice - provide the information or be excluded. I chose the later. :o)
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