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
Jeff's Blog by Jeff Murrell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Friday, 22 November 2013
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
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Digital Citizenship - Week Six
Week six is finally here. I struggled a bit last week. Not due to the hardships of trying to get Evernote to work, which were many, but because it was reading week at Brock. I found it funny that I felt disconnected form what was happening in the wide world of education as I was not spending as much time interacting on line at the beginning of the week. Reading week, I was only exploring these cool tools for grades. As the week progressed I did change this and started to explore. Critically reflecting on how I felt and my actions through the week has given me the sense of clearly where this path is leading and the changes that have and will occur in me. I can now spend hours just reading the vast number of twitter posts that have links to blogs or web sites and then just explore each one of those and the time just slips away. The new ideas and concepts are so vast that at times it becomes tough to decide which ones to share and explore further. Each one in its own way exciting and intoxicating as my mind races to determine how or what can be tried in my classrooms or implemented at Lambton College. The interaction of all the tools has actually helped the process. It has now become clear how I can use this technology to help me collect information that is on a particular topic and the many ways in which it can be shared.
The Evernote piece was a tiny struggle for me for a couple of reasons. First getting the clipper to perform correctly was a bit of a learning curve that I have now mastered. Nothing wrong with the tool, the issue was all in the student. I still could not get an academic Article from a Library uploaded. I have not given up, just have not yet been successful. The other issue was that I wanted to only find things to store in Evernote through twitter or my feeder. This was turning out to be very time consuming and showing very little results. In the end, I just searched the web to come up with the many "notes" that are going to be required for this research project.
My time looking through my feeder and posts on twitter were not totally wasted as I did find lots of great information. One interesting piece spoke to the increase of social media use in class rooms. There is some statistics that they are using but I wonder what type of social media and just how is it being used. There were also many other links at the bottom of the page that are worth a look. I believe that it is about time and that these numbers are way to low. I think that as social media evolves, great educators will use all these tools to their advantage to guide the students to new concepts and ideas that they will explore themselves. Quality educators, using social media to its fullest, will reach more students at any age, and facilitate learning and real change.
I also found a piece that caused me to laugh aloud as I realized that this was exactly what was occurring in me. Ferriter and Provenzano ( I am following Provenzano on twitter as well) wrote a very good piece on how the use of social media has and well replace the need for professional development. Of course I could not help but see myself as they describe the interaction between like minded educators, sharing and learning from one another using the numerous tools that we have been exploring in this course. Interestingly I feel that this will only be a small number as I only see the truly great educators taking advantage of this now. The revolution has started, just how long will it take before all educators are on board?
I am excited as I grow and learn. I find myself looking forward to the next new bit of the puzzle for my PLE and discovering just how I will make it fit with the others. Thank you reading week for giving me the oppurtunity to critcally reflect and to grow as I am starting to become digitally literate.
Jeff
The Evernote piece was a tiny struggle for me for a couple of reasons. First getting the clipper to perform correctly was a bit of a learning curve that I have now mastered. Nothing wrong with the tool, the issue was all in the student. I still could not get an academic Article from a Library uploaded. I have not given up, just have not yet been successful. The other issue was that I wanted to only find things to store in Evernote through twitter or my feeder. This was turning out to be very time consuming and showing very little results. In the end, I just searched the web to come up with the many "notes" that are going to be required for this research project.
My time looking through my feeder and posts on twitter were not totally wasted as I did find lots of great information. One interesting piece spoke to the increase of social media use in class rooms. There is some statistics that they are using but I wonder what type of social media and just how is it being used. There were also many other links at the bottom of the page that are worth a look. I believe that it is about time and that these numbers are way to low. I think that as social media evolves, great educators will use all these tools to their advantage to guide the students to new concepts and ideas that they will explore themselves. Quality educators, using social media to its fullest, will reach more students at any age, and facilitate learning and real change.
I also found a piece that caused me to laugh aloud as I realized that this was exactly what was occurring in me. Ferriter and Provenzano ( I am following Provenzano on twitter as well) wrote a very good piece on how the use of social media has and well replace the need for professional development. Of course I could not help but see myself as they describe the interaction between like minded educators, sharing and learning from one another using the numerous tools that we have been exploring in this course. Interestingly I feel that this will only be a small number as I only see the truly great educators taking advantage of this now. The revolution has started, just how long will it take before all educators are on board?
I am excited as I grow and learn. I find myself looking forward to the next new bit of the puzzle for my PLE and discovering just how I will make it fit with the others. Thank you reading week for giving me the oppurtunity to critcally reflect and to grow as I am starting to become digitally literate.
Jeff
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