"Dear 40-Year-Old Me..."
This empowering video of high school students who are members of the Illinois Safe School Alliance, which is a safe zone for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students is one way that shows how effective "video diaries" can be in the classroom. These students video taped themselves talking to their 40 year old future selves about what it is like being high school students and being gay. This video struck a note with me because my best friend is a homosexual and has been mercilessly teased and bullied throughout middle school and high school for her sexual orientation. These students appear to be empowered by this video, they are strong and have a voice in which they tell their 40 year old selves the heart breaking experiences they have been through - rejection, violence, bullying, exclusion, you name it.
This video is a great example of self expression. We tell our students to be themselves and not to be afraid to be who you are, these students took to technology to do just that. The traditional "Dear ..." letter style was taken and revamped into a video, put on YouTube so that it is not just a "letter" for one reader to experience, but can be experienced by millions who can listen, comment, discuss, and access the creators. While YouTube may be a bit pervasive for some projects, the video project is a fun and alternative way for students to keep a journal or "write a letter." If it were my class (English) I would love to have students act out scenes - put a different spin on what they have read by recreating their own interpretation through props, characters, clothing, setting and really have an individual twist on a text.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
(14) Facebook: Too Hot to Handle?
HuffingtonPost is on a role for me today!
I am just finishing up reading an article that discusses CONCERNS for Facebook. The educational highlight is the over-exposure of students' and teachers' lives which is a safety and integrity concern, as well as the ever-present issue of bullying.
We have discussed the amazing features of Facebook as a learning tool but I think we need to take a hard look at the dark side of Facebook - or any social media before we launch head first into integrating it into our lesson plans.
Facebook is youthful but is has serious consequences when poor judgment is used. We have even seen where adults make poor judgments and it has cost them careers, friends and family which makes me want to take a deep breath before I start using Facebook again.
If we use Facebook in our lessons we need to be emphatic that it is a tool not a chronological timeline of the students' lives. Privacy controls need to be read, understood and enforced as well as discussing the potential for bullying. Bullying becomes harder to control when the Internet is involved and I think that we need to discuss with our students cyber bullying before incidents happen, rather than realizing it is an important topic after an incident occurs.
(13) Digital Technology is the Future
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-p-chavous/in-a-digital-learning-sta_b_1432577.html
This article sums up our class perfectly! It is a rather short article but it discusses the need to overhaul the education system in America to align it with the digital age that our students are facing.
I think this quote from the article sums it up perfectly, "Today, our kids are spending their time with hi-tech video games, on the Internet and mastering smart phone usage. Too often, their knowledge extends beyond even that of their own teachers. Digital learning is the new disruptor and a game changer for education. But, like all innovations, it must be channeled to the end-user's interest. If we do this digital learning thing right, we won't have to recruit techies from India or China, we can recruit them from the barrio and the hood."
Kevin Chavous, the writer of this article sees the imminent need for technology in the classroom, not just for the students, but the teachers need to be able to keep up and understand the digital age. The NETS-S/NETS-T are essential to this closing the gap of understanding. Our class has taught us that we need to be in the know, utilizing current technological tools with our lessons, not only for our students who need extra enrichment, but for those who have a knack for technology who may not exactly be equipped with the tools to pursue that interest.
This article sums up our class perfectly! It is a rather short article but it discusses the need to overhaul the education system in America to align it with the digital age that our students are facing.
I think this quote from the article sums it up perfectly, "Today, our kids are spending their time with hi-tech video games, on the Internet and mastering smart phone usage. Too often, their knowledge extends beyond even that of their own teachers. Digital learning is the new disruptor and a game changer for education. But, like all innovations, it must be channeled to the end-user's interest. If we do this digital learning thing right, we won't have to recruit techies from India or China, we can recruit them from the barrio and the hood."
Kevin Chavous, the writer of this article sees the imminent need for technology in the classroom, not just for the students, but the teachers need to be able to keep up and understand the digital age. The NETS-S/NETS-T are essential to this closing the gap of understanding. Our class has taught us that we need to be in the know, utilizing current technological tools with our lessons, not only for our students who need extra enrichment, but for those who have a knack for technology who may not exactly be equipped with the tools to pursue that interest.
Monday, April 16, 2012
(12) "A Laptop for Every Child" - Far Fetched or Reality?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ketaki-desai/one-laptop-per-child_b_1417801.html
Once again, the Huffington Post has provided me with an interesting article to debate. The brain trusts at Carnegie Mellon have come up with a very lofty goal of reaching communities across the world and through companies within the communities they will provide laptops to the students. They provide a multi-step program in order to have the students feel ownership over their technology. They will have software developers collaborate and offer software to the students and provide the students with an international forum in which they can discuss the benefits and detractors of provided software.
The idea of the forum is to provide cross-cultural learning, and the laptops provide students education inside and outside of the classroom. That is a nice ideal but it seems far fetched and a bit dangerous. This forum is more or less the world's biggest chat room and if it is not closely monitored (which then takes away the freedom the students have to interact with each other) then there are many dangers - predators, exploitation, voyeurism/exhibition, so many things that we fight to keep our students away from on a daily basis.
Does this plan seem like a far reaching goal or a sound beginning to a global community for our students?
Once again, the Huffington Post has provided me with an interesting article to debate. The brain trusts at Carnegie Mellon have come up with a very lofty goal of reaching communities across the world and through companies within the communities they will provide laptops to the students. They provide a multi-step program in order to have the students feel ownership over their technology. They will have software developers collaborate and offer software to the students and provide the students with an international forum in which they can discuss the benefits and detractors of provided software.
The idea of the forum is to provide cross-cultural learning, and the laptops provide students education inside and outside of the classroom. That is a nice ideal but it seems far fetched and a bit dangerous. This forum is more or less the world's biggest chat room and if it is not closely monitored (which then takes away the freedom the students have to interact with each other) then there are many dangers - predators, exploitation, voyeurism/exhibition, so many things that we fight to keep our students away from on a daily basis.
Does this plan seem like a far reaching goal or a sound beginning to a global community for our students?
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
(11) Interactivity #5
The teacher I interviewed teaches at
Princeton Charter School in Princeton, NJ (Mercer County). She
acknowledged the differences between public schools and charter
schools, particularly how her school teaches one grade level ahead.
For example if you teach first grade you are actually teaching your
students second grade material. The teacher I interviewed was not at
all familiar with the NET-S/NETS-T but her school has just recently
looked into them in more detail. She did say that there will
probably be an upcoming professional development day dedicated to
familiarizing NETS-S/NETS-T with the teachers. Technology is used
for enrichment purposes. Since the school has a difficult curriculum
there needs to be a lot of reinforcement for the students, and the
teacher I interviewed says that technology plays an important part in
the day-to-day classwork for students. She also says that since the
school attracts a lot of gifted and special needs students they have
to be on top of technologies used in schools in order to stay
“attractive” and relevant in current school trends. She said
that the school provides basic computer classes – learning to
navigate the internet, type, using Microsoft applications to do
projects and other various computer literacy skills. They use
internet clips for current events and to reinforce lessons with
visual aids. I was a bit surprised that the teacher I interviewed
was not at all familiar with NETS-S/NETS-T. I had figured with the
progressiveness of the school like the one in which she teaches would
be already implementing them. I had initially thought that the NETS
would be very well known to teachers. As a future educator I would
discuss NETS-S and NETS-T and their necessity to be implemented. The
world in which students are living today is a very global and
technological world. Students need to be kept in the know because if
they are left behind my fear is they will be swept up and forgotten.
Technological advances affect our schools sharply and our students
need to be aware of them in order to thrive in the current school
system.
Monday, April 9, 2012
(10) Insta-book?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/instagram-facebook-acquisition_n_1412623.html
The above article in the Huffington Post talks about how Facebook has purchased Instagram for over $1 Billion. Why is this article interesting in regards to technology in the classroom? Well at first I was not sure how this would connect to our current course; but then I realized that it is a technology that our future students will be using - there are already over 30 million users of Instagram to date. The article stresses that Instagram will remain a private entity - users do not have to have a Facebook in order to use Instagram. For people like me who do not use Facebook but enjoy Instagram, this is a relief.
We have discussed the potential uses of Facebook in our curriculum - creating Facebook pages for main characters - and how integrating the web tools students use everyday outside of class in class makes technology fun and interactive. There is a lot of discussion about privacy and photo sharing on Facebook and now that it has acquired Instagram it has come up again. This is one of those blog posts that cautions future teachers about photo sharing. I got off of Facebook because of how open and accessible it is to strangers and future employers (let's face it, with the privacy controls changing constantly, who takes care to update them as often as necessary?), and started using Instagram because it was less of an exposition of my life.
Educators (current and future) need to be aware of these technological pitfalls and celebrate their usefulness but respect their pitfalls and stay away from them. It will be interesting to see how Instagram changes now that it is in the realm of Facebook.
The above article in the Huffington Post talks about how Facebook has purchased Instagram for over $1 Billion. Why is this article interesting in regards to technology in the classroom? Well at first I was not sure how this would connect to our current course; but then I realized that it is a technology that our future students will be using - there are already over 30 million users of Instagram to date. The article stresses that Instagram will remain a private entity - users do not have to have a Facebook in order to use Instagram. For people like me who do not use Facebook but enjoy Instagram, this is a relief.
We have discussed the potential uses of Facebook in our curriculum - creating Facebook pages for main characters - and how integrating the web tools students use everyday outside of class in class makes technology fun and interactive. There is a lot of discussion about privacy and photo sharing on Facebook and now that it has acquired Instagram it has come up again. This is one of those blog posts that cautions future teachers about photo sharing. I got off of Facebook because of how open and accessible it is to strangers and future employers (let's face it, with the privacy controls changing constantly, who takes care to update them as often as necessary?), and started using Instagram because it was less of an exposition of my life.
Educators (current and future) need to be aware of these technological pitfalls and celebrate their usefulness but respect their pitfalls and stay away from them. It will be interesting to see how Instagram changes now that it is in the realm of Facebook.
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