social synthesis

1. Bin Wu
Social / Collaborative learning
At the beginning of class my learning preference was sage. My scores when I began my leaning
style were Act-5, Sen-7, Vis- 5 and Glo-3. This meant that I enjoy learning things by using my hands. I
also I enjoy learning with facts, learn visually with pictures or videos and enjoy solving questions in my
head. This class has been extremely interesting because I have learned a lot of things I would not have if
I didn’t take this class. After taking this class though, I believe my learning preference of sage hasn’t
changed or my techniques in learning preferences changed. However, knowing about my learning
preferences has geared me toward actually understanding the meaning behind my use of these
techniques which has been successful.
As I said earlier, my learning pathway since the beginning of class is of the learning Sage. My
primary goal was to obtain new knowledge into more technologies. I believe my primary goal for this
class has been successful because I definitely have learned new technologies. In the idea of social
technology I have actually improved my use of such social sites such as Facebook. I have used it more
like it was attended for, rather than just using it to search for friends and classmates from the past. I
have actually started reading about what others are doing and contributing to the site as deem needed.
I have not changed my view points; therefore my learning sage preference hasn’t changed. I am still
constantly trying to learn new technologies.
The activities that have assisted me in obtained a broader understanding of the social
technology is from answering questions from others and creating questions from scratch to better
understand the subject matter. The social bookmark quest along with games MMOGs and social
network quests have all been very helpful in better understanding social technologies. I got help when I
read through other classmate’s questions and answers that were posted for each quest. The activity
that worked best for learning is the method I previous talked about. The fact that everyone had to make
up questions geared toward learning and having to reply to everyone.
The activity that helped me get a broader understanding of social technology was in the social
network quest and social bookmark quest. Not only because these two quests have the word social in
them, but they gave great insight in to how people can be socially involved via the internet.
Connections that are made via the internet through social sites or bookmarks cannot be made face to
face. They are more geared to one individual subject or individual, so only people who choose to
engage in them get involved. There is no fluffing involved.
The first social technology that I have explored to better access my learning was social
bookmarking. I am an active and visual learner, so social bookmarks gave me the ability to dial in on one
subject rather than having to search through many different things. It gave me clarity and insight faster
and better. It allowed me to see more of the same things all at once.
The second social technology that I explored was social networking. I have always been a fan of
sited such as Facebook and MySpace. I attribute again my ability to learn visually and actively to this

2. technology. It allowed me to explore and search out my friends and classmates from high school and
college. It allowed me to visually search out my counterparts and only if I was actively doing it. It
allowed
The last social technology that I want to explore was game/MMOGs. Although I haven’t really
engaged in any such games I still would like to. I watched my brother in law play his XBOX games with a
head set. He was screaming at his friends to fire upon the enemy and it intrigued me vastly. I am an
active learner and doing such an active game would definitely be fun. This social technology would be
the most helpful for active learners, but I question sometimes how a game such as those or even similar
be educational.
The social technology that interested me the most was games/MMOGs. Even though I haven’t
personally engaged myself in it, I still feel as though it would be fun to try. Even though the learning
aspect of it would be questioned, it would still seem like it would be enjoyable. The social technology
that doesn’t seem to work as a learning tool is social networks. I believe people get too distracted with
interacting between friends just as friends, rather using the time to educate each other. I just believe
that it wouldn’t be geared toward learning but more toward individual interactions.
The social technology that worked best was social bookmarking. It allowed the searcher to
obtain a lot of information from many different sources with only a few key words. It allowed me to
search up information from sites that I couldn’t get from sites like Google. As an active learner, this
approach was easy and fun to use.
The social learning strategy that I will continue using after this class is social networking. Sites
such as Facebook would be used for friends and family to engage in activities more for fun, however
sites such as LinkedIn, which are more geared toward the work field, can be used to help with future
work and networking. It can be used for setting up business connections that can be catered for my line
of work. It is very specific and helpful as a tool for success.
The social technology that I will use for learning after this class is social bookmarking. It allows
for in-depth insight into subject matter that is isolated for one subject, rather than a diverse subject. Al
though it would be used less in the work environment, I believe I could still use it for work related
material. As a biologist, it would be helpful just for insight into the subject matter I am investigating.
The social technology that I will use for non learning purposes is social networking. I do not plan on
avoiding any social technologies after this class because I believe they are all very helpful in future uses.