This was a fantastic week that I truly enjoyed. I have book marked extra sites into my diigo from this week that I have not had a chance to explore yet but will well after the course is complete. The week was jammed with all sorts of exciting and interesting information that every good digital citizen should know about.
The first thing that we explored was the MOOC or Massive Online Open Course. These seem to be growing as more and more Ivy League Universities are starting to get involved. In my feedy a few weeks ago I came across a very interesting piece that indicated there would always be the need for a teacher. The thing is, the teacher will change. In my view, it becomes even more important that we teach children how to be good digital citizens because they could be participating and collaborating with other students in away that they transition back and forth from being the learner to being the teacher and back again.
I really enjoyed the reading that was set out in the course as well. It is kind of interesting that we see all these people wondering why a College or University would venture into the realm of MOOC's. One such article speaks to the lack of a business plan by these institutions. The suggestion that eventually they charge actually defeats the purpose of an open or free course. So why would they do it? I believe that they have thought it through very nicely. In fact, the article does brush on the subject of attracting students. I think this is at the root. As our World becomes more of one large global community, attracting the best students becomes an increasingly harder task. I think that the best students will be in these MOOC's. Those that succeed must be master students as defined by Ellis, Toft and Dawson (2012), so my question is why would you not want to reach out to these students?
I think that by going where the students are, online learning, they have a better chance of drawing them into the programs that already exist in their institutions. There is no way a student would sign up for a MOOC delivered by some no name person run out of the spare bedroom of an apartment somewhere when they can sign up to a MOOC delivered by Harvard with a rock start in the field as the subject mater expert. These Ivy League schools will push the small guys back out of the market and at the same time, once they have the infrastructure built, be doing their recruitment at a fraction of the cost. The revolution in education is upon us. Not really. I think that we have a really cool way of learning and connecting through MOOC's but it will still be the degree that gets you the job.
The other piece that we explored this week was pod and screencasting. I found these to be great tools that can be used in your PLE (personal learning environment). I think that there is a huge advantage for an educator to use both of these tools to create mini lectures and demonstrations on subjects that can then be used by students around the world and for generations to come. One such person who has been successful has been Kahn. Of course, there will always be those who think that these tools are not good and will start to pick them apart. I found a great article written from a neutral stand that will allow the reader to make their own choice. In my mind these tools are great and will always be part of my future PLE, whether I am officially the teacher or the student.
The other very important piece we explored was adding a creative commons license to our Blog. You can find mine at both the top and bottom of my blog. This is critical for anyone who wants to utilize the tools of web 2.0. I think that there really should be another agreement process we have to go through that shows us where and how to get and protect ourselves with a creative commons license before we can go onto the internet. I now know how to do it, have book marked the page, and will make sure in the future I will add a license to anything I create and post.
I found two great pieces in my feedy this week that I really want to share. The first is on using your Diigo to automatically feed you the information for a daily blog. This is a cool idea and i can hardly wait to try it out. The second is an interesting cartoon that was posted as well. Not much information here but it will leave you thinking about how we look at students. I hope you look at this cartoon and reflect on how many fish you have ever asked to climb a tree.
Have a great weekend.
Jeff
Chen, Angela. (2012). Parody Critiques Popular Khan Academy Videos. Retrieved from; http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/parody-critiques-popular-khan-academy-videos/37543
Davis, Vickie, (2013). How to automatically post bookmarks to your post using Diigo. Retrieved from; http://www.coolcatteacher.com/videos/automatically-post-bookmarks-blog-using-diigo/?utm_source=feedly
Davis, Vickie, (2013). The education Cartoon everyone Should Read. Retrieved from; http://www.coolcatteacher.com/quotes/education-cartoon-everyone-read/?utm_source=feedly
Ellis,D. Toft, D. and Dawson, D. (2012) Becoming a Master Student. (5th ed).Toronto, Ont. Canada.
Gsiemens, (2013). WISE Panel: Can MOOC's democratize higher education. Retrieved from; http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2013/11/05/wise-panel-can-moocs-democratize-higher-education/
McKenna, Laura. (2012). The big Idea That an Revolutionize Higher Education: MOOC's. Retrieved
from;
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/the-big-idea-that-can-revolutionize-higher-education-mooc/256926/
Selingo, Jeff. (2012). As Elite Colleges Invite the World Online, Questions Remain on their Business Plan. Retrieved
from;
http://chronicle.com/blogs/next/2012/05/19/as-elite-colleges-open-to-the-world-online-questions-remain-on-business-plan/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jeff's Blog by Jeff Murrell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Friday, 29 November 2013
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Screencast Tool
I hate doing it because there has to be away but I give up. Spent way
to long trying to embed my screencast onto my blog. I originally
started by trying to do a podcast but did not like it for this
assignment so I changed to the screencast. The week and entire course is
quickly coming to a close and I must move on so that I can complete the
big project. The funny thing is that my screencast is about putting in
the Creative Commons license on your blog. As well, I have not had any
difficulty getting other images to embed. Eventually I have to push
back, laugh and move on, if I don't, the computer would end up out the
window floating away on Lake Huron. I am sure that in some cases, like
this one, I have discovered and learned more from the struggle than I
did from the actual process of creating the screencast. While I reflect
on this and figure out how to embed a screencast I will discover the
lesson. For now, this too will have to wait. Please see the link
attached. I at least got that correct.
http://screencast.com/t/qEylzShw
When I first started to look at these sharing tools I thought that there was no place for them in my Personal Learning Environment. I viewed these tools as ones that I would only use to communicate with the World or my students as an instructor. This to me looked more like the reverse video that has been showing up in several classrooms, and would make great ones. The instructor logs in, creates either a podcast or screencast on a subject and then posts it within the walled garden of the Learning Management System for the students to view. This becomes a great tool for instructors to help students figure out complex principles or may even allow them to cover a subject the entire class did poorly on in a test.
While I had all these wonderful ideas floating in my head as I explored both of these tools, it dawned on me that others would have the same idea as well. Why spend my time creating new podcast on a subject when there must be someone out there doing it already. Why not search and subscribe to these. The information then, just like my feeder, comes to me. If I find great podcast, I can then share these with other students.
The screencast tool really spoke to me. I totally enjoyed the process and believe that this tool used correctly in a classroom or learning situation will help students grow and learn. A screencast will allow students to be both the teacher and the learner at the same time. If a student asks another one for help and the second student creates a screencast to walk them through the problem, the second student has actually become the teacher. This process makes the student to move the information into a different part of the brain and they will actually retain the information much longer. There is a better chance for real learning and discovery when this occurs. Used at it was here in this course, we all became teachers for these short little video's. I am sure we choose things that would be easy for each one of us to do our assignment on as that is human nature. While I was doing mine I know that I did learn a lot more about Creative Commons.
This was an excellent project that I really enjoyed (I was only kidding about my computer going for a swim) even if I could not get the video to embed. I totally now believe that both of these can be in my PLE as collaboration tools or for collecting information or better yet as pieces to assignments that I will be completing in the future.
Jeff
http://screencast.com/t/qEylzShw
When I first started to look at these sharing tools I thought that there was no place for them in my Personal Learning Environment. I viewed these tools as ones that I would only use to communicate with the World or my students as an instructor. This to me looked more like the reverse video that has been showing up in several classrooms, and would make great ones. The instructor logs in, creates either a podcast or screencast on a subject and then posts it within the walled garden of the Learning Management System for the students to view. This becomes a great tool for instructors to help students figure out complex principles or may even allow them to cover a subject the entire class did poorly on in a test.
While I had all these wonderful ideas floating in my head as I explored both of these tools, it dawned on me that others would have the same idea as well. Why spend my time creating new podcast on a subject when there must be someone out there doing it already. Why not search and subscribe to these. The information then, just like my feeder, comes to me. If I find great podcast, I can then share these with other students.
The screencast tool really spoke to me. I totally enjoyed the process and believe that this tool used correctly in a classroom or learning situation will help students grow and learn. A screencast will allow students to be both the teacher and the learner at the same time. If a student asks another one for help and the second student creates a screencast to walk them through the problem, the second student has actually become the teacher. This process makes the student to move the information into a different part of the brain and they will actually retain the information much longer. There is a better chance for real learning and discovery when this occurs. Used at it was here in this course, we all became teachers for these short little video's. I am sure we choose things that would be easy for each one of us to do our assignment on as that is human nature. While I was doing mine I know that I did learn a lot more about Creative Commons.
This was an excellent project that I really enjoyed (I was only kidding about my computer going for a swim) even if I could not get the video to embed. I totally now believe that both of these can be in my PLE as collaboration tools or for collecting information or better yet as pieces to assignments that I will be completing in the future.
Jeff
Friday, 22 November 2013
Digital Citizenship - Week Ten
I really have enjoyed the video at the beginning of this week as I do totally agree with Kirby Ferguson and have watched it several times this week. I liked it so much I could not resist adding it here. Try as I might, the code supplied for embedding just would not work. I loved the piece where Kirby speaks to Apple and how they used copyright to their advantage.
I honestly believe that the people in the world are no smarter then those generations past, we just have been starting our learning and exploring and expanding our knowledge base from a totally different starting point. This is accelerating at the speed of the web as new ideas are shared almost instantly. The gap between time and space has shrunk considerably in the past century. Albert Einstein was several years getting his new theory of relativity out to the world and yet more before he could prove it as he was trapped in war torn Europe. We now get video footage from behind the lines almost as fast as it is happening. I know I have never had a truly new idea in my life but rather just thoughts or adjustments to the ideas of others. The entire world remixes.
The object of study this week of course would be copyright laws. While most people might not enjoy the exciting read any copyright law is, I am sure they would prefer it to a court order. One of the pieces that I did learn form was the part on fair dealing. I find this very interesting and I think that its intent is to enable some people the ability to use certain material in constructive ways for the betterment of all. I like that it does give the ability for material to be used in education and for study. I do find it interesting that this has yet to be tested in the courts. I would hate to be the first so for the near future I will still proceed with caution. I think that if I remain reasonable and remember to properly cite the information then I should be safe. While it might seem like they have given education more freedoms, we did learn last week that with freedom comes responsibility so I will still cite.
The creative commons article was also very interesting and enlightening. I totally enjoyed looking at each of the creative commons licenses when I was looking for images for my Aminoto. A very cool concept and I think that it will become a huge piece of my classrooms going forward. As our College moves towards an entirely mobile institution, more and more students will be posting things on the web. They will all need to understand this concept and I think that as a College we should make it a policy that we do not allow students to post anything they will be using for grades unless they have first created their own Creative Commons account. It protects the students, has them learn about copyright and helps them become better digital citizens.
Unfortunately I did not find anything in my feeder that peeked my interest. There was one that started out very good but turned into speaking about funding. Another that I did enjoy was based on five lies about Brock University. I liked this because some of the things mentioned had actual ties to being a good student, which every successful Brock Student must be, as well as some humor. Check them out.
Have a great weekend.
Jeff
Ted Talks (2012), Kirby Ferguson:Embrace the Remix. Retrieved from; http://on.ted.com/FergusonRemix
Media Smarts (n.d.), Fair Dealing for Media Education. Retrieved from; http://mediasmarts.ca/intellectual-property/fair-dealing-media-education
Wolf, L.G. (2010). Remix Reuse Recycle- A Creative Commons Assignment. Retrieved from; http://www.leighgraveswolf.com/2010/06/11/remix-reuse-recycle-a-creative-commons-assignment/
I honestly believe that the people in the world are no smarter then those generations past, we just have been starting our learning and exploring and expanding our knowledge base from a totally different starting point. This is accelerating at the speed of the web as new ideas are shared almost instantly. The gap between time and space has shrunk considerably in the past century. Albert Einstein was several years getting his new theory of relativity out to the world and yet more before he could prove it as he was trapped in war torn Europe. We now get video footage from behind the lines almost as fast as it is happening. I know I have never had a truly new idea in my life but rather just thoughts or adjustments to the ideas of others. The entire world remixes.
The object of study this week of course would be copyright laws. While most people might not enjoy the exciting read any copyright law is, I am sure they would prefer it to a court order. One of the pieces that I did learn form was the part on fair dealing. I find this very interesting and I think that its intent is to enable some people the ability to use certain material in constructive ways for the betterment of all. I like that it does give the ability for material to be used in education and for study. I do find it interesting that this has yet to be tested in the courts. I would hate to be the first so for the near future I will still proceed with caution. I think that if I remain reasonable and remember to properly cite the information then I should be safe. While it might seem like they have given education more freedoms, we did learn last week that with freedom comes responsibility so I will still cite.
The creative commons article was also very interesting and enlightening. I totally enjoyed looking at each of the creative commons licenses when I was looking for images for my Aminoto. A very cool concept and I think that it will become a huge piece of my classrooms going forward. As our College moves towards an entirely mobile institution, more and more students will be posting things on the web. They will all need to understand this concept and I think that as a College we should make it a policy that we do not allow students to post anything they will be using for grades unless they have first created their own Creative Commons account. It protects the students, has them learn about copyright and helps them become better digital citizens.
Unfortunately I did not find anything in my feeder that peeked my interest. There was one that started out very good but turned into speaking about funding. Another that I did enjoy was based on five lies about Brock University. I liked this because some of the things mentioned had actual ties to being a good student, which every successful Brock Student must be, as well as some humor. Check them out.
Have a great weekend.
Jeff
Ted Talks (2012), Kirby Ferguson:Embrace the Remix. Retrieved from; http://on.ted.com/FergusonRemix
Media Smarts (n.d.), Fair Dealing for Media Education. Retrieved from; http://mediasmarts.ca/intellectual-property/fair-dealing-media-education
Wolf, L.G. (2010). Remix Reuse Recycle- A Creative Commons Assignment. Retrieved from; http://www.leighgraveswolf.com/2010/06/11/remix-reuse-recycle-a-creative-commons-assignment/
Animoto project
Here is my first ever Animoto but I promise that this will not be my last.
Copyright by J. Murrell
While I really enjoyed using the Animoto tool and like the result, I did find this project a little frustrating as I did spend way to much time on it. It may have been the process that I went through and not actual tool. Once I got into creating my video it was very easy. I am sure that once I start using it more, and I will be using it more, I might spring for the upgrade and then I am sure that it would be much easier. I see myself using this in the future for embedding a message into a blog or as part of a presentation that I might give and of course for creating cool family memories. what I am not sure is if this will fit into my personal learning environment. I know all tools are not for everyone and I kind of feel that this one is not for that use for me.
The message that i was trying to get across was that people always think that everything on the internet is free but of course we are now good digital citizens and know this is not true. People who do not obey copyright laws can get themselves into a lot of trouble. It is important that you know the restrictions on the use of anything and then abide by them. Of course, just because you can use it does not mean that you do not have to give the owner of the item credit. I hope you enjoy my little creation. While the assignment may have been frustrating, the actual creating the video was fun.
Have a good week,
Jeff
Copyright by J. Murrell
While I really enjoyed using the Animoto tool and like the result, I did find this project a little frustrating as I did spend way to much time on it. It may have been the process that I went through and not actual tool. Once I got into creating my video it was very easy. I am sure that once I start using it more, and I will be using it more, I might spring for the upgrade and then I am sure that it would be much easier. I see myself using this in the future for embedding a message into a blog or as part of a presentation that I might give and of course for creating cool family memories. what I am not sure is if this will fit into my personal learning environment. I know all tools are not for everyone and I kind of feel that this one is not for that use for me.
The message that i was trying to get across was that people always think that everything on the internet is free but of course we are now good digital citizens and know this is not true. People who do not obey copyright laws can get themselves into a lot of trouble. It is important that you know the restrictions on the use of anything and then abide by them. Of course, just because you can use it does not mean that you do not have to give the owner of the item credit. I hope you enjoy my little creation. While the assignment may have been frustrating, the actual creating the video was fun.
Have a good week,
Jeff
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Digital Citizenship - Week Nine
During the past couple of weeks we have been exploring a few things. One of those is the rights and responsibilities of digital citizens. There is never a right that does not have some sort of parallel duty or responsibilities. Freedom of anything is never really free. This is so true with respect to the community that we have created that resides in cyber space. It seems all to easy to do something that is not ethical when we do not have to look the other person in the eye. As part of the past two weeks we were required to create a brainstorm diagram of what we thought the rights and responsibilities are for digital citizens. I have attached mine. I have since adjusted (actually added to it) as I have explored the thoughts of my fellow students on this subject but this is the original.
When we talk of these responsibilities we fail to realize that we as educators and parents have a greater responsibility that extends past ourselves. We have the responsibility of setting a good example and for building a structure for our children to learn and grow online. We must ensure their safety by properly communicating with them and by staying active in their digital lives. The computer can no longer be the babysitter that the TV was in the Eighties. Parents must act to inform their children and interact with them as they use technology. As educators we must build a sound Acceptable Use Policy for our institutions. We are not going to be able to stop technology but with proper guidance, the students will become better digital citizens. Part of the issue and the danger is that while bullying has always existed, until web 2.0, it was always very private. An incident would occur on one side of the school and rarely everyone would find out, and even if they did it, was face to face so others rarely would join in. Now it seems to explode and when it occurs, people around the world can be informed, never mind across the swing set.
One of the most enjoyable things we have done in the class has been the voice thread exercise. I found that there are huge applications for education with this tool. I believe that it would become very addictive for most students who would then take the education and make it their own and in the process have the learning become part of them. They would critically reflect and form real true deep learning and understanding of the topic. This will definitely be part of my PLE as a tool for collaboration.
I do think that a voice thread will have other applications as well. I am going to playing with this over the next few weeks to determine just how well I will be able to utilize it in certain situations at work. In the past I have been involved, and very innocently, where I was pulled into a meeting that I had no idea what it was about, and a print out of one of my e-mails was thrust onto the table. The reader had missed not one but two punctuation marks, imposed what they thought was my tone and had interrupted the mean totally wrong. In fact, the other people at the meeting read my e-mail and were confused. To them, and what was actually happening, I was agreeing with and supporting the decision of the person who was so upset. I think that this could be a great tool for communicating around certain things so the person receiving the message can hear, and if you chose video, see you so there can be no imposed tone to the words written on the page. I found an interesting piece on tone in e-mails while reading weekly reflections by other students.
While reviewing my feed and through exploring links I picked up from twitter I really only found one the interested me and it really had nothing to do with this week. The general message is about how teachers can implement or learn how to implement the ipad into their classrooms. The more important message is near thee end. It speaks to the amount that the tech industry is coming into main stream more and more. Interesting how we one day soon are all going to be expected to be digital citizens.
I always believe that practice never makes perfect but rather perfect practice makes perfect and that goes so true with being a good digital citizen. I can only hope that I am learning and growing and improving.
Have a great week
Jeff
Noodlefood. (2013). The Problem of Absent Tone in E-mail. Retrieved from http://www.philosophyinaction.com/blog/?p=10144
Cool Cat Teacher Blog (2013). Daily Education and Technology News 11/12/13. Retrieved from http://www.coolcatteacher.com/daily-education-technology-news-schools-11122013/?utm_source=feedly
Stay Safe Online. (2013). Raising Digital Citizens, Retrieved from http://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/for-parents/raising-digital-citizens
Education World (2013). Getting Started on the Internet: Developing an Acceptable use Policy, Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml
Ribble, Mike. (2011). Digital Citizenship in Schools (2nd ed). Washington, DC. United States of America
Linda Kalmikov. (2013). Weekly reflection and Post Week 8. Retrieved from http://lindakalmikov.blogspot.ca/2013/11/a-couple-of-great-articles-from-my.html
 |
| Murrell, J. (2013) Digital Rights and Responsibilities |
When we talk of these responsibilities we fail to realize that we as educators and parents have a greater responsibility that extends past ourselves. We have the responsibility of setting a good example and for building a structure for our children to learn and grow online. We must ensure their safety by properly communicating with them and by staying active in their digital lives. The computer can no longer be the babysitter that the TV was in the Eighties. Parents must act to inform their children and interact with them as they use technology. As educators we must build a sound Acceptable Use Policy for our institutions. We are not going to be able to stop technology but with proper guidance, the students will become better digital citizens. Part of the issue and the danger is that while bullying has always existed, until web 2.0, it was always very private. An incident would occur on one side of the school and rarely everyone would find out, and even if they did it, was face to face so others rarely would join in. Now it seems to explode and when it occurs, people around the world can be informed, never mind across the swing set.
One of the most enjoyable things we have done in the class has been the voice thread exercise. I found that there are huge applications for education with this tool. I believe that it would become very addictive for most students who would then take the education and make it their own and in the process have the learning become part of them. They would critically reflect and form real true deep learning and understanding of the topic. This will definitely be part of my PLE as a tool for collaboration.
I do think that a voice thread will have other applications as well. I am going to playing with this over the next few weeks to determine just how well I will be able to utilize it in certain situations at work. In the past I have been involved, and very innocently, where I was pulled into a meeting that I had no idea what it was about, and a print out of one of my e-mails was thrust onto the table. The reader had missed not one but two punctuation marks, imposed what they thought was my tone and had interrupted the mean totally wrong. In fact, the other people at the meeting read my e-mail and were confused. To them, and what was actually happening, I was agreeing with and supporting the decision of the person who was so upset. I think that this could be a great tool for communicating around certain things so the person receiving the message can hear, and if you chose video, see you so there can be no imposed tone to the words written on the page. I found an interesting piece on tone in e-mails while reading weekly reflections by other students.
While reviewing my feed and through exploring links I picked up from twitter I really only found one the interested me and it really had nothing to do with this week. The general message is about how teachers can implement or learn how to implement the ipad into their classrooms. The more important message is near thee end. It speaks to the amount that the tech industry is coming into main stream more and more. Interesting how we one day soon are all going to be expected to be digital citizens.
I always believe that practice never makes perfect but rather perfect practice makes perfect and that goes so true with being a good digital citizen. I can only hope that I am learning and growing and improving.
Have a great week
Jeff
Noodlefood. (2013). The Problem of Absent Tone in E-mail. Retrieved from http://www.philosophyinaction.com/blog/?p=10144
Cool Cat Teacher Blog (2013). Daily Education and Technology News 11/12/13. Retrieved from http://www.coolcatteacher.com/daily-education-technology-news-schools-11122013/?utm_source=feedly
Stay Safe Online. (2013). Raising Digital Citizens, Retrieved from http://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/for-parents/raising-digital-citizens
Education World (2013). Getting Started on the Internet: Developing an Acceptable use Policy, Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml
Ribble, Mike. (2011). Digital Citizenship in Schools (2nd ed). Washington, DC. United States of America
Linda Kalmikov. (2013). Weekly reflection and Post Week 8. Retrieved from http://lindakalmikov.blogspot.ca/2013/11/a-couple-of-great-articles-from-my.html
Technology Use Scenario 9.
Scenario 9;
Jamie has persuaded her parents to let her talk to her friends in an online chat room. Many of the people in the chat room are Jamie's friends, but there are some people she does not know. For several days, she has noticed one of those individuals talking to some of her friends. Now, the person is starting to ask Jamie about herself and what she looks like. Jamie becomes uncomfortable and logs off the chat room. Later that evening, she talks to her parents and mentions the person in the chat room and how it made her feel.
My Thoughts,
Jamie's parents have many options here on how they react and need to be very careful, The first thought of any parent is anger that someone might be threatening your child. This feeling needs to be controlled as the only person in the house they should feel angry with is themselves for not having a detailed conversation about online safety in the first place. They must be sure to support and encourage Jamie as most young people don't talk openly about these subjects and if they made her feel uncomfortable about telling them there would be less of a chance she would tell them in the future. They will need to get as much information as possible and then contact the authorities. The physical threat may not be real and this may just be another teenager but if they are communicating in away that makes someone uncomfortable, this could lead to cyber bulling.
Next they need to hit the reset switch on the internet use in the home. They need to explore some safe online guidelines with her and encourage her to use the internet properly. They will never be able to shut her out from the internet so they need to make her aware. The parents should also spend some time with her learning all there is to know about how she uses the internet. Explain the dangers of not being private and how she can keep herself safe. They might even encourage her to get back into another chat room with her friends, but let her know that they are right there to support and guide her. They could also move the computer to a central location in the home so that they can monitor her activities. Its not so much to spy but rather just to monitor and guide her use of the internet and help her become a great digital citizen.
Please leave your comments or thoughts below.
Thanks and have a great week,
Jeff
Magid, B. (n.d.). Teen safety on the Info Highway. http://www.safekids.com/teen-safety-on-info-highway/
StaySafeOnline.org. (2013). Raising digital citizens. http://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/for-parents/raising-digital-citizens
StaySafeOnline.org. (2013). Cyberbullying & Harassment. : http://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/for-parents/cyberbullying-and-harassment
Ribble, Mike.(2011) Digital Citizenship in Schools (2nd ed) Washington, DC. United States of America
Jamie has persuaded her parents to let her talk to her friends in an online chat room. Many of the people in the chat room are Jamie's friends, but there are some people she does not know. For several days, she has noticed one of those individuals talking to some of her friends. Now, the person is starting to ask Jamie about herself and what she looks like. Jamie becomes uncomfortable and logs off the chat room. Later that evening, she talks to her parents and mentions the person in the chat room and how it made her feel.
My Thoughts,
Jamie's parents have many options here on how they react and need to be very careful, The first thought of any parent is anger that someone might be threatening your child. This feeling needs to be controlled as the only person in the house they should feel angry with is themselves for not having a detailed conversation about online safety in the first place. They must be sure to support and encourage Jamie as most young people don't talk openly about these subjects and if they made her feel uncomfortable about telling them there would be less of a chance she would tell them in the future. They will need to get as much information as possible and then contact the authorities. The physical threat may not be real and this may just be another teenager but if they are communicating in away that makes someone uncomfortable, this could lead to cyber bulling.
Next they need to hit the reset switch on the internet use in the home. They need to explore some safe online guidelines with her and encourage her to use the internet properly. They will never be able to shut her out from the internet so they need to make her aware. The parents should also spend some time with her learning all there is to know about how she uses the internet. Explain the dangers of not being private and how she can keep herself safe. They might even encourage her to get back into another chat room with her friends, but let her know that they are right there to support and guide her. They could also move the computer to a central location in the home so that they can monitor her activities. Its not so much to spy but rather just to monitor and guide her use of the internet and help her become a great digital citizen.
Please leave your comments or thoughts below.
Thanks and have a great week,
Jeff
Magid, B. (n.d.). Teen safety on the Info Highway. http://www.safekids.com/teen-safety-on-info-highway/
StaySafeOnline.org. (2013). Raising digital citizens. http://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/for-parents/raising-digital-citizens
StaySafeOnline.org. (2013). Cyberbullying & Harassment. : http://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/for-parents/cyberbullying-and-harassment
Ribble, Mike.(2011) Digital Citizenship in Schools (2nd ed) Washington, DC. United States of America
Voice Thread
This week, we as a class, have been working with a voice thread. I found this to be an extremely good educational tool. This allowed the learners to participate in forming the meaning around the subject mater. This is very powerful. The most important step in any educational process is the critical reflection piece. By allowing the students to be part of the creation of the message by sharing their personal thoughts they would actually take the time to properly reflect. Most students would not want to post something that others will see that is poor so they will put in a better effort into the reflection of the subject. Students can participate in two ways. They could watch the entire thread and see what their classmates are saying or stop the feed, which is what I did, and then think about it personally and then make my comment. Once I made mine without influence from others, I then listened to the other comments. If I wished, I could add more after.
As an educator I see this as a great tool. I could post a difficult lecture or subject with my explanation added and then have the students work through the slides and add comments as well to help clarify for their classmates. This takes the concept of a flipped classroom to an entirely different level by allowing interaction by students. As a student this can become a huge advantage for working on a collaborative project over a distance. I feel it would be much easier to create this type of voice thread so that a person could be looking at a screen shoot of the project while listening to an explanation and then of course add their comments as well. It would help with reducing the number of text messages and e-mails while working on a project.
Jeff
As an educator I see this as a great tool. I could post a difficult lecture or subject with my explanation added and then have the students work through the slides and add comments as well to help clarify for their classmates. This takes the concept of a flipped classroom to an entirely different level by allowing interaction by students. As a student this can become a huge advantage for working on a collaborative project over a distance. I feel it would be much easier to create this type of voice thread so that a person could be looking at a screen shoot of the project while listening to an explanation and then of course add their comments as well. It would help with reducing the number of text messages and e-mails while working on a project.
Jeff
Friday, 8 November 2013
Digital Citizenship - Week eight
As I come off a week of vacation, or disconnecting to connect, I have really enjoyed this session. I have been reading everyone's blogs to try and catch up as well as get some ideas to determine who they are tracking on their feeders. I have again made adjustments to mine as I fine tune it so that I am getting the information I want and need while not having to wade through stuff that is just not interesting or relevant. I think that this tool will always be part of my learning. I have also enjoyed examining the different styles of writing. It has all been very interesting. This I believe should be a key piece to the reflective process as we look back at our own blogs.
The past couple of weeks have been very interesting as we have started to work on projects and collaborate online. Some of these have been very interesting. I unfortunately missed the hangout session with the group but believe it would be very similar to the one I did a few years ago on Skype, which was very cool. I look forward to making the next one. I see so much value in this from an educational point of view in the post secondary world. The professor could set up a weekly time when they are available, just like office hours, and answer questions, help work through problems with assignments or just check in. Then by exposing the students to this, I can see them creating study groups to work together. No more booking a room and trying to get people together face to face.
This week we looked at wikis and I must say that I was a disappointed with them as I was with description given in the text. As an educational tool on the surface they seem fine but I think that it would allow more students to ride the coat tails of others. My initial thought was that an instructor could put a set of problems or questions up for the class to work on but all that would happen is the students who want to learn would log on and actually work together to solve the problem or get the answer while others would just stop by after to see the finished result. It may afford greater opportunities for learning for a few but then remove them for rest. Even those students who wished to jump in have actually work through the problem but showed up after it was solved would not have had the opportunity. The other piece is that these sites are not secure so anyone could access them if they happened upon them. I am always aware of what information I want to share and I think that this bothers me as well. I do not think that a wiki will be part of my PLE.
I have however totally enjoyed working through both the todaysmeet and with Google Docs. I actually found that they were very simple to use and that I did connect online to connect with a project partner a few hundred kilometers away. Last week I disconnected to connect but this week I connected to connect. The balance in life is so very important. I enjoyed them so much that I have actually set up a couple of similar shared documents at work in very secure locations that at least two of us are working on. With out the need for so many e-mails with so many copies of just a slightly different document floating around it has been great. A quick communication about updates and suggestions and it has been very effective. I know that Google Docs will be part of my PLE and I will introduce my faculty to them as well in the hope that they use them with their students.
This week started for me with a presentation at Lambton College by a professor from Ottawa University on data collected around student retention. Now most of you might be thinking what has this student retention piece have to do with the last two weeks in which we examined ways to collaborate online. Well it really did. In part of the information it showed the first year retention rates of those who lived at home, to those who were out of town and not living at residence and those who were living at residence. Those who lived in residence had the highest retention of the three groups. Now I was shocked by this data as I thought that they only thing going on at residence was extra curricular activities. It occurred to me that the reason why was the connection with other students and the learning institution. this connection is a face to face interactions. One of the leading factors was how a student preformed in the first term. If you are always interacting with class mates you are going to be reminded about the quiz or assignment. When you are prepared, you will do better.This makes it so important for students who are not on campus 24/7 to have access to online types of collaborative and interactive spaces so they can connect with the learning institution and other students after the lights have gone out in the lecture hall. Most of the true learning happens after the lights are out anyway as students reflect on what was taught.
While looking through the information on my feeder I did come across a good blog on ways students can learn from others. I found it very interesting as it speaks to the way these students connect so effortlessly online. When I reflect on this I think that without being shown or taught younger students have figured out that if they can connect with me digitally, when I am responding it will be directly to them. In some cases, the student can actually have captured my full attention. Something that will rarely happen in the class room.
As I start to reflect and actually become a digital citizen I think I am going to have to figure this out. At Disney World I will not only be enjoying the hand in hand discoveries and interactions but also the ones that involve capturing something in a photo and sharing it with my grandchildren as well. They would not even actually have to be there with me.
Have a great week.
Jeff
The past couple of weeks have been very interesting as we have started to work on projects and collaborate online. Some of these have been very interesting. I unfortunately missed the hangout session with the group but believe it would be very similar to the one I did a few years ago on Skype, which was very cool. I look forward to making the next one. I see so much value in this from an educational point of view in the post secondary world. The professor could set up a weekly time when they are available, just like office hours, and answer questions, help work through problems with assignments or just check in. Then by exposing the students to this, I can see them creating study groups to work together. No more booking a room and trying to get people together face to face.
This week we looked at wikis and I must say that I was a disappointed with them as I was with description given in the text. As an educational tool on the surface they seem fine but I think that it would allow more students to ride the coat tails of others. My initial thought was that an instructor could put a set of problems or questions up for the class to work on but all that would happen is the students who want to learn would log on and actually work together to solve the problem or get the answer while others would just stop by after to see the finished result. It may afford greater opportunities for learning for a few but then remove them for rest. Even those students who wished to jump in have actually work through the problem but showed up after it was solved would not have had the opportunity. The other piece is that these sites are not secure so anyone could access them if they happened upon them. I am always aware of what information I want to share and I think that this bothers me as well. I do not think that a wiki will be part of my PLE.
I have however totally enjoyed working through both the todaysmeet and with Google Docs. I actually found that they were very simple to use and that I did connect online to connect with a project partner a few hundred kilometers away. Last week I disconnected to connect but this week I connected to connect. The balance in life is so very important. I enjoyed them so much that I have actually set up a couple of similar shared documents at work in very secure locations that at least two of us are working on. With out the need for so many e-mails with so many copies of just a slightly different document floating around it has been great. A quick communication about updates and suggestions and it has been very effective. I know that Google Docs will be part of my PLE and I will introduce my faculty to them as well in the hope that they use them with their students.
This week started for me with a presentation at Lambton College by a professor from Ottawa University on data collected around student retention. Now most of you might be thinking what has this student retention piece have to do with the last two weeks in which we examined ways to collaborate online. Well it really did. In part of the information it showed the first year retention rates of those who lived at home, to those who were out of town and not living at residence and those who were living at residence. Those who lived in residence had the highest retention of the three groups. Now I was shocked by this data as I thought that they only thing going on at residence was extra curricular activities. It occurred to me that the reason why was the connection with other students and the learning institution. this connection is a face to face interactions. One of the leading factors was how a student preformed in the first term. If you are always interacting with class mates you are going to be reminded about the quiz or assignment. When you are prepared, you will do better.This makes it so important for students who are not on campus 24/7 to have access to online types of collaborative and interactive spaces so they can connect with the learning institution and other students after the lights have gone out in the lecture hall. Most of the true learning happens after the lights are out anyway as students reflect on what was taught.
While looking through the information on my feeder I did come across a good blog on ways students can learn from others. I found it very interesting as it speaks to the way these students connect so effortlessly online. When I reflect on this I think that without being shown or taught younger students have figured out that if they can connect with me digitally, when I am responding it will be directly to them. In some cases, the student can actually have captured my full attention. Something that will rarely happen in the class room.
As I start to reflect and actually become a digital citizen I think I am going to have to figure this out. At Disney World I will not only be enjoying the hand in hand discoveries and interactions but also the ones that involve capturing something in a photo and sharing it with my grandchildren as well. They would not even actually have to be there with me.
Have a great week.
Jeff
Sunday, 3 November 2013
Digital Citizenship - Week Seven
Last week in my blog I stated how I disliked the reading week as I felt that I was disconnected form the world of education. I had noted that I found myself spending time investigating the many new ideas and concepts coming at me from twitter or my feeder and just how exciting this was for me. This week it was very different. I was on vacation with my Daughter and her family in Disney World. I had every intent on staying connected and carried with me both a laptop and my Ipad for this purpose. I carried both back without ever turning either of them on. I disconnected to be connected. Funny how many people do not even understand the concept of disconnecting to connect. The face to face interaction with my two grandchildren that was occurring moment to moment was the single most important connection at that time. While they were experiencing the sights, sounds and wonders that are Disney, I needed to have one hand in theirs with full focus on each experience instead of both hands on a device, nose down, reading the latest tweet, while life's moments passed by. There was a great interaction between me and them and I enjoyed learning with them and experiencing things with them. I found the proper use of the off button. My biggest lesson this week is balance. Unfortunately I saw way to many parents who do not understand this and wasted great opportunities to spend time with their children.
I did really enjoy playing with Google documents. I found that it did not work exactly like the Microsoft applications that we are all so familiar with but was close enough that it was very simple to figure out. As an educator this tool would be great for sharing with students. As an administrator I see many applications for working with faculty to develop a new policy or plan as well as then communicating the final document. Finally, I also work on many projects that require a few hands working on the same document and I can not wait to try this out as we build our collaboration project. As an experienced trades person I have made the connection between the new style of learning and apprenticeship years ago. This week feels very much like an apprenticeship. We read and explore a little to guide and then we go and do it. Learning more from the doing and less form the reading.
I found a couple of interesting articles in my feeder this week. The first was on learning as an apprenticeship. It was very interesting how they indicated that people should be shown how to learn by their parents. The very interesting piece for me is that the parents of most individuals who are very successful do just that. They disconnect to connect with their children and interact with them so that they learn and grow. Does not matter whether that disconnection was from a news paper, the telephone (the ones that hung on the wall), the television, our jobs or any of the new ways that we interact on the net, they still disconnected so they can totally connect. The second was on time management. A very important subject for everyone, not just students. We always tend to build our lives on the small things and then try to squeeze in the important ones. Kind of neat way to look at this with some good ideas to explain to students. It does go back to the disconnect to connect idea in that we push out spending time with kids floating on lazy river laughing to answer some text. The one is a small item that can be handled later, the one will only happen now. I guess it is for each person to decide which one is which.
Jeff
I did really enjoy playing with Google documents. I found that it did not work exactly like the Microsoft applications that we are all so familiar with but was close enough that it was very simple to figure out. As an educator this tool would be great for sharing with students. As an administrator I see many applications for working with faculty to develop a new policy or plan as well as then communicating the final document. Finally, I also work on many projects that require a few hands working on the same document and I can not wait to try this out as we build our collaboration project. As an experienced trades person I have made the connection between the new style of learning and apprenticeship years ago. This week feels very much like an apprenticeship. We read and explore a little to guide and then we go and do it. Learning more from the doing and less form the reading.
I found a couple of interesting articles in my feeder this week. The first was on learning as an apprenticeship. It was very interesting how they indicated that people should be shown how to learn by their parents. The very interesting piece for me is that the parents of most individuals who are very successful do just that. They disconnect to connect with their children and interact with them so that they learn and grow. Does not matter whether that disconnection was from a news paper, the telephone (the ones that hung on the wall), the television, our jobs or any of the new ways that we interact on the net, they still disconnected so they can totally connect. The second was on time management. A very important subject for everyone, not just students. We always tend to build our lives on the small things and then try to squeeze in the important ones. Kind of neat way to look at this with some good ideas to explain to students. It does go back to the disconnect to connect idea in that we push out spending time with kids floating on lazy river laughing to answer some text. The one is a small item that can be handled later, the one will only happen now. I guess it is for each person to decide which one is which.
Jeff
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