The document describes the student's experience in an iTec-299 class that explored using social technologies for learning. 1) The student initially identified as a "Learning Sage" but found value in all three pathways of Explorer, Guide and Sage. Games were particularly helpful for learning due to appealing to multiple preferences. 2) Social networking was surprisingly effective for learning when using Facebook to research topics, while social bookmarking was difficult to grasp. 3) After the class, the student plans to continue using Facebook for learning and explore other social networks and games as learning tools. Social bookmarking may be revisited.

1. iTec-299 Synthesis for Social
Learning
Mark Arakaki

2. •
Describe your personal learning preferences (1 paragraph,
100-150 words) - Answer EACH of the following questions:
When I first took the test, I was 4 ACT, 1 SEN, 9 VIS, 4 GLO. I
took it again and got different results for SEQ and GLO. The
problem is that it is difficult for me to really choose a side
especially on a survey, because I do pay attention to details,
but it is easier for me to look at the overall picture. I am
very visual, but I do value verbal information very much. It
is tough to say that my learning preferences have changed
because I am a person who is a big believer in balance, so I
do not think my views have changed very much ultimately.
Learning preferences give me an idea of how I learn, but
not a concrete definition in terms of success.

3. • Describe the learning pathway you chose at the beginning
of the class (1 paragraph, 100-200 words):
I chose to be a Learning Sage because I wanted to expand
my knowledge of technology, which I thought I knew a lot
about, but learned that there was a lot more out there
offered to me than I thought. My learning pathway
remained the same because even after this class, I want to
even further broaden my knowledge of mobile technology
because I feel that mobile devices are advancing everyday,
which means our knowledge should be advancing and
expanding as well. I kept my Learning pathway although I
did feel as though I was becoming more of all three than
feeling as just one.

4. • Describe how the activities you completed contributed or did not
contribute to your learning pathway (1 paragraph, 100-200
words):
One of the activities that I really found interesting was the
lemonade stand game, that gave you an intuitive approach to
business and marketing. At first glance I did not think much of the
game because it seemed so simple, but as I kept playing I learned a
little more about the strategies implied in the game. The deeper
understanding to it is that the game does not directly tell you that
you are learning about business and marketing it just seems like a
game where you have to use good sense, and that good sense
relates to the business. Playing all the games helped learn about
the social technologies with others because I am much of a gamer.

5. Paragraph 1
• Using one paragraph each, describe the top 3
mobiletechnologies you explored for learning (3
paragraphs, 100-150 words each)
The social networking quest was effective in teaching me
ways to use social networking sites such as facebook to
learn subjects in school and specific topics instead of only
using it for social networking, which many people do
believe that its only purpose to social network for social
reasons and purposes. I know that I thought that too until I
had gone through the quest. Social networking touches on
the more active level because you have to actively search
to get the information you need while it is also very visual
although it can be verbal finding even screencasts and
mp3s to help learn.

6. Paragraph 2
• The games and MMO quests were fun to me because I had
previous knowledge of the subject. However I did not have
a huge understanding of games and learning. When playing
games such as the lemonade stand or the LinCity game I
feel as if I am trying to learn more because I want to prove
right that learning can be effective through gaming, which I
believe is true. People tend to not see the concepts of a
game because they do not play it, which makes them feel
as though games don’t help learn, but games are very
active, visual even verbal, they can implement sequential
parts of the game, which are all learning preferences. They
are active because judgements have to be made fairly
quickly to keep the game flowing, where we have to listen
and observe in order to strive in the game.

7. Paragraph 3
• The last was social bookmarking and this one was
the one I struggled with. I did not fully grasp the
concept when I did the quest, but I did not realize
that it was required in our grades, which is why I
failed to do any of it. I thought that social
bookmarking was very active because we had to
find links to post up for others to see and see
what others had posted from their findings. It is
also very intuitive in which we all just share
information with each other.

8. Paragraph 1
• Synthesize your experience investigating your use of
different multimedia technologies for learning (2
paragraphs, 100-150 words each)
I believe that the games interested me most as a learning
tool because I play games a lot and think they are an
effective tool in learning for a certain subject. Because of
my love for games I tended to be more interested in the
mini lecture and the screencast that was provided on
iLearn. I was very surprised at the social networking quest
with facebook being used to learn because I had only
known it to be used for networking purposes. Last of all I
felt the social bookmarking was a little rough for me
because I had not really looked into it with any detail.

9. Paragraph 2
• The social technology that helped me learn the
most was the game aspect. Because it touched on
a lot of learning preferences for me personally
because I am a little biased towards my liking of
games. I had to be active during each of the game
(Lemonade stand), but at the same time reflect
on how I could make more profit with each
passing day. It was a very visual game as people
would have speech bubbles telling me whether
something was good, too much, or too little.
These are factors of why I am a better learner
with games.

10. Paragraph 1
• Describe how you will use what you learned in this class
after this semester (2 paragraphs, 100-150 words)
I will continue to use facebook as a social networking site,
but I also will use it sometimes for learning purposes, which
I have learned through this class. I have not really looked
into other social networking sites, besides tumblr, but I plan
on trying to take a look at some of them and see if they can
benefit me in learning. Facebook can obviously be used for
outside purposes such as getting a job, people can relay
resumes or even chat it up to work an agreement on a job.
They help advertise anything you post on your status to get
word out of an event or a product (PRing).

11. Paragraph 2
• I will also take from this class some games that
were on the forum and try to use them to help
me learn more about subjects. Because I am not
exactly sure what I want to use them to learn for I
might just explore different games and continue
playing the ones that I feel were most beneficial
to me. For non learning purposes I will keep
playing games, using facebook, and tumblr
because I had before the class and plan to even
after. I probably will avoid social bookmarking
because I never picked up on it although I would
like to give it a second try.

12. End