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.  

Blog post #3 Media Literacy

I am discovering the world of  social networking.  In lieu of social protest and reformation as in the Middle East, I am thinking that Twitter is mostly for fun here in the good old USA.  However, my eyes have been opened to many more possibilities with blogging, wikis, etc. for me as a student and as a teacher.  A couple of months ago I didn’t even know what Twitter was.  I don’t text much, don’t pay for a texting package, and I figured it was only for cell-phones. For those of you who still feel “Twitterpated” as well, watch this video, “Twitter in plain English.” http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=24497&title=Twitter_In_Plain_English

            I was totally enamored with NetVibes.  I was able to customize my home page so every time I log on, I can see updates on any blogs I am interested in, any news headlines I might wish to look at, and any site that will give me a feed.  My guess is that most every site will soon have an RSS feed available.  I liked the fact that I could make tabs to organize whatever I wanted to.  I can have a page with only educational blogs I would like to follow, another with my fellow students, another with my family, etc.  What a useful tool that is always available as long as I’m wired.

            I love being able to see my fellow students’ Delicious bookmarking pages also.  If we share all our knowledge, how much better the outcomes!  It can be exponentially greater.  Just the thoughts of high school students being able to work together to research subjects and write collaboratively on Google Docs makes my head spin.   

            Education is still in the dark ages as far as social networking is concerned.  We seem to be afraid of the possibilities.  “They will cheat!” reverberates through teachers’ minds when they see students’ texting.  “They won’t pay attention!”  I say, “Well, duh…” Kids now a days don’t know how to pay attention to only one thing.  They have for so many years done several things at once, a teacher lecturing will only put them to sleep. I believe we need to rethink the current way we teach and somehow use those skills exploding on the scene. So many social networking spots are blocked at schools, it’s nearly impossible to find a way around it. So how have you teachers done it?  How can I get my district to allow more?

            I loved an article called Transforming Pedagogy through Social Software

Catherine McLoughlin and Mark J. W. Lee. (Retrieved Sept. 8, 2009 from  http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=539&action=article).

If we can use Web 2.0 tools in school, those tools will help students work together, share knowledge, and network globally. They will have more motivation to work, and collaborate easily and freely. They will produce and share knowledge, concepts, and ideas for the world. This will prepare our students for their future. We have to enable this to happen in our schools.

            So what do you think?  How can we be the catalyst for change?