Week 7 Animoto: Family Vacation! :)

Week 6: Internet Safety Voki's

Resource for Safety Tips

Week 5, Digital Citizenship: It takes a Village

This past weeks discussion was very enlightening.  What I learned that I didn't know before was realizing how deep my digital footprint was.  Though it was never a subject I ever pondered before I now find myself cognizant of every website I visit or any transactions I make online.  It never occurred to me that I was part of two worlds the real and the digital.  So therefor with the digital world being another place we conduct ourselves as human beings I think it is very important as adults and teachers to realize that it is our responsibility to teach it to our children and students how to behave online as if it was like any other important lesson in life.

When reading the article, Why Teach Digital Citizenship? Article , by Linda Yollis. I was astounded, just as the teacher was, at how quickly and naturally the concepts of good blogging came to her third graders.  Their clarity and certainty coupled with their enthusiasm was a sure sign that technology was not only something they wanted to do, but something they really wanted to be good at; and if its something they want to be good at then we should know how to teach them how to do it well.  With the uprising of technology use in schools it is important to see that teaching students to navigate the digital world successfully has become just as much a part of the class as reading and writing.  Blogging is a fun and easy way to get your students to create a space of their own in the big world of the internet and practice some of their internet etiquette skills.  But sometimes their is backlash amongst those unsure of the internet use as a teaching guide so here, if ever you hear why blogging for our students? -here is a fun video I found.

  


From parents, to teachers, to community alike it is important that we all realize that we are now living in two worlds the real and the digital, and that we all play a very important role in teaching our children and our students the skills on how to be good digital citizens.  Just as we hope to prepare our students for the real world, we should really hope and work at preparing them for the digital world as well.  The sooner we teach them how to use the internet safely and responsibly the sooner it becomes a tool to enhance their lives.  Not teaching these skills leaves our children susceptible to misinformation that could lead to possible bad decisions that could follow them throughout lives.  Just like the article above with third graders ready, willing, and able to show us their blogging skills, it is important to realize that the demand is out there so we as adults, as teachers, should and must give them the supply. :)

Week 4: Technology and Our Youth, Can we keep up with the changes?

I must first start with a comment on the irony of this assignment! A discussion on the possible over stimulation of technology while using technology! Meanwhile as I watch the videos my son has asked me repeatedly when I will be off the computer so that he may play some games on it! J

There are a few comparisons I can make between the two videos but the biggest one I believe is the worry of what being connected to all of this technology is doing to our youth and society.  But what has evolved from the two videos that are a contrast is the kinds of worries.  In the first one, Growing up Online (2008)video, it was more the online predators and what negative things the children were up to while engaging in cyberspace.  In the next video Digital Nation (2010)video, the focus was more on the worry of how our youth are such natives to technology that they are more than ever immersed in the digital world and less in the world of reality and the worry that society has followed them right into it.

I think that it has become such a ritual to say that you are a multitasker that society views it as a positive not a negative.  Think of our resumes and imagine writing in as a special skill, I can concentrate on doing one thing at a time really well.  Duh! But employers want you to do many things at a time well, and the truth is research shows we can’t and that our youth is suffering for that.  I for one know that when sitting and concentrating on an assignment for either work or school I really prefer for my thought process not to be interrupted.  And with technology and this expectation to multitask well I think there is an addiction happening, from the kids who want to update their status on Facebook while texting with numerous friends, to the parent who wants to respond to their bosses email coming in on their phone while simultaneously checking out the new news story coming out.  I think as a society we are addicted to being connected all the time so that we can be in the “know” at all times. But it seems to be that this is the new way of living, and while it is productive to the work place and to the theory of instant gratification I think we should be worried when children and parents alike start having anxiety because they are more than an arms length away from their laptops or phones.  Which quick and interesting note, this video made two years ago can already be deemed “outdated” when I noticed a young MIT student say she could not bare being to far away from her Blackberry, knowing know that Blackberry’s are about to become obsolete I thought the comment was funny and telling of how fast technology is moving.

It was however very telling to see how well technology works for students especially in struggling schools.  Like the school in the Bronx that had only 9% of it students meeting state standards, obviously technology had a profound effect on their schools progress.  I think educational games used in moderation are very helpful tools for any type of students and for all schools, but teachers feeling that that they have to entertain their children rather than teach them is a jarring perspective.  With the fast changing times of how technology is effecting our society as well as our education it is important for our schools and parents to understand that it should be a collaborative effort to teach our children about netiquette and online dangers.  The schools in South Korea seems to be pioneering this in a very helpful way starting young teaching netiquette and how to behave responsibly.  If we in the States could collaborate in schools on this type of message and with parents on board perhaps we can instill a safe and responsible way for our children to behave online.  J

Yes I believe that children are ruining their lives a bit with their digital footprints because we are on the precipice of learning how to live our lives online.  Adolescents are not famous for making well informed decisions, and with that they are sharing too much personal information including pictures, with a world of people they may not want to just because of peer pressure.   And without having enough foresight to know that they should care I worry that in turn they may pay the price for it in the future.  Also with the sharing of sometimes explicit information online predators are likely to try to target our children, but I think that children are becoming savvy in navigating away from strangers online and not responding to anyone inquiring about personal information that they do not know.  The true danger of technology today I believe is children engaging in negative things online like cyber bullying like in the case of that poor boy Ryan who took his own life in the first video, and looking for bad and misleading information like in the case of the anorexic girl.  Parents and school need to be diligent in making sure that their children are not engaging in bad behavior in cyberspace.

I really connected and felt sad for the father who lost his son to cyber bullying and was heart broken to hear that it was a game to some “popular girls” to pretend to like someone and then drop a bomb.  I think that things are changing for the better a bit with these types of issues because of all the casualties due to this kind of bullying, but schools, teachers, and parents need to do all they can to keep a watchful eye on this type of behavior so that we may not lose anymore promising lives to such a senseless crime.  Another surprising issue that has arisen from the over saturation of technology in our students lives is the issue of English professors feeling like they couldn’t assign reading lnger than 200 pages.  It was also jarring to see that teenager from the first video say he couldn’t remember the last time he read a book.  While multitasking and creating things are very practical skills we need to teach our students to be successful in the work place, reading things in its entirety and critical things are also very important skills one must learn to survive in the work place as well.  Telling my boss I skimmed the email he sent does not ring well.  These skills that are children are letting fall y the wayside in order to multitask and create more time for social networking is a huge detriment to our society.      

Week 3: Literature Review: 32 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom

For my Literature Review I have just finished watching a wonderfully informative webinar under Google Apps for Education, titled, 32 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom.  Julia Stiglitz, a former fourth grade teacher and now presently works for Google on the Google Apps for Education Team.Webinar Video 

For this webinar Julia encapsulated some of the most popular tools Google has that can make teaching in the twenty first century not only more efficient but more engaging for our students.  From using Google Calendar that a teacher could use to invite parents, colleagues, and students to view, to a Homework Tracking Document for parents to see what their child is or not keeping up with in their homework, Google has made collaborating and sharing important information easy and efficient.  Using the calendar a teacher can see when you have a plan period and schedule a meeting, or hop in on another meeting that they may want some insight on about a student.  With a shared Google calendar no more can a colleague or administrator feel that they have been left out of the loop.  When using the Homework tracker a teacher can share information with her parents and students ethically about the progress of their child.  By assigning numbers to each child and then sharing privately that number with the child’s parents, they can easily track their Childs homework practices.  This helps with teacher to parent communication while also being very efficient with your time. Instead of answering to 20 emails or making 5 phone calls with students having trouble handing in their homework a teacher can now share that information in real time.Tracking Homework Sheet

Google Apps has made it very easy to evaluate and use a variety of current technologies to enhance content instruction and to advance students' technological literacy by giving us Apps that are very practical while also engaging to the student while helping promote their learning.  A few of the more notable ways that a teacher can use Google Apps to make their classrooms more efficient while making them more technologically inclusive are as follows.  A teacher can make their own Formative/ Summative assessments to gage their students on what they already may know on a subject they are about to learn about and have the students take the quick assessment right their on their laptops and get the results in seconds.  There is a Flash Card App under the Gadgets tab that allows for teachers to make and administer Flash cards of their own making, a great tool for me as English language Learner teacher.  Also with Reading Response Journal Work a teacher can completely replace lugging around 25 Composition notebooks to correct, by making it an online experience through Google Docs.  With this App a teacher can have students collaborate on writing assignments, or submit journal responses through their computers, and with Revision History (a feature included on Google Docs) all the students revisions are saved so a teacher can track progress or pull out “gems” of information the students has left out in a revision that the teacher felt should be included.

This webinar and Google was very applicable to the work I plan to do as an ELL instructor due to the many features it had.  From Document translating to help me better communicate with my non-English speaking parents and students, to the invite feature from Gmail allowing me to invite guest speakers from around the world or even just the grandparents of our students to our class with live chat to share about different cultures.  With Google Docs I can create and share a classroom webpage complete with a calendar of events, to help my students create Digital Portfolios to share their work and progress with future teachers.  I am so glad I chose this specific webinar and definitely plan to explore and learn more about how to use the different Apps and how to include its information in my class.