While perusing the aisles of my favorite craft store shopping for yarn or baking supplies, I often stumble upon the scrap booking aisle and find myself lost. Aside from creating a photo board and portfolio for the preschool I work at, the closest I've come to scrap booking was maintaining a photo album when I used a camera with a roll of film. Though I never scrap booked as a hobby, I can't stop looking at all the materials available for this hobby, and the possibilities and hybrids made to document one's life (now there are fashionable notebooks for ideas and inspirations on the go). I would like to consider myself creative enough to create such pieces of art to document important parts of my life, or to even represent something that I find inspiring. But alas, I was only capable of turning out sketches or projects over a period of time; nothing immediate.
Then, along came the age of Facebook: the digital answer to scrapbooks. Fancy paper is replaced by backgrounds. Cute accent stickers is replaced by "stamps" in photo editing programs. We now don't have to wait for film to be processed or even printed out. It's a simple upload onto the computer and then onto your profile. As the second half of your photos are loading, you can edit and caption the first half of your photos while you wait. With the immediacy of technology, and the ability to still make your captured moments fanciful with different programs and applications, people can make equally cherish-able mementos of their lives; right?...
...right? We haven't stumbled upon any photos that should be given a second thought, or status updates that inadvertently conveys a different message than intended; no, of course not. Where one would want to document the whole process of being part of a wedding party, would one really want to share with the whole world pictures from the bachelorette party? Everyone has a best friend with whom they share fun times with, but does everybody have to see every picture to every party that you've been to together? Maybe there is something about the craft of scrap booking, the time taken to choose the right textures and prints to pair with your photos and collected artifacts that makes a scrap book what it is meant to be. With the ease and instant gratification of being able to upload and share, are we being less selective of what we are sharing?
As captured on her TED Talks video, Helen Barrett (2010) discusses the use of technology as a way to maintain a digital representation of a child's story, life and progress throughout school. It's the application here where we must combine what makes scrapbooking and Facebooking great: we can utilize the technology of online storage, organization and immediacy while still being careful in choosing pieces that best represents our work. Much like creating profiles on Facebook or Twitter, children can have a personalized profile of their pertinent information and is given endless options and opportunities to share what they would want. However, that does not mean one should share everything. Like a scrapbook hobbyist, one should be responsible when given the option of what samples and completed works should be included in the portfolio. Why not harness technology for what it is capable of doing for us, rather than using it as an unfiltered internet dump of all media, samples or products related to yourself?
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Patience is a Virtue...maybe
We all know it: technology keeps growing and growing, as do its outreaches, innovations and shininess. We can't deny it: technology has helped us catch up with shows when we can't watch their first airing, put together impressive work presentations, and organize our hundreds (if not thousands) of media items in our own digital library. New search engines, media players, and social spots keep coming out, making access to anything and everything at our fingertips. We have moved from desktops to laptops, from laptops to netbooks, from netbooks to touch screen tablets. Technology innovators have been finding ways to bring already convenient tools to the next level when we didn't even think that it could be even more effortless. We can try to resist the new technology that is being dished out, but we all cave in once in a while (admit it).
As much as we buy in to the new technology that has been coming out, do we stop to think of our life before these luxuries? That's right, luxuries: because it is not imperative that we have a touch screen phone that allows us to sling shot a blobular shaped bird into an unstable stick-and-stone tower or to declare ourselves as the mayor of a consistently visited location; our survival is not based on whether we have the next version of a phone or computer from a mega-technology company; life will go on if you wait until getting home to call your family or friends to see what exactly they did that day. Do we remember our first encounter with a computer? How about when we got our first cell phone? I used a computer a computer for the first time in 6th grade when it was a required elective, and we learned how to type. My first cell phone was my sweet 16 present, and that was because my parents wanted me to be able to call home if I was staying after school for drama club. It had 2 games on it: bowling and mini golf. It was glorious. I had never used my parents' cell phones before; and then I finally had my own. Before then, I had the lovely tasks of updating my little address book of all of my friends' contact information (I even remembered at least 5 of my friends' numbers; I can't say that now). Nowadays, I see some of my students being brought to school with their parents' phone in hand, or talking about having their own iPod (even if it is a hand-me-down). They are playing games on technology that allows them the ability to play games: a touch screen is the most direct way of manipulating a device. When we give children time to play math games on our class PC, we see the difference in their ability to navigate the game. (On a tangent, my favorite is watching children learn that real bowling in a bowling alley is not the same as Wii bowling).
What did we do for research papers before we had internet access faster than dial-up? Do we remember what a Table of Contents and an index are? Bibliography cards and note cards, anyone? Remember when we were able to pick a book from the library resources, and actually be able to trust it as a reliable resource for our paper the first time we read it? Yes, with the innovations of the internet and search engines came speed and outreach, but of course speedy reliable research is too good to be true; now comes the issue of finding reliable sources from the thousands of matches for your search query. Even if the resources are reliable, chances are you have stumbled upon a wiki, which is really a collection of various sources to put into one collaborative article; this would require you to find the original source of the information that you wish to include in your paper. Having to dig for the original source may require more work than it led on.
How did we ever get through life without having our e-mail constantly updated in our pockets? Whatever happened to taking time out at the end of the night to check your daily e-mail? E-mail was meant to be faster than paper mail, but instead of being content with getting new mail by the end of the day, we are not waiting for new mail by the minute. What did we do before we had constantly connected e-mail, or text, or even phones? What did we do with our time?
I see this kind of questioning in students who are younger and younger. I feel like some part of their childhood is gone because their attention to new technology makes them oblivious to classic games of our yesteryear. If they are bored, they need something to occupy them now. If they want to play a game, they want to it to pick it up and know how to play it now (forget about setting up a board game, reviewing rules, delegating order of turns, etc.). When these children come to school, how do they feel when they sit at their desks with their access to technology is with tools not as up to date, time that is more limited, and the use is controlled by the teachers rather than on their own. What happens when children are used to having what they want at their finger tips immediately? How do we know we are holding their attention in school when they could be thinking about the same things we do when we feel "detached" from our technological means of communication?
As much as we buy in to the new technology that has been coming out, do we stop to think of our life before these luxuries? That's right, luxuries: because it is not imperative that we have a touch screen phone that allows us to sling shot a blobular shaped bird into an unstable stick-and-stone tower or to declare ourselves as the mayor of a consistently visited location; our survival is not based on whether we have the next version of a phone or computer from a mega-technology company; life will go on if you wait until getting home to call your family or friends to see what exactly they did that day. Do we remember our first encounter with a computer? How about when we got our first cell phone? I used a computer a computer for the first time in 6th grade when it was a required elective, and we learned how to type. My first cell phone was my sweet 16 present, and that was because my parents wanted me to be able to call home if I was staying after school for drama club. It had 2 games on it: bowling and mini golf. It was glorious. I had never used my parents' cell phones before; and then I finally had my own. Before then, I had the lovely tasks of updating my little address book of all of my friends' contact information (I even remembered at least 5 of my friends' numbers; I can't say that now). Nowadays, I see some of my students being brought to school with their parents' phone in hand, or talking about having their own iPod (even if it is a hand-me-down). They are playing games on technology that allows them the ability to play games: a touch screen is the most direct way of manipulating a device. When we give children time to play math games on our class PC, we see the difference in their ability to navigate the game. (On a tangent, my favorite is watching children learn that real bowling in a bowling alley is not the same as Wii bowling).
What did we do for research papers before we had internet access faster than dial-up? Do we remember what a Table of Contents and an index are? Bibliography cards and note cards, anyone? Remember when we were able to pick a book from the library resources, and actually be able to trust it as a reliable resource for our paper the first time we read it? Yes, with the innovations of the internet and search engines came speed and outreach, but of course speedy reliable research is too good to be true; now comes the issue of finding reliable sources from the thousands of matches for your search query. Even if the resources are reliable, chances are you have stumbled upon a wiki, which is really a collection of various sources to put into one collaborative article; this would require you to find the original source of the information that you wish to include in your paper. Having to dig for the original source may require more work than it led on.
How did we ever get through life without having our e-mail constantly updated in our pockets? Whatever happened to taking time out at the end of the night to check your daily e-mail? E-mail was meant to be faster than paper mail, but instead of being content with getting new mail by the end of the day, we are not waiting for new mail by the minute. What did we do before we had constantly connected e-mail, or text, or even phones? What did we do with our time?
I see this kind of questioning in students who are younger and younger. I feel like some part of their childhood is gone because their attention to new technology makes them oblivious to classic games of our yesteryear. If they are bored, they need something to occupy them now. If they want to play a game, they want to it to pick it up and know how to play it now (forget about setting up a board game, reviewing rules, delegating order of turns, etc.). When these children come to school, how do they feel when they sit at their desks with their access to technology is with tools not as up to date, time that is more limited, and the use is controlled by the teachers rather than on their own. What happens when children are used to having what they want at their finger tips immediately? How do we know we are holding their attention in school when they could be thinking about the same things we do when we feel "detached" from our technological means of communication?
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Social Networking as I see it
It's hard to deny the influences and changes of social networking sites in today's society. In the beginning, there was Xanga and LiveJournal, which I admit I used as an almost daily journal, shared with my other friends who had an account so we could read up on each others' almost daily happenings. In high school, nothing made me feel more important than seeing comments or replies to my online journal. (oh, to be in high school again...) I then realized that I'm really not that interesting, at least not interesting enough to maintain a journal that maybe only 5 people read. Then there was Friendster, which I never had personal experience with, but I can imagine was a basic version of MySpace, which soon followed. I did have a MySpace profile made for me (a friend of mine insisted I had one), and I did start using it on a regular basis, but then abandoned it once Facebook came out (now MySpace seems to be useful to Tom, Justin Timberlake, and underground musicians trying to get their material out there). Just as with Xanga and LiveJournal, Facebook was able to make users feel important enough to share things about themselves for anyone to stumble upon and maybe want to read about, and took MySpace's online profile sharing idea to a new level. After Facebook came Twitter, which I never really understood, yet the public takes Twitter as innovation for keeping in touch with people (as if a phone doesn't exist anymore). It makes celebrities believe that the public wants to know what they are doing every single minute of the day (not to name names, but I think we all know of an actor who rhymes with Shmashton Smutcher...), and gives the general public that same narcissistic hope as well. Since then, a whole mixing pot of social networking and sharing has come out, each with their own little twist. And though a lot of the websites have similar functions and outreaches, people still sign up for the new things that come out. Just like kids and Pokémon, we "gotta catch 'em all."
I only say these kinds of things because I, too, am among the many who have more than one social networking account. I use Facebook for my personal socializing, LinkedIn in hopes that someone from a public school would stumble upon it, Twitter to update news about the capoeira group I participate in, Pinterest to give me hope that I can make awesome DIY things for the house and classroom, and so on. As the number of subscribing people rises, the ages at which the people log on gets lower. Facebook began with only logging in with a college e-mail, but then was open to the general public, with the minimal age being 13 to hold an account.
With this saturation of social media, and the shift of account holders being younger and younger, educators are looking to embrace and incorporate these popular websites instead of denying the students of their usage. I can see the aim to make communication with school more relevant for the students and parents, and the possibilities of creating motivation and personal connections with projects that include web 2.0 tools, I still find dangers in using such accessible websites even with various filters and policies put into place by school administrators. Sites such as Facebook or online blog spaces may fall under the radar unless a school particularly blocks it from the school computers. They are not particularly meant to hold perverse material, but because of their accessibility, any user can post such content, which is not as easy to control. There are alternatives such as WikiSpaces, where the classroom has its own collaborative online space with privacy settings that the educator can monitor to control the outreach of the class WikiSpaces (only within the class, with other classes in the school, etc.). Instead of having a general blog that is open to the public, students can post their work on the class wiki, and get feedback. I think that using WikiSpaces would be a great way to update the Writer's Workshop in the classroom. The process of editing and revising is still there, but it could be done by more than one classmate per session. More feedback allows the writer with more information and options to use in the next draft of the piece.
What about a safe haven for communication and "social networking" in the educational environment? What about the classes that could use the resources, but the children are not at the level of creating their own work yet? What about the class families that would like the ease of communicating with social networking? Yes, it is possible to create a Facebook page for your classroom or school. In theory, this would be convenient if parents and other educators in the same school could consistently follow the updates from your page. However, it is quite possible for the updates of 1 classroom or 1 school to be lost among the updates of the rest of the user's friends; either it gets hidden, or it is read but then soon forgotten within a few minutes because of other Facebook input. After reading Lyanne Melendez's article "Teachers, students using social sites raises concerns," I learned of the education equivalent of Facebook, Edmodo. This kind of website gives the users a similar networking and updating experience as Facebook, but concentrated to the teacher, his or her classroom, and the parents of that classroom. The access and privacy settings are already in place, and the information that is posted is relevant and pertinent to that class. Other websites that could be shared from educator to class, or educator to classroom families are Diigo and Delicious, both which are ways to bookmark and store online resources related to your searches and interests. A teacher could share his or her online storage of resources used in class that pertains to the current unit or theme, and parents could look at them at home and possibly search for related resources within the website.
In the midst of all of the current and up-and-coming social networking websites out there, it is refreshing to see that there are networking resources that are being developed for a more purposeful use and can help avoid outside factors that are not easy to filter or control. I can foresee myself using websites such as Edmodo and Diigo as communication and sharing resources for my classroom in the future as an alternative to trying to control Facebook usage among my students.
P.S. I found a video that helps explains more of my thoughts from my previous blog entry.
I only say these kinds of things because I, too, am among the many who have more than one social networking account. I use Facebook for my personal socializing, LinkedIn in hopes that someone from a public school would stumble upon it, Twitter to update news about the capoeira group I participate in, Pinterest to give me hope that I can make awesome DIY things for the house and classroom, and so on. As the number of subscribing people rises, the ages at which the people log on gets lower. Facebook began with only logging in with a college e-mail, but then was open to the general public, with the minimal age being 13 to hold an account.
I found this gem from http://blog.swagbucks.com/2012/02/social-media-explained.html
What about a safe haven for communication and "social networking" in the educational environment? What about the classes that could use the resources, but the children are not at the level of creating their own work yet? What about the class families that would like the ease of communicating with social networking? Yes, it is possible to create a Facebook page for your classroom or school. In theory, this would be convenient if parents and other educators in the same school could consistently follow the updates from your page. However, it is quite possible for the updates of 1 classroom or 1 school to be lost among the updates of the rest of the user's friends; either it gets hidden, or it is read but then soon forgotten within a few minutes because of other Facebook input. After reading Lyanne Melendez's article "Teachers, students using social sites raises concerns," I learned of the education equivalent of Facebook, Edmodo. This kind of website gives the users a similar networking and updating experience as Facebook, but concentrated to the teacher, his or her classroom, and the parents of that classroom. The access and privacy settings are already in place, and the information that is posted is relevant and pertinent to that class. Other websites that could be shared from educator to class, or educator to classroom families are Diigo and Delicious, both which are ways to bookmark and store online resources related to your searches and interests. A teacher could share his or her online storage of resources used in class that pertains to the current unit or theme, and parents could look at them at home and possibly search for related resources within the website.
In the midst of all of the current and up-and-coming social networking websites out there, it is refreshing to see that there are networking resources that are being developed for a more purposeful use and can help avoid outside factors that are not easy to filter or control. I can foresee myself using websites such as Edmodo and Diigo as communication and sharing resources for my classroom in the future as an alternative to trying to control Facebook usage among my students.
P.S. I found a video that helps explains more of my thoughts from my previous blog entry.
Monday, February 13, 2012
An old lady's lament at age 25...
I must admit: Before signing up for this course, I had many reservations and concerns about my experience in this class. Personally, I'm not very computer literate. I just upgraded to a new iPhone despite my urge to go back to a basic feature phone (already knowing I will not use it to the fullest capacity), and I am entirely not sure how I feel about integrating technology as an everyday tool in the classroom.
In the beginning of the course, I felt a huge schism between the class readings and my personal opinions. In Leading 21st Century Schools by Lynne Schrum and Barbara B. Levin (2009), the first chapter made me feel out of the loop as an educator, and I'm a relatively new graduate from a school of education. With a call to redefine literacy and knowledge to include technology (p. 10-12), I was afraid of many things:
1. How can I teach children technologies that I'm not familiar with myself? Where will I find the time to learn the technologies and then find a way to make the directions understandable to the children?
2. What if the children are already more fluent than I am with technology. How does that change the flow of my planned lessons? Does it become the children waiting for me to catch up in the classroom?
3. With the new standards and 21st century skills set in place (such as the National Technology Standards for Students [p. 14, Schrum & Levin, 2009]), where do we find the time to address those in addition to the current core curriculum content standards and preparation for testing?
4. Is it really O.K. to expose the children to different technologies at such a young age (with my interest in pre-K through 2nd grade)?
5. What if screen time (television, video games, movies) is suggested to be reduced at younger ages? Where do we draw the line with the various technologies? Do we make exceptions for computers? Do we push for technology mastery over other skills such as language and math?
6. How do we help divide how children treat technology in the classroom (education and research) from how they use it at home (entertainment)? How can we still make the use of technology interesting compared to the use of it at home?
I had these pedagogy related questions looming in my head even before considering my ability to use and master the technology I could hypothetically use in my classroom. If you ask any of my close friends or co-workers, my decision for a new smart phone was a long and tedious process. I was skeptical of my ability to use it to its fullest capacity, I hated and barely understood the hand-me-down smart phone I had at the time, I wasn't sure if I needed all the bells and whistles that would be on my new phone; I couldn't see myself with something that fancy. My friend joked with me all the time, "Amanda, you're the first person I know who would say, 'Woah, woah...I don't need innovation...'" and that I sounded like a grandmother who stumbled upon her grandchild's phone, not knowing what to do. This is me at 25 years old, and I'm afraid of new waves of technology. How can I expect myself to educate others when I am doubtful that I can be educated in technology?
Thus far, I cannot say that my questions and concerns have been entirely calmed yet. I have seen how some individual, more familiar pieces of Web 2.0 can be used as tools to have students communicate among each other and to reach audiences past the classroom. I have also been required to design a web/resource page for a classroom that although I feel looks good on paper (or rather, Word Document), will work out on the web design page. Lastly, through assignments thus far, I feel hat I am being as creative as I can on how to use technology as a tool rather than the main event in lesson plans, to make lessons become more vibrant but still with a purpose. It has been a challenge trying to change my personal and educational technology outlook thus far, but I hope that I can keep moving on with the help of peers. That's what Web 2.0 is all about anyways, right? Instant communication and collaboration?
In the beginning of the course, I felt a huge schism between the class readings and my personal opinions. In Leading 21st Century Schools by Lynne Schrum and Barbara B. Levin (2009), the first chapter made me feel out of the loop as an educator, and I'm a relatively new graduate from a school of education. With a call to redefine literacy and knowledge to include technology (p. 10-12), I was afraid of many things:
1. How can I teach children technologies that I'm not familiar with myself? Where will I find the time to learn the technologies and then find a way to make the directions understandable to the children?
2. What if the children are already more fluent than I am with technology. How does that change the flow of my planned lessons? Does it become the children waiting for me to catch up in the classroom?
3. With the new standards and 21st century skills set in place (such as the National Technology Standards for Students [p. 14, Schrum & Levin, 2009]), where do we find the time to address those in addition to the current core curriculum content standards and preparation for testing?
4. Is it really O.K. to expose the children to different technologies at such a young age (with my interest in pre-K through 2nd grade)?
5. What if screen time (television, video games, movies) is suggested to be reduced at younger ages? Where do we draw the line with the various technologies? Do we make exceptions for computers? Do we push for technology mastery over other skills such as language and math?
6. How do we help divide how children treat technology in the classroom (education and research) from how they use it at home (entertainment)? How can we still make the use of technology interesting compared to the use of it at home?
I had these pedagogy related questions looming in my head even before considering my ability to use and master the technology I could hypothetically use in my classroom. If you ask any of my close friends or co-workers, my decision for a new smart phone was a long and tedious process. I was skeptical of my ability to use it to its fullest capacity, I hated and barely understood the hand-me-down smart phone I had at the time, I wasn't sure if I needed all the bells and whistles that would be on my new phone; I couldn't see myself with something that fancy. My friend joked with me all the time, "Amanda, you're the first person I know who would say, 'Woah, woah...I don't need innovation...'" and that I sounded like a grandmother who stumbled upon her grandchild's phone, not knowing what to do. This is me at 25 years old, and I'm afraid of new waves of technology. How can I expect myself to educate others when I am doubtful that I can be educated in technology?
Thus far, I cannot say that my questions and concerns have been entirely calmed yet. I have seen how some individual, more familiar pieces of Web 2.0 can be used as tools to have students communicate among each other and to reach audiences past the classroom. I have also been required to design a web/resource page for a classroom that although I feel looks good on paper (or rather, Word Document), will work out on the web design page. Lastly, through assignments thus far, I feel hat I am being as creative as I can on how to use technology as a tool rather than the main event in lesson plans, to make lessons become more vibrant but still with a purpose. It has been a challenge trying to change my personal and educational technology outlook thus far, but I hope that I can keep moving on with the help of peers. That's what Web 2.0 is all about anyways, right? Instant communication and collaboration?
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