Week 6: The Digital Divide

When I was at Brenau University working on my BS Ed, this amazing new "thing" came out called the internet.  You could use your home phone line to connect to America Online internet service provider. This awesome dial up allowed you to enter "chat rooms" where you could talk to strangers, or log onto the Brenau Library where you could search holdings (not for the actual paper mind you.)   I was amazed, flabbergasted really. From that point on, I was in awe of this new thing called the internet.  I remember also my first teaching job and when we started communicating by email. We had this huge meeting where we were told not to use school email for personal correspondance. I still don't. 

  I completed my Masters and and will complete my Specialist all online. I have learned to research and find valid sources, and I have learned to weed out the trashy ones.  At this time, there are a millon ways to easily research and find wonderful information within a matter of seconds.  It simply takes the right search engine, web site, and keywords and you can find just about anything you need.  Google Books also offers online books  and google scholar has become an often used site for me. 

      Students and teachers all need guidance when evaluating quality resources.  I have often used cybersmart to help me with lessons for students. The internet has really helped to facilitate research in all areas. I hated going to the library, trying to find what I needed, then using the microfiche machine to read/make copies! YUCK! Further, this was a major time drain for me.  Now I can sit at home and research at any time, for any reason, and I can find great information as long as I know what I am looking for!

Week 5: Mobile Computing Devices

   My mobile computing devices are most definitely an extension of who I am.  I wake up to an alarm on my cell phone, pick up the phone and check mail on three email accounts, and respond when necessary all before getting out of bed.  I use my laptop to complete my MEd and my EdS. I take my ipad to meetings and I drool over new apps that facilitate learning. Today, we had a county wide technology meeting for Media Specialist, Coaches, etc. .  We discussed the use of tablets, how to go wireless and keep it safe, etc. . The presenters were using their iphones to flip through their Keynote presentation that was projected on a big screen . . I almost jumped up and clapped! WOW! How cool was that?  I use the ipads daily with my kiddos in the Media Center, hunt down great apps, and am diligently trying to facilitate higher order thinking with my ipads. I love technology and I think that right now is the best time to be a Media Specialist because such wonderful new tools are being developed every day!


There are several sites I use to search for apps: http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20with%20Apps for our school:

https://sites.google.com/site/bloomsapps/home

http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20with%20Apps

Week Three: Our Online Selves

These were our questions of the week:
- How do we shape our ability to critically evaluate the credibility of information available online?
- How do we represent ourselves online?

In your journal: Please find and share at least one web-based resource and reflect on these questions, or other issues related to the topic of the week and your educational context.

We represet ourselves on line by the content we wish to share, post, and by the persona we create. I have finally given in to my thirteen-year-old son and allowed him to create a facebook page. I stalk his page daily and am amazed at his online persona. He promotes himself as a football obsessed teenager (which he is in the real world), who loves country music. He is also flirting on line. This is so funny to me! He has started listening to country music and I wonder if this is the effect of his facebook friendship with others who strive to create the same type of online presence. I also wonder if he has had any lessons at school on cybersaftey. I wonder, too, if he, as Heverly states, realizes that his online content can, "reappear at inopportune or unwanted moments, are pernicious in nature, being negative and unwanted" (p. 200). I am glad that my group will be working on lessons regarding this issue and will force my son to actually complete our lesson so that he has an idea of how what you post today can bite you in the behind for the rest of your life!






Heverly, Robert A. “Growing Up Digital: Control and the Pieces of a Digital Life." Digital
Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected. Edited by Tara McPherson. The John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA:
The MIT Press, 2008. 199–218.






Resources:
online presence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjFBpomwBC


Web Based Resource:
CyberSmart:

Week 2: Social Networking

Social Networking relates to me in several areas of my job. As our schools' Media Specialist, I am charged with keeping up with technology and the use of technology in the classroom. Edmodo is used county-wide and I have successfully used it with my fourth and fifth graders. This technology is easy to set up and really promotes higher-order thinking and makes life so much easier for teachers and students. Teachers can use many, many different Web 2.0 applications, post assignments, and differentiate content by making sub-groups. This program is simply amazing! I also use Twitter to keep up on new trends, am a member of several NING groups, and use Delicious and Pinterest as well. I am fully engaged in social networking and love it! I am also a member of Second Life...which could really be a time drain! Edmodo Tutorials:

Week One: My Perceptions

How do we perceive ourselves (and others) in the real and digital worlds in which we live? I perceive myself as a technology geek. I wake up to my cell phone alarm (Van Morrison's Into the Mystic), roll over and check three email accounts on the same cell phone, and glance at my calendar all before getting out of bed. If I could just find an app. that would make coffee, my world would be complete. I take a shower and sit down to check my Net Vibes and igoogle feedreaders, and yes, my facebook. I log on to my courses, post responses, then get ready for work. I am interconnected through technology to many subsets of individuals. Three of my children text me, my UF classmates post responses that are forwarded to my phone, my co-workers email me with issues, and my principal shoots me emails throughout the day. As the newest member of our administrative team, I am treading new waters as I try to prove myself tech savvy, but am still having difficulty with the mechanics of hooking up the live broadcast and that big, old control board! These issues, hooking up and figuring out how this plugs into that and how the laptop shows up on the big screen tv in the media center, has caused me many near panic attacks. Moreso, I have come to doubt myself. I have great confidence in my ability to manipulate Web 2.0 tools for teachers, find applicable learning objects for classroom use, and collaborate with even the most non-collaborative teacher to bring us all up to speed...but this hands-on stuff is driving me nuts. This question of how do I perceive myself has truly come into play since I started my new job right after Christmas. I know that I'll get it, but the digital me is frustrated! During my masters program, I was floored by a video my professor shared with us. It has been updated many times, however, I will include the original since it had such a impact on my thinking.