Dean Shareski Presentation...my thoughts

This week we had Dean Shareski skype in or speak to us through a Google hangout or something. It was nice to see technology demonstrated in our class and how it can give us opportunities that were not possible during my secondary school years. During the presentation I got sidetracked and thought about high school graduations and how there usually tends to be a guest speaker. Students almost always want to have the best guest speaker imaginable (well some don't really care and just go with the flow) but how nice would it be to have someone Skype in and speak to the whole graduating class and audience.

Back to the presentation, a quote Dean had on one of his slides really stood out to me because it described me. "If you generally think of the internet to look up stuff, you're missing the best part." I don't know who quoted this but maybe I should "look it up"? I still feel that is how I use the internet and only use the internet for the most part. That and social networking, but implementing it in the classroom is something that I think is essential and I want to develop more skills and find online resources that I can implement in my teaching practice.

I don't tweet a whole lot, but once I get into it more I will use it to connect with other teachers, classrooms and experts around the world and bring them into my classroom via Skype. Dave stated how giving the experience to students of bringing an expert in (geologist, docotor) whatever profession you could think of and how much it could impact a student and their learning. I believe he also uses this type of networking to learn to play guitar. I would've never thought of learning to play an instrument through video conferencing with other people in a different country, very cool.

Another point Dean made was that he thought the whole idea of being a digital native is not legit. I have to agree with him, I know I classify myself as being slow with technology, but that is because I don't have the time to learn about what it can offer at a deeper level. This is why I am in this course, I want to learn and become somewhat of a....beginning expert? Lastly, he brought up social media and how people portray themselves as having such an amazing life and this is the ONLY way they are seen on sites such as facebook, twitter etc. This made me laugh and I can agree to disagree with him. Who really wants to hear about the shitty personal things that could be happening in ones life? I know I don't...I guess it's up to the individual and if they want to be as real as it gets with their digital identity and if you want social media to compose the real you and not only share the peachy information.

Being an educator it is stressed to us that we should not display our lives on facebook, heck I'm now scared to hold a beer in my hand during a picture, or wear a swimsuit in a picture...or in public how I am dressed. Things like this shouldn't really reflect the professional teacher, idk I'm torn... If the President of the US can talk about supporting legalization of pot (among other things), then why can't I hold a glass of whatever in a picture? There is something wrong. Or even Justin Trudeau! He does not shy away from confessing taking part in smoking pot, also that he supports the idea of legalizing it in Canada. Why is it that leaders of countries can get away with publicized displays and teachers are losing their jobs for it? K I got off topic and on a somewhat of a rant...that is all.

Mommy Duties and School

Having a two and a half year old and tackling school can get a little crazy at times, especially when he becomes sick with the flu! Blood work, samples and x-rays was my worry of the week! On a brighter note, he is on day 4 of potty training and it's going really, really well, which is both surprising and a little scary. This means my baby is growing up, this is just all too fast for me, come June I will have a 3 year old, wow! (sighs)

I used the internet a lot this week for potty training tips, stickers are thee reward for Ashly and he gets soooo pumped! Anyways, this week I felt like I couldn't contribute a lot to the wiki because I was probably the last to look at it in the entire class buuuut I added a poster to the digital citizenship/resource page that we could use in our classrooms, as well as a digital literacy tool kit I found on teachers pay teachers, to the digital literacy page. I wanted to add something that was good and I think a lot of it was added by the time I got to looking at the wiki, there is a ton of resources on there! This week we had a guest speaker cancelation so Thursdays class was pretty low-key, which was great because I was able to work on my blog and organize it a lot better AND I got my RSS feed going with the help of my professor, had no clue what that was.

I love this course, our professor shows us that there are a lot of tools out there that we can use! I feel like I can do so much on the internet just to organize things and be more connected than I had initially thought! It's pretty exciting and looking forward to next week.

GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I4Ed Intro Post

Wow, it has sure been a while since I last left a blog post! It is exciting to know that ALL coursework will be done in a matter of weeks and off we all go on our final practicum! If this course is as engaging as last years, and I'm sure it will be, I know I will be gaining a lot of background knowledge in the world of technology. If you forgot, I don't spend too much time on the internet, so pretty much everything in this class will probably keep me on my toes and very interested. As an educator I want to instill knowledge in this area so I am able to keep up with students and also teach students who might not exposed to technology, technology tools can be fun and interactive in the classroom! We all know it is here to stay and will keep growing, this course will better prepare me before going out into the field of teaching and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks!

“To understand their world we must be willing to immerse ourselves in that world. We must embrace the new digital reality. If we can’t relate, if we don’t get it, we won’t be able to make schools relevant to the current and future needs of the digital generation.” – Ian Jukes