Chapter 6 Learning Artifact for EME

I found this chapter very enlightening and informative. Not only did I feel like I learned alot, but I am excited about the new ways I have learned to use technology for myself as an individual, as well as for my teacher-self. After learning about the tools in this chapter, I decided to make a list of questions that I am still unsure about. I also decided to make this blog, because blogging is something that is foreign to me and definetly falls into the not "safe" zone. Then, the final part of my learning artifact (which is the most exciting to me) is going to be my link to another blog page. This other blog page will be my mother's.
After reading this chapter, I wondered why it was that I never really saw the use in using technology before. It really had no importance to me whatsoever and even now sometimes after I have read about a new technology tool I find myself saying "So what?" and thinking about how I could still live my life without these technology tools. Then I wonder why I have to think that way. I am going to be a teacher, and I realized that I am actually interested in learning about these technology tools and that I want to be able to teach them to my stduents and other people I care for. So, I took the first step and reached out to my mother. I asked her why she never showed any interest in technology. Why didn't she teach or involve me in anything technological growing up? Why even today she refuses to try and learn technology? Then I explained to her how it has put me so far behind in my learning, and hers, and told her of just a few simple ways it could improve her way of life currently. Then I had a huge realization; I actually understand some of this stuff! I then explained to my mother how a blog and a wiki works and convinced her to make her own blogpage, which I am going to link to my own.
This simple activity of teaching someone else the technolgy concepts made it so much more understandable to me. On my mother's blogpage she will list her own understanding of how a blog can help her with some activities in her life, and what she thought of the experience of making a blog.
Back to my own learning though, my list of questions. There are still some things in this chapter i am unsure about. For 1. I understand that the difference between a wiki and a blog used to be that wikis were for collaboration and more commmunity like, and that blogs were only a one-way communication. I also understand that wikis can be edited and blogs can be responded to. Still, from my understanding- wikis and blogs are very similar with only minor differences. This is more of a just checking statement rather than an exact question. Next 2. Is that I feel like a knowledge forum, which uses a database- is just a database. So is it just different in the fact that you can build on to other peoples ideas and see the progress of thought? I think I have confused myself a little bit here. 3.With the KidLink online community- how do they protect students within that community when so much information is shared about the individuals? They seem to ask alot of questions and then it posts all of their answers for everyone to see ( like their names, age, DOB, what school they attend, what city they live in). It seems like this would be the perfect place for a predator to find children.
This chapter was the best to me so far because I feel like it introduced more new tools that I was totally unfamiliar with than any other chapter did. It has also helped because as I learn more and more it becomes easier to understand the new ideas. This chapter almost seemed simple! The hardest part was discovering how to link a blog, but even that was manageable.