Our Quest to finding an effective learning pathway

1. SYNTHESIS QUEST: MOBILE LEARNING
Nicole Love, Mohamed Saber, and Polo Morales

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. GROUPS THOUGHTS:
 My thoughts on learning preferences have changed greatly. I’ve learned
that with every learning style, you’re learning the same thing in different
ways, and by learning it in different ways, you have a different
interpretation of it. For example, while in class if the teacher gives us a
visual of how something looks I write down a brief summary of what it is,
what it does, and how it connects to other things vise- a –versa. I had to
evaluate how I most effectively learned. 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. 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’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.
Nicole Love (Blue), Mohamed Saber (red), and Polo Morales (Green)

6. LEARNING PATHWAYS
 At the beginning of class I chose the learning sage for a broad
knowledge of mobile technologies. I simply wanted to know about the
different technologies out there for future references. As the semester
went on, I begin to want to know more about these mobile
technologies, which is why I changed my pathway to learning Warrior. I
chose this way because at one point I had all of this broad knowledge
about the different kinds of mobile technologies and was not putting it to
use. Once I put these mobile technologies to use I understood how to
use them, why they were created, different technologies, and
applications I can use on them to enhance my learning.
Nicole Love

7. LEARNING PATHWAYS
 As a learning sage, I was looking to get a broader understanding of
utilizing my Iphone better. I have an Iphone and I use many apps, but I
feel that many other apps were out there that I may be able to use.
Someone in the class mentioned a flashcard app. I downloaded it and I
currently use it to study for finals. This class has helped me better
understand in a broader sense what I can use my phone for to develop
my success. I definitely feel that I can take some of the knowledge I have
from this class and use it in the real world. I did not change my learning
preference because I was very comfortable learning and enjoying my
path.
Mohamed Saber

8. 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 mobile technology to improve my performance in the
classroom. For example, I used the information learned in class to help
me create a routine that would help me take advantage of my
downtime—the result was great. I spent more time reviewing material,
and as a result my grades and understanding of the material improved. I
wouldn’t change anything, because I know I achieved what I set out to
achieve from the very beginning.
Polo Morales

9. GROUPS THOUGHTS: CONTRIBUTIONS 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 mobile technologies. Each level encouraged me to do more
research or think about things in a different perspective. Bookmarking has
enhanced my learning. I had to do research on the different ways these
technologies can be used, and post articles and or videos that explain the
technologies in which others will benefit from it. What helped me with Mobile
learning in a broader sense is getting posts from other students about what
they do actively to better themselves with Apps. One was the flashcard app in
a more detailed direct way. This app has been a part of my study cycle ever
since I was introduced to it. So posting about learning preferences and what I
want to know more about has helped me develop my study skills. A specific
activity that helped me attain a broader understanding of how to use mobile
technologies was the microblogs activity. By using microblogs I was able to
search for blogs that related to a specific subject—in my case, accounting—
and read the input from others who had the same interest as I did. The
activity that helped me get a deeper understanding of how to use mobile
technologies was the podcasts activity. By using podcasts I was able to
download very informative lessons directly onto my IPod and listen to them
when I was out.
Nicole Love (blue), Mohamed Saber (Red), and Polo Morales (Green)

10. TOP MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES
 Micro-blogging is by far the best technology quest thus far. I
explored micro-blogging by Google searching blogs pertaining to my
passions of fashion, beauty products, and finance. It was a great
experience to watch the blogs from people across the globe about
my passions. It allowed me to see their personalities, cultures,
ideas, and the results of the topics they were talking about. It
enhanced all of my learning preferences, specifically the visual and
verbal, reflective and active, learning styles. When watching micro-
blogs about finance I was able to grasp concepts and perspectives
from those living in a specific geographic region, I was given an
inside point of view of economical issues that were occurring and
how it affected the people and their markets.
Nicole Love

11. TOP MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES
 For mobile technology, the Iphone app for flash cards once again has
been my topic. This app helps me for my visual learning preference
because multiple repetitions of me seeing the cards helped me learn
quicker than other ways. Also as a sequential learner, breaking each
concept down into a note card made it easier to understand the
information because it was also one of my learning preferences to learn
in smaller pieces like note cards. For my last test, I had 58 note cards
and seeing each one multiple times and separating them from each other
based on type of question gave me a much better understanding of the
concepts and equations needed for the exam.
Mohamed Saber

12. TOP MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES
 My favorite technology quest for this semester was the IPod/Mp3 quest.
This quest was my favorite because I believe it was the most useful for
my situation. It helped me accommodate my sequential learning
preference because I was able to organize my material by chapter and
relevance. For example, my accounting class was setup so that the
easiest material came first followed by more difficult concepts. Now that
I’m preparing for the final—which is cumulative—I have organized all of
my study material in a specific order on my IPod. Using this mobile
technology has made my life easier because I don’t need to carry any
books or notes to study for the upcoming exam.
Polo Morales

13. THE INVESTIGATION
 As a group we all agreed that the IPod /Mp3 technology was the best learning
tool! The IPods/Smartphone’s was the most surprising tool because who
knew that you could do so much with your handheld devices. My group has
made flash cards and organized materials from classes for ourselves and
group members to study from. We would like to further explore the IPod and
its cool applications to enhance our learning, for We thought the educational
apps like quizzlet, and microblog, which displayed the material in a repetitive
and organized way when it came to learning. We would like to see how our
new and improved way of learning with technology can enhance our learning,
and our classmates or even students from our student organization.
 Our entire group consists of finance majors and we would continue using
the micro-blogs. We all figured within the financial industry, the markets
change all the time, and a good way to get a general idea of the big
picture from and outside and or inside point of view is to watch/read the
blogs of other financial professionals within the industry. We figured why
stop there, we can also read blogs on a specific sector of the financial
industry or a specific security we are interested in learning a little more
about.

14. THE FUTURE
 As a group we have chose to continue using all learning strategies –
what they are, how to use and what they can be used for, and
implementing an activity in which they can be used. These learning
strategies can be used within our jobs in the future to keep up with the
changing markets and technology that we will be using. We can have a
twitter account for our staffs to briefly update them on changes that have
or may occur within the company or use applications on our IPads and
tablets that will allow teams to communicate by sharing notes when in
different locations (home, in the office, another state). Use applications
that can mock the stock market in which a team of entry-level stock
brokers can use to teach themselves. We will continue to use all mobile
technologies for non-learning purposes because in our generation,
technology is developing at rapid speeds and being a curious and
technology driven generation, it is the only way to stay connected with
the world.