Survivor San Juan del Sur Winner Prediction

Keeping to my tradition of predicting a Survivor winner, I will attempt to offer evidence for who will win tonight's Sole Survivor title.

Throughout the last twelve weeks, the Survivor editors have been inconspicuously dropping visual hints that Natalie, one of the twinnies, will win this season. Early in the season, Natalie was shown finding the controversial lost flint which was an early plot point unbeknownst to most viewers and yours truly. Next, while sending everyone else at camp to collect water, Natalie took the initiative to find a hidden immunity idol buried by the campfire for someone to find eventually. Moreover, when confronted by this season's anti-hero, Jon, Natalie not only saved Jon by telling him to play his idol, but also beat him in a vase balancing challenge.

Adding to her winner's resume, Natalie then proceeded to deceive Jon and Jaclyn by saying she would vote out Keith, but instead voting out Alec which obviously frustrated Jon and Jaclyn after the vote. She then planned and implemented a plan to blindside Jon by splitting the votes and then easily voting out Jon from the revote. Enhancing her resume, many times Natalie's conversations were visually presented in subtitles to viewers which is used as an important moment by the editors for conveying not only what is happening, but also a pivotal moment in the game.

Finally, while at Exile Island, Natalie offers an emotional loneliness from not being with her twin sister for more than thirty days which pulls on the emotional strings of viewers. Script writers love to use this type of emotional mechanism against viewers for touching a broad range of emotions during a major motion picture, documentary, or other type of film production.

From the above evidence I provided, Natalie's winner montage will include all of the above moments I mentioned, if not more, when she is eventually crowned Season 29 Blood versus Water San Juan del Sur winner tonite as the Sole Survivor. This is my prediction.

--Corey

Psychology of Survivor

Last week, the latest installment of the show Survivor began its 29th season shot in Nicaragua. This season's theme is Blood versus Water which matches up loved ones to compete for the one million grand prize. My fascination with the show stems back to my high school days where I was introduced to the book, The Lord of the Flies (LOTF) by William Golding. Golding's book mesmerized me then and still does today, which explains why I continue to be fascinated by Survivor, a show based on my all-time favorite book LOTF.

From my recent graduate studies, I was lucky to have studied psychologist Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for humans and animals. Maslow suggested all humans are motivated to satisfy their basic needs of food, shelter, excretion, homeostasis, breathing, water, sex, and sleep. After these lower level needs are satisfied, Maslow posit that other levels are then sought after by humans. The other levels are safety, social, esteem, and then finally self-actualization. Coincidentally, the players in Survivor attempt to satisfy these same needs suggested by Maslow's model throughout the show.

In an effort to enjoy watching this season while applying Maslow's psychological work, I developed a pilot fantasy scoring game. Somewhat similar to scoring in fantasy football, game players draft castaways on their teams for earning points during the season. The fantasy game player or tribal owner who accumulates the most points at the end of the season wins the game. My goal is to develop the fantasy game in HTML5 for eventually using as an educational tool in the classroom. To start out, the following is an alpha version of the scoring breakdown for the physiology level:

Physiology Points: Breathing, Food, Water, Sex, Sleep, Homeostasis, Excretion

• +1 Player attempts to start fire.
• +1 Player starts fire.
• -1 Player puts out fire.
• +1 Player looks for water.
• +1 Player boils water.
• +1 Player collects water.
• -1 Player dumps out water of another.
• +1 Player drinks water.
• +1 Player eats food.
• -1 Player wastes food.
• -1 Player hides food from another.
• -1 Player throws away food.
• +1 Player fishes for food.
• +1 Player gathers fruits.
• +1 Player gathers wood.
• +1 Player hunts for food.
• +1 Player builds shelter.
• -1 Player destroys shelter.
• -1 Player burns down shelter.
• +1 Player sleeps.
• -1 Player is sleep deprived.
• -1 Player is dehydrated.
• +1 Player excretes.
• -1 Player cannot excrete.
• -1 Player loses tool.
• -1 Player breaks tool.

As the show continues from week to week, I plan to post updates on the progress of the game.

--Corey

A New Spin on Internet Citizenship

For awhile now, I have been tinkering with the idea of developing an operating system for empowering online citizens. This idea aligns with my most recent research and graduate work in public administration and nonprofit management. The main focus is to provide the necessary tools for citizens to engage with outside individuals and organizations with privacy and security at the forefront. My reasoning for focusing upon privacy and security first links to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which I studied a few semesters ago. Abraham Maslow proposed that all individuals seek five stages in life: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization.

Referencing Maslow's work, I focused on the two primary areas, privacy and security, for enabling internet citizens or netizens. However, instead of creating an operating system from scratch, I selected the Fedora Spins Project for developing a linux-based system. The initial specification for the new spin is located here. My goal for this project, Fedora Netizen, is to have an operational operating system for citizens to download and use from a USB stick or install entirely on their Mac, PC, or other internet enabled device.

--Corey

BlendKit Blended Course Reflection

Reflecting upon BlendKit 2014 blended course, new perspectives were gained regarding how blended courses could benefit students, as well as instructors when delivering required continuing education and licensure courses. In forming a suitable question for basing further blended course development, the following question may aid in the development process: in what ways can a blended course development approach improve effectiveness and efficiency for delivering high quality educational experiences within the real estate industry?

Implementing this question, the first benefit that my be realized is the dual allowance for learning synchronously and asynchronously by students. The opportunity for students to learn multiple and alternative may promote higher levels of cognitive learning. In addition, permitting remote participation may be more convenient at times for students, especially for those who work full-time jobs and have family responsibilities. On the contrary, those students who may have the need to directly interact with their instructors benefit from the in-class sessions eliminating the possible feeling of totally being disconnected.

From an instructor's perspective, blended course delivery may offer an increased amount of time for managing courses and responding to students' need due to the decreased amount of time required in a classroom. Moreover, integrating a blended mode may also aid in the implementation of a flipped classroom scenario. By assigning reading and work assignments for homework, students may be more attentive within the classroom since they are given the opportunity to work on their assignments before meeting in-class. Because more in-class time is available, alternative learning experiences may take place such as role playing, games, and other in-class group activities.

In conclusion, the implementation of blended courses may provide a significant impact to my future development and delivery of instructional courses. As identified in my original question, effectiveness and efficiency are two important keys to the ongoing success for my current course covering cybercrime and upcoming courses on internet privacy and cybersecurity. With this in mind, I envision offering these three courses in blended mode along with online versions at the start so that I can make proper adjustments for effectively and efficiently delivering higher learning experiences to my future students.

--Corey

Certified Google YouTube Digital Citizenship

Today, I earned Google's YouTube Digital Citizenship Certification by passing the online examination. My official test record can be viewed here. Studying for the exam was actually an enjoyable task as I gained new insight into YouTube's safety and privacy policies and tools. The next Google certifications I plan to take are the Google Analytics certification and the Google Educator certification.

--Corey

Survivor Cagayan Prediction

After years of not watching Survivor, I finally returned to watching the show this past season, Survivor Cagayan. Even though I do not subscribe to cable, I can still watch the show on Amazon's Instant Video service. Nevertheless, this past season has been a treat, to say the least, for watching because of all the new players, twists, and location. Since tonight is the finale, I will attempt to predict who will be voted out and of course, the eventual winner.

Analyzing the final four, I predict the next player to go will be Kass since she is considerably weak at physical challenges. With the final three consisting of Tony, Spencer, and Woo, the next to be voted out after losing the final immunity challenge will be Tony leaving Spencer and Woo for the final tribal council. After answering the jury's questions and debating their reasons why they each should win the million dollars, my final prediction is for Spencer to be named sole Survivor.

All in all, it has been a great season to watch as a fan, a social science researcher, and a Lord of the Flies true adorer. I look forward to watching the next season with the hope of no returning players and all brand new players similar to Cagayan.

--Corey

Quality Assurance in Blended Learning

Focusing on this week's readings from my blended learning course, many questions need to be not only investigated, but also answered regarding my upcoming development and delivery of blended instructional courses. First, the question of following standardized rules and procedures for creating and instructing blended learning courses exist due to its location within the early stages of a product's life cycle. Second, instructional effectiveness was also questioned and must be addressed. The need for learners to transfer newly gained knowledge to real world applications is a critical issue for developing credibility of blended learning. Finally, a conclusion is offered for perhaps providing insight on how I may resolve issues and questions pertaining to standards and instructional effectiveness for blended learning courses.

In the reading, the lack of a formalized, authoritative body to oversee standards of blended learning was declared and discussed which translates into that the blended learning discipline is in the infantile stage and still evolving. This point was an important concern for me since I have previous experience in researching authority bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN), and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) regarding the standardization of internet protocols, web development, and cyber infrastructure. The commonality between all three of these organizations mentioned is that they are formed as nonprofits, but more importantly, tax exempt public charities for the purpose of serving the general public. With this in mind, the formation of a nonprofit organization may be a possible solution for moving forward and developing standardized blended learning course development, best practices, and open source tools which also do not exist, but were mentioned as a major problem within the discipline. Furthermore, the question of efficiency and collaboration may also be resolved if a consortium of organizations networked together to share information and strategies under the helpful hand of a neutral and public serving nonprofit organization for advancing blended learning.

Besides the need for standards and a governing body, instructional effectiveness was a a major point realized from the week's reading. In my attempt to provide effective blended learning courses in real estate science and other disciplines, I plan to develop Google Docs forms for students to submit their feedback. Both formative and summative, student feedback during and after course delivery will be a key component for my instructional development because of their alternative perspectives will render new information outside of my instructional role. The other key component for my continued growth in delivering effective blended courses will be the requesting and collecting of peer review feedback. Peer review feedback may also provide ideal and timely information for improving blended learning course delivery since others may have already encountered the same issues within their courses.

In sum, my approach for developing and delivering blended learning courses covering real estate science will be a consistent, researched approach for helping students build new knowledge. Nevertheless, it is important as an instructor and researcher to stay abreast of the latest scientific research findings concerning blended learning by reading peer reviewed articles found in academic journals. Moreover, I will also pay close attention to other academic instructors' views and methods by perhaps subscribing to mailing lists, joining forums, and attending workshops involving blended learning best practices. Lastly, the academic community within the University of Central Florida will continue to be a main resource for me to lean on as I continue to develop and deliver blended online courses.

--Corey

A New Blog Home

For awhile now, I have been contemplating whether or not to move this blog from wordpress to blogger for a couple of reasons. The first reason why to move the blog is because the DNS records for corey.leong.name are resolved by wordpress rather than with my personal hosting company. Since I have extensive DNS experience, I always prefer to resolve my own domains for controlling resolution, redirection, and for maintenance purposes.

The second reason why is because it seems wordpress levies unnecessary fees to host a blog. Case in point, I incurred a fee for not only redirecting my primary domain, corey.leong.name, but also for eliminating ads situated within my posts for wordpress to make additional money. Then, there is a premium fee for packaging more of there services which seems to me exorbitant for me and the average wordpress user, in my opinion.

Lastly, my current research involves e-learning and developing courses for delivering online courses in the near future. Moreover, one area of course content covers Google Apps which includes GMail, Google Drive and Docs, Sites, Chrome, and Calendar. Since all of these products are Google products, it only makes sense to investigate Blogger which is also another Google product. Thus, the final reason why I am moving from wordpress to blogger is for integration purposes with Google+, Google Analytics, YouTube, and all other Google products.

The new address for my blog is blog.coreyleong.org hosted by Google’s blogger while the old address, corey.leong.name, will be a new site with a new direction in the future.

--Corey

Blended Content and Assignments

After reading this past week's reading assignment, key points of blended learning activities were realized from a holistic perspective. Using my current course development of CYC2001 Introduction to Cybercrime, I will attempt to apply the key points gained from the reading for adapting to the upcoming modules. Next, I will offer ideas on technology-integration within CYC2001, as learning activity types were discussed within the reading. Finally, a conclusion is offered for resolving my thoughts and perspectives with the coupling of technology and learning activities.

In designing effective modules for online and face-to-face interactions, focusing on learning activities was emphasized using three different approaches: direct, indirect, and online. Applying a direct learning method to CYC2001, students may gain new knowledge by witnessing hack attacks in real-time via a security emergency center or antivirus third party vendor. If a real-time experience is not available, simulating events of cyber hacking and attacks within an internal network may offer links between course concepts and observational experiences. Furthermore, role playing may also add beneficial knowledge linkages for students during in class simulations.

For considering an indirect approach for learning activities, the delivery of case studies within the classroom would be an ideal method due to the connecting of current events and learning objectives within the course. Another indirect approach related to case studies would be the offering of personal or third party stories of examples of cybecrime for students to engage other students from others' experiences. Even though online gaming was listed under indirect approaches in the reading assignment, one online integration possibility is the delivery of an online game for students to experience. From last semester's course on instructional game development, I developed a prototype cybersecurity game involving a simple network topology, a user, and a virus which infects computers on the network. With this type of learning tool, an online game may enhance the learning experiences of students because of its adaptive nature and the enticement for learners to play for fun. No matter which learning activity is implemented, all students will be asked to reflect upon their learning experience after each module's interaction within discussion forums representing a communicative method. In addition, learners may develop mindmap diagrams of the their newly acquired knowledge for producing or remixing their knowledge signifying a productive learning approach to blended learning activities.

In sum, integrating technology and learning activities is a core requirement for not only my upcoming course in cybercrime, but also all future courses. Offering learners the opportunities to engage in multiple interactive ways during a course is a high priority for this instructor for enhancing overall course delivery and increasing the level of engagement. From the reading assignment, indirect, direct, and online were three approaches which were realized for developing face-to-face interaction and online interaction within blended courses. Furthermore, three types of learning activities were discovered for implementing in my immediate course delivery: adaptive, communicative, and productive.

--Corey

Blended Assessments of Learning

In an effort to develop a blended course involving online and face-to-face interactions, formal and informal assessments will be implemented within my upcoming course, introduction to cybercrime. For formal assessments, three student quizzes are planned for my introductory course covering topics on cybercrime. Each quiz will assess students' understandings of the concepts within the first three modules on the first quiz, modules four through six on the second quiz, and the final three modules, seven through nine, on the final examination. A time limit will be set for each formal assessment along with the opportunity to retake the assessment a second time, if the student so chooses. Online essays in the form of discussion postings will also be utilized each week for allowing student-to-student interactions. In addition, I will also provide feedback to students' to build upon their critical thinking by posing alternative questions according to their posted reasonings. A quantitative assessment will be used for assessing discussion points as follows: one point for minimal effort, two points for below average effort, three points for an average effort, four points for an above average effort, and finally, five points for a superior effort and response.

For informal assessments two methods will be utilized during the cybercrime course, one-sentence summary and student-generated test questions. However, these two assessments will be implemented during face-to-face interactions rather than online which is in contrast to the suggested method from this week's reading assignment. During classroom sessions, time will be allotted for students to think about the current topic and synthesize a one-sentence summary. I will then randomly read these out loud in class for the students' to comment on the statements for drawing on alternative perspectives regarding the current topic in class. The other method of informal assessment will challenge students to develop three to five ideal test question for the final exam. From this method, students will not only benefit from the direct interaction of the subject matter, but will also gain valuable insight into the final exam which should remove an effort to memorize content for the sake of regurgitating it later on the final exam.

In sum, from this week's assigned reading I identified assessment strategies, formal and informal, for implementing withing my upcoming blended course on cybercrime. First, formal assessments involving quizzes and essays posting in online discussion forums will be assigned to students for evaluating using a quantitative grading rubric. Second, informal assessments, one-sentence summary and student-generated test questions, will be implemented within the classroom for building face-to-face interactions and higher levels of engagements with students. By implementing these two types of blended assessments, the hope for new opportunities of interactions between instructor and students should be a positive reinforcement during course delivery while enhancing the potential for students to build their knowledge of cybercrime topics and issues.

--Corey

Blended Interactions

After reading this week's Blendkit2014 reading assignment, several thoughts came to mind regarding methods of interactions between an instructor and students during a blended course, specifically for a course I am currently developing, CYC2001 Introduction to Cybercrime. From my past instructional experiences, adult learners in real estate education generally require additional guidance with concepts and principles since most are new to the industry. Furthermore, the majority, if not all, real estate learners are merely present to receive their licensure for moving onto residential or commercial brokerage work. Because real estate educational requirements are minimally set by state commissions, learners' knowledge of real estate concept may vary greatly, in addition to their technical competence. With this in mind, identifying learners' experiences within a specific knowledge domain may play an important role in the decision making process for selecting a blended interaction model as discussed in this week's reading assignment.

Three specific interactions models were found most relevant from the reading for implementation purposes. First, the atelier learning model was presented as a method for instructors to observe and interact with learners similar to how art instructors observe and interact within their art studio classrooms. This interaction method could potentially work for observing posted discussion question and answers within an online forum discussing issues and topics on cybercrime. Second, fisher's interaction method for continuously establishing connections between concepts draws similar patterns to network administrators who connect new devices within an organization's network. Fisher's model of forming connections was received as an ideal method for integrating with my upcoming course, especially for connecting issues in cyberattacks to methods in preventing future attacks. The third method that may offer beneficial learning experiences was the concierge learning, a method for directing learners to resources previously unknown. This interaction method would seem the most ideal since real estate learners may not have been exposed to prevention measures in cyberattacks, but also unaware of other cybercrime topics such as phishing, viruses, and physical asset attacks.

In sum, all three interaction models will at some point be implemented within my upcoming cybercrime course. For online instruction, the atelier and fisher models seem most likely to be implemented online since discussions can be easily monitored online while offering URL links to additional resources for learners so that they are able to create new learning associations. In contrast, the concierge interaction would best play a role within the classroom during presentations for creating new in class discussions, covering case studies, and possibly for integrating within role playing situations for enhancing learning experiences. After implementing, evaluating how successful these three interaction methods is also a key element for revising or eliminating altogether from future blended courses.

--Corey

Understanding Blended Learning

This summer I am enrolled in my second Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) offered by UCF and EDUCAUSE. Blendkit 2014 is the name of the course and my goal for enrolling is to apply blended instructional concepts and principles to the ongoing development of real estate courses I am currently designing. From my past learning and instructional experiences, there seems to be a gap in the effort to develop a hybrid instructional approach in the real estate sector, especially in residential. Salesperson courses tend to be either face-to-face or entirely online. However, applying a blended approach to the delivery of residential salespersons and broker salespersons courses not only seem to be likely ideal course candidates, but ultimately improve learning experiences of pre-licensed students.

After reading the initial chapter assignment, my understanding of what a blended course was confirmed by the definition given that a blended course is comprised of the traditional face-to-face instruction and online instruction. From the stated benefits of blended learning, the most important benefit that registered with me, as a current student myself, was the additional benefit of flexibility. Traditional instruction has been and still is the prime instructional mode for delivering real estate salesperson courses, even though e-Learning instruction is well established in other industries. My theory for this resistance is that the real estate industry is quite often constrained and restricted by older and traditional practitioners as well as instructors which in effect causes not only the adoption of technology to be slower, but also new approaches to implement within the industry. Annual reports routinely state that the average age of the practicing residential salesperson is 55 or older which reaffirms my theory each year.

For better understanding development approaches for blended courses, several interesting points were made within the designing section. In particular, the concept of geographically distributed came up which is an important aspect for my development since future learners will be dispersed through out the state of Florida and eventually nationally. Again, flexible learning was brought up during the planning process of delivery. This is another interesting point for relating to real estate since the delivery of salesperson courses tend to be very deliberate in their linear, systematic approach of instructing towards the exam which is fully endorsed by state real estate commissions. Near the end of the design section, the topic of models or frameworks for developing learning courses was discussed. From my most recent research on interoperability and reusability of learning management systems, ontology development applied to e-Learning is a new research interest of mine and may extend well to the development of a blended real estate course. An ontological approach applied to blended course development may become an effective method for developing dynamic courseware along with a graphical solution for eventually establishing a knowledge base system for future courseware development. In sum, I plan to apply early concepts of blended learning for developing a blended real estate course while using an ontology tool called Protege for testing in Moodle, an open source learning management system.

--Corey

Spring 2014 Graduate Courses

This spring semester I am currently taking two courses at UCF. To begin the new year, I was admitted into the Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) Master Program within the Education and Human Performance College. With a concentration in e-learning, my goal is to complete the program within three years while appling concepts, principles, and theories directly to course development for the Global Real Estate And Technology University (GR8U) where I will instruct continuing education and eventually, licensing courses. This will be my second master's degree from UCF with my sights set on additional advanced degrees in the near future.

Currently, I am enrolled in the following courses:

• EME 6062 Research in Instructional Technology
• EME 6614 Instructional Game Design in Training and Education

--Corey