This week's assignments required me to spend a considerable amount of time on Twitter. The first time I had ever heard of Twitter was during a series of Iranian protests in 2009. At that time, Iran's presidential election had just ended with a result that looked very suspiciously rigged. This led to the people in Iran gathering in the streets to protest the election's result. As time went on, the government of Iran became increasingly violent to the protesters and eventually cut off a lot of communication with the outside world by blocking the major social media sites, but they forgot to block Twitter. After this happened, the only way for protesters to release information and for outside news agencies to receive information was through Twitter. Twitter's boost in notoriety led people around me to start opening Twitter accounts. However, I did not open a Twitter account myself because I thought Twitter was going to be just a fad and that there was no point in joining a social media site that was so obscure that the Iranian government forgot to block it off in the first place.
Since that time, Twitter has begun to grow in popularity. More and more businesses and public figures have begun to open Twitter accounts to promote themselves or share their thoughts on an issue. However, I still didn't see the point in opening a Twitter account because everything I would want to do on Twitter could already be accomplished using Facebook. The only time I'd even bother to look at Twitter was when news sources would cover a story and show some really offensive posts from some Twitter users. It slightly amused me to see some say something really offensive and then get verbally ripped apart in their comment section. It felt good to see people putting pressure on those who think it is entertaining to say hurtful things. However, for this class, I have ended up opening up my own Twitter account and putting some work into it.
While using Twitter, I've come to realize that there are people on Twitter that are not on Facebook. Therefore, using more than one form of social media is a good way to connect and network with most people. However, Twitter definitely is not Facebook. The host of a how-to video that I watched about Twitter recently said, "Facebook is for people you know and Twitter is for people you wish you knew." It makes sense for both of them to exist because they each serve a different purpose.
Throughout this week, I have had to learn and get used to using some of the different functions on Twitter like hash tags, the "at symbol," lists, following, and messaging people. So far, I don't have many people following me so I am not as motivated to post often on Twitter. However, I do wonder how some people who aren't public figures acquire so many followers. This week, one of the best ideas I came across from a fellow classmate was to use a Twitter account to keep the parents of my students updating, instead of writing a weekly bulletin. I can see how it would be much simpler to take a picture of a project we're working on or write a quick 140 character blurb a few times a week than to put together a whole news letter at the end of that week. I actually stopped writing newsletters a few years ago because I realized that parents weren't reading it but maybe if I use Twitter as a medium, the parents will be more likely to read about our activities. I don't know when, but one day I may give this a shot in my classroom.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Reflection (Week 6)- Social Media In Education
This week our assignment was to write a review of a social media site that could be used to benefit distance learning education. I chose to create a presentation about Google Drive because I have been integrating Google Drive and its products into my curriculum at work so that I can help my students on their projects even when they aren't in school.
One of the greatest challenges in teaching is that there never seems to be enough time to do everything that I want to do. In the past, projects used to take a long time because I would have to find class time to devote, especially if the students were expected to work in groups. However, for the last two years I have taught my students how to use Google Drive and how to share their document with their partners and myself. The document sharing comes in handy when they go home and work on their project at home. Students can log on to their project synchronously or asynchronously, edit their work, and communicate with one another through comments. Furthermore, I can check on the students' work from home or on my phone and leave comments about what they are doing well and what they need to fix. The fact that the projects are saved on Google insure that no one forgets their work at home. Furthermore, I can also view the revision history and see if everyone is doing their fair share of a project.
Google Drive has become a very useful tool in my classroom. I enjoy it for all of the above mentioned benefits but what slightly surprised me was how much my students enjoy it as well. They think it is a wonderful tool and get very excited when I tell them we are going to use Google Drive. This past week, we did a project about the Hawaiian Islands and instead of having each group make a poster of their Hawaiian Island, like every other year, I had each group make a simple presentation. I created a simple template for each group, shared it with them, and told them that all I expected them to do was type in their information and add a few pictures because this was only the second time we used Google Presentation. (The first time was a drag and drop activity.) However, as the presentations took shape I was surprised that the groups figured out on their own how to change the background theme and some even include transitions! Each group worked on some of their presentation in school and the rest at home. I could see comments being left for each other as well. (Although, some of the comments were a bit too playful in nature.) I am excited about this new development and impressed by how quickly my students have picked up and adopted Google Drive.
In the future, I plan to use Google Drive a lot more in my teaching. I hope as time goes on, that the rest of the teachers in my grade level and then in my school will come to adopt Google Drive in their curriculum as well. I've told my students that the main reason why I am teaching them Google Drive is because I predict they will have to use Google Drive or some similar tool to communicate and collaborate with others when they are in college and in the work place.
One of the greatest challenges in teaching is that there never seems to be enough time to do everything that I want to do. In the past, projects used to take a long time because I would have to find class time to devote, especially if the students were expected to work in groups. However, for the last two years I have taught my students how to use Google Drive and how to share their document with their partners and myself. The document sharing comes in handy when they go home and work on their project at home. Students can log on to their project synchronously or asynchronously, edit their work, and communicate with one another through comments. Furthermore, I can check on the students' work from home or on my phone and leave comments about what they are doing well and what they need to fix. The fact that the projects are saved on Google insure that no one forgets their work at home. Furthermore, I can also view the revision history and see if everyone is doing their fair share of a project.
Google Drive has become a very useful tool in my classroom. I enjoy it for all of the above mentioned benefits but what slightly surprised me was how much my students enjoy it as well. They think it is a wonderful tool and get very excited when I tell them we are going to use Google Drive. This past week, we did a project about the Hawaiian Islands and instead of having each group make a poster of their Hawaiian Island, like every other year, I had each group make a simple presentation. I created a simple template for each group, shared it with them, and told them that all I expected them to do was type in their information and add a few pictures because this was only the second time we used Google Presentation. (The first time was a drag and drop activity.) However, as the presentations took shape I was surprised that the groups figured out on their own how to change the background theme and some even include transitions! Each group worked on some of their presentation in school and the rest at home. I could see comments being left for each other as well. (Although, some of the comments were a bit too playful in nature.) I am excited about this new development and impressed by how quickly my students have picked up and adopted Google Drive.
In the future, I plan to use Google Drive a lot more in my teaching. I hope as time goes on, that the rest of the teachers in my grade level and then in my school will come to adopt Google Drive in their curriculum as well. I've told my students that the main reason why I am teaching them Google Drive is because I predict they will have to use Google Drive or some similar tool to communicate and collaborate with others when they are in college and in the work place.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Reflection (Week 5)- Starting Kansai Collaboration Project
This week's lecture we learned that we will be collaborating with students from Kansai University in Japan to create a video about social media. I was a bit surprised that we are doing a collaboration video project in this class because I did the same project last year in Dr. Peter's class. Last year's project went very well and it was nice to meet new people from the other side of the world. Furthermore, it gave me a chance to practice some of my Japanese speaking.
I am very optimistic that this project will come out well. I am excited to find out who I will be working with on the Hawaii side and Japan side. Last year, my group collaborated with two students from Kansai University on Google Hangout which necessitated that I learn how use Google Hangout. We once spent fifteen minutes of our collaboration meeting playing around with the different visual features of Google Hangout before we got down to any work. However, playing around with each other was good for building rapport and making everyone feel more comfortable with each other.
When it comes to this year's video project, I am curious about what topic my group will ultimately decide on. However, I would like to do a video that compares the social media website that is most common in Hawaii and Japan, what people of both countries can use their social media to accomplish, and how often they use it. I unconsciously believe that Hawaii's social media usage must be very different from Japan but I won't be surprised if I find out that we use the same social media websites for the same reasons.
I am very optimistic that this project will come out well. I am excited to find out who I will be working with on the Hawaii side and Japan side. Last year, my group collaborated with two students from Kansai University on Google Hangout which necessitated that I learn how use Google Hangout. We once spent fifteen minutes of our collaboration meeting playing around with the different visual features of Google Hangout before we got down to any work. However, playing around with each other was good for building rapport and making everyone feel more comfortable with each other.
When it comes to this year's video project, I am curious about what topic my group will ultimately decide on. However, I would like to do a video that compares the social media website that is most common in Hawaii and Japan, what people of both countries can use their social media to accomplish, and how often they use it. I unconsciously believe that Hawaii's social media usage must be very different from Japan but I won't be surprised if I find out that we use the same social media websites for the same reasons.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Reflection (Week 4)- Multitasking
When I found out that one of the big topics of this week is multitasking, I began to think back to last year and all the things I learned about the topic. I remembered that Dr. Fulford had taught about this subject in ETEC 600, so I searched through my old notes to find her take on multitasking. One of the big take away points from Dr. Fulford's lecture was that multitasking is a myth and trying to do it is counter productive. In fact, literature Dr. Fulford referenced (Cherry 2012) suggests that multitasking reduces our productivity by 40% and makes it difficult to ignore distractions.
"Multitasking is like holding everyone's birthday party on the same day- nobody gets very much attention." This quote made me laugh out loud but when I thought about it, it totally makes sense. In life we set aside a time and a place to celebrate people's birthday parties because we want to give special attention to the guest of honor. In the same way, when we work, we should set aside a time and a place to work on a particular project to give special attention to the "guest of honor."
Why do we multitask? When I multitask, I usually do it because I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that I have to complete and feel the need to finish everything at the same time. Sometimes, I need a break but feel like I don't have the time to take one so I try to do something fun and something less appealing at the same time. However, this behavior has a cost. Researcher Clifford Nass conducted a study on people who multitask and found that high multitaskers were in bad shape. "They look where they shouldn't, and their memory is all sloppy," says Nass. This quote really hit me because over the years I have noticed that my ability to retain facts, names, and new information is much weaker than it was ten years ago. Although I usually brush off that thought, I sometimes think about my two grandfathers who have lost their memory to Alzheimer's Disease and begin to worry if I am coming down with the early stages. However, after reading all this information on multitasking, I'm starting to wonder if I can strengthen my memory by being disciplined, giving each task it's time and place, and being sure to focus on one task at a time. Perhaps if I stop multitasking during my work time and stop opening one hundred browser tabs on my free time, I will be able to focus harder, learn better, and work more productively.
"Multitasking is like holding everyone's birthday party on the same day- nobody gets very much attention." This quote made me laugh out loud but when I thought about it, it totally makes sense. In life we set aside a time and a place to celebrate people's birthday parties because we want to give special attention to the guest of honor. In the same way, when we work, we should set aside a time and a place to work on a particular project to give special attention to the "guest of honor."
Why do we multitask? When I multitask, I usually do it because I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that I have to complete and feel the need to finish everything at the same time. Sometimes, I need a break but feel like I don't have the time to take one so I try to do something fun and something less appealing at the same time. However, this behavior has a cost. Researcher Clifford Nass conducted a study on people who multitask and found that high multitaskers were in bad shape. "They look where they shouldn't, and their memory is all sloppy," says Nass. This quote really hit me because over the years I have noticed that my ability to retain facts, names, and new information is much weaker than it was ten years ago. Although I usually brush off that thought, I sometimes think about my two grandfathers who have lost their memory to Alzheimer's Disease and begin to worry if I am coming down with the early stages. However, after reading all this information on multitasking, I'm starting to wonder if I can strengthen my memory by being disciplined, giving each task it's time and place, and being sure to focus on one task at a time. Perhaps if I stop multitasking during my work time and stop opening one hundred browser tabs on my free time, I will be able to focus harder, learn better, and work more productively.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Reflection (Week 3)- Google+ and Twitter
This week's lecture spent a considerable amount of time going through instructions of how to use Google+ and Twitter.
The Google+ section was a nice review for me because I have actually been using that form of social media for about a year now. I actually got very accustomed to using the Google Hangout application to meet with my group members and complete projects that we were working on. It amazes me how far technology has come within the last fifteen years. I remember when I was in elementary school, the Internet had just been introduced and it took forever just to load a single webpage. Now people can hold conversations and see each other's faces in real time! I have been playing with the idea of using Google Hangout to tutor my students or conduct a reading assessment when we are not in school but I am hesitant to try this idea because I suspect I will run into a lot of liability and privacy issues. Those issues aside, Google is a very inventive company and I find their social media very useful in the world of education. I would really like to see new ideas of how to use Google's social media to enhance lessons in a classroom.
It was interesting to learn about using Twitter. When Twitter first became popular, I thought it was a fad and that it would die out in a matter of months. However, to my surprise, Twitter is still alive and seems to have a pretty secure place in the world of social media. I am very used to using Facebook and I find Twitter to be quite restricting. There are restrictions on how many pictures can be posted at a time (one picture) and how many characters can be used in a Tweat. However, I do like how Twitter made the hash tag (#) cool again and started a trend that even Facebook has begun to use. Using hash tags helps me to quickly reference people and places as well as look up old Tweats from the past. I'm not sure if I will continue to use Twitter after this class is over, but I want to keep an open mind for now.
The two questions on my mind right now are:
1. What are some ways that other teachers have used Google social media to enhance their lessons?
2. Do you prefer to use Twitter or a different social media? Why do you prefer that social media?
3. Is there a way to use social media, especially in an elementary setting, that doesn't cause liability and privacy issues?
The Google+ section was a nice review for me because I have actually been using that form of social media for about a year now. I actually got very accustomed to using the Google Hangout application to meet with my group members and complete projects that we were working on. It amazes me how far technology has come within the last fifteen years. I remember when I was in elementary school, the Internet had just been introduced and it took forever just to load a single webpage. Now people can hold conversations and see each other's faces in real time! I have been playing with the idea of using Google Hangout to tutor my students or conduct a reading assessment when we are not in school but I am hesitant to try this idea because I suspect I will run into a lot of liability and privacy issues. Those issues aside, Google is a very inventive company and I find their social media very useful in the world of education. I would really like to see new ideas of how to use Google's social media to enhance lessons in a classroom.
It was interesting to learn about using Twitter. When Twitter first became popular, I thought it was a fad and that it would die out in a matter of months. However, to my surprise, Twitter is still alive and seems to have a pretty secure place in the world of social media. I am very used to using Facebook and I find Twitter to be quite restricting. There are restrictions on how many pictures can be posted at a time (one picture) and how many characters can be used in a Tweat. However, I do like how Twitter made the hash tag (#) cool again and started a trend that even Facebook has begun to use. Using hash tags helps me to quickly reference people and places as well as look up old Tweats from the past. I'm not sure if I will continue to use Twitter after this class is over, but I want to keep an open mind for now.
The two questions on my mind right now are:
1. What are some ways that other teachers have used Google social media to enhance their lessons?
2. Do you prefer to use Twitter or a different social media? Why do you prefer that social media?
3. Is there a way to use social media, especially in an elementary setting, that doesn't cause liability and privacy issues?
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Reflection (Week 2)- Distance Learning
Last year, I learned that in the next twenty years there will not be enough colleges to house the number of potential college students in the United States. In fact, if we wanted to have enough colleges to house all the potential college students in twenty years, we would have to double the number of colleges and universities that we currently have in this country. That made me think, if that's how many potential college students (people who have chosen to pursue a higher degree) we will have, imagine how many more primary and secondary students (people who are required to pursue an education) we will have! Where will we house all these students? Will we really build double or triple the number of elementary, middle, and high schools in our country or will our class sizes increase to 40 or 50 students per teacher? Well, another alternative will have to be distance learning or a hybrid of distance learning and conventional schooling. My goal is to prepare for that possible future now by learning how to effectively teach subjects using tools that allow me to reach more students in the same amount of time. I would like my professor to introduce me to new approaches and tools that I can use in this endeavor.
Note About New Tools: This week I learned how to use Animoto! When I got a video assignment I was just going to use my video editor but then I saw that I had to try something new. I was uncomfortable with that but I chose to use Animoto because my friend once told me how much he loves it. It turned out to be an easy to learn online program that made a video for me in a fraction of the time it would have normally taken me. I am pleased with the results: http://animoto.com/play/u3xK0heO6fW9N8lbH5t1yg
The Prime Objective (Week 1)
Hello www.blogspot.com! The last time I saw you was seven years ago! But hey, you still look the same. You even lost some weight!
So what brings me back to Blogger? Well, welcome to my new ETEC 642 blog! This blog will chronicle my journey through my ETEC 642 class, house some of my most poignant thoughts, and help me reflect on what is going on while I traverse this class.
Those who stumble upon this will likely be fellow travelers in the ETEC 642 world...or very lost souls stumbling around the Internet. Either way, if you would be so kind as to leave comments on this blog please let me know what you think about my reflections and offer answers to any questions that I may pose. (I do ask that you be respectful to me and anyone else who may comment.)
All right! Onward! ENGAGE!
So what brings me back to Blogger? Well, welcome to my new ETEC 642 blog! This blog will chronicle my journey through my ETEC 642 class, house some of my most poignant thoughts, and help me reflect on what is going on while I traverse this class.
Those who stumble upon this will likely be fellow travelers in the ETEC 642 world...or very lost souls stumbling around the Internet. Either way, if you would be so kind as to leave comments on this blog please let me know what you think about my reflections and offer answers to any questions that I may pose. (I do ask that you be respectful to me and anyone else who may comment.)
All right! Onward! ENGAGE!
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