Blog #5 Week 3 Social Media

Emergent Technologies in a Collaborative Culture

            As digital immigrants, we are wired differently!  I enjoyed the following author’s take on this. Greg Whitby claims that we as teachers have to change our DNA.  In order to keep up with the digital natives and help prepare them for their uncertain future, we have to take great leaps into the unknown.

Changing teacher’s DNA for 21^st century learning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l72UFXqa8ZU&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

This video is well done and shows the different components that make up a 21^st Century Learner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Up1f0lmOA&feature=related

            My #4 blog covered social networking quite a bit, so I’m not going to delve into it again, but I did want to post this video from Current.com. My nephew had it on Face Book, and I got quite a kick out of it.  Warning, Twitterpated people will not be pleased! Twouble with Twitters:

http://current.com/items/89891774_twouble-with-twitters.html

            I want to address the use of Google Docs, and RSS feeds.  What a great collaborative tool!  Right now, the fourth grade teachers and I are working on a script for a fourth grade play.  One of the teachers put down her thoughts in a rough draft and read it to the team.  They said, “That’s great!” but it is far from a polished script.  I went into her room to read the document on her computer.  We talked about some different ideas, and I said, “We need to put this on a Google document!”  I helped her step through it, and it’s up there for the whole team to work on and refine! As it happens many times with technology, we couldn’t get it to work right to get me editing privileges yet, but we’ll figure it out!  Then the teachers can help us figure out the dialogue for their part, etc.  What a wonderful tool!

            The other great thing that we need to embrace is the use of RSS feeds.  There is so much information out there on the web that it is mind-boggling.  We search and search and sometimes give up in frustration because there is too much out there.  What I love about RSS feeds is the fact that I can find a great site, and it is always at my beck and call when it exists as a feed.  I open the Internet and those places that I have found are already there, just waiting for me.  We can constantly change these at our will.  If we are working on a certain project, we can make a whole new tab on Net Vibes just for that.