The document discusses the learning preferences and pathways of Mohamed Saber, Polo Morales, and Nicole Love. It includes their initial learning preference survey results at the beginning of the semester and any changes by the end. It also discusses the social technologies and activities each found most helpful for their learning, including social bookmarking, online games, and Facebook groups. As a group, they found sharing questions and notes through microblogging and social networks useful. They expect to continue leveraging visual and sequential learning strategies through interactive social technologies going forward.

1. MOHAMED SABER, POLO MORALES,
AND NICOLE LOVE
Synthesis Quest: Social and
Collaborative learning

2. Learning preferences
 Active 3 I usually have to practice something multiple times before I
understand it fully. This explains me being more on the active side.
Sensing 3 I tend build my confidence when I understand why what
I'm doing is important. Visual 4 I tend to memorize something
when I see it rather than hear it. Sequential 1 I tend to break things
down and start from the bottom to completely understand
something. These were my thoughts and learning preferences from
the beginning of the semester. As the semester went on, I noticed
that the survey was very spot on as far as how I learn. I may be more
sequential than initially thought though, I notice that when I have
large daunting projects, I tend to break them up piece by piece to
tackle it. The rest of my preferences have stayed the same.
Mohamed Saber

3. Learning preferences
 At the beginning of the class my learning preference scores were as
follows: Active = 11, Verbal = 1, Sequential = 7, Sensory = 1.
Now, as I approach the end of the semester, I feel that all but one of
my scores has changed—Verbal. This semester was the most
challenging to date; I spent more time writing this semester than I
ever did in the past. For this reason, I had to prepare good outlines
and summaries of the topics covered in my class. This process began
with reading new material, listening to the Professor’s lectures, and
converting the information into my own thoughts. Now I’d say my
outlook on learning is more analytical in the sense that I’m
constantly looking for ways to incorporate new learning methods
into my study routine.
Polo Morales

4. Learning preferences
 At the beginning of the semester my scores for the learning preference survey were
fairly okay as far as me being able to accommodate different learning styles other
than those I am comfortable with. My scores for the following learning preferences
go as follows: Reflective – 1, Sensible – 11, Visual – 1, and Global – 1. At the end of
the class, I have definitely become less of a sensible learner. I have now begun to
open my mind to theory or rather the creativity of others based on the different and
creative questions my classmates have posted in their forums. Trying to answer
their questions I definitely had to do some research and creative thinking to
understand their position. When it comes to my other learning preferences –
reflective, global, and visual – I have learned how to interchange between having
visuals and there being verbal communication, global and sequential, and lastly,
reflective and active. I’ve learned how to listen more closely, slow down to learn
things in steps to get the big picture, and be more active in discussions to share my
ideas rather than quietly reflect to myself on how things connect.
Nicole Love

5. Groups Thoughts
 My thoughts on learning preferences are that since I had to assess them during this class, I had
to evaluate how I most effectively learned. This helped me make the most of my time
throughout the semester. When I saw ways to learn better, I would do that way instead of less
effective ways. For instance, I found youtube videos that give me a better understanding of
concepts of accounting than hearing it or reading it. This helped me tremendously and I am
glad I noticed how important it was to do so. Knowing about learning preferences helped me
because I make a better use of my time. One hour spent in learning preferences that aren’t
effective, takes away time and if I used a learning preference that was better, I would make the
most of my time.
As the class comes to an end, I realize that there are so many ways to learn and process
information. Prior to enrolling in ITEC 299, I used what one would call an “old-fashioned”
approach to learning. This consisted of reading the textbook, attending lectures, and working
on practice problems if applicable.
Now, I will always consider the advantages of using technology to further my understanding of
new material. I can see myself achieving my learning goals through a diversified learning
routine. I’ll spend a lot more time implementing my IPod into this routine by listening to
podcasts, recorded lectures, and PowerPoint presentations while I’m on the go.

6. Learning Pathways
 As a learning sage, I wanted to learn more about different
ways to utilize technology. Social media is a growing
industry and it will be surprising to see that slow down
anytime soon. I wanted to learn more about Linkedin
and how to use it more effectively. I noticed that more
and more people are members of the linkedin
community. And what other members recommended was
to join groups on Linkedin to connect with more people.
This helped me out because I was able to reach out to
professionals that I normally would not have been able to
reach out to. I did not change my pathway because it
worked out well for me as is.
Mohamed Saber

7. Learning Pathways
 At the beginning of the semester, I chose the “Learning Warrior” path to
help me improve my performance this semester. I believe this was the best
option for me at the time and I still hold this belief. I learned how to
effectively use social technologies to improve my performance in the
classroom. I was successful in gaining a broader knowledge of social
technologies through the use of social bookmarking sites such as delicious.
I found it very useful to see what other sites people recommended for my
topics of interest. I also believe I was able to gain a deeper understanding of
social technologies through the use of Games & Massively Multiplayer
Online Games. The game I found most useful is the lemonade stand game.
In fact, I still play it to this day. I learned how to manage, forecast, and
price a product based on other conditions—in this case, weather. As a
business major, I found this very beneficial. And finally, the social
technology that allowed me to collaborate and learn with others was
Facebook. Through Facebook, I was able to start and join groups for any
subject in which I was interested.
Polo Morales

8. Learning Pathways
 At the beginning of class I chose the learning sage for a
broad knowledge of Social technologies. Yes I was able
to get a broader knowledge of the social
technologies. However it became redundant for I knew a
lot of the broad knowledge that I was presented with and
I changed my pathway to the learning warrior. I learned
of the different types of social technologies there were for
example MMOGs. When I thought of games I did not
think it was a place to build friendships but rather
acquaintances until the game was over.
Nicole Love

9. Groups Thoughts: Contribution to Learning
 Level one activities, (mini-lectures and quizzes) and the level two activities (bookmarking, learning
preference surveys/activities) all played a huge part in understanding social technologies. Each level
encouraged me to do more research or think about things in a different perspective – how this huge wave
of social technology has become the tools needed to educate. I think bookmarking has enhanced my
learning also. I had to do research on the different ways these technologies can be used, and post articles
and or videos that explain the technologies to the ‘T’ in which others will benefit from it also. The forum
post definitely encouraged the entire class to work together, share information, and enhance the learning
of all. We learned amongst our peers via internet.
Using delicious really helped gain a broader understanding of social technology as a learning tool because
I was able to use the site to see what other people with similar interests are looking at. I used this as a
starting point in conducting research. To get a deeper understanding of social technology as a learning
tool, I used Games & Massively Multiplayer Online Games because they put me in a position where I had
to make decisions, and being that I’m an active learner I really enjoyed that aspect of the games. And
finally, the social technology that worked best for learning as groups are the social networking sites. I
found Facebook to be extremely helpful when trying to reach out to a large group of people in a short
period of time.
Social media was a curious topic for me because I am not familiar with much of what you can do with it.
Social bookmarking was a topic that I learned about that helped me professionally. This was a way social
media helped me from a broader sense. In a specific sense, linkedin groups were helpful to me. I can
connect with professionals that I normally wouldn’t be able to contact. This has helped me out quite a bit
too. I can talk to professionals more and discuss topics that are relevant to them because they are in a
group that shares interests with me. The activity that had me use social bookmarks was most beneficial to
my learning.
Mohamed Saber (Red) Polo Morales (Green) Nicole Love (Blue)

10. Top Social Technologies
 Social bookmarks is a concept that I was not familiar with to
this point, but I was able to utilize well for me and creating
markings of what I liked that I wanted to go back to. This went
for other individuals who were a part of my finance group and
we would be able to bounce ideas off each other by social
bookmarking. This helped me in a sequential sense to break
down information and go back to it and reference. It helped
me in a way that not only could I bookmark the information, I
could also share my bookmarks with my group members and
see their bookmarks. This helped us create an outline about
what we wanted to write about before we wrote our paper.
Mohamed Saber

11. Top Social Technologies
 The social technology that I explored for learning was
Games & Massively Multiplayer Online Games.
Specifically, the Lemonade stand game was by far the
most useful. Since I’m an active learner, I appreciated the
fact that this game allowed me to control the purchasing
of the raw materials and the price at which I sold the
final product. Furthermore, the game was set up in a way
that made the player think critically about how many
resources to buy and at what price to sell them. After all,
as a business owner, one wants to be as profitable as
possible.
Polo Morales

12. Top Social Technologies
 Social bookmarking worked great for me and it accommodated all of
my learning preferences. I was able to log into my account and click
on a tag under a specific category and retrieve information in
different forms – from blogs, videos, and articles – to have a better
understanding of a topic or learn new tips and tricks on how to use
something. A social technology has greatly accommodated my
reflective and sequential learning preferences. For sequential
learning, in order to enhance others learning, I had to learn how to
explain things step-by-step, clearly, for I am horrible at explaining
things. I had taught my classmate how to use social bookmarking to
get a variety of ideas for making ceramics, where to buy and what it
can be used for. For reflective, I was able to listen, read, and
understand others points of views and see how it connects to me
personally or professionally.
Nicole Love

13. Our Investigation
 As a group, we found that many aspects of social technologies would be
useful. We all found different aspects interesting, Polo found the lemonade
stand game interesting, Nicole found Social bookmarking interesting and
microblogs to be interesting. Microblogs and social bookmarking were
most interesting because since they are new technology, most of the
processes are not ones we are familiar with. A social technology that does
not help with our learning is facebook. Most of the time spent on the site is
not beneficial for learning and for the most part is a distraction. In the
future, we hope to learn more about the developing social technologies that
are yet to be established mainstream.
As a group we all documented ourselves as social learners. With that
said, we chose social technology that would utilize this preference. Social
bookmarking is visual, microblogs is visual as well. These helped us
understand an information by putting them in front of us in a way that was
relevant for us. If we heard the same information and couldn’t see it, it
wouldn’t be as effective. That’s why I believe we gravitated towards these
specific technologies.

14. The Future
 As a group, Microblogging and social networks are something
we all have used as a group as far as social technologies. We
put on several questions that have came up in previous
homework and practice exams and shared them in
preparation for future exams. This is something we would all
continue to use for future exams and possibly for notes in the
workplace when someone is doing something new.
As interactive as social technologies are, the learning
strategies seem to stay the same with us as group members. I
would believe that we will continue to use visual learning
preferences to get the best results as possible from the results
we have thus far. As sequential learners, having things broken
down in separate pieces and having several people contribute
definitely helps this process as well.