Week #3

We looked into a couple of interesting topics this week. The first was the concept of PLN's, or personal/professional learning networks. These sound more complicated than they are.. at first I was weary, kind of an "UGGgg what do I need to create now?" sort of attitude. But once I had the chance to look into them on my own I realized they are more of a managing system of all your resources (human and not) needed for life long learning. With all the resources for information, sharing and connecting that are available today, and more will be coming, having a system that keeps it all organized and managed just seems necessary to be able to keep t all straight and actually use it beneficially.

 

 

I also looked at the Media Smarts report on young Canadians lives online. This was filled with lots of interesting statistics from surveys of today's youth on their online habits. Most of these stats weren't a big surprise, although I still find it hard to believe so many elementary students have cell or smart phones, this just seems weird to me. The stats seemed to stress that though our youth is very internet savvy and has more options then ever to connect, they are not using the internet to it's fullest potential. Like the “Ten Reasons to Stop Apologizing for your online life” video I watched last week implied, we need to commit to our online lives and create a presence that reflects our values. The students stated that they felt safe and well informed on how to protect themselves online... which OK sure, maybe they are, but are they informed on how to use it properly and to get the most out of it? Are they portraying a presence that reflects their values? If not, we should be providing them with the knowledge and tools to do so.

Week #2

This week we looked at digital identity, digital dualism, and technological determinism. It got me thinking about my digital identity and online “presence”. Then I watched the Ted Talk video “Ten Reasons to Stop Apologizing for your online life”. She talked about the concept that anything done online isn’t “reality” and we should realize that both our online and offline lives are real, and that they are one world and one reality. Just because we are using a pseudo name or avatar it seems like we are hiding, but in a lot of cases we actually being more authentic than when we are offline. I‘ve seen online communities be very helpful when people are going through something tough. Some things can feel to hard to discuses face to face with friends or family, I’ve seen a friend go through a situation where it was too tough to tell people about, but she found solstice in an online community. So the idea that we need to stop thinking of being online as not in the “real world “resonated with me, and if we are going to treat it the same as our online reality then I also agree that we should commit to what we are doing online, and create an online presence that reflects our values. 

Back at it!

Started out our last semester with two great presentations in the first week! Lots to think about and get our minds in gear for our final sprint to the finish line.

Our first presentation was very suited for this internet for educators class as we did a Google hangout with Shareski. This was quite like Skype with all the voice lags and freezing but still a very cool way to bring someone into the classroom. He could see us and we could not only see him and hear his dogs, but also see the presentation he had prepared for us. I do feel like we are on the cusp of a new era in education and it is very exciting to be a part of it. His notion to rethink content, assessment, community and modeling really did get me thinking. I agree with the idea of needing to engage and fascinate our students in order to achieve that higher order deeper knowledge that memorization of facts lacks.  His idea of an "unintended learning" column in rubrics really resonated with me as well. The lost art of reflection s a skill I want to work on and encourage my students to hone. I mean if I can't do it, how can I be modeling it?

We also got our copyright pants scared off of us. All I can say about that is YIKES.