Week 7: The Power of Social Media

There is no doubt that social media is changing how we do things, including and not limited to politics. Social media allows us to have instantaneous communication and we know Net Geners like immediate. According to the YouTube video Social Media: Politics 2.0 – The Power of the Citizen, people feel connected to candidates or to a movement through social media. Social media has allowed users to donate more easily and share their political opinions with friends and family. Don Tapscott is interviewed in the YouTube video, he believes we are moving towards a new era of democracy where users are becoming active citizens and will use social media to help take responsibility for what goes on in the world. As stated by Palfrey and Gasser (2010), “Young people can gain access to far more information than ever before. They can reach out to other people more efficiently (p.257).” Because of the importance social media plays in many people’s lives, it will gain increasing importance in politics. The problem is that through social media not everything is truthful and facts and peoples opinions can easily be skewed with little control.

The two Net Geners I interviewed are not like the Net Geners mentioned in chapter nine of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing your World (Tapscott, 2008). Rather they use social media to stay connected to their friends. They enjoy it when something they share is “liked” and use Instagram to share pictures and videos. One discussed how they were excited to have over 1,000 likes on one of their photos. Showing that they liked to be liked, and some have even called them the “like generation”. They are more concerned with using technology to create music or play video games. Maybe when they get into their college years or young adulthood, they will use social media to change the world and get involved in activism.

According to Miller, C. (2014), “They (social media users) are turning to social media to pursue their beliefs and passions for a better world outside of those mainstream institutions that they trust so little.” I don’t think there is any doubt that more and more people will be using social media to connect and become more involved in politics. My only doubt is will political candidates actually listen to what social media users have to say.

Resources:

Miller, C. (2014, February 12). Only social media can fix the crisis of modern politics. Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-02/12/the-coming-storm

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2010). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books.

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

Tvochannel. (2010, January 22). Social media: Politics 2.0 – The power of the citizen. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrczoLm7Es

 

 

 

Week 6: Consumer + Producer = Prosumer

There seems to be an underlining theme for Net Geners they want things fast/instantly, they want things to be fun/entertaining, and they want to be able to collaborate. Entertainment is important to Net Geners socialization and education (Tapscott, 2008). They want their information immediately. And according to Page & Pitt (2011), “We need to understand the consumers as social animals who interact, integrate, and network in identifiable, measurable communities that transcend the narrower boundaries of families, reference groups, and cultures.”

Chapter seven of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing your World (Tapscott, 2008) detailed the shift with technology and consumers. They use the term “prosumers”, which I completely agree with, we are becoming a community of tech users who are consuming and producing together. According to Tapscott (2008), “Today’s young customers are not waiting for an invitation to collaborate and share information-in any cases they’ll hack technology to let themselves in the company’s door, or invent around them and create opportunities for competitors (p.212).” Technology has enhanced the opportunity for consumers to also be producers. To sell, create, share information and goods. For example ebay has allowed an average Joe to make money selling goods online. Teachers-pay-Teachers makes it easy for teachers to get paid for sharing lessons/materials with others. YouTube has made it possible for someone to become famous for singing i.e. Justin Bieber. As stated by Page & Pitt (2011), “No longer the passive recipients of advertising messages, consumers now create ads about the brands they love and hate and use video sharing sites such as YouTube to broadcast these.” Technology helps makes possibilities endless; it’s just up to the user.

Shared Lesson:

Things for Sale by Common Sense Media

Grades 2-3

In this Common Sense Media lesson students learn how websites are created to encourage them to buy a particular product. They explore websites aimed at kids. They also learn how games, videos, and activities are used to sell products.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/lesson/things-sale-2-3

 

Resources:

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2010). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books.

Page, K. L., & Pitt, L. (2011). Web 2.0, Social Media, and Creative Consumers: Special Issue. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 10(6), i-iii. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cb.390/pdf

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

Week 5: Collaboration

The school I work at is Title I it is a K-6 school on a military base; most of the students receive free/reduced lunch. One benefit of working in a Title I school is extra funding is available for educational materials, often meaning an increase in technology funding. My school has one cart of 30 iPads, one cart of 30 iPods, and two carts of 30 Mac laptops. I also have 5 Mac laptops in my classroom.

It is important to make an effort to incorporate technology into day-to-day teaching. At times this involves collaboration with others. This year I scheduled time with our ITT teacher to work with my students on how to log into Google Docs and create a folder in their drive. After that initial lesson it was my responsibility to continue to incorporate these new skills. About a week after the Google lesson one of my students came to school and asked if he could share his Google presentation. My student had taken what he learned, went home and created a Google presentation about his summer salmon fishing trip with his dad. I was amazed! My student shared his Google presentation and then I incorporated Google presentation into the science animal research project we were doing in class. That student sharing his presentation sparked interest in my other students also wanting to do presentations of their own. My students enjoyed using Google Docs and I found it to be a very useful tool. I didn’t have to show them how to save to the schools server, which can be a lengthy process for 3^rd graders, because they could save all documents in their drive. I didn’t have to worry about them forgetting to save because it automatically saves for them. They could share documents with me or their peers (which they liked). As seen in the video Google Docs in the Classroom from TeachingChannel.org (https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/fostering-student-collaboration), Google Docs allows students to collaborate, teachers can leave comments on student work, and it’s free! Towards the end of the year the students were creating presentations in groups. Two boys were working on a Minecraft presentation and were so excited that the presentation ended up being 20 slides, so that became a teachable moment about narrowing down a topic. My students enjoyed using technology to collaborate with one another; it truly showed me the importance of using technology to allow students to collaborate and be creative. According to Tapscott (2008), “Collaboration is how Net Geners get things done. It’s part of the digital upbringing (p.163).” Another resource I found for technology collaboration tools to use in the classroom was the website Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools (http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Collaborative+Tools), it has a list of technology tools that teachers can use in their classroom. It lists the tech tools by category i.e. collaborative documents, collaborative spaces, collaborative videos, etc.

http://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/fostering-student-collaboration

Resources:

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2010). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books.

Shearing L. (2014). Web 2.0: Cool tools for schools. Retrieved from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Collaborative+Tools

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

TeachingChannel. (2014). Google docs in the classroom. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/fostering-student-collaboration

 

Week 4: Shifting Education

I grew up learning from teacher centered direct instruction styles of teaching, even as I went through college and into student teaching. This was over a decade ago and newer ideas about teaching styles have changed considerably. It wasn’t until my first year of teaching in 2005 and through coaching with my statewide mentor did I experience guided reading and understand the importance of changing the way I was teaching. By 2006 I was noticing a shift in education trying a more student lead approach to learning. However I believe doing teaching that incorporates guided reading, stations/centers, incorporating technology, or open-ended learning requires a teacher with strong classroom management strategies. Not all teachers are comfortable or capable of teaching that way.  Chapter eleven of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Palfrey and Gasser, 2010) presented a great point “schools of the future will need faculty of the future. Our schools have invested a lot of money installing new technologies. But very few schools of any sort take the simple first step of giving teachers adequate training, or any training at all, to help them teach using technologies in our teaching (p.14).”  In the school I currently work in, every classroom has a Smartboard, but only a handful of teachers incorporate Smartboard technologies in their classroom. The majority of teachers use it as a projector screen and believe they are using the Smartboard. I’ve also worked in a large village school where the tech department purchased about 5 Smartboards and expected teachers to use them in their classroom without any training. I took it upon myself to learn how to incorporate the Smartboard into my instruction. After using the Smartbaord in my teachings, I saw an improvement in student engagement. My students wanted to write on it, they wanted to move content on it, and they wanted to be a part of what was going on. That was the turning point that I realized the more I incorporate technology the better my students behave and the more student engagement I have in my classroom. I was hooked.

It seems that in the future the educational system will lend itself, but not limit itself to virtual teaching, blended learning and flipped classrooms. The flipped classroom is where the direct instruction is taking place via video at home and the “homework” or practice is taking place at school. We were tasked with finding a lesson plan that exemplifies the structure and technology of the digital age. What I found wasn’t a lesson, but a mode of teaching or system of setting up a classroom to incorporate a flipped classroom. The In-Class Flip video demonstrates how to use the flipped classroom method but solely in the classroom.

The idea behind the video is that some students may not have access to Internet at home and even if they do have access to Internet ensuring that students are watching the direct instruction at home may not be a priority for parents of the students we teach. By doing the in-class flip teachers can still use the flipped classroom idea, but with some modification. In my teaching I try to use small group instruction as much as possible. That is why I chose to share The In-Class Flip video as my lesson. For those teachers who already incorporate stations/centers this follows the same concept just that one of the stations is the direct instruction video.

Resources:

Cult of Pedagogy. (2014, March 24). The in-class flip. . Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhq3Yn_QgIA

Gonzalez, J. (2014, March 24). Modifying the flipped classroom: The “in-class” version.

Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/flipped-classroom-in-class-version-jennifer-gonzalez

Miller, A. (2013, June 6). Virtual schooling: Where are we now? Where are we headed? Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/virtual-schooling-where-are-we-andrew-miller

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2010). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books.

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2011, April 28). Blended learning: Combining face-to-face and online education. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/blended-online-learning-heather-wolpert-gawron

 

 

 

 

Week 3: Technology Good or Bad?

Chapter eight of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Palfrey and Gasser, 2010) explains the overload of information on the Internet, so it’s fitting the title of the chapter is “Overload”. This chapter reminds me of the YouTube video How Big is Google? In minute 3 of the video they talk about the amount of content on YouTube. It’s fascinating to think about. The video shares that there is about a decade worth of content being uploaded at a rate of 72 hours per minute in one day.   Talk about an overload! Chapter four of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing your World (Tapscott, 2008) discussed how growing up in a digital world actually has benefits and doesn’t make us dumb. The chapter outlines the positive effects of technology on the Net Generation and all the skills they are gaining from using the Internet to read and find information.

Too much of anything can be bad, everything has to be in moderation. Some believe there isn’t such a thing as to much time online.   Others believe too much screen time will make us dumber, give us ADHD, or make us unable to concentrate. Tapscott mentions (2008), if parents model good reading skills and reading is important to them, then their children will probably grow up also having a value for reading. Parents should model good reading to their children, if they also want their children to value reading. He goes on to mention that reading on the Internet requires the same skills as reading from a book. “It requires the same skills you need to read a book – plus the ability to scan, navigate, analyze whether information is pertinent, synthesize, and remember what question you’re trying to answer as you click on the links (p.111-112).” Huneycutt argues (2013), “Computers can keep students focused for longer periods of time. The use of computers to look up information/data is a tremendous time saver, especially when used to access a comprehensive resource like the Internet to conduct research. This time-saving aspect can keep students focused on a project much longer than they would with books and paper resources, and it helps them develop better learning through exploration and research.”

Another point Tapscott (2008) writes about is the natural ability Net Geners have to use and figure things out by using technology. Net Geners explore first then if they can’t figure out how to do something they seek to find the answer. Where as the Boomer generation is the opposite. I see this with my colleagues and my students. In some ways using technology in my classroom with my students is easier than trying to show some of my older colleagues how to use technology. My students are ready to jump right in and explore and my colleagues want to be shown first, step-by-step.

Resources:

ColdfusTion (2014, February 6). How big is google? [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/-79uIRQiAFM

 

Huneycutt, T. (2013, October 8). Technology in the classroom: The benefits of blended learning. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://nms.org/Blog/TabId/58/PostId/188/technology-in-the-classroom-the-benefits-of-blended-learning.aspx

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2010). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books.

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

 

Week Two: Technology in Schools

Chapter five of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Palfrey and Gasser, 2010) discussed how technology is helping us become producers rather than consumers. In chapter three of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing your World (Tapscott, 2008) discussed how Net Geners are using technology so much better than others, or at least that is how the books makes me feel. Both Chapters discussed how technology has been evolving and changing to make our lives easier, whether it’s communicating with people from other countries, creating YouTube videos, or working from home (ROWE).

All students regardless of skill level should have equal access to technology. Just as every child has a right to an education the same should be true when it comes to technology, at least in the school environment. In my classroom if I have students who have more advanced skills with using certain tech programs I use them to help the students who don’t know as much about the program we are using in class. Sometimes students are better at explaining how to do certain things, in kid language, and students like to share their knowledge with others.

On a behavioral level there should be appropriate consequences. At my school last year there was an incident where a second grade student took an inappropriate picture of his private parts using an iPad that is shared with the whole school. When my class was using the iPads one of my students brought the picture to my attention and I immediately took it to my school’s administration. I thought it was extremely unfair that my student had to be a victim of seeing that kind of abuse of technology. Rumor was that the student who took the picture would lose his tech privileges indefinitely. When it was all said and done I am not sure what the consequence was. School staff needs to work together to create technology policies and develop strategies on how to handle a variety of situations. There also has to be a way to take into account future problems that may not have been accounted for. In Mike Ribble’s (2011) book Digital Citizenship in Schools he outlines 9 elements that can be followed to help create a digital citizenship curriculum. The 9 elements from the book are access, commerce, communication, literacy, etiquette, law, rights and responsibilities, health and wellness, and security. Ribble describes (2011), the 9 elements that can serve as a basis for appropriate technology use as a starting point for schools to educate their students on understanding appropriate technology use. Ribble recommends getting all stake holders involved in the policy making process i.e. parents, administrators, and teachers. In Jason Olher’s (2010) book Digital Community, Digital Citizen goes as far as bringing the students in on the process for developing a schools technology policy.

Resources:

Ohler, J. B. (2010). Digital community, digital citizen. SAGE Publications.

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2010). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books.

Ribble, M. (2011). Digital citizenship in schools. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

 

 

Week One: Digital Identity (Digital Footprint)

Chapter one of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (Palfrey and Gasser, 2010) was well outlined with some of the digital citizenship issues I see for our future generations. In chapter one of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing your World (Tapscott, 2008) gave a history of the various generation since the baby boomers and some for the technological impacts/differences of each generation. For some reason I get lost in the generation labels and find it hard to understand why we need to label any group at all, because we don’t live in a one size fits all world, but we are so quick to label and group people together. As an educator I found chapter one of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives more valuable helping one understand where technology has come from and where we are headed.

A concern brought up in chapter one of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives is that information shared online can either positively or negatively affect us. Another concern is that digital natives need to understand there are online consequences for online actions. According to Palfrey and Gasser (2010), “the process of building and managing identities in the Internet age is complex and full of possibilities…(p.31).” It’s true creating and establishing online identities can be full of possibilities, but for some it can also be damaging. All to often students struggle to know how to edit what they are sharing online i.e. posting pictures that portray themselves in a negative way or responding to blogs with inappropriate content. Especially young student’s just learning how to navigate their online identity, it’s important for them to know what to share and what not to. Parents, teachers, and communities need to help young digital natives learn what is appropriate and inappropriate information to share. In 2010, Youth Safety on a Living Internet noted, “there’s no one-size-fits-all, once-and-for-all solution to providing children with every aspect of online child safety. Rather, it takes comprehensive “toolbox” from which parents, educators, and other safety providers can choose tools appropriate to children’s developmental stages and life circumstances, as they grow” (p.13). In this day and age of Google and social networking negative/inappropriate digital footprints are negatively impacting the lives of their users. Sharing inappropriate things online can be cause to not get a job, get into a certain college, or lose a scholarship. An analogy shared by Youth Safety on a Living Internet, (2010), if there were no organized sports kids would still play “ball” in the streets or parks but they would have no training in rules or ethics of fair play. Kids would make up the rules as they played. That’s what is happening with teens and their use of social media. They are “playing” but there are very few coaches to help, so they are inventing the rules and fair use of digital citizenship. That’s why it’s so important for schools, parents, and communities to prepare and educate students how to navigate their online world, to ensure they become positive and productive digital citizens.

 

Resources:

Digitalnatives (2008, August 13). Youth and media – digital dossier [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79IYZVYIVLA

Online Safety and Technology Working Group, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and   Transportation, Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. (2010). Youth safety on a living Internet. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2010). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books.

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.