The document discusses the author's learning styles and preferences based on an assessment. It found the author's strongest styles to be global and intuitive learning, and weakest to be active, sensing, and sequential learning. The author then explored different social technologies and their suitability for different learning styles. Massive multiplayer online games were found to best suit the author's preferences by engaging visual, global, and intuitive learning. Social networking sites were less effective due to distractibility. The author concludes that games will continue to be an effective learning tool across subjects.

1. Brittany Leiser

2.  Toward the beginning of class, my learning style
was described as very low on the active scale as a
one rating, and in opposition, my reflective scaling
was zero. I tend to lack in the sensing type of
learning, but I scored a five on the intuitive scale. I
am stronger visually with a score of three;
whereas, I lack strength completely in the verbal
type of learning. Lastly, my strongest learning
style is global with a score of nine, but I scored a
zero in the sequential style. At the end of class
though, I noticed my grades rise in my classes after
changing my studying habits. In addition, I felt
that overall, knowing my strengths helped me in
understanding my personal relationships and how
I approach life. Understanding my learning style
will aid me to prepare for learning success for
plans like grad school and my internship.

3.  I chose to be a Learning Guilde, so that I could
broaden my knowledge of social technology. I was
definitely able to broaden my knowledge about
social technology and how it can better my
learning. I definitely used the excuse to use sites
like facebook more often to discover all the
different ways in which to share projects, links,
and other useful information with classmates. I
decided not to change my learning pathway
because I always love learning more about means
of communication I use every day to broaden my
knowledge base; I also can better my
understanding of how to use fun technology for
learning as well.

4.  The social activity that helped me the most to broaden my
understanding of social technology for learning was the facebook
bio project. I did not realize that people used facebook in order to
share projects or instructions on how to do papers. Also, more
and more teachers and professors are now getting online and
social networking sites in order to encourage the technologically
savvy generation of young students today. I was quite shocked at
how many people actually use social networking sites for
educational purposes. I have never personally used social
communication sites like facebook in order to give a presentation
or submit any school work. In order to get a deeper
understanding of social technology, visiting the education 2.0
website showed me how to join educational groups that are
similar to classrooms. I have never before seen classes grouped
online as such like on this website. The only online classes I
thought were offered were through educational organizations, like
schools. I felt that sites like this gave me a better understanding of
how learning has gone in different directions to cater to people
who either don’t have the time, capability to learn in a classroom
environment. Instead, they could have chosen that style of
education for convenience sake. To better learn with
others, studying language at livemocha.com allowed me to
interact with other people and students to better my French
speaking skills.

5.  To complete the quest I chose on my iPod, I chose
to complete the massively multiplayer online game
on the Nobel Prize site to review comments made
by other people and to review the material of cell
division. I explored this game because I am taking
a biology class this semester and thought that it
would help if I studied the information through
playing the game. I think this social technology
did a good job at promoting visual and global
learning strengths in that I was visually stimulated
by moving images and colors that caught my
attention; also certain pieces of information were
associated with different colors. In addition, my
global sense of learning was highly engaged
because the game gave me the bigger picture as to
the most important parts of cell division.

6.  Another quest I chose to do, though on my iPad
was the Cuban missile crisis massive multiplayer
online game in order to assess my learning. This
game was best because I was able to view
comments on how other people did in order to talk
about other possible solutions to the crisis. This
game was best for supporting my intuitive and
global learning preferences because I used the
infinite possibilities accumulating in my head to
answer the questioned posed by the game. I even
enjoyed thinking of answers that were not given as
options. In addition, the game also gave me the
larger picture of importance each time it asked me
a new question, which allowed me to better focus
on making the appropriate decision.

7.  My last social technology quest I did was instant
messaging people about the games that peers
decided to complete and how far they were able to
get in the game. This worked best for both my
intuitive and global learning preference styles.
Through talking with my peers, I was able to get a
better sense of different ways to approach the
games, either on my end of playing or theirs. I
could think of new ways of challenging the player
that the game maker didn’t even consider to
include. In regard to my global learning
preference, if I didn’t understand the point of a
game or how the details added up, I was able to
ask my peers what the larger picture was for the
game I didn’t understand and vice versa.

8.  The social technologies that interested me most as
tools for learning were massive multiplayer online
games because they were best for my learning
styles. After playing the two online games, I found
that I learned quite a bit from the online games
and the series of comments from peers after
playing. The social learning technology that
surprised me and did not work as well for me was
social networking sites for learning. I was
surprised with the extent to which I could use a
social networking site for learning, with online
classes and study guides. However, I could not
stay focused and I would tend to get distracted on
my homepage of facebook; this is why social
networking sites would not be good for me to use
as a social learning technology.

9.  With loosing attention easily on school work, these
online games worked really well for me. In fact,
massive multiplayer online games are probably
my best social technology for learning. My
learning preferences that games cater to are my
intuitive, visual, and global learning preferences.
With using my intuitive skills, I am able to think of
endless possibilities and outcomes for games that
others may not have conceived. Therefore, I may
have an upper hand in completing some of the
games. Also, with all the colors and varying and
moving images, my visual learning preference is
highly engaged. Lastly, because the games focus
on learning the main themes and the larger
picture, games are best for my global learning
preference style.

10.  After this class, I will probably continue to use
massive multiplayer online games to continue my
learning. I think I can use massive multiplayer
online games for many types of classes, no matter
what the subject matter entails. I can use massive
multiplayer online games for demonstrating new
material or for improving professional
relationships for my future career or job. In
addition, I could use games to develop a creative
project for classes during my grad degree. I have
heard that creativity points are awarded if
students approach material in new and creative
ways. I look forward to exploring new games for
other subjects I am interested in, such as clinical
psychology.