Response to the Educational Researcher Articles

The article by Lei, O'Byrne, Zawilinki, McVerry, and Everett-Cacopardo talks about the internet being a direct link to the 21st century learning. As my professor previously stated, "the internet is the digital text of the future".  This article struck me because it also discussed how some communities with less resources are expected to raise scores.  I work in an urban school with limited resources in comparison to other schools.  So what happens to the students who are less fortunate?  Does the internet close the gap or make it bigger?  In my experience, technology is a great tool to be used in classrooms.  But I believe in schools it should be used as just that, a tool.  It should enhance the educational process but should it define it?  So how then can we "even the playing field"? How can learning happen at home for those who do not have access to technology? There are many issues associated with integrated technology in schools.  Do schools have a budget for the technology?  Do the kids have access to it? If not, who provides access to it?  What do teachers do with the students who do not have access to technology?  If the schools provide the technology, who is responsible if it gets lost or stolen?  I do not believe I am in a position to answer all these questions; however, I do believe it is a barrier we would be able to get past.  Education itself has evolved and will continue to evolve, technology is just the next step in the process.  In the article Greenhow, Rogelio, and Hughes, one concept it discusses the evolution of the World Wide Web and technology.  One part that stood out to me was "researchers should continue examining learners online inquiry practices, especially how they navigate, understand, evaluate, trust and critically evaluate".  By collecting the data on social networks as well as other websites researchers can analyze how people "use the internet". Once experts understand how people use the internet they can continue to make it better.

Response to ORMS and MOOC

The ORMS (online research and media skills) and MOOC (massive open online class) readings talk about developing and analyzing strategies with technology based learning.  The readings also discuss the common core and how it is calling for an integration of online research and media skills.  The benefit of ORMS is the ability to communicate with others, share your own ideas and showcase your knowledge in that particular field. Common core is trying to integrate higher order thinking.  Well what better way to do this then to use technology as a tool to share, collaborate and explore knowledge from yourself and others.  One issue I believe teachers will face is teaching the students not only how to navigate around certain technologies but more importantly how to use it appropriately.  Many students use technology for social reasons.  Imagine, you enter your classroom and rather than saying, "put away your phones and get off twitter" you say "it is ok to use twitter but this is how it will be used in our classroom".  Imagine your classroom atmosphere?  Using technology appropriately and teaching our students how to do so is a big challenge but one worth taking on.

Response to Connected Learning Principles

The article Connected Learning Principles discussed how connected learning should follow three principals:

• Interest-powered – Individual have an interest or liking to the topic and therefore are seeking knowledge about it. 
• Peer-supported – Shared feedback can be a powerful tool and can help enhance the education of a person.
• Academically oriented – Not only should the learning have academic relevance but also provide growth to individuals.

The article also stated that connected learning is "real-world. It’s social. It’s hands-on. It’s active. It’s networked. It’s personal. It’s effective." This statement reminded me of student engagement. In my school as well as others, many teachers struggle with students engagement.  Our periods are only 45 minutes long compared to other schools with blocked scheduling.  Based on this article and others I have read during the ITDML curriculum, I think by using different techniques and technology into the classroom more students will become engaged in the subject.  One hurdle I believe I will face is control.  Control of being right, having one way to do things and one avenue to get there.  My focus needs to stray from that and concentrate more on the end result.  Are the students actually learning what I want them to learn?  Once I can get past that hurdle, I believe the students will be more engaged and feel like they are in charge of their own learning. Not only can students learn from each other but I'm sure I will learn something as well!

What is Connected Learning Response

In the article What is Connected Learning | Connected Learning, there were many great ideas and reflections. One video I watched talked about learning anytime, anywhere, and by anyone.  I find this statement very true.  In my field especially, it is difficult for some students with different types of disabilities to be on an "equal playing field".  Now with the use of technology those students can be just as engaged and active.  Not only does technology allow all students to learn but it also provides people with the ability to learn from anywhere and just about anything! I just came back from Knoxville Iowa and I while I was there I found myself searching up answers on my phone for various questions.  When answers can be found at your fingertips to a vast field of expertise, there are no boundaries.  I believe this is why technology engages so many students.  Even something as simple as reading the paper has turned into a strange pastime.  Now we are capable of getting real time footage in our pockets or purses through digital devices.  This article and attached videos confirmed my thoughts that connected learning has been and will continue to be how learning takes place.

Response to Sloep and Berlanga on Learning Network, Networked Learning

Network learning is fairly new term to me.  As an educator I had my resources within the school.  I also collected ideas from the web as well as other educators.  Most of the collaboration I had was amongst my co-workers.  Collaborating with other educators in my field was always an option but it seemed abstract to me. Where would I start? Am I asking the right questions?  How can they offer advice when they don't know my students.  I know know this was just ignorance talking.  Learning networks are designed to exchange experiences with others and work collaboratively.  Yes, it is true these other educators do not know my students.  And yes, sometimes their ideas might not work in my setting and my ideas might not work in theirs; however, when taking the step to share ideas is where a word of hope comes in, possibilities…I started to think about the endless possibilities and resources.  Then I started to think of my field in particular.  There are many learning networks already setup for physical education teachers to share, critique and seek help.  Most notably is PEcentral.  Not only does physical education have a learning network setup there are also sites on edmodo set up.  Edmodo shares lessons quizzes and information from all the physical education teachers in our district.  Learning Networks are supposed to be a place where one can set up communities for discussions, offer and receive support, and lastly finding resources.  As the old saying states, “there is no I in team”.  Learning Networks are a perfect way to share ideas and seek help with people who are in the same field as you.

Response to O’Brien's Article on “At-Risk” Adolescents: Redefining Competence Through the Multiliteracies of Intermediality, Visual Arts, and Representation”

I found this article inspiring.  The article discussed a student named Dan.  Although at-risk,through literacy comprehension, Dan was given a task using multimedia sources.  Due to technology “leveling the playing field”, Dan developed a multimedia document despite his low development.  I believe, many teachers fear technology will widen the gap between the students documented as at-risk in comparison to regular education students. In this article, the Literacy Lab was set up as a place for at risk students to work with technology and develop project through the use of multimedia text. The lab was hoping to improve the quality of student engagement, self-esteem, and motivation.  Too many times at-risk students are faced with disadvantages.  Any advantage that can be given to these students is worth implementing at schools.

Week 5 Response: How Remix Culture Fuels Creativity & Invention: Kirby Ferguson at TED

The article “How Remix Culture Fuels Creativity and Invention” really made me rethink copyright laws and challenge where creatively truly comes from.   The video talked about Bob Dylan and flirts with the idea that a lot of his songs were copied.  Does this happen?  I looked back at my life for the past year.  Most creativity has been started off an idea of someone else.  For example, in our classrooms we have our students look at other “exemplary” work and get ideas from it.  Is that coping?  In my personal life, my husband and I drive around to get ideas of different things we can do to our house when going through renovations.  Is that coping? Or is that form a collecting of information to make the best informed decision at hand.  The article states creativity and invention is simple coping, transforming and combining them with your own ideas. To contemplate the idea of coping work and developing your own based on another person's idea is a strange thought.  Throughout my schooling I was taught coping work was unacceptable. To me, recreating work into the development of your own ideas is simply an invention of collaborative work.  As mentioned in the video, Picasso said, “good artists copy, great artist steal.” As a teacher I do not think I would go as far as saying stealing work.  But it is interesting to think about when it comes to coping work and what it means.  The important thing to remember when having students develop work is this, one can look at ideas to shape their own innovative response.  When students hear the word copy and its ok in the same sentence it might become a word for word redo.  Teaching students what it means to look at ideas and recreate them into your own idea is very different form of”coping”.  So is this an idea schools should adapt or have they already been adapted?

Online content construction by O’Byrne

After reading the article about online content construction I felt very much like Mrs. Vasquez.  I too am unfamiliar with technology although I enjoy it and find it useful especially in the classroom.  Just like Mrs. Vasquez, my principal had told us, as long as you are flexible, persistent and can manage change technology can work in your classroom. Mrs. Vasquez had not only her students but teachers work collaboratively to recreate online content.  By including the teachers as well, students felt empowered and in charge of their own education.  The article stated the students needed to  “reconsider their concept of “school” and rethink their role as a student”.  I found this quote interesting because I think we all need to “rethink” our role.  Whether we are teachers, students, or administrators we are all on the path of education.  Teachers have also taken the role as learners/mentors, students as teachers/mentors and administrators as delegators.  This article also defined online content construction the best.  Online content construction is collaborating, collecting, and analyzing information from various sources and recreating the information into a useful format for your needs. In the article, students used wki, videos, blogging,  and online collaboration.  Wiki has become a tool I would like to learn more about and potentially use it in my classroom.

Response to Chapter 9 and 10 Readings

As stated in the readings, 94% of students access the internet for homework use.  Lawless and Kulikowich defined their data into three clusters: knowledge seekers, future explores, and apathetic hypertext.  Lawless also discusses prior knowledge.  This can be seen as a challenge in the classroom as well.  What do the students actually know and more importantly, what don’t they know?  Do they know how to access resourceful verses fictional information and do they know how to determine the difference?  Motivation and affect of the material can also be a challenge in the classroom.  How can I actively engage my students, monitor them to stay on task and embrace learning through the process all at once.  In contrast, chapter 9 states “the development of valid and meaningful knowledge assumes that the students are actively involved in the learning process.”  One statement in the chapter 9 reading that stuck out to me was “technology often changes faster than we can effectively evaluate for learning”.  It is a scary statement but also very true.  One thing teachers must keep in mind hopefully relieveing some tension when it comes to technology in the classroom is although technology is changing, the information remains the same.  How we present the information may be different but our overall goal is standard.  As long as passion pairs with knowledge and a hunger for learning is present, the possibilities are endless.  Ultimately, isn’t that the goal we try and teach our students?

My interpretation of CoPs, Connectivism and PLNs using Glogster

ITDML has opened my eyes to looking at my teaching practice differently.  I have looked at my classroom specifically as well as classrooms across all subject areas.  What I found fascinating is communities of practice, connectivism, and personal learning networks all have things in common.  For one, they all have been around for a very long time but might not have had a name attached to it.  Throughout my teaching career, the classroom has changed but the overall concept has not.  The information, although growing, has not changed.  What has changed in the way we not only obtain the information but also look at the data different.  My field of physical education has its own CoP's (Communities of Practice).  As physical education teachers, there are many opportunities for us to stay involved in the every changing subject of health and physical education.  Edmodo, twitter, and Facebook are only a few teachers use along with various other websites.  Connectivism is the way our information is not only presented but learned and shared.  Conferences, books, online readings, websites are only a few ways I connect with other educators.  Then there are PLN's (Personal Learning Networks).  These are online data bases for educators to connect to other educators and learn.  PEcentral is a great website used to share lesson ideas with other educators.  Ideas, critiques, assessments and much more can be found on this website.  As you can see all these areas of education interchange with one another.  Not only are they important, but they can enhance the classroom learning of the educator as well. One thing I have learned throughout my experience as an educator is technology is evolving.  Technology is also a main source where we receive and share our information.  It is our responsibility as educators to keep up with the technology. 

 

http://caricap12.edu.glogster.com/itdml-copconnectivism-and-pln/

Response to Robert Scoble Interview: Online Curation

Robert Scoble intrigued me on online curation and the options it can provide people with.  It is true, the internet can be a very overwhelming place.  There are many ways to get your information, some are credible and others are opinions.  Robert Scoble talked about finding a trend in the information and shifting through to develop a running feed on factual information of people living in the moment.  The example he gave about the earthquake was interesting to think about.  In the split second of an earthquake, people run to their devices to tweet, blog, or share the information for all to read.  I also think Robert Scoble defined online curation the best, "you are like a newspaper editor".  To be an online curator, you must look at the constant updating feed and determine what is useful and factual.  From there you can post or develop your own story for people to share.  The internet is a powerful tool that can help people in various ways.  The overwhelming part for most people is the enormous amount of information and the possible fear of shifting through it all.  As Robert Scoble stated, look for patterns, trends and most importantly, be credible.

Response to Steve Rosenbaum talk on Innovate: Curation!

I really enjoyed watching Steve's talk Steve about curation. 

• Choose your "digital clothing" carefully
• Listen...its a powerful tool
• People enjoy clear information

When the video started, Steve discussed how the web is constantly changing. The web used to be an individual database, "me web".  You might go on the web and look up things for your individual use.  Now the internet is evolving and becoming a "we web".  Each day we go on the internet and interact with people, experts, and friends.  I found this statement power and true.  Many of us go onto the internet to look up information.  Most of the information is generated by experts in that particular field.  Personally, I have looked for many answers through technology.  The amount of useful, practical and helpful information is not only available but also growing.

Great article to check out for all those needing help with Twitter.  It's twitter talk 101!

http://edtechsandyk.blogspot.ca/2013/01/how-to-decode-tweet.html?utm_source=feedly&m=1

Response to Personal Learning Netwrok Projects for Teachers

Below are some things I learned after reading the personal learning network projects tips for teachers:

 Connect: Not only connect to the people you are trying to reach but also connect to different networks.  By creating and becoming more connected in the virtual world, more people will follow and connect with the information you are trying to portray.

Contribute: Through research don't be afraid to contribute your thoughts about other posts.  Also, it is important to share and ask questions through the connections made.

Converse: Don't be afraid to converse with other posts and people.  By conversing with other posts and responses learning can happen.

Request: Once the connections are made through contributing and conversing to others online, it would be more likely your questions can be answered thoughtfully and thoroughly.

Blog, Tweet, Classroom 2, Google+: Use various types of sources to get your information out to the public.

Be Patient: Many people try to define themselves on the internet before they actually have an idea of who and what they want to portray.  While trying to find an identity through the internet educators must understand it will not come easy so don't rush it!

Be Authentic: Be you!  Many people are not true to their personality on the internet for many reasons.  The most important tip the article recommended is be yourself.  Do not be afraid to let your true colors shine through. 

Response to PLNs on Pinterest

I looked at all the boards on Pinterest regarding PLNs. One I found interesting the 10 ways teachers can use twitter for professional development. I mainly choose this board to look into because I am not as familiar with twitter as some other people may be. Below are the ten items discussed in the article:

• Well-developed profile
• Be professional
• Use proper etiquette
• Know who to follow
• Don't be afraid to use hashtags
• Use the Twitter tools
• Twitter can be used for research
• Share, share, share •Don't be afraid to use Twitter for teaching and learning
• There are many creative ways to use twitter, look!

As many people do, before learning more about twitter and internet resources I was concerned with what “could” happen on the internet. Unfortunately, twitter as well as other social media networks have been a hub for bullying. Due to this fact, I felt concerned with using twitter as a way to learn and teach; however, reading more articles and discovering what can be done through twitter it seems beneficial when used properly. Most of our students are familiar with the internet but are unaware of how to use the internet properly and professionally. If teachers follows the simple guidelines posted by this article, twitter can be a tool used for learning in and out of your classroom.

Response to Reading Digitally like a Historian

As a physical education and health teacher, I try and use multimedia texts through various units. I can understand the importance of learning through different texts. The article by Manderino discusses how reading, learning, and thinking through different texts can help enhance comprehension and retention rates for the students. In contrast, the texts also states learning through multimedia sources does not guarantee comprehension. I agree with this statement. Through a great deal of research, educators have discovered not all students learn one particular way. The way I look at it is, the more information and different angles you can present the information to our students the more apt they are to not only learn but comprehend the material. Differentiated instruction has been a driving source in our classrooms. By using multimedia sources, differentiated instruction not only is possible but also evident through observations. So why not give yourself and your students the best possible situation to succeed? Let's face it, sometimes it is a struggle for some students to learn due to a lack of motivation while others it is poor retention. Learning through multimedia texts as stated in the article can only enhance the process of learning which in turn can only benefit the students.

Response to Educational Leadership: Navigating the Cs of Change

Educational Leadership:Teaching for the 21st Century: Navigating the Cs of Change http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Navigating-the-Cs-of-Change.aspx As stated in the article: Internet Reciprocal Teaching Promotes the Five Cs Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Comprehension. The article mentioned an urban school and how they became more interested in the activity through the use of technology. I have found in my classroom (also and urban setting) students do collaborate through the internet and seem to retain information for longer periods of time. I feel it is our job as teachers to not only educate the students in our content area but also provide them with technological experience that is out there. As the article stated "If school leaders want to keep students afloat, we must prepare them to navigate these new waters. As the tide shifts from page to screen, students must learn to comprehend evolving texts."