1. Synthesis Project: Social/Collaborative
Learning

2.  In the beginning of the class I took the learning
preferences survey. What I remember from the survey is
that I was a visual, verbal, sensing, active, and reflective
learner.My learning preference quiz scores were active-7,
sensual-9, visual-5, and sequential-3. The learning
preferences that I was not so strong in were intuitive,
global and sequential. My thinking has changed because I
have learned what my strong points of learning are and
what my weak points are. It has helped my learning overall
now because I know now that I mainly a visual and active
learner. Knowing this has benefited me a lot because I
know the ways of studying that will benefit me the most.
This has definitely made a huge difference on my personal
learning success. The ways I use to study did not help as
much yet after knowing what my best learning preferences
were I have started to apply those preferences when
studying and I have seen nothing but positive results.
Nicholas Duenas

3.  In the beginning of the class I decided to choose the learning
warrior pathway because through this I felt that I could gain a
deeper knowledge about social networks and massive
multiplayer games while working with others. Through the
social/collaborative activities I learned how to connect and
interact with people online through games, and some social
bookmarking and networking sites. My classmates decided to
create a group on the site specifically for anatomy on the
networking site Facebook. In this Facebook group people posted
lecture slides, pictures of models, and answers to compare our
online quizzes. This helped socially as a learning guild because
this semester I have spent countless of hours working in study
groups. I learned to how to communicate well with others and
also I learned how to work independently with the information I
gained from the study groups. I know I can work with others and
still remain with my learning warrior status.

Nicholas Duenas

4.  The learning activities for this
social/collaborative learning were both
interesting and fun. The activity that I found
most interesting was when we had to try out all
the different MMOG games. These games were
very entertaining and you also learned some
educational information. At first I thought MMOG
games were only games such as World of
Warcraft or Starcraft yet these activities showed
me that MMOG games can be used for
educational purposes. This gave me a deeper
understand of how MMOG can be fun to play yet
also educational at the same time.

Nicholas Duenas

5.  For the technology quests I decided to explore social
networking sites, social bookmarking sites and
massive multiplayer games. Out of the three the
social networking sites have helped me the most in
this semester. Through Facebook I was able to
communicate with my class through this site. This
became a social learning for me by discussing and
sharing information with classmates about certain
classes over Facebook. At times we would have
discussion on certain wall posts about anatomy and
other times we would Instant Message one another
for help about certain questions for the online
quizzes. I feel like these quests benefited my learning
preferences the most.
Nicholas Duenas

6.  The next technology quest that I explored was
social bookmarking. In this quest I learned a lot
yet I hardly applied what I learn to my classes
this semester. Coming into this class the only
social bookmarking site I knew of was Delicious
and still I did not know how to use it that well.
The thing I found interesting about social
bookmarking sites were that one could save
tagged websites based on certain keywords. The
site also let the user share their tagged websites
with others which could be helpful for students
that know how to use these social bookmarking
sites correctly. I feel that this quest was the least
effective towards my learning preferences.
Nicholas Duenas

7.  The last learning technology that I explored was the
games and massive multiplayer online gaming. I
found this type of learning fun and effective. Most of
the games that I found did not relate to what I was
looking for. I was hoping to find an anatomy online
game in which I could discuss muscles, bones and etc
with other anatomy students yet I was unsuccessful in
finding a game like that. If I were able to find an
anatomy online game I would have been able to
actively learn with others. Conversing and engaging
in conversations about anatomy while playing a game
about the human body would definitely be a fun
experience.
Nicholas Duenas

8.  The most interesting learning tool I found in these
quests was social networking. The site Facebook has
introduced to a new aspect of the site that I never
thought I could use for learning. The groups feature
benefits students by being able to keep in contact
with classmates outside of class. Massive multiplayer
online games did not help me much when I tried
using it as a learning tool. When I tried these games I
ended up focusing more into the game rather then
with the people playing online with me. I would like
to explore the learning tool of social bookmarking
more because I feel that it can become a very useful
learning tool if I ever understand how to use it.
Nicholas Duenas

9.  After this class ends I will continue to use my active
and visual learning preferences. Many of the learning
strategies that I used can be used at my job or
outside of school. The learning tools that I used and
will be using the most are the social networking sites.
With these sites it allows individuals to share
information and receive information faster then
before. Back in the day people had to send mail to
one another and wait for that information whereas
today people can hop on Facebook to type out some
information and press a send button. The information
will be sent over the internet and will receive the
information instantly. The next thing for learning
tools is start using social bookmarking just like how
people use social networking sites.
Nicholas Duenas

10.  I definitely will keep using social networking technologies
after this class. I have learned that I can communicate with
other classmates over social networking and this has
become a cruel part of my learning outside of class. People
can use social networking to share information, catch up
with old friends, or to meet new friends. As for non-
learning purposes, games and massive multiplayer online
games could be used. I would not call these two learning
tools because people mostly play the games during free
time; these games are not for educational purposes. If I
were to avoid a learning tool in this exploration it would
definitely be social bookmarking. I find the sites confusing
to use and it is not a very user friendly. The main reason
why I do not suggest using social bookmarking sites for
learning tools is because the sites are not easy to use.
Nicholas Duenas