Sunday, December 15, 2013
metacognitive journal
When I started this course I was a connected at all times and did not just fully understand what it meant to be hyper connected or what balance is needed. I was 100% on board for technology in the classroom and could see the benefit and really thought everyone did. Throughout this course between reading blogs and course material and other's opinions in discussion I have learned that hyper connection is not good and have worked to reduce my screen time along with my family's screen time. I realize not everyone is excited about technology in the classroom but as I "listened" (or read) their point of view I realized it was more because of the way the technology is being used. Many see it as a short cut or not really helpful. I learned balance is the key and it is important to keep balance and implement technology smartly. Do not just implement for the sake of implementation. This course really went through what teachers are facing today and the need to teach differently. I am planning on my final project to be in the area of new media and new literacy. I plan on developing a plan and curriculum that will implement technology into a classroom smartly. Not just throw it at a lesson but enhance the lesson.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Literacy Guide
I decided to write a information literacy guide for adult learners. I did this because I am one and I work with them all the time. I took what I would want one of my students to understand about information literacy and turned it into a quick guide. What I realize is many times adults have not been in school for years and things are very different. Many could have been out of school for decades and have not had to research online before. They may not realize things like wikipedia is not an acceptable source or even where to start on how to cite a paper.
Adults also do not like to ask for help so if they have a quick guide they can look at and do not have to look elsewhere they will be more likely to be successful.
Adults also do not like to ask for help so if they have a quick guide they can look at and do not have to look elsewhere they will be more likely to be successful.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Technology Interview
I interviewed a friend's daughter Madison for this assignment. Madison is almost 11 and in the 5th grade. I have known Madison since she was in second grade. Madison is a very good student she gets top grades and is regularly praised for her writing and reading so I was looking forward to interviewing her on this topic. We discussed what technology she uses regularly at home and was not surprised to find out she uses an iPod, tablet and television everyday. It was interesting to know that she does not use her phone everyday. Her use of technology was not a surprise either. She enjoys playing games but while she could play with others online she chooses to play on her own and skip the online portion of the games.
While we discussed technology, Madison told me her parents do monitor what she does online and at this time only has Facebook and a gmail account but at this time does not use instagram. When I asked about technology in school, I asked about good sources and bad sources and how she knows the difference. I was glad to hear the school is teaching this skill. Madison could easily explain it was important to make sure you check to see where a source is coming from so that you use a good source. In our interview, I asked if Madison had plans on college and she does and wants to go to school to be a teacher. She felt the technology they use in school is really appropriate and she learns from it but does not feel there needs to be more.
When I asked Madison about reading on her tablet she said it was something she did sometimes but really enjoys reading books and tends to read books instead. Books and reading was also the reason she does not tend to use technology everyday when she is home.
I enjoyed my interview with Madison. She was articulate and very well spoken. It was clear she understood what the technology should be used for and how to use it. It did not surprise me that her parents are involved with her social media and online use. Since we have discussed multiple times about children need to still enjoy the more traditional learning like reading a book and not on an iPad. As well as discussing how connected we are as a society it was great to hear a young lady say it is not something she even wants to use everyday.
While we discussed technology, Madison told me her parents do monitor what she does online and at this time only has Facebook and a gmail account but at this time does not use instagram. When I asked about technology in school, I asked about good sources and bad sources and how she knows the difference. I was glad to hear the school is teaching this skill. Madison could easily explain it was important to make sure you check to see where a source is coming from so that you use a good source. In our interview, I asked if Madison had plans on college and she does and wants to go to school to be a teacher. She felt the technology they use in school is really appropriate and she learns from it but does not feel there needs to be more.
When I asked Madison about reading on her tablet she said it was something she did sometimes but really enjoys reading books and tends to read books instead. Books and reading was also the reason she does not tend to use technology everyday when she is home.
I enjoyed my interview with Madison. She was articulate and very well spoken. It was clear she understood what the technology should be used for and how to use it. It did not surprise me that her parents are involved with her social media and online use. Since we have discussed multiple times about children need to still enjoy the more traditional learning like reading a book and not on an iPad. As well as discussing how connected we are as a society it was great to hear a young lady say it is not something she even wants to use everyday.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Alcohol Ad
When I read this assignment I instantly remembered one of the few alcohol ads I had viewed while watching TV. I decided to deconstruct that one. I do not watch commercials if I can help it but this one really struck a nerve- in a good way. When you think of a beer commercial you think either of the clydesdale or women half dressed and honestly I get it... I really do sex sells to men but beer commercials are woman who have bodies that are so unattainable for many of us that they annoy me at best. That is why this one stuck out. It is a bunch of men playing basketball in wheelchairs there is little said and the noise of the game is all you hear. At the end of the game all but one man gets up and the friends head for a beer.
I was so appreciative of a company to use a different way to sell their beer. It went after the friendship angle instead of the hey drink beer get a sexy chick. I do not like Guinness but the commercial is enough for me to try one again.
I found the commercial on Youtube and MSN Money and it appears that there are two very different opinions ... It is deeming or it is a great commercial. I am definitely in the later camp. I was also glad to see it on during prime time not a time young kids would typically see the commercial.
Check it out yourself and let me know what you think
http://youtu.be/xwndLOKQTDs
I was so appreciative of a company to use a different way to sell their beer. It went after the friendship angle instead of the hey drink beer get a sexy chick. I do not like Guinness but the commercial is enough for me to try one again.
I found the commercial on Youtube and MSN Money and it appears that there are two very different opinions ... It is deeming or it is a great commercial. I am definitely in the later camp. I was also glad to see it on during prime time not a time young kids would typically see the commercial.
Check it out yourself and let me know what you think
http://youtu.be/xwndLOKQTDs
Sunday, October 20, 2013
More or less democracy
After this week's reading I have to say I am not sure if there is more or less democracy or maybe we are just more aware of what is going on in the world today because of the internet. Listening to the video I started to think how can we truly compare from 20 years ago. There are so many opinions and even spin on data because let's be honest we can make data look like whatever we want and today with the internet we can google what we are looking for and find the information. We are not guaranteed to find confirmed information or supported statements but if we looked we could find someone who agrees with our opinion so I wonder often where do we stand?
I do not think we can find an answer to this and in fact I would say we are probably very close to the same as we were twenty years ago but we are more aware of things around us. Anything from politics to weather to stock trading and I think the younger we are the more comfortable we are with the internet and the more likely to believe what we read.
I do not think we can find an answer to this and in fact I would say we are probably very close to the same as we were twenty years ago but we are more aware of things around us. Anything from politics to weather to stock trading and I think the younger we are the more comfortable we are with the internet and the more likely to believe what we read.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Week 3-
I did not have to get too far into the reading to start scratching my head. I may had been reading with the wrong hat on. I was reading with my mom hate on. I spend most of my time as mom on the weekends cleaning cuts and chasing around my kids. I have mentioned before we are technology people and I am tied to my phone... maybe a little bit too much but my kids. I encourage books and imagination and being outside. There is plenty of time to "play" on the internet but that can be "tomorrow". I guess I am allowing my kids to use the technology too much in the fun ways. The reading really opened my eyes to my lack of encouragement in this area.
First what stuck out on page 3 (Jenkins, 2006) was that about 50% of students use the internet and my feeling is that number is much higher today from 2006. With my mom hat on all I could think of is cyber-bullying, something in its infancy if at all an issue in 2006. While this is not literacy it impedes it. Bullying at school makes kids withdraw and not participate in school. Today we have things like facebook and instagram and twitter and myyearbook... Since most parents are not as tech savvy as their children, it is easy for things to get out of hand. It is why I feel teaching things like safety with the new literacy such as the internet need to be taught in school, as well as to the parents. A child who shares too much can find themselves in trouble or being bullied by classmates. This will greatly impact the student's ability to participate in learning as well as continue to be comfortable with the new media and literacy.
The problems with the internet were not something I was surprised by but I get students regularly telling me they are using a primary source in wikipedia but I really did enjoy reading all of the positive examples even if there were some hiccups with the way things were being done. Such as the Hogwarts paper on page 5 (Jenkins, 2006).
I also feel the participation gap is less of an issue. While there are still people without internet at home, there are many places you can get "free" internet.
Overall I enjoyed the reading and video. I would also be interested to see some of the statistics to be updated from 2006 and see if as a nation we are still around the same as 2006 or it has grown. My experience here in the Capital District of NY, the participation gap is not as big as it once was and more then 50% of teenagers are on media and sharing on sites. The growth I believe is part of what we need to consider on how to take our next steps. Ethically whose responsibility is it to help teach the children things like internet safety? I take this as my responsibility as a tech savvy parent but I have friends who are not nearly as tech savvy. If we do not work at this as a team I believe the participation gap will never get better.
Jenkins, H.J. (2006)., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF
First what stuck out on page 3 (Jenkins, 2006) was that about 50% of students use the internet and my feeling is that number is much higher today from 2006. With my mom hat on all I could think of is cyber-bullying, something in its infancy if at all an issue in 2006. While this is not literacy it impedes it. Bullying at school makes kids withdraw and not participate in school. Today we have things like facebook and instagram and twitter and myyearbook... Since most parents are not as tech savvy as their children, it is easy for things to get out of hand. It is why I feel teaching things like safety with the new literacy such as the internet need to be taught in school, as well as to the parents. A child who shares too much can find themselves in trouble or being bullied by classmates. This will greatly impact the student's ability to participate in learning as well as continue to be comfortable with the new media and literacy.
The problems with the internet were not something I was surprised by but I get students regularly telling me they are using a primary source in wikipedia but I really did enjoy reading all of the positive examples even if there were some hiccups with the way things were being done. Such as the Hogwarts paper on page 5 (Jenkins, 2006).
I also feel the participation gap is less of an issue. While there are still people without internet at home, there are many places you can get "free" internet.
Overall I enjoyed the reading and video. I would also be interested to see some of the statistics to be updated from 2006 and see if as a nation we are still around the same as 2006 or it has grown. My experience here in the Capital District of NY, the participation gap is not as big as it once was and more then 50% of teenagers are on media and sharing on sites. The growth I believe is part of what we need to consider on how to take our next steps. Ethically whose responsibility is it to help teach the children things like internet safety? I take this as my responsibility as a tech savvy parent but I have friends who are not nearly as tech savvy. If we do not work at this as a team I believe the participation gap will never get better.
Jenkins, H.J. (2006)., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Literacy Debate
I want to start this blog off saying I am for balance in all things, including reading and technology. With that said, I found reading this article slightly ironic. I mean I am taking an on-line course in what can be a fully on-line program and reading this article on my iPad. In fact this will be my third on-line degree so maybe I am skewed on this and the fact that I work and teach at a fully on-line school adds to that bias but I found this article interesting.
First I want to look at the data, I am old enough (as many of us are) to remember when AOL and Prodigy were the first and only online options which were not available to everyone. I remember quite clearly my 7th grade Spanish teacher being interviewed because she was an early internet adopter and that was in 1990 or 1991. So I feel comparing internet use in 1999 when the technology was still emerging as a day to day use to 2004 when it had become fully integrated into homes and schools might be a poor comparison. 1999 was when high speed internet was first just starting come on the market and by 2004 many teachers were putting their homework and extra help online for students. So I believe that increase in use would be expected. I personally would be more interested to see what the changes of use was between 2004 and 2009.
Now onto the actual debate... Maybe I am looking at it differently because I am not teaching but guiding my children as students. I absolutely think the US is behind on testing in the digital literacy area. We test everything and are doing it younger and younger but feel there is no need to test digital literacy but then we expect our students to research topics on the internet and we are surprised they cannot tell the difference between a good source and a poor source well of course not. We are expecting them to teach themselves and let's be honest us parents while have gotten on board have not had technology integrated in our education. We are learning too! Our children who will leave K-12 and go to college and be fully independent on their learning outside of the classroom will not have the skills they need. I see a HUGE hole in this area!
Reading books, articles, fan fiction, no matter the source is reading but each one has a purpose. My daughter as I have said already has learning disabilities which include dyslexia. I cannot get her to read daily with a book because it is overwhelming. Sometimes I will read with or to her so she can work on her comprehension but that is not how her testing will go. She will need to develop the ability to decode on her own and I for one encourage using technology as do her teachers. Because I for one know it is just a matter of finding the right topic to hook kids on reading books. So if she can get a lot of bits of information on a lot of topics through the internet, I say go for it! She will eventually find one that allows her imagination to go and she will look and crave more information and that will lead to books. Not everyone wants to read the classics. Not every kid will buy a Shakespeare collection like I did and that is completely okay as long as we encourage learning and help children learn to love learning. The world today is very different when it comes to technology but it appears the education has not changed much. We are doing the same things but will some times do it through technology. Instead of flash cards for math facts we might use an app but we are still doing the same work. When children graduate they need to know how to use a computer and how to find information online daily.
First I want to look at the data, I am old enough (as many of us are) to remember when AOL and Prodigy were the first and only online options which were not available to everyone. I remember quite clearly my 7th grade Spanish teacher being interviewed because she was an early internet adopter and that was in 1990 or 1991. So I feel comparing internet use in 1999 when the technology was still emerging as a day to day use to 2004 when it had become fully integrated into homes and schools might be a poor comparison. 1999 was when high speed internet was first just starting come on the market and by 2004 many teachers were putting their homework and extra help online for students. So I believe that increase in use would be expected. I personally would be more interested to see what the changes of use was between 2004 and 2009.
Now onto the actual debate... Maybe I am looking at it differently because I am not teaching but guiding my children as students. I absolutely think the US is behind on testing in the digital literacy area. We test everything and are doing it younger and younger but feel there is no need to test digital literacy but then we expect our students to research topics on the internet and we are surprised they cannot tell the difference between a good source and a poor source well of course not. We are expecting them to teach themselves and let's be honest us parents while have gotten on board have not had technology integrated in our education. We are learning too! Our children who will leave K-12 and go to college and be fully independent on their learning outside of the classroom will not have the skills they need. I see a HUGE hole in this area!
Reading books, articles, fan fiction, no matter the source is reading but each one has a purpose. My daughter as I have said already has learning disabilities which include dyslexia. I cannot get her to read daily with a book because it is overwhelming. Sometimes I will read with or to her so she can work on her comprehension but that is not how her testing will go. She will need to develop the ability to decode on her own and I for one encourage using technology as do her teachers. Because I for one know it is just a matter of finding the right topic to hook kids on reading books. So if she can get a lot of bits of information on a lot of topics through the internet, I say go for it! She will eventually find one that allows her imagination to go and she will look and crave more information and that will lead to books. Not everyone wants to read the classics. Not every kid will buy a Shakespeare collection like I did and that is completely okay as long as we encourage learning and help children learn to love learning. The world today is very different when it comes to technology but it appears the education has not changed much. We are doing the same things but will some times do it through technology. Instead of flash cards for math facts we might use an app but we are still doing the same work. When children graduate they need to know how to use a computer and how to find information online daily.
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