Social Media: the Key to Online Student Services

/in /by

Originally posted on Stuff too big for Twitter….:

vygotskyA few weeks ago Josie Ahlquist wrote a great post on developing campus community through social media. Before you read this, go read that post (it is good). She used published research (thank you!) to make a great argument that the strategic implementation of social networking sites (SNS’s) can indeed lead to a greater sense of community amongst students on campus. For me, though, her post (and the research she references in the post) points to an even bigger idea: That social media is THE key to the successful implementation of student services for online learners.

Let’s start with facts. Technology has permeated nearly every aspect of modern life. Presently, the landscape of higher education may be among those realms changing most rapidly. Increasing financial pressures, easily accessible new forums for content delivery, and more robust infrastructures have all contributed to the ongoing evolution of this environment. The most…

View original 1,385 more words

survivor Blog Post #4

/in /by

Episode 5 in Survivor, Blood is Blood, was different than the previous episodes. Relating to our last class meeting we got to see who was the characteristics of each person in the tribe. At first everyone was shocked that Drew was gone, but even more shocked to find out the tribe members where changing. One tribe, Hunahpu , was the tribe were all the single members with their love ones out of the game were put together  with only one couple. Coyopa was the tribe with the ones that were together with their love ones and only one single person. Their next activity was surprising because i thought that Coyopa was going to win since they were together with the person they came with and didn’t have to worry about hurting their feelings. But unfortunately they lost! The winning team was Hunahpu, the team of strangers with no blood or feelings uniting them, just the simple goal of wining. The host even said, “wow there is more communication in the team of strangers than the team of lovers. Well something like that. After the challenge, Baylor and her mom were cooking rice, and Dale was bothered because they kept cooking more rice than they were suppose too. Here You can tell that Dale is a THINKER because he thinks before he acts, along with his daughter Kelly who at the end was the one voted off. John and Jaclyn are the extrovert ones in the tribe because they are the only couple liked and safe from being eliminated. Like Dale said they are the hottest couple on the island. Dale and Missy had problems because Baylor told Missy that Dale has been on her trying to get her out the tribe, but that is only because Baylor tried voting Dale out the first time. Both were fighting for their children. My opinion is that Baylor should had been the one voted out instead of Kelly because she tries to be liked and getting everyone on her side.

Episode 5 Chapter 4

/in /by

This episode began with a tribe swap which changed the complexity of the game. The Hunahpu tribe ended up with only one pair of loved ones while the Coyopa tribe only had one individual without a loved one. It seems like the dynamics of the two tribes are beginning to  change causing diversity among the groups. In the Coyopa tribe, Keith seems to be the odd man out making him believe that he might be the one to get voted off the island. The Hunahpu tribe of strangers seemed to be communicating better than the Coyopa tribe of loved ones causing the Hunahpu tribe to win the challenge. Personalities seemed to be definite when Missy used her feelings to decide her actions. For example, after hearing that Dale tried to vote her daughter, Baylor, off the island, she based her actions off of her negative feelings towards Dale. Missy and Baylor then encouraged the other tribe members to vote either Dale or his daughter off the island. The conflict of the diversity within the group also emerged while Missy was making rice for the group. Dale tried to inform Missy to use less of the rice in order to save some rice for future days on the island. Missy then went against Dales orders causing conflict between the two.  Missy’s customs from her previous tribe caused conflict with Dale because he was used to rationing the rice rather than using it all up. In the end, the majority of the Coyopa tribe decided to voted Kelly off the island.

Using Meaningful Comments to Improve Student Writing

/in /by

Can you believe it is already Week 10 of the semester? Many of you are likely assigning papers for your students. In this short video, Rachael Jordan, a faculty member on the CI Composition Team, provides a Quick Guide to Commenting on Student Papers. Have you ever wondered how you could more effectively comment on […]

Blog 4 Blood is Blood

/in /by

In the episode Blood is Blood there was a bit of a twist. At first, tribe Hunahpu just laughed about their last tribal meeting because they kicked off Drew. Jon started admitting to everyone what Drew was saying about the tribe. Jon  starts to apologize because he does not want to get sent home. Tribe Coyopa had no idea that Drew got sent home. When they all saw that he was sent home, they were all shocked and said that Drew was one of the stronger members. Then the host decided to change things up and switch the teams up. On tribe Hunahpu it was most of the singles except Josh and Reed. And most of the loved ones are on tribe Coyopa except for Keith because his son, Wes, is on the other tribe. Keith kind of feels left out because everyone has their loved one on the tribe and Jaclyn and Jon are constantly all over each other. Coyopa was very happy because all of the food they have but Dale was was monitoring Missy and Baylor. Baylor told her mom that Dale tried voting her off last time, which caused some tension between Missy ( Baylor’s mom) and Dale. Kelley had to talk to her dad to calm him down and tried telling him it was pointless to make it a big deal because then they will try to vote him off first.

While that was happening tribe Hunahpu was kind of struggling. When they got back to their site, they saw how little food they had- which was only 3 days worth of food. Alec was thinking positive about the whole situation, while Jeremy was upset of who was on his tribe. He almost started acting selfish just like Drew and he thinks Alec will get kicked off because he is the same exact as Drew. They were worried that they would lose the immunity challenge because of the amount of food they had, but they ended up winning anyways.

The new tribe Coyopa worked a little better together, the only problems that were going on were between Baylor and Dale. Other than that not that many people in the tribe were talking about each other behind their backs. But when you looked at how tribe Hunahpu was acting, you could really tell that those people were being selfish and just wanted to win the competition already and they would just pick on someone to talk bad about to get voted off. Once again, things work best when the whole group thinks positive and does not point fingers at people. At the end I was kind of surprised that they kicked Kelley off because she was not the one who was really creating any problems, she was just trying to make “peace” with all the tension between Baylor and her father. That one shocked me the most and I am not really sure if I agree with them.. kind of wish they voted Dale off because of his attitude.

We’re a hot mess

/in /by

Coyopa- since they voted the strongest guy off the team they thought this would help them with being more positive
Dale thinks he needs to step up more in the group

Hunahpu -Nataly found the flint which amazed the group.
Drew thinks hes a leader when its total opposite with the tribe, they find him to be unmotivated and lazy at times which i agree.

Julie was asked about john being voted off , her response was that she created a shell and wanted to be blind to her bf johns attitude

With the challenge they are playing for campfire food or comfort supplies. it is Jon vs Jacqueline-bf vs gf.
Jacqueline started very strong but Jon caught up, They eventually tied up quickly but Jon/ hunahpu won but Jon and jacqueline embraced and showed no hard feelings which shows a strong connection especially for johns comment towards his gf and how she can handle it.
Jacqueline as well as Drew went to exile island in which Drew actually volunteered which was different because usually no one wants togo to the island.

Hunahpu chose comfort which was long term compared to the food while at the same team Coyopa really needs to pick it up as well as figure out other tactics to become stronger and better as a team.
Jon is somewhat worried about his gf because he is hoping drew will help out at the island and not act like how he does at their camp.
Drew thinks he’s a ladies man but he is not out looking for love.

Drew wants to throw the next immunity challenge because he believes there are snakes in his tribe.

Keith found out Jeremy has an idol and he told everyone.
Jeremy thought they had each others backs but now he thinks Keith is a rat and wants him gone. Soon Keith found an idol in which he’s not going to tell anyone so they think Jeremy has it.
In coyopa, Alec is annoyed with Baylor and is going to call her out on everything she does.
It is time for the immunity challenge while the others come back from the island.
Against loved ones they used a lot of agility such as diving and running up a ramp to dive and obtain rings they will use for a ring toss.
Hunahpu won which has put Coyopa in a pickle. All in disagreement for to vote off it is basically male vs. female , the women decide to vote out a negative aspect towards their group which was drew and the votes were in their favor.
Hopefully this will make them stronger.

What’s more important rice or people?

/in /by

Episode of Blood is Blood surrounded the shifting of many different tides in the members of survivor, the tribes and the tensions. The cast members on the opposite side returned after tribal council time speculating what could have happened and who could have possibly been eliminated. Alec was so confident that his brother was not eliminated but little did he know that is what happened. Due to them speculating so many different things it defined the episode because a lot of cultures, personalities and barriers changed.

Once all the members of Survivor arrived at the tribal immunity challenged they learned that they would be switching sides which was beneficial to some members and detrimental to others. In chapter 4 on group diversity,  shows how the cultures of a tribes and homogeneous groups; and how they become redefined. Keith in the Coyopa tribe was now worried because he is the odd man out.  In homogeneous groups diversity still exists in the group such as with Keith but with Keith being the only one without a loved on it makes him feel on similar with the group and put up a different barrier when working with the barriers.

Others barriers from chapter 4, that came about during this episode were prejudices and discrimination. Prejudices came up in the new Hanuphu tribe with Alec the new tribe compared him to his brother Drew who was just voted out and decided they would basically be fake towards to him so they could boast his ego and then later on get rid of him. I’m sure Alec and Drew are two birds of a feather but it is interesting that they made that prejudiced toward Drew and then discriminated him.  Back in the Coyopa tribe barriers and segregation came up when Baylor told her mother about her previous history with Dale and then tensions increased when they fought over the amount of rice that should be allowed to cook. (While in Coyopa they were surviving because they were eating rice like kings) it was interesting because both parents had very distinct personalities and that course caused more prejudice in the tribe and decisions on voting. This relates to personality dimension because both parents personalities clashed and that boiled over to their tribes voting. Tensions over rice and personality then lead to Kelley being the fifth voted off Survivor San Jan Del Sur.

Blood Vs. Water Episode 5

/in /by

The horror! The woe. If we are to speak of chapter 7 with this episode this is a terror I knew was going to happen.

First of on Blood vs. water the teams are split again this time some reuniting with their loved ones the rest are singled out.
but thats the mental control. A puppeteering of lives and fate.
By putting them together with loved once will shroud their conciousness and blind them from working together. And thus the feud of families begin. One pair going after another and the result is Kelly voted out.

In chapter 7 we talk about listening. How curcial it is to listen how different form and different people listen. And if that was not enough the listening for differences is hard for many people.

With that stated there is a dark tide amongst both members of each tribe and a success does not feel like a success at all. It feels more like a puppet play at this point for me.

Survivor Blog #4

/in /by

In this episode of Survivor their seems to be tensions rising within the tribes, especially in the blue tribe. In the beginning of the episode the tribe members of the blue tribe were becoming extremely annoyed with Drew. The tribe found the old flint in the beginning of the episode and this opened up wounds from an earlier episode when they originally lost the flint the first time and traded the fishing gear in order to get another flint. Drew at this point keep bringing up how the group should have not traded the fishing gear in the first place. It seems like Drew thinks of himself as the leader of the group and the only person who would be able to lead the group.

The first challenge the Blue tribe wins once again and John sends his girl friend to exile island and in addition sends Drew from his tribe to accompany her. While on exile island Drew mentions to Drew’s girlfriend that he is going to throw off the next challenge that way the yellow tribe will win and the blue tribe will be forced to vote someone off the island. Drew wanted to do this because he felt it was time to vote someone out from his tribe and by doing this it would further his chances of making it longer in the game, at least he thought it would.

Back in the blue tribe Keith and Jeramy begin to have problems. Keith gets a hint of where an immunity idol is and where he attempts to recover it he could not find it. This made him believe that Jeramy has it because he was the last person to be at exile island before him. So he goes back to the group and tells his fellow members that Jeramy has a idol without knowing for sure if he does have one. This made Jeramy feel betrayed since he thought they had an alliance since they are both firemen and now because of this Jeramy wants to get Keith voted off from the tribe. Keith after telling the group members goes back for another attempt at finding the idol and actually finds it.

In the yellow tribe, Alec seemed to be acting like a brother figure with one of the girls from the group and called this girl out on not doing her part on something. After doing this Alec confronts her and tells her why he did what he did and acted in the why he did. He mentioned its a part of his personality because of his childhood and the way he was taught growing up from his father why it came to doing his part and doing a lot of the work himself. This I saw was an example from the textbook on the chapter about Diversity.

Towards the end of the episode, the Blue tribe ends up having a tribal council since they lost the second challenge due to Drew throwing off the challenge. Drew thought he was going to be able to convince the tribe members to vote the person he wanted out of the tribe but it didn’t end up working in his favor. The tribe ended up voting Drew himself out.

Episode 5

/in /by

In this episode, a major game changer took place where several members were reassigned to the tribes. Four of the couples were reunited and given the opportunity to work together in the competition. While this proved to be a benefit for some, it also gave others a disadvantage. A lot of communication between new and old tribe members had to occur and a great deal of listening was necessary in the groups.

In the new Hunahpuh tribe, Jeremy and Natalie were put in a bad place under the realization that they were now outnumbered by the 3 original Coyopa tribe plus their teammate Reed, who would undoubtedly join the his boyfriend from said tribe. Jeremy and Natalie, original Hunahpuh members and singles, moved aside in order to set up an alliance between the two of them. They also spoke to Alec, an original Coyopa member, in hopes of bringing him into their alliance. Alec listened to understand what both people were saying and contemplate their offer.

The new Coyopa Tribe lost the elimination challenge, creating a huge problem as for who to vote off. Three couples and one single could have been an easy choice, but after some conflict between members, it quckly became a difficult situation. Conflict erupted between Dale and Missy, and it was evident that each wanted to get the other off. With both having their loved ones on the same tribe, it was up to Jon and Jaclyn to listen to each pair in order to figure out who to make an alliance with. Jon and Jaclyn both had to listen to evaluate before making a final decision on which couple to vote with and which person to vote off of the show.