Week 4 - Blog Posting #8 -Reflection on Blogging

Week 4 - Blog Posting #7 -Second Life

I'm not a big fan of Second Life. The other night Gary Milton and I spent countless hours searching for our group. Not once during that time to I say to myself, "This is a must have project for interactivity." I find it cumbersome and not easy to use. I think the outfits and graphics are generic, and while the concept is awesome, the application leaves a lot to be desired. Since the beginning of my Master's program, I have been playing around in Second Life, but have never found it that fun.

Many of the features in it don't seem to be that interesting. I did enjoy learning about how beer is made, but for the most part it hasn't been all too exciting. I have visited many parts to include a nuclear reactor, and nothing truly moved me.

I still can’t see how anyone could conduct business on Second Life. I have tried to converse with people on it, and I find that unless both you and the person you’re speaking with his fluent in Second Life, the message you are relaying would be lost in fumbling the controls. I do think that if you are trying to show how something works, this would be an ideal way to do it. I just think the graphics have not caught up to the vision. I think with time, this could be a great places to conduct business.

However, I can say that I visited Camp Darfur. Everyone should have some knowledge about Darfur and the civil unrest and genocide that has plagued that region. It is sad, and makes you think, but the graphics they create don't do a tragedy like that justice. I think the graphics and controls make something as important as Darfur seem less important. I was too concerned about who was there, and how to move towards them that the background lost it's luster.

Week 3 - Blog Posting #6 -Communities of Practice

As a member of the media and a teacher I have built a considerable amount of connections throughout the year. I can remember when I started at my current school. My friend George, who I met in college convinced me to get into coaching girl's basketball. It was coaching that I met a number of coaches who would help me create my first sports site. If it weren't for George, I would never have met all theses people. It's funny how meeting one person can have a profound effect on the amount of people you could meet.

Social Media sites take the ease out of meeting one person at a time. With social media sites like Facebook, I am now able to meet a large number of people with similar interests and friends in a short amount of time. I have also been able to met up again with old friends and colleagues.

Reuters had a news clip on mixing Business and Facebook (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anfeIXvfQqE). One thing they point out is that Facebook makes it easier to make business connections, but the control is not there in regards to comments people can post about you. Another problem Reuters points out is that people can post old, or unprofessional pictures of you online which can be damaging. Reuters points out that many business people are moving towards Linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com/) for business connections. They prohibit pictures and comments on their site. Linkedin shows the people you are connected with but does not allow users to post comments about you.

I had a chance to read Andrew Barras' blog (http://educationstormfront.blogspot.com/) about this and he comments on dating sites. He comments that many people are uncomfortable about meeting people in bars and social places. I think that Social Media sites are ideal for dating but I don't like that approach to dating. If I am going to find my special someone, or maybe a crazy girlfriend. I want to meet her in person for the first time and make my normal bad impression. The internet makes it too convenient to hide our true selves and hide behind a mask of keystrokes and doctored photographs. Dating is the one thing we should exclude from the internet.

Check out Comedian Katt Williams as he lies about just about everything to get a date with a girl.

Week 3 - Blog Posting #5 -Social Media

I love this video, saw it about two years ago and it's gripping. As a person who has worked in computers and the internet for nine years I have seen such a tremendous growth in what we do on it. When I worked for Gateway computers in 99, the internet was a place to read news, send email, and buy some things on Ebay. In as little as ten years I pay my bills online, keep in contact with people and have created a small nest egg for myself.

Social Media is the next step in web interactivity. After seeing Mark Benn's blog (http://mackinacfurtrader.blogspot.com/) and his comments and video on whether social media is a fad I realized that everything is a fad, but also it is a step forward. I think that Myspace has become a fad that is fading away. Facebook has moved to the forefront at it is our current "It" website. Within the next couple years, or months, I am sure a new social media site will emerge offering something more dynamic and intriguing.

I think Social Media will be different than most fads we accept and play around with. I don't think we will ever go back and find ourselves playing Mario Brothers with the same excitement we did when it first came out in the late 80's. This is different from other fads like skinny jeans that are making a comeback (I hate them!), or Converse (Chuck Taylor's) and their constant reemergence every 15 years.

I think that Social Media is a two way street. Gone are the days when we didn't have a say on how things worked. Now, our opinions and suggestions can be relayed realtime in consumer generated media like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and so on. This video on Social Media Explained is short but explains how we have a say now, something we didn't a couple years ago.

Blog Posting #4 -21st Century Skills & Lifelong Learning

Ever since I started teaching I have found that I don't subscribe to the traditional methods of instruction.  The problem that I see is that education isn't just about books, and content but it involves skills and traits that are developed that help in the future.  I realize that I am a Social Studies teacher and I may be biased, but I haven't used science in any way, shape, or form since college.  I use relatively easy math to solve most problems.  However, I do use critical thinking and problem solving every week.  And after reading a few of the excerpts from other blogs I came across Mark Benn's blog about 21st Century Learning (http://mackinacfurtrader.blogspot.com/) and looked at a website he suggested called Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org). 

 

Marc talks about the 5 C's in his blog and I can see how Critical Thinking, Creative Problem Solving, Communications, Collaboration, and Cross Cultural Relationship Building are valuable traits to have.  In preparing for my Meet the Teacher Night tonight I have had to do all of these traits and I can see that I have used a little of each in preparing for it. 

 

I have had to do a ton of Cultural Relationship Building down on the border with Mexico.  I have had many discussions in both english and spanish and have had to understand the role cultural plays on migration.  I have seen kids move in a out of my classes and realize that while I never placed a name on it, i was relating to them culturally. 

 

I have used many of these traits growing up overseas but to be honest, I am not sure if I have implemented them fully into my classroom.  I have used technology to solve problems, but I am not sure if I have challenged them enough with problem solving issues or critical thinking activities. 

 

I always talk about Lifelong Learning by talking about all the mistakes I have made over the years, but I have not truly incorporated my life lessons into the 5 C's.  This blog has been awakening on this front. 

 

In trying to understand my role in this learning process I watch a couple videos about 21st century skills called Thinkfinity.  It approaches learning by not looking at problems but looking for a solution to a problem.  I think as educators we tend to fit the saying "those who can do,  and those who can't teach," but I think I need to change the manner in which I present problems.  I think that I should approach each problem with the goal of solving it.  I realize that they can't solve each problem, but the process of trying to solve will build their critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Week 2 - Blog Posting #3 - Media Literacy

Lawrence Lessig's new book, Free Culture calls Media Literacy "The ability to read, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of media forms (television, print, radio, computers, etc.) (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/media_literacy.php)."

This is different from Barrish's view. This is more of the act of creating media forms and understanding them. After reading this approach I am more inclined to believe in Henry Jenkins interpretations of community involvement. I look at his approach to play as that old saying, "give a kid a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, he'll become obese, or what ever it was." I think that is what play truly means. Teach them how to do it, and let them mess around with it. Let them make mistakes and learn.

I found an interesting video on Youtube about students who used Twitter and Jott to create their own realistic culture and helped create a live simulation of their world since 1450 AD. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgbfMY-6giY&feature=channel). This is huge because it incorporates so much of what we read from Jenkins. Simlulation, Appropriation, and Multitasking were implemented in this project and it really shows what can happen with a diverse amount of willing and able people set their minds to creating something.

Margaret Mead said "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." This is what this project exemplifies. It is the accumulation of a number of people, creating a network of ideas, that will have to work together. Negotiation and proper judgement will have to be implemented and people with have to respect and understand the various ethnic groups in order to create a world worth living in.

Please take a look at the Youtube video and if you have the time, look at http://mediatedcultures.net/worldsim.htm. It is a world simulation worth looking at. Hopefully you will be moved.

I also liked the video Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering. I thought it was a novel approach to letting kids learn from their mistakes.

Week 1 - Blog Posting #2 - Learning 2.0

I enjoyed the video A Vision of Students Today. I think it summarizes my districts approach to technology and web 2.0. I am one of the few teachers that uses many of the things they mention in the video. I blog, have a website, and issues homework on the web. Granted the area of the country is the poorest in the nation, computers are readily available for students.

I have been stuck in this backwards thinking of education for 5 years and it seems as if the school district would love to spend money on new teaching methods that require more books, and equipment rather than using what is available on the web.

In the past three weeks I have attempted to infuse technology in every aspect of my teaching. We have listened to Flocabulary on thursdays. This helps reinforce the topics we covered. We are going to be using Youtube.com to host our class projects (with consent from parents), and their homework is issued via twitter. I don't know the exact percentage of students that use it, but I can be sure they have all seen it at least three times in the past three weeks. That's more than I can say for my co-workers.

Digital Natives in the classroom ( http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/digitalnatives/index.htm ) states that "Today's students and young workers are part of a cohort he calls "Digital Natives." Raised on MTV, video games, e-mail, the Web and instant messaging, Digital Natives have developed cognitive thinking patterns that differ from previous generations. As a result, the challenge facing educational designers is to recognize these cognitive differences and to develop learning offerings that are appropriate to their cognitive learning patterns."

While I don't fully accept this concept I do realize that students are evolving, and the education structure has to move with it. My school does a good job providing the instruments to make the music the kids will listen to, but the teachers fail to learn all the notes necessary to play that symphony. Instead, we have a few savants playing well, and others making the music sound unintelligible. The educational system needs to revamp and realize that the reason we are behind many countries is that we have met our students at the same learning levels they are at. Instead we try to speak 20th century, and the logic and reasoning comes out garbled.

I have also attempted to make my projects less about the overall product and more about the message. I started to look at Apple's Challenged Based Learning and how the implement it in the classroom.

http://ali.apple.com/cbl/

Apple has done a great job in making students indentify a challenge and requires them to draw on prior learning, acquire new knowledge, and tap their creativity to fashion solutions. I believe I will try that with my World Geography class through out the semester and incorporate it into solving an environmental problem.