1. Social Technology Synthesis
By Christopher Heins

2. Learning Preference
 At the beginning of the semester I learned that my learning
preference and I learned that I am fairly balanced in active
(1), visual (1), global (1), and then for intuitive I had a more
favorable learning preference with a score of 5. When I
started college i think that i might have been more of a
sequential learner but as time went on I think that I might
have adapted into a more intuitive learner. I like to think of
things in theories and try to think of different ways of doing
things. Since it is the end of class I have looked back at how
differently I see these learning preferences and I have come
to see that it really works better if you have a moderate
balance of these because it helps you gain a better grasp on
everything and gives you a different look into everything else
and how things can be done. I do think that learning about
your learning preferences can help you because for me I
never really thought about how I learned easier and what
things I had an easier time learning.
 Christopher Heins

3. Learning Pathway
 The learning pathway I chose at the beginning of the
semester for Social technologies was to be a sage
learner. Before this class I had never thought about
using social technology as a means to learn and just
thought about it as a means to socialize with people
and meet new people. I never thought about games
being able to really be used that much as a learning
tool, and I was interested in learning more about this
since I am huge gamer, and if games could help me
learn I would be all for it. By the end of the class I had
not changed my learning pathway because I feel there
is never too much to learn and I would always want to
learn more about something that interests me.
 Christopher Heins

4. Activities
 The activities that gave me a deeper knowledge of using
social technology to learn were the games and social
networking ones. With games I used to just play games and
not think very much of them besides just something to do
because I enjoyed it, and with social networking sites I never
used to think of them as something to learn from because
most people just use them to post status updates and what is
going on in their lives. These helped me because I like to play
games and finding out that they could actually help you
learn, such as if you are performing a task in a game as a
group that can be applied to outside in your school life by
giving you the skills needed to be able to function in a group
together nicely. And for social networking sites it helps you
communicate with other better and easier so you can ask
them for help or help other people.
 Christopher Heins

5. Exploration
 The games and mmorpg’s quest I explored by trying
different games and seeing how I could use them as a
learning tool. Of the many games that I have played I
never really thought too deeply about if they were being
educational or not and I just played them for enjoyment.
I have played games like World of Warcraft and I have
had to work in parties which if I think about it now it is
kind of like working in groups for school. In the games I
had to learn how to be patient with people in my parties
and I think that helped carry it over to being patient in
groups for school because not everybody is going to do
everything the way that you think is right. I also am
attracted to games that let me do things the way I want
and I don’t have to follow a sequential path, which is like
my learning preference of being intuitive.
 Christopher Heins

6. Exploration Cont.
 The social networks quest I had tried to use social
networks to try and enhance my learning. I used social
networks before to just look at other peoples pages and
status updates instead of using them for learning. After
taking this class I started using them more and more for
my class work and to use it to enhance my learning
abilities in class. I found these useful to my learning
style of being intuitive because I am able to discuss
topics and things openly with no right or wrong answer.
I like to be able to talk to a lot of people at one time to
get different perspectives on topics so that I can
broaden my knowledge on things and see everybody's
point of views.
 Christopher Heins

7. Exploration Cont.
 I had a hard time with the social bookmarking
quests because I didn’t really find it useful for
how I learn the best. Even though i can see
how it does help other people to organize and
save references for certain topics together so
that it will be easier for other people to
find, but for me it is just easier for me to save
them in my own computers bookmark. I also
had just found it easier for me to search for
things on my own then use a social
bookmarking site to help me look for things.
 Christopher Heins

8. Synthesize
 The social technology quest that interested me the most was
the game's quest because I really like playing video games
and before this class I had never thought about using games
for learning. Even though I played some games that could be
considered for learning I didn’t realize that I was learning
certain things just by playing. The quest that surprised me the
most was the social networking sites being used for learning.
I never thought of using these sites as a tool for learning
because I just saw them as a way for people to socialize and
meet new people, and not really starting discussions about
class topics and discussing them among each other. The
quest that I don’t see being useful is the social bookmarking
quest because for me it was hard to understand it and I didn’t
really see how it was useful to bookmark things on these sites
so it would be easier for people to search for certain topics. I
just found it easier for me to search for things on my own
computer and searches.
 Christopher Heins

9. Synthesize Cont.
 The learning quest that best helps me is the one on
gaming. I usually play a lot of games and I like to play
ones that either let me run around on my own and do
what I want and ones that I usually have to work in
groups. I find it useful doing what I like in my spare time
and it helps me learn. I found that since in some games
I have to work in parties that it helped me learn how to
deal with groups for group projects because not
everybody functions the same. The social networking
site was also helpful in being able to communicate with
other members from my class and discuss things
outside of class and share ideas and theories.
 Christopher Heins

10. Future Uses
 After this class I will most likely continue to use
the things I learned from the gaming quest in my
future jobs. This could be helpful because if I end
up working for a corporation there are projects
that I will have to do with other coworkers. I will
also continue to use social networking sites to
help me in future jobs because I think it is
important to communicate with coworkers and
bosses to have a good work relationship and
keep the business going smoothly, and with
social networks you can keep in contact with
those people and since most people are using
them now it’s easy and convenient.
 Christopher Heins

11. Future Uses Cont.
 I will continue to use gaming and social
networks after this class for learning. With
gaming I am always playing new games and I
will continue to find ways that these could be
beneficial to my learning. As for social
networks I don’t see them going away
anytime soon so I will keep using those to
communicate with people and try to have
education discussions about topics we
covered in class and try to expand on those
ideas and educate each other and help each
other.
 Christopher Heins