Eleanor Lau discusses her learning preferences based on a quiz she took at the beginning of the semester. She found the results to be accurate as she prefers sequential learning. She discusses using different learning pathways and found the learning guide pathway helpful as she likes learning with others. She discusses how social networking and online games helped her learn with classmates and review course material. Overall, she found social technologies helpful for her studies and plans to continue using them to help with future classes.

1. Eleanor Lau
May 7, 2012
ITEC-299
Synthesis Project and Social
Learning

2. My Personal Learning preference
 For the learning preference quiz that we took in the beginning of the semester,
I received the scores: Active- 3, Sensing-11, Visual-5, and Sequential-7. I think
my results are pretty true to meaning because I do prefer sequential learning
to global learning. From my past learning experiences, I do like to learn things
sequentially to understand better rather then globally learning it as a whole
because I can get mixed up really easily. By the end of the semester now, I
think the scores that I received are still pretty true. From looking at my learning
experiences this past semester, it does seem like I have a well balance of
being an active and reflective learner, because I like to do something actively
to remember what I leaned and then reflect on what I learned. I think learning
preferences are nice to know about yourself because then you find something
else about yourself that you never knew. I find it really interesting to learn
about people‟s different learning styles, because there are so many. I think it
also relates to personality too. Learning my personal preferences did
somewhat help me his semester because my scores seemed pretty true I
used that specific type of learning to help with my studies, and so far I am
doing well in my classes this semester.
Eleanor Lau

3. My Learning Pathway:
 In the beginning of this class I chose to be the learning warrior pathway. I
chose this because I wanted to use what I learn and incorporate it into my
other classes. The social technology quest helped me because I was able to
use the some of the skills in the pathways to help me with my classes this
semester. At the beginning I don‟t think I followed one pathway, because I
tried out all the others, rather then just sticking with the warrior path. I am glad
I got to try different pathways because I later found that the learning guide
was a good way for me to learn. I liked this pathway because I found that I like
learning with others. During one of my hardest classes this semester, I studied
with a group of my friends that are also in the same class. We helped each
other with questions and we gave each other really helpful tips. I even gave
them some of the information we learned in this class. Overall, I am glad that I
changed my pathway because if I were to be a personal learner (warrior
pathway) this semester, I don‟t think I would be doing so well in some of my
classes. Although I think sometimes, for example in my past semesters at San
Francisco State University, I‟ve been a personal learner and it‟s helped me
succeed in classes. I these two different pathways have helped me with my
studies.
Eleanor Lau

4. Activities:
 There were a few activities this semester that helped me out with my studies this semester. The quest
that helped me the most in social learning would have to be the social networking quest, number
eleven. After reading some of the forums that my classmates have posted, I found that you could
make groups on Facebook. I personally use Facebook a lot, not just for fun, but I also use it to contact
others, send people important information, because some people don‟t check their emails as much as
Facebook. Basically I think it is a faster way to reach others besides calling or texting them. According
to what the slideshow says social network is “ „designed to connect people with others who share
common interest and enjoy the same activities; users create profiles for themselves and communicate
with other users‟”. I greatly agree with what professor Kelly and Reed because it is a lot of what people
use for example, Facebook for. I found from this quest that I can communicate with my classmates
through social networking. There is a group creator on Facebook that allow me to add my classmates
to a group but you just have to find them on Facebook first. I started using this for my Anatomy class
this semester and it has greatly helped. People in the class would post questions and answers onto
this group pages wall. People would also post pictures that were on the chalkboard from class. It was
a great way to come back and review things that I might have missed in class lecture or lab. Through
this group I‟ve also became closer with my classmates because we are all in the similar majors with
school which helps a lot. I am glad I found this out through this quest because I am looking forward to
using it throughout my other classes too, for example, physiology. Who would have known that
Facebook, a social networking site would be able to help me so greatly in my studies, because before
taking this class I only saw Facebook as a fun way to connect with friends.
Eleanor Lau

5. Exploring: 3 types
 Number 1.
There were a few social technology quests that helped me with my studies this semester.
The first social technology quest that helped me this semester was the games and
massive multiplayer online gaming. I enjoyed this quest because it helped me learn in a
fun way, especially games that related to my studies. For example in activity two of this
quest there was a game about the cell cycle that relates to a topic covered in one of my
other classes. Therefore I decided to go on Google to see what other games are there
that would help me learn for my other classes as well. I found a site called;
purposegames.com and I found it very helpful. Most of the games on there helped me
learn multiple concepts. For example, there was a game I played that makes you learn
the different types of valves and parts of the heart. The best thing was that it timed you
and you can see other player‟s times as well. This helped me as a visual learner
because by learning I need to look at diagrams and labels for me to remember concepts.
Just by speaking about it does not help me so much. Therefore looking at the diagram
improved my learning skills, and I really liked how it tells you right away if your answers
are wrong. This also improved my active skills in learning because you had to physically
click the right answer on the diagram in the question that it is asking. I believe that I was
actively learning in a visual way.
Eleanor Lau

6. Exploring: 3 types
 Number 2
 The second one was the social networking. Through this quest I learned to get a hold of
my classmates to collaborate and learn from each other using Facebook groups. For one
of my classes this semester, it was really helpful to work together, and I found that
creating the group was even more helpful. This allowed me to write on the wall so that
everyone that was in the group can see it, rather then me sending out a mass text, and
having to forget someone, I can just send it out to everyone. This definitely helped the
visual and verbal leaner‟s like myself. Because the group would always post diagrams
and examples onto the group‟s wall. After everyone looks at them, we usually end up
meeting up or seeing each other at the study commons to talk about the different
diagrams and such. It really helps to talk about them because then it gives me more of
an insight on each topic. It gets me thinking and coming up with new ideas to contribute.
I am not so sure which category this falls under but if I were to understand it would be
under active learning because this is a group setting. Which works great for me because
I feel that I am a active learning; I like to work in groups because we can share our ideas
and thoughts which may help out each other if we don‟t understand a concept. I found
that talking about it also helps me comprehend things better. A classmate can be much
easier to approach compared to a professor.
Eleanor Lau

7. Exploring: 3 types
 Number 3
The third technology quest that I thought was quite interesting was the social
bookmarking. I never knew or heard of social bookmarking until this class. I
thought it was a little confusing at first but overall I got the hang of it and found
it helpful because I got to save sites as bookmarks onto the delicious site and
then come back to it later rather then having to save all the different important
sites onto my internet browser. Another interesting thing about it was that you
could hash-tag it as well. I‟ve heard of tagging before but never knew it could
be useful. The article, Learning Styles and Strategies, written by Richard M.
Felder and Barbara A. Soloman even wrote that, “everybody is active
sometimes and reflective sometimes”. I believe that this turned on my
reflective learner side while I believe that I am usually an active learner. This
helps with reflecting on material that you have learned because you bookmark
a site. I would bookmark a page and come back to it and jock down notes
from the website. I liked how you can easily find other sites that relate to a
topic just by typing a word.
Eleanor Lau

8. Synthesizing my experience:
 If I were to pick which social technology helped and interested me the most, I would have
to say the social networking quest. This was fun for me because Facebook is a website
that I use everyday. It was good to know what helpful things that I can use academically
from this site because I would always use it to contact others socially. From the different
forums that we wrote in this section, I learned about groups that I could make. I never
knew that Facebook offers that because I always thought that it was for official uses only.
I am excited and interested in what Facebook would do next. Later, I found out that it is a
new thing that Facebook offered. The social technology quests were all pretty helpful, but
if I were to pick one I guess I would pick the social bookmarking because I used it the
least. I created another account to use personally but I think I only used it a few times.
But I am sure I will come back later in the next few semesters to use it.
 Hands down, I think I would have to choose social technology again because it
has honestly helped me. Although we did this at the end of the semester, it has been
helping me preparing for finals, especially the week before finals. Because of this group
that I have with my classmates we find each other at the library easier, and it gets to
everyone faster because many of us has the iPhone or other Smartphone‟s. We also
post diagrams to the wall rather then emailing each other because we all know that we
all check Facebook more frequently than our emails.
Eleanor Lau

9. How will I use what I’ve learned to
help me move forward?
 Taking this class has helped me move onto my next classes here at
San Francisco State University. Not only will I be using them in class, I
believe that I will be using them at jobs as well later in the years. But
picturing it I can see myself using some of these skills applying and
learning it at a job environment. For example a more sophisticated
Facebook could be Google+. I found these social networking sites to
be extremely helpful.
 I will definitely take what I have learned so far to continue my studies.
I can say that I have learned a lot of different new social technologies
because I am sure that I will be using a few of them more often now.
For one, I will definitely be creating groups for my classmates, and
also using the online games to stimulate my learning. I found that
these games could really help me memorize as well because looking
at the different graphs and diagrams extremely helped with my
classes this semester. I am looking forward to extend my learning
skills and preferences onto my other upcoming classes.
Eleanor Lau