Journal 4 “It's Time To Trust Teachers with the Internet: A Conversation with Meg Ormiston”

Schaffhanuser , D. (2010, December 01). It's time to trust teachers with the internet: a conversation with meg ormiston. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/12/01/its-time-to-trust-teachers-with-the-internet-a-conversation-with-meg-ormiston.aspx?sc_lang=en

Summary:  Dian Schaffhanuser interviews educator Meg Ormiston about the many barriers that are restricting the use of Internet technologies in the classroom. Schaffhanuser brings up a great point that as educators we are pressured to incorporate Internet technology tools in the classroom, but it is made almost impossible with all the restrictions set in place. Schaffhanuser turns to Ormiston to better under stand these restrictions. Schaffhanuser and Ormiston discuss what needs to be in place in order to lift restrictions such as filtering and how to appropriately engaged students in an “unfiltered” Internet classroom.

1. Where the many restriction on your Internet use during your K-12^th schooling experience?

Internet use was exploding when I was in middle school. However, during school hours in 7^th and 8^th I do not remember ever going on the Internet. Our computer lab time was spent typing papers, learning how to use Microsoft and so on. In high school I learned more about the array of search engines out there to help with research paper. However, we were still encouraged to use paperback books, journals and articles provided by the library instead of the Internet. During my high school years Myspace became big. Everyone was checking Myspace, various e-mail accounts and game sites at the school library. Having unfiltered Internet access at school never posed any big problems other than it distracted students from there school work for a few minutes.

 2.  How did those restrictions compare your Internet use at home?

Since we were not allowed to use the Internet in my middle school my friends and I never learned the dangers of talking to strangers online. The big thing in middle school was to use AOL chat rooms. Looking back on it I realized how dumb and unsafe those chat rooms were. On the other hand, when the chat rooms were set up right and restricted who could join, it was a great way to communicate with my classmates outside of school. During my high school years I did not have any restrictions in terms of my internet use at home, so it was just like being in school.

Journal 3 “Join The Flock” and "Enhance Your Twitter Experience”

Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock. Learn and Leading, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx

Summary: Hadley Ferguson takes the confusion of out of how to build an online following and network in the endless world on education by developing a personal learning network (PLN). Ferguson starts off by defining a PLN. She then takes the reader step by step through the process of developing a PLN starting with Twitter. Ferguson informs the reader on how to build their community, set up an account via twitter, teaches how to follow, how to retrieve information, how to share information, how update a profile with pictures and bio, insert tags and so much more. Ferguson even shares some of her favorite educators to follow.

1.  How do you feel about your own PLN? Could it use some sprucing up?

My PLN can defiantly use a little help. After reading Hadley Ferguson’s article I feel way more comfortable building my personal learning network community. I have a better feel for the types of people and groups I should look for to follow in terms of my continuing education and teaching.

"Enhance Your Twitter Experience” 

McClintock Miller, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/Leading_and_Learning_Docs/June_July_2010_Join_the_Flock.sflb.ashx

Summary: Shannon McClintock Miller explains how to organize a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, etc. using an organizer called TweetDeck. She goes on to explain how to create discussion forums, reply, tag, retweet and directly massage others. She explains the advantages of each.   McClintock Miller talks about how using these tools in this form have allowed her and many of her colleagues to connect with people they most likely would not have been able to connect with if it would not for web 2.0 tools such as Twitter. Lastly, McClintock Miller includes a great “twitter twerminology” list that defines all the terms talk about in her article.  

1.     What do you think about Angela Maiers 70%, 20%, 10% formula Shannon McClintock Millers comments about towards the end of her article.

I think Angela Maiers formula is great and totally makes sense. Using the formula makes you tweet and/or post efficiently. I recognize how tweeting or posting this way makes you get the “most bang for your buck”.

Journal 1 Do Web 2.0 Right

Light, D. (2011). Do web 2.0 right. Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(5), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-december-january-2010.aspx

Summary:  Daniel Light and colleague, Deborah Polin, traveled the Untied States to find out how teachers were successfully, (and in some cases not so successfully), incorporating Web 2.0 activities into the classroom. The two interviewed 39 educators and several students in 22 different schools across the country to better understand how these tools were employed in their classrooms. Light and Polin identified (1) instituting daily practice, (2) carefully considering the audience, and (3) teaching and enforcing appropriate behavior as the three elements teachers used 2.0 Web in order to create sustained, meaningful communication among their students. Light goes on to discuss the best ways to implement each of these elements into the classroom and uses teachers examples to support his findings.

Do you see yourself making an effort to tread these elements into your classroom?

            Yes, most defiantly. Being “the shy student” growing up I understand how Web 2.0 tools can help those students who are to shy to speak up in class. Web 2.0 allows their voices be heard in a way they feel comfortable with. Also, I like using Web 2.0 to allow students to discuss anything we might be learning without the year. For example Blogs will allow students to give more informative, critical and thoughtful comments on class discussions or current events we might be learning about in class. Lastly, I love the idea of my students having a safe way to communicate with myself, their peers, parents and our community.

How do you feel about this “always-on community” that Web 2.0 always teachers to create for their students?

            To be honest, in the beginning I thought always being connected was going to be stressful and time consuming. On the contrary, I am realizing that the stress level has decreased. At first, it was hard and confusing to learn how to employ these tools into the classroom, but it has become second nature now. My students are always learning in a safe environment that I can check in on whenever I want and that makes me happy.

Technology Self-Assessment: School 2.0 NETs 5

         I had plenty of reflection tool results to choose from. I am not 100% sure if having that many reflection tools was a good or bad thing. I decided to look at the link Creativity and Schools-Sir Ken Robinson under NETS-T Module: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.
          Robinson is a genius and so entertaining to watch. I never spent a great deal of time reflecting on the hierarchy of school subject and how society bases intelligence on the success in these subjects until I watched Robinson's clip. Robinson points out that no matter what school system we look around the world the hierarchy is the same; math and science are at the top with art and music at the bottom. We are also lead to believe that intelligence is based on our academic success in the most valued educational areas, not so much on creativity. Robinson points out the obvious problem here, we as people do not work this way. Intelligence is diverse, distinct and dynamic just like us. Therefore, intelligence cannot be thought about in one way. His story about Jillianne drove home his point that we need to rethink the fundamental principle on which we are educating children. As a future teacher I want to foster creativity in my classroom and teach my students that intelligence is based on so much more that just academics.
_______________________________________
For this assignment I used the "school 2.0 Refectional Tool" on toolkit.org to answer a set of questions that are designed reflect on skills in technology integration and to identify areas for growth. Next I choose results from one of the NETs and investigated one of the resources. In this post a shared what I learned from the resource I choose to investigate. I included a screen selection of my results as a picture in this blog post.

Journal 2

1. 
   
   1.     Mom
   2.     Dad
   3.     Brothers
   4.     Grandparents
   5.     Spending time with all of my cousins
   6.     Christmas eve
   7.     Christmas day
   8.     Thanksgiving
   9.     Peanut butter
   10.  Time with friends
   11.  Hiking
   12.  Traveling
   13.  Meeting new people
   14.  Outdoors
   15.  The warmth from the sun
   16.  Smell of pavement after the rain
   17.  Smell of grass after the rain
   18.  Smell of fresh cut grass
   19.  Train rides across country
   20.  Hugs
   21.  Kisses
   22.  Freedom
   23.  Cold breeze against my face
   24.  Sticking my head out the window while riding in a car down the 101
   25.  Stars
   26.  Swings
   27.  Laying in the snow at night by myself
   28.  Bob Marley
   29.  The cello
   30.  Laughter
   31.  Laughing until I cry
   32.  Making my friend laugh until they cry
   33.  New love
   34.  Old love
   35.  Plane rides to new places
   36.  St. Louis
   37.  Humidity
   38.  Driving the 101 at night
   39.  Walking along the beach at night
   40.  Feeling the cold sand on my feet in the winter
   41.  Feeling the hot sand on my feet in the summer
   42.  Jumping into a pool after sitting in a hot tube
   43.  Sleeping
   44.  Naps in the sun
   45.  Music
   46.  Staying up all night with friends
   47.  Watching scary movies
   48.  Watching scary movies with my little brother
   49.  Scaring my little brother
   50.   Spending time with my girlfriends
   51.  Finding old friends
   52.  Watching my god daughter grow up
   53.  Listening to my little cousins express himself
   54.  Finger painting
   55.  Walks
   56.  Long slow runs
   57.  Fast runs
   58.  Half marathons
   59.  5 k
   60.  Food
   61.  Last minute adventures with friends
   62.  Swimming
   63.  Jumping to a lake
   64.  Jumping off rock
   65.  Nature
   66.   Airports
   67.   Hearing my first language while traveling
   68.   Bright colors
   69.  Sunsets
   70.  Sunrises
   71.  Walking home during the sunrise
   72.   Watching college basketball
   73.  Watching football
   74.   Mizzou football games
   75.   New Years Eve
   76.  Halloween
   77.  Flowers
   78.  Dancing
   79.  A clean room
   80.  Organized room
   81.  Smell of espresso
   82.  Green tea
   83.  Waking up early
   84.  Going to bed early
   85.  Trying new fruits
   86.  Peanut butter and bananas
   87.  Farmers markets
   88.  Riding my bike
   89.  Thinking of camp
   90.  Watching people succeed
   91.  David Gray
   92.  Diving into waves
   93.  Talking to people from my childhood
   94.  Weddings
   95.  Shopping
   96.  Boots
   97.  Cowboy boots!
   98.  Seeing my family after traveling
   99.  Flying into the SD airport
   100.  San Diego skyline at night