Sunday, February 21, 2010
Have you heard about Digital Citizenship?
We were asked to watch a video from the K12 Online Conference website. The video is called Digiteens: Digital Citizenship by Digital Teenagers. I did some research to see if I could actually get a definition for digital citizenship and realized that was not as easy as going to dictionary.com. I learned that the general consensus is that we need to have and use digital citizenship when using technology; but no one is sure where it should be being taught. I did find one definition, from a website, that seemed to make the most sense. The Society for Technology in Education has defined Digital Citizenship as "students understands human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior".
This video showed different student project that dealt with various Internet etiquette. The one that compared DUI and DWT (driving while texting) statistics in regards to accidents and the loss of human life caught my attention the most. I was shocked to learn that DWT caused more death related accidents than DUI. Almost twice as many than DUI related accidents. I learned a lot from the video.
I did not realize that most of our teenagers and children, that have social networking accounts, have lied about their ages on them. I wanted to check this out for myself, so I had my niece show me her profile on the social network page she uses. We assumed that because it was Christian based that it would be safe. To my surprise, my niece had her age down correct in one spot but in another spot she had that she graduated high school in 1996. Making her much older than 13. I told her we needed to correct it and she told me that we could not. Once you put in the information and save it you can't change it. It was a nice try but thanks to this class I knew how to correct it and we did.
One of the projects talked about the safety of adults and children using the Internet. It was very informative. Most of our children are not aware of any dangers or how to protect themselves from predators and identity theft when it comes to using today's technology. I did not realize that children as young as 9 years old are shopping online. My question is how are they paying for their items and who turns their kids loose on the Internet with their credit cards? This type of situation has resulted in identity left because the kids were not using safe shopping practices.
During my school years, we were taught citizenship in regards to human behavior and interaction. The most advanced pieces of technology were the boom box, VCR, microwave, and color TV. Society set the standard for what was played on the radio, TV, and movies. There was not the need for safety concerns that we face today. The biggest concerns were not to drink, and if you did drink then not to drive, or ride with someone who had been drinking. The other big issue was not to talk to strangers. I grew up in a much safer world than we live in today.
As I have been learning and taking this technology for teachers class, I keep wondering how safe are my students going to be as I incorporate technology into my class some day. I would feel terrible if something we did in class led to my students being preyed upon or even worse hurt. This makes me feel that we all have a responsibility to teach Internet etiquette. This should start in home usage and carry through to the classroom. Before we let our students use technology we should make sure they have the knowledge to do so in a manner that is safe for them and others. I will include digital citizenship lessons in my classroom.
Will it work for every student? Project Learning
This assignment was to watch Project Learning: An Overview. This is a video from the Edutopia website.
As I watched this video, I had one thought that kept coming to my mind. First, let me say that project based learning is a great idea. I love the student's enthusiasm and excitement in the learning that was displayed in this video. Most of the schools, in the video, are private or charter schools. This makes it easier to incorporate this type of learning into their curriculum. They are not under the constraints that the public school system is; which is usually centered around testing scores and PASS skills. I can see where these restrictions would make project learning hard to incorporate into public school systems.
I noticed that most of the project where science and math related. This made me wonder about the other basics that were not showed or discussed. Everything about Project Learning is centered and based around the student/child. They are responsible for their learning. The student chooses the topic/subject and then becomes the director of their learning. It is also the students responsibility to ensure that they are on task and get everything accomplished that they need to.
This type of learning is great if you are self-motivated and a real go getter. Unfortunately, we don't all fit into this category. I am not sure how this will work for all the different types of learners that you have in a classroom. We have students that I worry will be left behind or out in this type of learning environment. We have students who have problems that effect their learning and I am not sure how project learning would work for them. I am old enough that of course we did not have the technology that is out there today. A project, that usually used Popsicle sticks, was building a fort.
I want to work with students that come from low socially economic situations. I worry that this is the group that will be left behind the most. I like the concept of project learning, as a whole. I think this is great for science. For the last 2 years ,my niece has been telling me that she hates science. I found out that she is like me. She does not really hate science. What she hates is the way it is taught. It is so boring to learn science from a textbook only and I agree with her. I hated science until I came back to college. I needed the hands on activities to bring it into focus for me. I love science now and it is because of inquiry based learning. I was terrified in my first science lab class, but I found that I liked it a lot. My niece loves doing labs and experiments but this is not what is being taught in her school's science classes. Her favorite experiment is the burping bottle. I love how her eyes light up when she does an experiment by herself and it works for her. I think that I could incorporate small class projects based in this type of learning, into my classroom.
As I watched this video, I had one thought that kept coming to my mind. First, let me say that project based learning is a great idea. I love the student's enthusiasm and excitement in the learning that was displayed in this video. Most of the schools, in the video, are private or charter schools. This makes it easier to incorporate this type of learning into their curriculum. They are not under the constraints that the public school system is; which is usually centered around testing scores and PASS skills. I can see where these restrictions would make project learning hard to incorporate into public school systems.
I noticed that most of the project where science and math related. This made me wonder about the other basics that were not showed or discussed. Everything about Project Learning is centered and based around the student/child. They are responsible for their learning. The student chooses the topic/subject and then becomes the director of their learning. It is also the students responsibility to ensure that they are on task and get everything accomplished that they need to.
This type of learning is great if you are self-motivated and a real go getter. Unfortunately, we don't all fit into this category. I am not sure how this will work for all the different types of learners that you have in a classroom. We have students that I worry will be left behind or out in this type of learning environment. We have students who have problems that effect their learning and I am not sure how project learning would work for them. I am old enough that of course we did not have the technology that is out there today. A project, that usually used Popsicle sticks, was building a fort.
I want to work with students that come from low socially economic situations. I worry that this is the group that will be left behind the most. I like the concept of project learning, as a whole. I think this is great for science. For the last 2 years ,my niece has been telling me that she hates science. I found out that she is like me. She does not really hate science. What she hates is the way it is taught. It is so boring to learn science from a textbook only and I agree with her. I hated science until I came back to college. I needed the hands on activities to bring it into focus for me. I love science now and it is because of inquiry based learning. I was terrified in my first science lab class, but I found that I liked it a lot. My niece loves doing labs and experiments but this is not what is being taught in her school's science classes. Her favorite experiment is the burping bottle. I love how her eyes light up when she does an experiment by herself and it works for her. I think that I could incorporate small class projects based in this type of learning, into my classroom.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Making a Baby Blanket
One of the assignments, for week 4, is to create at "Story in 5 Photos". There are several different stories at this web site. We were to use photos that were copyright friendly. Two of the sites to find these types of image are Compfight and Flickr. The purpose of this assignment it is to introduce visual literacy to us. Here is my story about making a baby blanket.
Digital Nation
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening
For week 3, we have a mini project that uses voice thread that we are to complete. I chose a book written by L. J. Smith. I created my project on voice thread and created a account also. This is a neat way to do a book review or book report. It was a lot of fun creating this project. It was also a lot harder to record my review than I thought it would be. I could not believe how many times I messed up on the audio recording and would have to start over. Instead of telling you about the book, I think I will let you watch it for yourself. :)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Student blogs for Week 3
For this weeks student blogs I chose a classroom web page that I can into contact with through my twitter page Naysangels. This is a Mrs. Kolbert's Class Blog and it is where I did the first student comment. I choose a student website titled Birds of the World. His whole page is dedicated to different species and types of birds. I read the post that talked about the Great Horned Owl. I found one fact very interesting. I thought all birds built their own nest but this is not true. You will have to read his post yourself to find out what the do instead.
For my second student comment I chose a classroom in New Zealand. I learned about this classroom through one of the previous videos we watched for this class. I was amazed by the video and had to check out her classroom blog. I chose to read a story written by a group of students called the Parrot and the Dog. I thought it was a cute story and loved the names for the parrot and dog. You will have to check out the story for yourself.
For my second student comment I chose a classroom in New Zealand. I learned about this classroom through one of the previous videos we watched for this class. I was amazed by the video and had to check out her classroom blog. I chose to read a story written by a group of students called the Parrot and the Dog. I thought it was a cute story and loved the names for the parrot and dog. You will have to check out the story for yourself.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Stopping Violence in the Education System
One of my assignments for week 3 was to go to 21st Century Global Leadership website. If you have not been you should check it out. These are some amazing student presentation on hard topics. I am passionate about stopping violence in our world, so naturally I choose the presentation what are we doing to stop violence.
I thought the student did a great job presenting their viewpoint. I have never seen any of the footage from Columbine prior to this. There was a link in the presentation to a YouTube
video. As I watched this video, I was remember the television coverage during this incident and thinking about the different responses from the students involved. The one thing that stuck in my mind, was how many students commented that they wished they had felt confident enough to speak up prior to this incident.
The students had seen the signs but had been to scared to approach any of the adults for help. This made me wonder if we have let our children down some how, as a society and in the education field, that they did not feel confident and safe enough to speak up. I question if we should not be doing more to help our students develop their self-esteem. I also question if there is something more we should be doing to help our students have the confidence in us to feel safe enough to talk to us, as educators and role models, about the hard times and tough things they are dealing with. For many people life is not easy, happy, or the best environment it could be and this is growing to included more and more of our students and their families every day. As teachers, we may be the only ray of hope our students have in their lives.
Unfortunately, the reality is we will never know for sure whether this could have been helped or prevented. At the same time, this and other tragedies like it, have opened our eyes to several areas that we should reevaluate and make the necessary changes as they are needed. However, this is just my opinion and I am very passionate about ending domestic and non-domestic violence.
What We’Re Doing To Stop The Violence
View more presentations from bgalva010.
I thought the student did a great job presenting their viewpoint. I have never seen any of the footage from Columbine prior to this. There was a link in the presentation to a YouTube
video. As I watched this video, I was remember the television coverage during this incident and thinking about the different responses from the students involved. The one thing that stuck in my mind, was how many students commented that they wished they had felt confident enough to speak up prior to this incident.
The students had seen the signs but had been to scared to approach any of the adults for help. This made me wonder if we have let our children down some how, as a society and in the education field, that they did not feel confident and safe enough to speak up. I question if we should not be doing more to help our students develop their self-esteem. I also question if there is something more we should be doing to help our students have the confidence in us to feel safe enough to talk to us, as educators and role models, about the hard times and tough things they are dealing with. For many people life is not easy, happy, or the best environment it could be and this is growing to included more and more of our students and their families every day. As teachers, we may be the only ray of hope our students have in their lives.
Unfortunately, the reality is we will never know for sure whether this could have been helped or prevented. At the same time, this and other tragedies like it, have opened our eyes to several areas that we should reevaluate and make the necessary changes as they are needed. However, this is just my opinion and I am very passionate about ending domestic and non-domestic violence.
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