Good Quotes assignment....

Twitter in Education

Before this assignment, I have tried to use twitter.  I mostly just looked at what others were posting. I really didn’t post anything myself.  I really liked the group that all of the EDIM510 people were put in! It made it easy to read the posts that were from the people in this class.  I follow a ton of people had have been a member of twitter for years, so the list prevented the posts from this class from being lost.  I have to say; I loved being on twitter with my classmates. I enjoyed sharing ideas and seeing other educator’s perspectives.

            One of the benefits that I see using twitter for is teacher collaboration.  So far this week, my classmates and I have discussed iOS applications in the classroom, google+ and edmodo.  Twitter is a great way to gather and discuss resources for the classroom.  All of the major educational software companies and blogs have and use twitter regularly.  One of these companies even tweeted me back regarding software for the classroom! I also love following edutopia.  This week they posted Project Based Learning ideas for history! They always post some great ideas and resources for educators. 

            In the classroom, I can see twitter being used in higher-level classes as a way to communicate with the teacher.  It can be used to share resources, project updates and other academic communications. I don’t know if I would use it as a Middle School teacher seeing as I can use edmodo for similar purposes and edmodo is more secure.  If I did use it, I would probably create an account separate from my personal account and I would not follow my students.  I could create projects around twitter.  I would have the students create a twitter page pretending to be a famous person and to spend a week posting as that person.  Twitter allows for collaboration, resource sharing and has a ton of information at your fingertips! I hope that I continue to use twitter like I have this past week!

www.twitter.com

Aggregation RSS tools in Education

One problem with the Internet is that there is so much information that it is easy for someone to get information overload.  Millions of blogs, websites and social media networks can sometimes make someone feel overwhelmed.  I can completely understand this feeling.  I have learned about hundreds of new resources and blogs while progressing through the Instructional Media program and I have honestly felt overwhelmed with all of the information. I am quite familiar with technology and I am a self-proclaimed nerd.  If all of this information makes me nervous, I can’t imagine those who are not so familiar. Aggregation tools can help calm this feeling of being overwhelmed!

            I have a handful of blogs that I check out quite frequently.  Some of these blogs are educational like edutopia, and others are to fulfill my nerdy nature (like macrumors).  I also follow a ton of political and paleo blogs too.  I haven’t really expanded my blog reading beyond about 5-10 sites because it does get overwhelming trying to keep everything organized.  I enjoyed using feedly and I added all of my favorite blogs.  I like how you can read all of your favorite blogs all in one place.  You can also keep all of your blogs organized by category and not have to worry about finding the URL for a blog that you wanted to read daily.

            Not only can I see using feedly.com to develop my own network and educational toolbox, but I can see how feedly and other aggregation tools like pinterest in the classroom.  I could create a teacher’s communication blog to help communicate information to students and parents.  I can use it to communicate project due dates, and resources to be used for papers or projects.  It can be used to organize all sorts of information. If I was doing a project on current events, I could have the students use RSS feeds to aggregate news articles from different sources to analyze media biases and news events!

www.feedly.com

www.pinterest.com 

Personal Learning Networks

  I was very intrigued by this week’s readings.  We learned about Personal Learning Networks. Needless to say, we all have them to some degree.  Personal Learning Networks are people or resources that you consult to solve problems, answer questions and most importantly, to learn. I have several important networks that are important to me.  First of all, my coworkers are some of my most important resources.  I am very lucky to work in a fabulous school.  We all are willing to share our knowledge with each other.  I have worked in schools where that has not been the case.   I have my social studies department. We share activities and other resources with each other. I also have my technology network.  I have several friends and coworkers that are very into technology.  We write grants, and experiment on new technology and consult with each other.  If I have a problem, I know exactly who to go to in school.  Out of school, I also have similar networks.  I have used Edmodo to learn about new technologies and teaching practices.  There are groups on Edmodo full of teachers ready to lend a helping hand.  If you ask a question on these message boards, there are hundreds of teachers ready to help you out.   I have also expanded my networks by enrolling in courses in the Instructional Media program.  I have met some great educators through this program and have learned a great deal from them! 

            After looking at Utecht’s scale, I believe I bounce back and forth between Perspective, Know it all and Balance (Utecht, 2008).  When I am introduced to a new network, or if I am on a quest for knowledge, I have a tendency to fall into the know it all stage.  I sometimes consume myself with knowing everything there is to know about a topic. There comes a point where I have to put it in perspective and realize that I am being a little obsessive and lay off. That would be the perspective phase.  I then eventually use these networks in moderation and enter the Balance phase.  I actually giggled to myself when reading this article.  I can see myself total immersed in a network, forgoing the rest of my life.  My plan to keep utilizing my networks to my best advantage is organization.  If you don’t keep your networks organized, you sometimes lose a part of your network! I love to use diigo to help organize my thoughts, and also use google docs to do the same thing.  Torbin is correct in stating that personal learning networks are “the most powerful learning tool” (Torbin, 1998).

Works Cited

Torbin, D. R. (1998). Building your Personal Learning Network. Retrieved September 14, 2013, from Dan Torbin- Corporate Learning Strategist: http://www.tobincls.com/learningnetwork.htm

Utecht, J. (2008, April 3). Stages of PLN adoption. Retrieved September 14, 2013, from The thinking stick: http://www.thethinkingstick.com/stages-of-pln-adoption

Via, S. (2010, June 10). Personal learning networks for educators. Retrieved September 14, 2013, from www.youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WVEFE-oZA

Intro to Web 2.0 Assignment

Personally, I see myself as being very familiar with technology and the web.  That being said, I learned a great deal from the readings and the videos that introduced Web 2.0. I had already known that Web 2.0 was more advanced, but I never knew the exact definitions.  Web 1.0 is the “Read” Web (Schrock, 2011).  There is no editing the document by the user.  Editing 1.0 document requires extensive knowledge of html. The important change to Web 2.0 is that this knowledge of programing is no longer required.  The new Web 2.0 is the “Read/Write” web (Schrock, 2011).  The programing knowledge is no longer required to edit documents.  Web 2.0 makes it easy for anyone to edit documents.  This allows everyone the ability to communicate and collaborate.  Web 2.0 is simply interactive where Web 1.0 is not.  In the video, “the Computer as the Door” video, I also learned about how there are so many Web 2.0 are free to use.  This allows me to take my teaching and make it digital and interactive.  Instead of paper and pen projects and essays, I can now move to more interactive and student based technological projects.

The video “The Machine is US” really opened my eyes about the differences between Web 1.0 and 2.0.  The video described Web 1.0 ad written text (Wesch, The Machine is US, 2007).  It is hard to change, and is inflexible. It contrasts written text with digital text.  Digital text can be changed easily, and it is flexible.  The video really illustrated clearly the difference between the two.  The “Day in the Life of Web 2.0” article illustrated clearly how to incorporate Web 2.0 into learning and teaching (Warlick, 2006).  It suggested using wikis as study guides.  Tagging can be used to organize information for easy access for research and activities. It described using Web 2.0 for teachers to collaborate on projects and share their ideas.  Web 2.0 sites can also be used to record class for homebound/homeschool students.  Web 2.0 is a great resource to expand learning! I also would like to mention the Vision of students Today video (Wesch, 2007).  I related to this video on many levels.
Almost every sign that was raised, I said “Yes!” in my head.  Today’s students are very different from those in the past.  They have been raised on technology and interaction. Students have a hard time learning by just being lectured to.  They crave interaction and collaboration. I too have bought hundreds of dollars of textbooks had have never read them.  I also am guilty of researching and doing other things on my laptop during classes.  People change.  It is time for education at all levels to change too!

Works Cited
Schrock, K. (2011, Fall). www.vimeo.com. Retrieved September 5, 2013, from The Computer as the Door: http://vimeo.com/23792729

Warlick, D. (2006, October 5). A day in the life of web 2.0. Retrieved September 5, 2013, from Tech and Learning Website: http://www.techlearning.com/features/0039/a-day-in-the-life-of-web-20/45231

Wesch, M. (2007, October 12). A vision of Students Today. Retrieved September 5, 2013, from www.youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Wesch, M. (2007, March 8). The Machine is US. Retrieved September 5, 2013, from www.youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g